WEBVTT - Farmer's Almanac: Literature to Poop To 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:05.360 Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:11.200 --> 0:00:14.160 Howdy and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, and 0:00:14.200 --> 0:00:17.919 there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant and Jerry's here too, and 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:21.959 we're just some homey folksy types ready to spin a 0:00:21.960 --> 0:00:26.000 good yarn for you about the old farmer's almond. 0:00:26.920 --> 0:00:29.920 That's right. You know why I commissioned this one, why, Chuck? 0:00:30.000 --> 0:00:30.280 Why? 0:00:30.760 --> 0:00:34.519 Because I thought it would be fun to put a 0:00:35.040 --> 0:00:38.240 old farmer's almanac in the outhouse at my camp. 0:00:39.600 --> 0:00:42.520 Okay, wait, first, you have an outhouse. 0:00:42.600 --> 0:00:43.360 I have an outthouse. 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:45.720 Is it just a pit like a latrine with a 0:00:45.760 --> 0:00:46.440 log over it. 0:00:46.960 --> 0:00:50.280 No, it's a composting toilet okay, with a little solar 0:00:50.320 --> 0:00:51.760 panel outside that runs a fan. 0:00:52.479 --> 0:00:54.560 Okay, and there's the fan. 0:00:54.640 --> 0:01:01.320 Do the fan moves air through to provide aerobic interaction. 0:01:01.440 --> 0:01:05.919 Next the uh with the with the with the poop 0:01:06.520 --> 0:01:09.080 and the composting pete. 0:01:09.760 --> 0:01:13.440 I just made a compost t like that, but I 0:01:13.560 --> 0:01:19.680 used to submerged little fountain pump to create the air movement. Yeah, 0:01:19.720 --> 0:01:20.280 pretty neat. 0:01:20.600 --> 0:01:22.840 It is neat. So yeah, I got a composting toilet. 0:01:22.840 --> 0:01:23.200 It's good. 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:26.560 It helps. Uh, I don't use it. I use it 0:01:26.600 --> 0:01:28.240 to go poopy if I'm there for more than a 0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:29.040 couple of days. 0:01:28.920 --> 0:01:29.959 Uh huh. 0:01:29.959 --> 0:01:33.200 But largely I put it there so, you know, some 0:01:33.280 --> 0:01:36.160 of some of the ladies in my life and and friends, 0:01:36.280 --> 0:01:39.280 wives and things, I don't like to squad in the woods. 0:01:39.360 --> 0:01:41.399 Some of them don't mind, sure, But I put that 0:01:41.480 --> 0:01:44.400 there so everyone would want to go camping at the 0:01:44.440 --> 0:01:46.720 camp and be like, yeah, you got a composting toilet. 0:01:46.800 --> 0:01:47.680 I feel good about. 0:01:47.560 --> 0:01:50.600 Using it, right, I can. I can see the conversation 0:01:50.680 --> 0:01:53.520 between the couple and the kitchen back in Atlanta, like, well, no, 0:01:53.760 --> 0:01:57.520 he's got a composting toilet. Well, now i'm you know 0:01:57.640 --> 0:01:58.560 you can count me in. 0:01:59.040 --> 0:02:01.520 Well, and now I gotta He's got a composting toilet 0:02:01.600 --> 0:02:04.760 and an old farmer's almanac in that outhouse because I 0:02:04.760 --> 0:02:06.400 thought it would just be sort of a fun thing, 0:02:06.480 --> 0:02:09.760 because I knew from growing up as a kid that 0:02:09.919 --> 0:02:12.919 an old in the South, that an old farmer's almanac 0:02:13.080 --> 0:02:15.520 was quite a common thing to find in a bathroom 0:02:15.639 --> 0:02:19.640 or an outhouse to read while you're there on the john. 0:02:19.800 --> 0:02:22.440 So I have one there from a couple of years ago. 0:02:22.480 --> 0:02:24.799 I need to get a new one. It should change 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:26.760 it every year. You know. It's sort of the whole 0:02:26.760 --> 0:02:31.960 point of an ominac. And so I thought I was 0:02:32.000 --> 0:02:33.240 reading it the other day when I was up there 0:02:33.240 --> 0:02:34.839 cutting your grass, and I was like, I really don't 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:37.160 even know the history of these things, and so let's 0:02:37.200 --> 0:02:37.639 find out. 0:02:37.960 --> 0:02:39.919 So did you read them when you