it's always sunny in houston

Ken Hoffman's bright idea for why Daylight Saving Time should be permanent

Daylight Saving Time leaves many exhausted — except our columnist.

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Daylight Saving Time is here and isn’t life just a little better when the weather’s warm and it stays light an hour later? There’s more time to have fun after dinner. Just wait an hour before swimming.

And it’s Daylight “Saving” (singular) Time. Stop saying Daylight “Savings.” (Editor’s note: Don’t tell us how to live, Ken.)

Now you can walk your dog after Steak Night at Little Woodrow’s and you don’t have to use a flashlight to find his poop in the grass. “Did you drop your keys, sir?” No, I’m just searching for dog doody.

Kids can run to the Little League field and play a whole choose-up baseball game before bedtime. You can safely jog in the neighborhood. People are smiling.

Light is good. Dark is bad. Unless you’re talking about Batman, the Dark Knight, my favorite D.C. Comics hero because he gets by on smarts and guile, no superpowers. Even as a child I thought it was unfair that Superman could fly, bend steel in his bare hands, and turn back time by flying counter-clockwise around Earth at 660,000,000 miles per hour – which still wouldn’t get a speeding ticket on I-45.

But guess what will happen in Southside Place if you drive 30 in a school zone on a day when school isn’t even in session … asking for a friend.

The ultimate Daylight Saving Time experience is St. Petersburg, Russia, the world’s northernmost city with more than one million people. I visited there one summer. Because the city is very close to the Arctic Circle, the sun doesn’t go down from May 26 to July 16. It was fantastic. One night I stayed up all day. I’ve never been there in winter, though. When the musical Annie plays St. Petersburg, they change the lyric to “the sun will come up … in April.”

The only time Daylight Saving Time bit me in the butt: I went to a Rolling Stones concert and they were two hours late taking the outdoor stage. They were filming the concert and didn’t want to start until it was dark, which they miscalculated because of latitude and Daylight Saving Time.

Now, 28 states are considering staying year-round on Daylight Saving Time, a proposal dubbed “Lock the Clock.” By federal law, it will require an act of Congress for a state to move to permanent Daylight Saving Time. But a state can decided to stay on standard time without congressional approval. Stop the steal!

Only two states do not observe Daylight Saving Time — Hawaii and most of Arizona.

We don’t know how Texans feel about making Daylight Saving Time permanent. There were proposals floated in both the Texas House and Senate in 2021 to let voters decide what to do — make Standard Time permanent, Daylight Standard Time permanent, or keep it the way it is. Of course our bonehead leaders decided it was best not to let voters have a say. You know, like they won’t let voters decide on legalizing gambling.

The Department of Transportation, which for some reason is in charge of Daylight Saving Time, says “spring forward” saves energy, makes driving safer and reduces crime.

Opponents of Daylight Saving Time say it plays havoc with sleep patterns and is dangerous to your health. They insist that Daylight Saving Time actually makes driving more dangerous and causes more accidents in spring. (Editor’s note: Editing columns is harder, too.)

Ben Franklin proposed Daylight Saving Time in 1784 as a way of conserving energy. Back then he was talking about burning fewer candles. Nothing became of his proposal and historians question if Franklin was serious or not.

Daylight Saving Time caught on in 1916 in Germany during World War I as a way of conserving energy. The rest of Europe soon followed. The idea didn’t take hold in America until the Standard Time Act of 1918, which established Daylight Saving Time to run from March 31 to October 27.

Since then, arguments for and against Daylight Saving Time have become heated with both sides going to the wall. Over the years, the dates of Daylight Saving Time have moved around. Congress actually enacted a law for year-round Daylight Saving Time during the OPEC oil crisis in 1974-75.

So the debate continues: keep it the way it is, make Daylight Saving Time permanent, or abandon Daylight Saving Time altogether.

I’m for permanent Daylight Saving Time. It’s more fun.

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Love Daylight Saving Time or hate it? Let Ken know at ken@culturemap.com or on Twitter.

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game, set, zina.

Best of Ken Hoffman: Interviewing Houston's greatest tennis icon

ITATennis

Garrison, a tennis legend, is now the tennis director of Houston Parks and Recreation.

Editor's note: After the sudden death of beloved columnist Ken Hoffman on July 14, CultureMap is republishing some of our favorite "Hoffman's Houston" columns. In honor of the U.S. Open, here's Ken's interview with Houston tennis legend Zina Garrison; it was originally published on June 27, 2022.

As a child, Zina Garrison learned how to hit a tennis ball on the public courts at MacGregor Park during the 1970s and became, simply, the most accomplished player ever from Houston.

She developed into a Grand Slam champion, a Top 5 ranking in the world, Wimbledon finalist in 1990 with 20 tournament titles, Federation Cup captain, and Olympic gold medal winner and later Olympic coach.

Now Garrison is back where she started, only this time she’s devoted to making Houston a great place to learn and play tennis … again. Like she did.

“I am now the tennis director of Houston Parks and Recreation,” Garrison tells me. “I’m over all the public tennis programs and facilities. The job came open recently and I applied for it.”

Wait... she’s the greatest champion this city has ever produced — and she had to apply for that job?

“To be honest, I was more interested in the benefits than the money. As you get older, you start thinking differently,” she shares.

Unlike the major sports leagues in America, tennis doesn’t provide any healthcare insurance or assistance once a player, even a legend, retires.

“They’re working on it,” Garrison, 58, notes. “But as of now, nothing.”

Garrison said her first priority as Houston’s tennis director is to repair the public courts.

“I want to bring the public tennis facilities up to where I’d be proud, where everybody would be proud, to bring people to use our courts. There are cracks in the courts. Nothing’s really been done in the last 20 or maybe 30 years,” she says.

