Call me "lazy" or "shy of getting myself entangled in something I do not understand," but now that Google has become a verb on which you can "lean" to get information on everything from "aardvark" to "zoo," I actually typed in a phrase and clicked on "Search" and got the answer I needed. 

My problem:  I was writing about making a telephone call from Atlanta to California in the year 1944. My heroine then in Atlanta, GA needed to make an important call to family in California.In a novel I read recently the heroine used a cell phone in a time frame that was LONG BEFORE such phones existed.  I did not want my heroine making a call "at noon" when she wanted the phone to ring in the family home "at noon"–if DST was in effect in the 1940's.  Thanks to Mr. Google I learned that DSL was made a national requirement in 1966.  So it was okay from my cpheroine to call home "at noon" in Atlanta and have the call answered "at noon" in California.

I also needed to know the date that  Steinbeck's Tortilla Flat was published.  I learned that it was 1935 which meant I could use reference to that author and title in 1944.Of course, all the rest of you know this.  Just wanted you to know I'll catch up eventually.–Willma  9/21/09