were a kid too? 0:02:40.880 --> 0:02:42.800 I mean a little bit here and there. It's not 0:02:43.040 --> 0:02:46.040 very interesting for a kid. Sure, I could see that, 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:52.080 But my grandmother, Bryant, my dad's mom, was a backyard 0:02:52.080 --> 0:02:54.960 farmer her whole life, and you know, she was one 0:02:55.000 --> 0:02:57.680 of these people that put a lot of stock in 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:00.440 the Farmer's Almanac, and so it was just something I 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:03.200 knew about in my life as a kid. Probably didn't 0:03:03.240 --> 0:03:04.360 read it a ton, though. 0:03:04.480 --> 0:03:06.880 I was never exposed to it, I knew it existed. 0:03:07.360 --> 0:03:10.080 You were from the north, yeah, I was Midwest, but 0:03:10.160 --> 0:03:12.320 to Georgia, Ohio was the north. Yeah. 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:16.280 Still, but there was corn corn everywhere around where I lived, 0:03:16.840 --> 0:03:19.960 So it is a little surprising. But the biggest surprise 0:03:20.080 --> 0:03:23.960 that I received since we started researching this is that 0:03:24.120 --> 0:03:26.639 you me apparently used to read the Farmer's Almanac when 0:03:26.639 --> 0:03:27.640 she was a little kid. 0:03:28.160 --> 0:03:30.800 Nothing you ever tell me about Umi will surprise me. 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:33.040 It's true. You just never know. 0:03:33.240 --> 0:03:35.840 No, you really don't. It's great for those of you 0:03:35.840 --> 0:03:37.920 who've never met you mean, you wouldn't consider her a 0:03:37.960 --> 0:03:39.280 farmer's almanac type. 0:03:40.080 --> 0:03:41.440 That's pretty safe to say. 0:03:41.560 --> 0:03:43.480 Yeah so I was. I thought that was neat. She's 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:48.200 very well rounded. But I, in like chia pet fashion, 0:03:48.240 --> 0:03:51.480 went on and ordered this time myself a Farmer's Almanac. 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:53.000 I was going to order you one, and I was like, 0:03:53.040 --> 0:03:54.560 I'll bet he's already got one on him. 0:03:54.600 --> 0:03:57.320 Oh look at you. Very smart. Also, I've made a 0:03:57.400 --> 0:04:00.480 joke about you're from the North as it out. As 0:04:00.480 --> 0:04:04.000 we'll see, the Old Farmer's Almanac came from New England originally. Yeah, 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:06.720 so I was, you know, people from the north. There's plenty 0:04:06.720 --> 0:04:09.280 of farming that went on all over the country. 0:04:09.560 --> 0:04:12.640 By god, they even cover the weather forecast for the year. 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:18.920 In California exactly. They don't discriminate, all right, So big 0:04:18.960 --> 0:04:21.000 thanks to Dave Ruse who helped us out with this one. 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:24.760 We're going to talk mostly about the Old Farmer's Almanac, 0:04:24.800 --> 0:04:26.800 but we will talk a little bit about its rival, 0:04:27.480 --> 0:04:30.719 the Farmer's Almanac. But we're talking about the Old Farmers 0:04:30.760 --> 0:04:35.240 Almanac the one that's looked the same since its inception, 0:04:35.960 --> 0:04:41.440 with that yellow cover, the four seasons. It's very Did 0:04:41.520 --> 0:04:43.159 you get yours in the mail yet? No? 0:04:43.279 --> 0:04:45.960 I pre ordered it. I won't arrive until August thirtieth. 0:04:46.520 --> 0:04:49.640 Oh, this is for next year. Yes, it's very smart. 0:04:51.320 --> 0:04:52.359 Or do you hear in advance? 0:04:53.800 --> 0:04:56.240 Well, I mean what am I going to do? Be like, well, 0:04:56.279 --> 0:04:59.359 what happened two weeks ago getting this year's you know? 0:04:59.440 --> 0:05:00.320 I mean, like why that. 0:05:00.400 --> 0:05:02.719 You could one from August to December? You could surely 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:03.839 gain some insight. 