“I’ve traveled to Florida and some other places and they have really nice public courts. Tennis in Houston was really thriving for a while and we had nice courts and people could play in the parks. We had junior programs. We flourished. That’s my main goal.”

While I had Garrison on the phone, I served up some questions:

CultureMap: Wimbledon is on. You’re familiar with that tournament, right? Who are your picks to win the men’s side and women’s side?

Zina Garrison: Yes, I’m familiar with Wimbledon. I have my alarm set for the early morning so I can watch. I have a weird pick, a more personal pick, for the men.

I would love to see Rafael Nadal keep going on, but it’s going to be tough for him. The guy from Italy, Matteo Berrettini, I watched him play a couple of weeks ago and I think he’s going to surprise a lot of people. And I am absolutely in love with that little guy, Carlos Alcaraz, from Spain. He’s made me watch tennis again.

On the women’s side, I don’t think it will be Iga Swiatek. I think it’s just too hard to keep a streak like hers (35 matches in a row including the French Open title) going in today’s game. It’s really wide open. I don’t really have a pick, it’s just who comes in and plays well at the right time.

CM: What do you think about Natela Dzalamidze, the doubles player from Russian who switched her nationality to Georgia so she could play Wimbledon, which has banned players from Russian and Belarus this year?

ZG: I don’t like that she was able to do that. I was just on the phone with (former pro turned broadcaster) Chanda Rubin talking about what’s going on in tennis these days.

First of all, there is the human rights stuff that’s going on in Russia and Ukraine. We have to start forcing accountability for actions. A lot of people didn’t agree with what Wimbledon did, but I think they had to take a stand.

CM: The women’s GOAT is easy — it’s Serena. But who do you think is the men’s GOAT?

ZG: Wow, that’s a hard one. If you had asked me earlier this year, I would have said Roger Federer because of everything he’s accomplished. But right now I’m going to have to go with Nadal. Nadal has taken tennis to a whole ‘nother level, of getting people to watch, coming out of the pandemic, where he has matches and you think he can’t come back and he’s still grinding no matter what.

For me, he is the epitome of what we need in this world right now: Never give up but not be selfish about helping others. I know it sounds clichéd, but that’s what I’m going through right now.

CM: When I first met you, you were painfully shy. It was hard to get an answer out of you. Now you’re a TV commentator and a regular chatterbox. What happened?

ZG: I was an introvert but I had always been intrigued by people of wisdom. A lot of it came as I developed confidence in myself. I had always been told at a very young age, if you really knew me, I spoke a lot. If you didn’t know me, I would be quiet. I would only speak about things that I was extremely passionate about.

As I’ve gotten older, because of my experiences. I feel like I can help people so I’m not afraid to say what I want to say.

CM: Starting the week after Wimbledon, coaches will be allowed to communicate with men players during matches. Up to now, that’s only been allowed in the women’s game. Every other sport allows coaching. Do you think tennis should allow coaching, too?

ZG: I don’t think coaching should be allowed. That’s one of the great things about tennis. That’s a part of the sport, that you grow and figure things out. You learn to think for yourself.

There’s always been little signals from coaches, but now you have these full blown conversations. Another bad thing about allowing coaching is it gives the players the opportunity to blame a loss their coach. That’s not good for the sport.

CM: You were known for wiggling your butt when receiving serve. Did you know you were doing it? Did you do that on purpose?

ZG: It started off as kind of a joke with my coaches. They said, we need you to move your feet. I said, you mean like this?

So, it started as a joke but I realized that it helped get my feet moving: Okay, I’m going to keep doing this.

I’ll never forget that year after I got to the Wimbledon finals, 1990, I went over to Japan and there were 1,200 people there … and all of them started wiggling!

CM: What was the first extravagant thing you bought for yourself when the tennis prize money started rolling in?

ZG: It was 1982, and I bought a candy apple red Volkswagen convertible with a white top.

CM: You were on the Biggest Loser, the show where contestants compete against each other to lose weight. Let’s just say you didn’t win. Are you happy you went on that show, or do you regret it?

ZG: I was one of the first who had to leave the competition. (No, you were THE first.) It was an experience, but I probably shouldn’t have done it. I think I regret going on there. It wasn’t what I thought it was.

It was reality TV and at the time I didn’t know what reality TV was .I was more ready to get out of there than anything else.

CM: Now here’s the big question, Zina. For years, I’ve had a running disagreement with ESPN 97.5 FM morning host John Granato about which is a more demanding, tougher sport – golf or tennis?

Granato says it’s golf, because the tournament winner has to beat every other player that week, while in tennis the winner just has to beat seven players at most. And, each week, golfers have to contend with a different course.

But, I say it’s tennis because players have to be in top physical condition, while nearly anyone in any shape can win a golf major.

Plus, in golf, players have a caddy helping them make decisions. In tennis, players are on their own.

In golf, you can have a bad day on Thursday and still win the tournament. In tennis, if you have a bad day in the opening round, you’re on a plane out of there.

In golf, it’s the player against the course. There’s no defense in golf. In tennis, there’s a human opponent trying to beat you.

In golf, the ball is lying still. In tennis the ball is coming at you at 140 mph.

So which is the tougher sport, golf or tennis? I’m right ... right?

ZG: Are you serious? Who is this guy who says golf is harder? The answer is tennis and it’s not even close.

You’re playing against someone. You’re only controlling the ball when it’s on your side of the net. You can’t control what the other player is doing. It’s almost like a boxer coming at you.

You have to have both the physical and mental capacity to win. In golf, if you have a bad day, it’s because you’re having that bad day. There’s no opponent competing with you. So, I’m saying it’s tennis.

CM (note to John Granato): I win. Granted, it might have been the way I asked the question. Also, Garrison is a former tennis pro.

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