Critics balst extended daylight

Congress may be inching closer to extending Daylight Savings Time--yet again--but those with long memories are speaking up against the proposal:

Cranky schoolchildren, electronic chaos and increased sales of double-espressos - those are just some of the effects that would ripple through Americans' lives under a plan moving through Congress to extend daylight-saving time by two months per year.

Under the plan, which was approved by the House of Representatives and sent to the Senate, California and other states would "spring forward" in March rather than April and "fall back" in November rather than October.

"It's gonna be chaos, man," said Viken Fermanian, owner of Salco Services, an electronics repair shop in Granada Hills, predicting there would be no easy fix to the daylight-saving time change hard-wired into everything from wristwatches to VCRs.

While computer software can be reprogrammed to accommodate different dates, hardware presents a trickier problem.