0:05:03.920 --> 0:05:07.040 Now, I don't like to waste money. I'd rather just wait. 0:05:07.120 --> 0:05:10.760 Yeah, but it's been the same. We'll talk a little 0:05:10.800 --> 0:05:12.920 bit more about the cover and its presentation and all that. 0:05:13.000 --> 0:05:16.479 But it's very iconic looking if you've ever seen one. 0:05:17.120 --> 0:05:21.240 It's been around since seventeen ninety two. That's amazing, which 0:05:21.279 --> 0:05:26.080 means it's the oldest continuously published periodical in North America. 0:05:26.320 --> 0:05:30.200 Yeah, and I looked it up. That's the oldest published 0:05:30.279 --> 0:05:34.080 anything that's been continuously printed in North America. Is the 0:05:34.240 --> 0:05:37.599 Hartford Kurant or sorted as the Connecticut Kuran in seventeen 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:40.880 sixty four, not too much sooner than the farmer's almanac. 0:05:41.320 --> 0:05:44.480 But then if you look for the world, the Swiss 0:05:44.520 --> 0:05:47.280 have us beat by a mile. Yeah, they have a 0:05:48.040 --> 0:05:51.200 what's called The Post and Domestic Times, the post ach 0:05:51.440 --> 0:05:58.080 inrich tid Niningar Okay, And again that means the Post 0:05:58.160 --> 0:06:01.239 and Domestic Times, which has been printed tinuously since sixteen 0:06:01.360 --> 0:06:05.599 forty five. Amazing, But still that's nothing to sneeze at 0:06:05.600 --> 0:06:08.039 seventeen ninety two. And they never missed an addition. 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:12.279 Pretty good, Yeah, yeah, totally. And these these books, basically, 0:06:12.560 --> 0:06:15.839 I mean those sort of an almanac craze at one point, 0:06:16.880 --> 0:06:19.640 lots of small family farms all over the country. Yeah, 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:24.320 pre industrialization, there were hundreds of farmers almanacs all over 0:06:24.360 --> 0:06:28.159 the place, a lot of regional ones, even local ones. 0:06:28.680 --> 0:06:30.919 And what you would find in them if you were like, well, guys, 0:06:30.960 --> 0:06:32.600 what the heck is a farmer's almanac? 0:06:32.680 --> 0:06:33.839 Good? Good, walk back. 0:06:34.080 --> 0:06:36.280 What it is is there are books that will say 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:40.880 things like, here's when you should plant things, here's some 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:47.680 tips on cattle. Very importantly, here are astronomical charts. This 0:06:47.760 --> 0:06:49.800 is when the sun is going to rise and set 0:06:49.880 --> 0:06:52.520 in the spring and throughout the year. These are the 0:06:52.560 --> 0:06:56.000 phases of the moon. Here are some recipes. Maybe here's 0:06:56.000 --> 0:06:59.040 some jokes, here's some poetry. So they would mix in 0:06:59.080 --> 0:07:04.080 some folksy fun stuff and entertaining stuff along with sort 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:07.599 of boots to the ground advice tips and raw data 0:07:07.800 --> 0:07:08.400 for farming. 0:07:08.720 --> 0:07:12.360 Yeah, but the big draw is the long range weather forecasts, 0:07:12.400 --> 0:07:17.440 like they essentially forecast the weather generally for the entire 0:07:17.560 --> 0:07:21.960 United States and Canada a year in advance. Yeah, we'll 0:07:21.960 --> 0:07:24.800 talk about that, and they say that they're eighty percent accurate, 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:27.720 which is mind boggling. It's it's almost unbelievable. 0:07:28.600 --> 0:07:32.040 Yeah, And it's things like I remember my grandmother referring 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:35.760 to it for her crops later in the year to 0:07:35.800 --> 0:07:38.119 see like how rainy is it going to be this fall, 0:07:38.680 --> 0:07:41.280 how rainy will it be six months from now exactly? 