Hot take: 4pm sunsets > 7pm sunsets
Plus: 🚃 Can you run faster than the T?
It’s Tuesday, Boston.
🍳 If you haven’t had breakfast yet … Run, don’t walk, to Veggie Galaxy in Cambridge. The vegetarian diner is offering all four of its breakfast sandwiches for just $1 through Friday from 9 to 11 a.m. You’re welcome!
👀What’s on tap today:
- How Trump’s plans might affect Mass.
- “Rage rooms” are selling out
- Can you run faster than the T?
Up first…
DAYLIGHT SAVING
The great Daylight Saving debate
Image: Charles Krupa/Associated Press. Illustration: Gia Orsino.
If you hate 4:30 p.m. sunsets, you’re gonna want to read this. Twice a year, 48 states, including Mass., change the clocks between Daylight Saving and Standard Time. And twice a year, we debate about why we keep doing this to ourselves.
Here’s where the conversation stands:
⏰ Pretty much everyone agrees our current system ain’t working. Not only is it certifiably annoying to “fall back” and “spring forward,” but doing it actually “takes a toll on our public health,” said Dr. Rebecca Robbins, a sleep doctor at Harvard. Our bodies are extremely sensitive to even small changes in our circadian rhythms, or “biological clocks.” In fact, research shows changing the clocks can lead to “increased risk of heart attacks, strokes, and even car crashes,” she said.
🤔 So, some politicians proposed a solution: permanent Daylight Saving Time. That’s the summer schedule, with later sunsets. A few years back, Mass. Sen. Ed Markey teamed up with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio to introduce the “Sunshine Protection Act,” which would keep us on DST year-round. According to Markey, the act would “move us toward a brighter future” and “deliver more sun, more smiles, and blue skies.”
☀️ The argument? More $$$, less crime, better vibes. Back in 2016, a Mass. commission was created to study permanent Daylight Saving Time, and they ultimately recommended it with a few caveats, i.e. other New England states would also have to be on board. The commission found the change would stimulate the evening economy, reduce street crime, and generally make things a little less bleak. The act passed unanimously in the Senate in 2022, but it stalled in the House.
🌚 But there’s a darker side to the story … literally. Despite those points, many sleep experts and doctors don’t endorse a permanent Daylight Saving Time switch, and even testified against the Sunshine Protection Act to the Senate. Harvard’s Dr. Elizabeth Klerman called herself one of the “many sleep experts that knows it’s a bad idea.” Why? Those pesky circadian rhythms again. Turns out, the cues the body gets from light in the morning and darkness at night help to regulate us in all sorts of ways, from appetite, to melatonin production, to cortisol.
🛌 That’s why there’s also a movement for permanent Standard Time. A.k.a. our usual November to March schedule, with earlier sunsets and lighter mornings. Very few pro-Daylight Saving Time arguments “have anything to do with … scientific or health-related evidence,” Robbins said. You might think more sunlight = happier people, but evening sun and morning darkness can mess with our melatonin levels and lead to “increased anxiety, depression, [and] fatigue,” especially in teens and folks up to 25, said Dr. Michelle DiBlasi, chief of inpatient psychiatry at Tufts Medical Center.
😴 Need more info? Here’s an in-depth explainer.
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TOGETHER WITH THE MASSACHUSETTS STATE TREASURY
Stuff your turkey and your wallet
🦃💸 This Thanksgiving, why not add some extra cash to your list of things to be grateful for? The Massachusetts State Treasury has billions of dollars in unclaimed funds, and some of it could be yours! From forgotten savings to uncashed checks, a quick (and free!) search might uncover surprise money just in time for the holiday season. Give yourself an early gift and see if you’ve got some extra cash waiting.
CITY
Quick & dirty headlines
Image: Doug Mills/The New York Times
🇺🇸 President-elect Trump has big plans. Here’s how they might impact Mass. Spoiler: It’s a long list. If Trump follows through on his campaign promises, the (seriously broke) MBTA and abortion providers could lose out on federal funding, while the state’s offshore wind industry could come to a grinding halt. Our biotech and education industries may come under more intense federal scrutiny, while mass deportations could threaten over 300,000 undocumented migrants. That said, if Sen. Elizabeth Warren has much to say about it, it could be an uphill battle.
🔍 Ballot Q1 might be decided, but the drama is just starting. State auditor Diana DiZoglio didn’t waste any time using her newly won power to try and probe the notoriously murky ongoings of Beacon Hill, sending legislators a letter in hopes of kicking off the audit. Unsurprisingly, lawmakers aren’t exactly rearing to go, especially considering that the new law is in their hands to modify. But with a big “yes” majority of 71.6% and a promise from DiZoglio that she’ll “fight like hell” to see the audit through, we might have a long road ahead. Grab your popcorn.
🥊 If you fantasized about breaking things during election szn… Turns out, a lot of New England voters had the same idea: Post-election, “rage room” bookings have seen a surge. If you don’t already know, rage rooms allow folks to pay a price to (safely!) smash glass, appliances, ceramics, you name it. And politics have proven to be the perfect fuel: Some businesses said even before the election, they saw customers bringing in photos of their least favorite politicians to aid in their smashing.
💍 Question: If a wedding gets called off, who gets the engagement ring? If you said, “the person who bought it,” you’re on the same page as our state Supreme Judicial Court. ICYMI: A buzzy case involving who gets a $70,000 engagement ring has been working its way through the courts. On Friday, the state’s highest court decided to overturn Mass.’ long-held rule that the ring should go to whoever isn’t “at fault” for the breakup — a precedent which, yes, can get messy. Now, whoever gives the ring in a broken engagement (and ends up in court) will likely get it back.
MEDIA PARTNERSHIP
MEDIA SPONSORSHIP
Biggest Boston Thrift Market Returns!
B-Side is a proud sponsor of Select Markets, the local vintage clothing pop-up team who’s celebrating one year on Nov. 16 at the Reggie Lewis Center with one of the biggest thrift markets to ever grace the state! Expect over 90 vendors and 80 square feet of vintage clothing, $10 piles, food trucks, free drinks, and all the works. Grab your tickets fast!
ONE LAST THING
Can you run faster than the T?
Image: Craig F. Walker/The Boston Globe. Illustration: Gia Orsino.
Boston commuters grapple with whether the T is the fastest way to get around daily. But recently, a group of runners actually put it to the test during the annual “CharlieCard Challenge,” a 6 mile race from Boston College to Park Street. The catch: They’re racing … against the Green Line.
To no one’s surprise, they concluded that running is faster. Out of 300 runners, 287 of them beat the T, which took an average of 52 minutes across five trips to make the journey (that’s about 7 minutes 52 seconds per mile, BTW).
So, in case you were wondering, this means that if the T were trying to qualify for the Boston Marathon as an 18- to 34-year-old … it wouldn’t make the cut.
— Written by Gia Orsino and Emily Schario
📝 Correction: The number of runners who raced and beat the T in the Charlie Card Challenge have been updated to reflect new information.
🏃 Thanks for reading! Not sure if that says more about the T, or the truly incredible marathoners. Probably the T.
💜 Special shoutout to today’s sponsor, the Massachusetts State Treasury, for supporting local journalism and helping residents reclaim what’s rightfully theirs.
🚃 The results are in: 61% of B-Siders are optimistic the T will be slow-zone-free by the end of the year… but only time will tell. One reader said: “Phillip Eng deserves a statue on the [Common] once all the slow zones are gone tbh.”
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