There's no time like the present By Matt Richmond Commentary Editor Williston, North Dakota, is 893 miles west of Chicago. The sun comes up an hour later there. It sets an hour later. Weather conditions being equal, everything in nature happens about one hour after it happens here.
Flowers open snow melts bed lice crawl back into their secret hiding places.
Alarm clocks set for 6 a.m. bleat simultaneously in each location. Identical images of Matt Laurer sip identical coffee mugs in synchronization on North Dakotan and Chicagoan TV screens. Timecards clank in their punching machines. All that space between us, completely different stages of a natural day and our clocks read the same. N.D. Sunrise occurs at the Montana border only seconds after it occurs in Williston.