0:07:41.560 --> 0:07:43.720 And people put a lot of stock in it, and 0:07:43.760 --> 0:07:45.600 some people still do even Yeah. 0:07:45.640 --> 0:07:51.920 So it's an unusual and unique combination of folksy folk 0:07:52.040 --> 0:07:57.320 wisdom and folklore. Even things like if you want to 0:07:57.360 --> 0:07:59.800 have turnips in the winter and there's no such thing 0:07:59.800 --> 0:08:02.800 as refrigeration, keep them in packed in sawdust during the 0:08:02.800 --> 0:08:05.680 summer or whatever. Stuff like that. It's useful. But then 0:08:05.680 --> 0:08:09.200 there's also like astrology, like horoscopes and that kind of thing. 0:08:10.160 --> 0:08:13.480 But then and then it's alongside like actual legitimate astronomical 0:08:13.560 --> 0:08:17.280 data that is accurate. So it's a weird combination of 0:08:17.360 --> 0:08:21.440 really stuff. And apparently it grew out of the medieval era, 0:08:22.600 --> 0:08:25.400 and the word almanac itself seems to have been invented 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:29.120 by medieval French astronomers in the thirteenth century. Although they 0:08:29.200 --> 0:08:33.760 said that it was an Arabic word almanach and that 0:08:33.840 --> 0:08:37.040 meant calendar of the heavens, and apparently these astronomers just 0:08:37.080 --> 0:08:38.079 totally made that up. 0:08:38.600 --> 0:08:41.920 Yeah, it was, yeah, like you said, invented by the French. 0:08:42.679 --> 0:08:46.040 These medieval almanacs were they were just handwritten, this before 0:08:46.040 --> 0:08:49.079 the printing press, and they did some similar things though 0:08:49.120 --> 0:08:54.199 they talked about like celestial bodies and moon phases and 0:08:54.240 --> 0:08:57.600 stuff like that. Eventually, when the printing press comes along, 0:08:58.840 --> 0:09:00.840 they were some of the first things to be printed. Like, 0:09:00.880 --> 0:09:03.400 people lived their lives by these a lot of times, 0:09:03.440 --> 0:09:07.440 so they were some of the most popular early books 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:10.559 and periodicals that existed in the world. 0:09:10.640 --> 0:09:14.040 Essentially, Yeah, because of their popularity and because even back 0:09:14.080 --> 0:09:17.440 then they were just kind of bizarre creatures their own thing. 0:09:18.440 --> 0:09:22.960 They were also widely satirized too. As early as fifteen 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:26.760 thirty two, there was a French satirist named Rabelai who 0:09:26.800 --> 0:09:33.120 created a parody almanac and he prognosticated stuff that's quite 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:36.360 obvious as a way to just kind of mock what 0:09:36.400 --> 0:09:39.760 almanacs do. But he started a trend that lasted for 0:09:39.880 --> 0:09:43.120 hundreds of years. And the most famous parody almanac was 0:09:43.120 --> 0:09:46.719 Poor Richard's Almanac, which was published by Benjamin Franklin from 0:09:46.760 --> 0:09:49.800 seventeen thirty two to fifty eight. And What's neat is 0:09:50.320 --> 0:09:52.320 Even though it was a parody and they made stuff 0:09:52.400 --> 0:09:56.120 up and it was funny and a satire of almanacs, 0:09:56.240 --> 0:10:00.440 it also contained like actual helpful, useful information. 0:10:00.200 --> 0:10:05.200 Too, Yeah, it did. He wrote under the pseudonym Richard Saunders. 0:10:05.240 --> 0:10:08.520 And it's famous for a lot of things, one of which, 0:10:08.559 --> 0:10:12.480 like you said, it was around for what twenty something years, 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:13.600 twenty five, twenty six. 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:15.960 Years, I'm guessing like thirty something. 0:10:16.240 --> 0:10:19.240 Yeah, but it was like the best selling for that long. 0:10:20.160 --> 0:10:23.559 But it was very famous now for these a lot 0:10:23.600 --> 0:10:26.760 of turns of phrase that Franklin invented a s. Saunders, 0:10:26.800 --> 0:10:30.560 such as we still use today. Hase makes waste as 0:10:30.600 --> 0:10:35.560 one fish and visitors smell after three days. And of 0:10:35.559 --> 0:10:38.840 course the old standard early to bed, early to rise 0:10:39.000 --> 0:10:40.839 makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise. 0:10:41.040 --> 0:10:41.400 Very nice. 0:10:41.600 --> 0:10:43.040 All came from Poor Richard's Almanac. 