Winter solstice

Today (Monday, December 21, 2009) is the winter solstice, “shortest day of the year,” trumpeted the announcer at WXXI, the classical-music radio station out of Rochester we listen to.
“No, no, no,” I said. “They always say that.
I know it’s common usage, but it’s more precise to say it’s the day with the least amount of daylight.
Far as I know, it will be 24 hours long, just like every other day.”
I can imagine the firestorm this will prompt.
Fervent posturing by noisy language zealots and English Majors who feel it’s their right to muddy communication.
I used to do “Skywatch” at the mighty Mezz.
I’d access the Naval Observatory site every day, to see when sunup and sundown were for Canandaigua.
The winter solstice is the least amount of daylight, but already sunset is ratcheting up.
Earliest was 4:35 p.m., but that was a week ago.
By now it’s 4:37.
It’s the shortest amount of daylight because dawn kept occurring later and later.
On December 21 it was 7:37 a.m.
Not too long ago it was 5 a.m., and sundown was pushing 9 p.m.
Every day I have to zoom home so I can walk my dog before dark.
In 1960, when I was 16, my parents took us on a fabulous vacation up into the Canadian prairie, where dawn was about 4 a.m., and sunset about 10 p.m.
It never got pitch-dark.
The southern sky never got past dusk, and it started brightening at 2 a.m. in the northeast.
And just a few months ago I was looking outside at my lawn to see if it absolutely, positively needed mowing.
Now it’s covered with snow.

• WXXI-FM, 91.5, is the classical-music radio-station in Rochester, NY we listen to, publicly supported.
• The “mighty Mezz” is the Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper, from where I retired four years ago. Best job I ever had.
• “Canandaigua” (“cannon-DAY-gwuh”) is a small city nearby where we live in Western NY. The city is also within a rural town called “Canandaigua.” The name is Indian, and means “Chosen Spot.” —It’s about 15 miles away.