Time on His Hands

APROPOS OF THE impending time change, we recall to your remembrance this passage from Van Dine's The Kidnap Murder Case (1936):

   "As she [Mrs. Kenting] silently shook her head in reply he [Philo Vance] continued: 'Tell me, when did you first learn of your husband's absence?'
   "The woman took a deep breath, and after a barely perceptible hesitation answered in a slightly rasping, low-pitched voice which contrasted strangely with her colorless, semi-anemic appearance.
   "'Early this morning—about six o'clock, I should say. The sun had just risen.'"

At which point we get this footnote:

   "The official time of sunrise on that day was 4:45, local mean time, or 4:41, Eastern standard time; but daylight saving time was then in effect, and Mrs. Kenting's reference 
to sunrise in New York at approximately six o'clock was correct."

You're probably thinking, "Oh, please!"; however, in a Golden Age murder investigation, nothing, not even the sun's location, should be overlooked. See what Abraham Lincoln, 
as a lawyer, did with the moon (HERE).

Resource:
- Go (HERE) for more about the punctilious author of The Kidnap Murder Case.