0:10:43.559 --> 0:10:46.240 Yeah, from the noodle of Ben Franklin himself, because he 0:10:46.280 --> 0:10:47.480 wrote it and published it. 0:10:47.920 --> 0:10:48.360 That's right. 0:10:48.440 --> 0:10:49.960 What a renaissance dude he was. 0:10:50.280 --> 0:10:53.360 He really was. We've kind of danced around Franklin here 0:10:53.400 --> 0:10:56.600 and there. I wonder not that if we could ever 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:03.439 he's annoying podcasting sprites. I wonder if we should ever 0:11:03.520 --> 0:11:06.400 just dive in and just cover him in earnest. 0:11:06.480 --> 0:11:07.560 I think we totally should. 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:10.760 You probably should, or at the very least that kite 0:11:10.800 --> 0:11:13.319 and the key. I feel like we have. 0:11:13.480 --> 0:11:16.720 Talked about that before. Yeah, I can't remember which episode, 0:11:16.720 --> 0:11:20.319 but I think we're like, that's not it didn't happen. Yeah, 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:24.920 but his Poor Richard's Almanac, everything Franklin touched basically turned 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:28.480 to gold. He was just good at everything. And his 0:11:28.480 --> 0:11:33.959 his parody almanac, which was apparently inspired by a European 0:11:33.960 --> 0:11:39.560 almanac called Poor Robins, he kicked off like that almanac 0:11:39.640 --> 0:11:42.840 craze that you talked about in I think the late 0:11:42.880 --> 0:11:46.120 eighteenth century, which is when Robert Bailey Thomas came along 0:11:46.160 --> 0:11:48.720 and said, I'm getting in on this almanac stuff myself 0:11:48.760 --> 0:11:51.000 because I find them thoroughly fascinating. 0:11:51.840 --> 0:11:53.760 I think that's a great place for a break. Okay, 0:11:54.240 --> 0:11:57.840 we'll come back if you agree and talk about who 0:11:57.920 --> 0:11:59.719 Robert Bailey Thomas was right after this. 0:12:24.480 --> 0:12:29.679 Learn and stuff with Joshua John stuff Fushion. 0:12:33.320 --> 0:12:38.079 All right, So Robert Bailey Thomas is an entrepreneur. Almanacs 0:12:38.120 --> 0:12:41.200 are all the craze. He's, like you said, he wanted 0:12:41.200 --> 0:12:43.679 to get in on this action. He was a dude 0:12:43.720 --> 0:12:48.080 from Massachusetts who was a farm guy, but a farm 0:12:48.120 --> 0:12:52.240 guy raised by educated parents, an educated farming family who 0:12:52.640 --> 0:12:55.360 very much valued reading. They had a very big library, 0:12:55.920 --> 0:12:58.680 and he would just you know, he was quite taken 0:12:58.760 --> 0:13:04.040 with almanacs and astronomy and science journals and kind of 0:13:04.720 --> 0:13:06.520 all sort of makes sense that he would one day 0:13:06.520 --> 0:13:08.560 want to do an almanac when you look at his upbringing. 0:13:09.080 --> 0:13:11.920 Yeah, and it's pretty remarkable that his parents had a 0:13:11.960 --> 0:13:15.000 library in their house. But they were educated farmers and 0:13:15.040 --> 0:13:17.439 they made sure that their kid was educated as well. 0:13:18.440 --> 0:13:21.600 Before he became an almanac publisher, he was a school teacher, 0:13:21.640 --> 0:13:24.520 a bookbinder, and he said nope, I'm gonna do this 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:27.320 almanac thing. I've been putting it off long enough. By God, 0:13:27.480 --> 0:13:29.920 I'm going to chase my dream. And he did so. 0:13:29.960 --> 0:13:34.199 He went to Boston. He went and studied at Osgood 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:41.120 Carlton's School of Mathematics in Boston, which today it does like, 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:45.120 if you're taking classes from Osgood Carlton School of Mathematics today, 0:13:45.120 --> 0:13:48.080 you should un enroll and ask for your money back. 0:13:48.640 --> 0:13:49.880 Boy, I hope it's not still around. 0:13:50.200 --> 0:13:53.240 I hope not too, because that was a pretty harsh insult. 0:13:53.520 --> 0:13:55.959 But at the time, I mean, it was a legitimate school. 