Saskatchaw* (Saskatchew*)

Daylight Savings Time is kicking me in the face this week – walking to work in the dark is no fun at all, particularly when I can’t see the icy sidewalk beneath my feet. Fortunately, a total klutz like me has learned to fall quite well, and never onto my piano fingers (my poor left pinkie and ring finger still have not recovered from a childhood incident of tripping over my Golden Retriever…while she was sleeping).

So as I was cursing DST, I browsed the Wikipedia fantasizing about where I’d move to that doesn’t follow this abhorrent practice. Today’s featured word, Saskatchewan, would be the obvious choice, since I live in Canada. But going a little more exotic (and warmer) there’s the Maldives, Indonesia, Saint Lucia, and Tanzania, among many others, who have never followed DST.

 A few of the exceptions to regular practice are quite interesting: some countries stop DST during Ramadan (Morocco and Egypt, for example), and others gave it a try for a year or two and didn’t continue the practice (Colombia, Madagascar, India). Malta observed DST in 1916-1920, 1940-1948 and since 1966. This makes me glad I don’t have a job with a lot of international conference calls: I get confused enough about time zones as it is!

Saskatchaw* is one of our lowest probability typos, even though I made the error twice myself while typing this entry (once while typing Saskatchewan, and then again while trying to fix it, sigh). It occurs 37 times in WorldCat.

If you love seasonal trivia, also check out Carol’s post on the origins of DST (who knew it was WWI-related?) from 2012.

Leanne Olson

(Map of Canada with Saskatchewan highlighted by user Qyd, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.)