Ace of Spades HQ

April 30, 2007

Letter to the Editor: Global Warming Caused By Daylight Savings Time
— Ace

Okay, this may be fake, but it's pretty funny. An image supposedly taken from the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette's Letters page follows. Looks real, but I'm pretty sure it's easy to fake an ink-smudged "newspaper page" in Photoshop.

Daylight exacerbates warming
You may have noticed that March of this year was particularly hot. As a matter of fact, I understand that it was the hottest March since the beginning of the last century....
This should come as no surprise to any reasonable person. As you know, Daylight Saving time started almost a month early this year. You would think that members of Congress would ave considered the warming effect that an extra hour of daylight would have on our climate. Or did they?
Perhaps this is another plot by a liberal Congress to make us believe that global warming is a real threat. Perhaps the next time there should be serious tudies before Congress passes laws with such far-reaching effects.
CONNIE M. MESKIMEN
Hot Springs

Pretty funny, but I sort of doubt a newspaper would use the word "exacerbates" in a headline -- just doesn't seem newspaperish. And of course there's actually a typo in the headline; I've corrected "warning" to the intended "warming."

And of course it's just plain stupid. How could someone be this dumb, and how could a letters-page editor then be dumb enough on top of that to publish it? The hoax warning bells are sounding.

Still, assuming it's real, assuming it's not an attempt at irony, and assuming it's not a punking to make global warming sketpics look dumb -- assuming all of that -- kind of funny.

Thanks to Terrapin Fan.

Fake But Accurate: A real letter, really publshed -- but a punking. The author is a lawyer who fancies himself a letters-page humorist, playing dumb for laughs.

Thanks to Some Guy for finding that.

Posted by: Ace at 08:03 AM | Comments (13)
Post contains 331 words, total size 2 kb.

1 It looks authentic. Looks like the right header and format. Can't be sure, but there have been some silly things about global warming in this paper before, at least.

Posted by: Nibbles the Shark at April 30, 2007 08:07 AM (ZKbWi)

It was at least written as a gag:

http://www.snopes.com/humor/letters/daylight.asp

Posted by: Some Guy at April 30, 2007 08:11 AM (lPxkl)

3 Funny - Up here in the wilds of Pennsylvania, we've had the coldest March and April in a hundred years!

Oops, I forgot! It was cold due to Global Warming too. . . idiots!

Posted by: MCPO Airdale at April 30, 2007 08:16 AM (ZKng9)

Wow, a very similar "Letter to the Editor" insert appeared in my local newspaper about halfway through March.

The only difference is that not only did this guy blame Global Warming on Daylight Savings Time, but he also spouted off other conspiracy theories like WTC theory and whatnot.

What was funny was the next sunday paper had another letter from another reader who basically spend a paragraph and a half ranting on about how the conspiracy/global warming guy was a complete and utter idiot.

I love my paper

Posted by: Nth at April 30, 2007 08:35 AM (fdeNn)

Won't someone please think about the Martian Polar Bears?!?

Posted by: Jeff Spender at April 30, 2007 08:56 AM (x8Std)

6 Won't someone please think about the Martian Polar Bears?!?

Posted by: Jeff Spender at April 30, 2007 09:02 AM (x8Std)

True story.

Many years ago, when daylight savings time was new and in debate, a lady called in to an AM radio show with:

"My grass is brown and burning up, this DLS has got to stop".

She was serious.

Posted by: robert at April 30, 2007 09:15 AM (Rb4Qc)

8 The Washington Post printed a letter in 2005 from a person who thought that Bush (damn you, etc.) had cooked the books because the fiscal year was one day longer and, coincidentally, the economic growth rate was also an extra point higher than last year. I think that one was just as stupid

Posted by: joeindc44 at April 30, 2007 09:30 AM (za2Xz)

9 The Washington Post had a similar one where a reader thought that 2005's first quarter economic growth rate was due to the fiscal quarter being extended by one day. I got to find that...

Posted by: joeindc44 at April 30, 2007 09:35 AM (za2Xz)

I commented about this at the time in a post about global warming. Also, the fourth response that Snopes lists was my letter to the editor in response to it:

I'm famous now. no autographs please. Just send cash.

Posted by: Steve L. at April 30, 2007 09:42 AM (hpZf2)

11 sorry for the double post, I am stupid

Posted by: joeindc44 at April 30, 2007 09:43 AM (za2Xz)

"And of course it's just plain stupid. How could someone be this dumb, and how could a letters-page editor then be dumb enough on top of that to publish it?

Yeah I was wondering the same thing a couple of days ago when I saw a headline on the front page of the Burlington Free Press (Burlington, VT). The headline indicated a new planet similar to earth had been discovered outside our solar system and that the planet was a mere 120 million miles away. It never dawned on these brain surgeons that since the sun is 93 million miles from earth - this new planet couldn't both be outside our solar system and also only 120 million miles away... As it turns out the planet is over 20 light years away.

Posted by: adk46er at April 30, 2007 10:19 AM (+J6DR)

13 ...and how could a letters-page editor then be dumb enough on top of that to publish it?

The Palm Beach Post routinely publishes letters from obvious morons. I'm thinking I need to start punking their ass too. I wonder just how far I can go with some 9/11 truther and outlandish suggestions for curing global warming and have them bite?

The PBP editorial staff is quite retarded and ultra-liberal...I'm thinking I could go full on Alec Baldwin/Rosie/Tom Cruise and get away with it.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at April 30, 2007 11:14 AM (ivi7/)

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