0:13:56.000 --> 0:13:59.360 It just had a silly name. And that's where Robert 0:13:59.360 --> 0:14:02.040 Thomas went to go figure out how to create these 0:14:02.080 --> 0:14:05.280 astronomical charts that he was going to publish in his almanac. 0:14:05.840 --> 0:14:08.240 Yeah, so, like all the things are there. His parents 0:14:08.280 --> 0:14:11.600 are farmers, he was into science. He worked as a 0:14:11.600 --> 0:14:15.640 bookbinder and a teacher. He took these math classes like 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:19.960 it is all sort of coalescing into a pretty obvious 0:14:20.000 --> 0:14:24.000 thing to do. And that year in seventeen ninety three, 0:14:24.160 --> 0:14:26.840 or I guess the year before. For the year seventeen 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:30.280 ninety three, he put out because people like I don't 0:14:30.320 --> 0:14:33.640 know Josh Clark like to buy things a little early. Yea, 0:14:34.240 --> 0:14:37.040 you know, by this year's calendar in July. 0:14:38.040 --> 0:14:42.040 What a waste exactly you buy next year's calendar in July. 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:45.200 My mom might do that when I was a kid 0:14:45.280 --> 0:14:46.560 because they were on sale. 0:14:46.600 --> 0:14:47.960 I have price calendar. 0:14:48.160 --> 0:14:50.960 I'm not saying that that's the way forward for all humanity. 0:14:51.080 --> 0:14:54.960 That's hilarious. I'd be an idiot not to buy this. 0:14:55.680 --> 0:14:58.120 I think I got my I got a calendar every year, 0:14:58.120 --> 0:15:00.360 and I think I always got it on my birthday 0:15:00.360 --> 0:15:04.520 in March. For an hilarious it's pretty funny. 0:15:04.600 --> 0:15:06.920 I am. I got a calendar in the mail from 0:15:06.920 --> 0:15:09.480 being a member of the Autumn Society, and I was like, 0:15:09.760 --> 0:15:11.440 what the hell am I going to do with this? 0:15:12.600 --> 0:15:17.160 Like an actual legitimate calendar these days is like it's 0:15:17.280 --> 0:15:20.240 just not handy, Like it just doesn't have a place 0:15:20.240 --> 0:15:22.080 in the world. So I have to figure out what 0:15:22.120 --> 0:15:22.640 to do with it. 0:15:23.200 --> 0:15:25.600 I disagree. Is it a daily calendar. 0:15:25.960 --> 0:15:28.560 No, it's a calendar monthly thing, like what you got 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:29.440 for your birthday? 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:33.440 My friend, we still get calendars, Emily. I wish I 0:15:33.440 --> 0:15:39.200 could remember the the artists, but these very beautiful month calendars, 0:15:40.160 --> 0:15:43.800 these artists draws these very beautiful pictures, and sure it 0:15:43.880 --> 0:15:46.280 hangs on the wall, and I find a great deal 0:15:46.320 --> 0:15:50.240 of value in a month at a glance without getting 0:15:50.280 --> 0:15:52.280 out my phone and all the distractions that come with that. 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:55.160 I feel like I'm a big enough person to admit 0:15:55.200 --> 0:15:55.840 when I'm wrong. 0:15:56.280 --> 0:15:58.520 Hey, no, not everything works for everyone. 0:15:58.720 --> 0:16:01.480 So no, I was trying who pointing calendars and you 0:16:01.600 --> 0:16:03.360 change my mind. I'm going to put it up somewhere 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:05.720 because you're right. And I knew that just seeing the 0:16:05.720 --> 0:16:08.920 little pretty birds every month is great. I was going 0:16:09.000 --> 0:16:12.360 to do something with it, but I was still just astonished. 0:16:12.400 --> 0:16:15.720 I haven't seen an actual calendar for a very long time. 0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:18.920 No, I'm with you. I'm with you, all right. So 0:16:19.720 --> 0:16:22.360 where are we? He finished his mathematics and in seventeen 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:25.440 ninety three put out the first edition, which was called 0:16:25.480 --> 0:16:28.520 The Farmer's Almanac. And we'll talk about the word old, 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:30.600 coming and going as it comes and goes. 