When my rush hour trip from West Hollywood to Century City took but fifteen minutes--instead of the budgeted forty--I figured that a good number of Los Angelenos had taken off to the beach themselves.

But Mickey Kaus offers another, more likely explanation--daylight savings time! When we "fall back" and lose an hour, traffic becomes horrible in Los Angeles. People whose timing runs on the "human clock" rather than the clock-clock now have extended the rush hour period, thus reducing the traffic crunch we would have experienced, say, last week.

Either way, I arrived in Century City with enough time to check out the not-so-new but still impressive food court, thanks to nature, Congress or human nature.