Jury’s still out on Sound Off (and I don’t feel so good myself)

After my column last week, you probably want to know the verdict on Sound Off.

Well, the jury’s still out.

In other words, I still haven’t adjusted to Daylight Savings Time.

I posted last week’s column on a Friday night. Before I went to bed, I checked my cellphone, as a man with four teenagers is wont to do. Everybody seemed safe and sound.

Oh, and the votes were already rolling in. A loyal reader advised me to be careful in judging the feedback, and to remember that the Columbus/Phenix City market is “not too sophisticated.”

Thanks for the reminder. I chalked that one up as a “maybe.”

Minutes later, I got another email with “Sound Off” in the subject line. It was from an actual medical doctor. “Of course it must continue,” she began. “There must be a forum for anonymous comment.”

But of course. An unequivocal “yes.”

On Saturday morning, I woke up to dozens of messages, including a bunch of voice mail messages automatically sent from my office phone to my email. Ain’t technology great?

Here’s just a sample:

“Kill it. It is embarrassing to read the stupidity and lack of understanding of how things work.”

“Keep it. Sound Off is the only intelligent part of your publication.”

“For the love of God, discontinue Sound Off.”

“I read Sound Off with great enjoyment.”

Let the games begin.

While the votes continued to pour in, I got out of bed, ate a big breakfast, went to a son’s baseball game, and then drove to Atlanta with my wife to greet our daughter, who was returning from a spring break trip to Greece.

Random observation: The folks returning from Europe were wearing sweaters, scarves and jackets. That’s because when they left a week earlier it was winter. The folks welcoming them home were wearing shorts and flip-flops. That’s because it was almost spring, which around here means it feels like it’s almost summer.

I’m not entirely happy about it, and that’s because time was springing forward.

That night, to get in the mood for March Madness, I watched a bunch of college basketball tournament games. I may be the only person east of the Mississippi to watch Cal State Bakersfield beat New Mexico State in overtime.

When I went to bed, it was 1 a.m. Then it dawned on me: it was actually 2 a.m.

I had planned to spend Sunday afternoon tallying the Sound Off votes, but I took a long nap and woke up just in time for the NCAA tournament selection show.

When I got to work on Monday, I thought about going through all the Sound Off related messages, but they were now in the hundreds. And besides, I felt like I’d awoken an hour earlier than I was supposed to.

As I write this, it’s Friday afternoon and I still feel like it’s an hour earlier than the clock says it should be. And the Sound Off messages continue to flow into my digital message boxes — steadily, like the passing of time itself.

The votes to “Keep it” far outnumber the votes to “Kill it,” whatever that’s worth, and it’s definitely worth something.

Many of the “Keep it” voters made suggestions for improving Sound Off. I especially liked the suggestion to focus on local observations in favor of comments about national politics.

What about that? Any other suggestions?

Keep the feedback coming. And I’ll let you know.

This story was originally published March 18, 2016 at 5:51 PM with the headline "Jury’s still out on Sound Off (and I don’t feel so good myself)."