Back, but sprung forward

Well, Spring Recess is over, and as everyone trickles back to campus, we're getting ready to resume regular blogging this week. Much has happened over break, so let's look back at some of the excitement:

1. Evacuations: As I was waiting for my airport train in Princeton Junction, a friend called to ask if I had been a part of the Icahn evacuation. Back on campus, Jadwin and Icahn (where I'm doing independent work) were evacuated after a bomb threat was made against the nearby construction site for the new chemistry building. While an all-clear was issued at 5 p.m., many researchers had a more relaxing Friday afternoon than they had planned.

2. Storm days: Many of our breaks began with thunderstorms, still too early to be counted with our beloved April showers. With trees blocking the Dinky (causing many to miss their flights), emergency shelter in Dillon, and a shoutout on Krugman's blog — hopefully no one will return to find a tree branch crashed through their windows.

3. Springing forward: If falling back gave Fall Recess an extra hour, I suppose it's only fair that springing forward do the reverse. Benjamin Franklin once noted that "Early to bed, and early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise" and sarcastically suggested that the people of Paris could save money on candles by waking up earlier so as to make use of the morning sunlight. Here, however, his suggestion would not have meshed well with fire safety regulations. Those lamenting daylight saving time (DST) should direct all anger to the New Zealand entomologist who invented it.

Princeton connections! When DST was repealed by Congress in 1919 (only to be brought back in the 60s), our very own Woodrow Wilson vetoed the repeal twice, but was overridden. Also, which state, whose governor is an alumnus, began using DST only four years ago?

Hope you all enjoyed your 215 hours of break!

By Aaron Hosios, editor for Blogs