Credit...María Jesús Contreras

Taking Time

Daylight saving time ends tomorrow. How will you make use of the extra hour?

02 Nov 2024, 10:02 by https://www.nytimes.com/by/melissa-kirsch · NY Times

The midday sun in my apartment this time of year is like a searchlight, illuminating every windowpane streak and every mote of dust. It’s obnoxious, honestly, like a teacher’s pet showing off: “Look how bright and unsparing I can be,” the sun seems to taunt, “just before I decamp for the next four months.”

An extra hour of sleep is no small thing if you can seize it. This is what I’ll remind myself as I make the rounds of the clocks tonight before bed, anticipating that brief moment of confused excitement tomorrow when I wake and check the time: It’s 7, no wait, it’s actually 6! Every first Sunday in November, I contemplate becoming a different, better person, one who gets up one hour earlier to meditate or exercise or meal-prep. I could be the person who spends an hour journaling, or fixing a large, healthy breakfast or taking the dog for a brisk walk in the cold dark. (In this alternate reality, I have a dog.)

And every first Sunday in November I do none of these things. I spend the extra hour in bed, trying to go back to sleep, probably fretting a little about how I’m squandering this precious opportunity to begin leading a truly productive life.

I know, it’s just one hour. How one spends it or doesn’t is hardly determinative of whether they’re making the most of their time on earth. But the scarcity of daylight this time of year does make every hour feel that much more valuable. As we enter the final two months of the year, thoughts naturally turn to how we’re filling our days.

I like the handy suggestion that we change the batteries in our smoke detectors every time we change the clocks. A potentially lifesaving precaution, easy enough. If daylight saving is this built-in, twice-yearly reminder, we could use it to prompt ourselves to perform other life-improving tasks. Maybe it’s the day you make a list of all the things you’d do if you had an extra hour, and commit to doing at least one of them daily between now and March, when we give that hour back.

Or you could just sleep in. Luxuriate in the extra hour without any mandate to do something with it. You could even do as a reader of The Morning advised a couple years ago, when I asked for tips for acclimating to the return to standard time: Wait to change your clock until an hour on Sunday that you’d like to experience again. Maybe you’d like to redo coffee and bagels at 10, or maybe an extra hour for an afternoon lie-down at 2feels like just the thing.

“A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life,” Charles Darwin said, rather imperiously, but I guess his body of work does speak to some pretty impressive time-management skills. I’ve often used this sort of injunction as a way to urge myself into action. But I’m as inspired by the psychologist Amos Tversky, who said, “You waste years by not being able to waste hours.” Whose wisdom will you heed this weekend?

For more

How to fall back without missing a beat.
Why do we change the clocks, anyway?
An opinion writer on the case for and against daylight saving time.

THE WEEK IN CULTURE

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Martha Stewart does not like the new Netflix documentary about her: “I hate those last scenes,” she told Brooks Barnes, our film-industry reporter. “Hate them.”
Social media users are filming themselves crying after seeing “We Live in Time,” a new drama starring Andrew Garfield and Florence Pugh.

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Two years ago, the singer and songwriter Shawn Mendes canceled his world tour. Now he’s back with a stripped-down album.
Thanks to TikTok, younger listeners are discovering artists across genres and eras, including Pavement, Cocteau Twins and Three 6 Mafia.
Mariah Carey says the holiday season has officially begun. She spoke to The Times about her 30 years as the queen of Christmas.

Art

Rather than asking whether we should be doing drugs, a new exhibition in Norwich, England, tries to understand why we always have.
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The Frick Collection will reopen at its Fifth Avenue Gilded Age mansion, which was closed for renovations, next year.

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Kyle Kuzma unleashed a parade of N.B.A. fashion with his outlandish pregame outfits. This year, he plans to wear a bland sweatsuit to every game.
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THE LATEST NEWS

2024 Election

Donald Trump called Liz Cheney a war hawk who should be sent to a combat zone. “Let’s see how she feels about it. You know, when the guns are trained on her face,” he said. Kamala Harris called his language disqualifying.
In a legal win for Democrats, the Supreme Court will let some Pennsylvania voters cast provisional ballots in person if election workers reject their mail ballots.
U.S. employers added just 12,000 jobs last month, far fewer than forecast, as a Boeing labor strike and hurricanes affected businesses. The Trump campaign blamed Harris.
The rapper Cardi B campaigned with Harris in Wisconsin. She said she hadn’t planned to vote this year, but that Harris’s entry into the race changed her mind.
Harris is trying to recapture working-class voters who have slipped away from Democrats. But they seem likely to favor Trump again.
An annual security conference in Atlanta models emergency responses to fictional disasters. This year, election conspiracy theorists and prominent Republicans shut it down.

CULTURE CALENDAR

By Andrew LaVallee

🤣 “The 2024 S.N.L. Election Special” (Monday): Perhaps you are jittery and stressed out by the presidential election. But you’re also reading The Morning, which means you’re taking it all in and have accepted there’s no avoiding the headlines. Lean into it, and allow yourself to laugh at an impression or two, during this collection of “Saturday Night Live” political sketches right before Election Day.

RECIPE OF THE WEEK

By Melissa Clark

Buttermilk-Brined Roast Chicken

Now that the wild candy rumpus that is Halloween has come and gone, you might be looking to make something on the more healthful side. You can’t go wrong with a simple, crowd-pleasing roast chicken, especially when it’s been brined in buttermilk and salt before roasting. Samin Nosrat’s five-star buttermilk-brined roast chicken is everything you want in a roasted bird — tender meat that’s juicy and evenly cooked, covered by burnished, caramelized skin. You do need to let it marinate in the fridge overnight, so start it today for dinner tomorrow. Then serve it with a healthful green vegetable and a baguette, and let it compensate for all those Halloween treats.

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ADVICE FROM WIRECUTTER

A white tee is a layering workhorse

The weather on the East Coast has been fluctuating between summerlike days and bone-chilling evenings, which makes dressing a challenge. The best advice is, of course, to layer. But before you start buying barn coats and chunky cardigans, you need a solid foundation — and there’s no better building block for a transitional autumn outfit than a good white T-shirt. I prefer a fitted tee, something that doesn’t add much bulk under sweaters and that also looks tailored on its own. But Wirecutter’s style experts have several favorites for all sorts of style preferences. Pick something that you’ll be excited to wear over and over again, no matter the season. — Maxine Builder

GAME OF THE WEEK

Detroit Lions vs. Green Bay Packers, N.F.L.: The Lions, who reached the N.F.C. championship game last season, are having another stellar year. In their past four games, all victories, the Lions have scored 42, 47, 31 and 52 points. They have an elite pair of running backs, Jahmyr Gibbs and David Montgomery, and quarterback Jared Goff has been playing at an M.V.P. level. But, as The Athletic’s J.J. Bailey notes, those wins all came in the cozy confines of indoor stadiums. This week, they head to Lambeau Field, where the forecast shows temperatures in the 50s and a chance of rain. Tomorrow at 4:25 p.m. Eastern on Fox

NOW TIME TO PLAY

Here is today’s Spelling Bee. Yesterday’s pangram was evading.

Take a special election edition of the news quiz to see how well you’ve followed the 2024 campaign.

And here are today’s Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands.

Thanks for spending part of your weekend with The Times. — Melissa

P.S. The most popular story this week in The Morning was about the recent discovery of a work by the composer Frédéric Chopin. Listen to it here.

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