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:36.240 So he apparently in the first cover he said that 0:16:37.040 --> 0:16:41.520 the Farmer's Almanac, containing besides the large number of astronomical 0:16:41.520 --> 0:16:44.680 calculations and farmer's calendar for every month of the year, 0:16:45.040 --> 0:16:48.160 has great a variety of new, useful and entertaining matter, 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:51.560 which is not the best sentence ever, but it really 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:54.160 gets across. It's just jam packed with stuff, and he 0:16:54.280 --> 0:16:57.720 fitted all into a forty six page book, which is 0:16:58.040 --> 0:17:00.640 much slimmer than the ones you get to today from 0:17:00.680 --> 0:17:01.720 what I understand. 0:17:02.360 --> 0:17:05.520 Yeah, and that that uh, what do you call that 0:17:05.560 --> 0:17:06.000 a slogan? 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:09.520 I guess, I guess I'm. 0:17:09.400 --> 0:17:10.119 Still on the cover. 0:17:11.000 --> 0:17:11.840 It is it still? 0:17:12.240 --> 0:17:16.000 Yeah? Yeah, well, oh yeah, you'll see very soon. It's 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:18.159 been on there for two hundred and thirty straight years, 0:17:19.200 --> 0:17:23.240 as well as pictures of uh, I guess, portraits of 0:17:23.800 --> 0:17:27.080 Ben Franklin on one side, yeah, and Robert Thomas on 0:17:27.119 --> 0:17:27.400 the other. 0:17:27.720 --> 0:17:31.040 Why am I thinking of Rico Tubbs every time we 0:17:31.080 --> 0:17:33.760 say Robert Bailey Thomas's name? What was his name? I 0:17:33.800 --> 0:17:35.280 know it is three names? And there was a. 0:17:35.480 --> 0:17:39.040 Toss and I think Thomas, Oh you mean the. 0:17:39.320 --> 0:17:42.080 Actor, Yeah, Rico Tubbs from Miami Vice. 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:46.159 Yeah, I thought, uh, what's his what's his real name? 0:17:46.560 --> 0:17:51.320 Don Johnson? And yeah him, Remember what happened to that guy? 0:17:51.600 --> 0:17:52.480 Is he around? Oh? 0:17:52.520 --> 0:17:54.760 I'm sure he's around. He got super rich off of 0:17:54.800 --> 0:17:57.080 Miami Vice and said, so long, suckers, I'm going to 0:17:57.080 --> 0:17:59.840 become a Farmer and he subscribed to the Farmer's Almond Neck. 0:18:01.720 --> 0:18:03.720 Yeah, like you said, forty six pages, and it had 0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:05.800 all the things you would expect. It had all those 0:18:05.800 --> 0:18:10.840 sunrises and sunsets and moon phases. It had all the advice, 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:16.920 It had home remedies for you know, little ailments and 0:18:17.640 --> 0:18:21.080 things like that. This was just coming off of the 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:24.080 snake oil sort of period, or maybe it was still 0:18:24.160 --> 0:18:26.399 right in the middle of it actually, Yeah. 0:18:25.960 --> 0:18:28.560 I think that lasted well into the nineteenth and even 0:18:28.600 --> 0:18:29.760 early twentieth century. 0:18:30.040 --> 0:18:32.120 Yeah, so all this kind of stuff was very popular, 0:18:32.160 --> 0:18:35.359 and he put it in print gardening advice, all the 0:18:35.800 --> 0:18:39.320 poetry and the little jokes, and he had math puzzles 0:18:39.320 --> 0:18:41.920 and things like because he was a math guy from 0:18:41.920 --> 0:18:46.600 that amazing college that he went to, and he apparently 0:18:46.680 --> 0:18:49.720 was a good writer. And that's why it became because, 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:51.520 like we said, there were hundreds of ALMANACX, and this 0:18:51.560 --> 0:18:54.320 one became the most popular because he was good at 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:57.320 doing it. For the time. He was sort of a 0:18:57.359 --> 0:18:59.520 witty and clever guy, and people like it just liked 0:18:59.560 --> 0:18:59.960 his writing. 0:19:00.640 --> 0:19:04.760 Yeah, that's that's really important. That he wasn't like this innovative, 0:19:04.880 --> 0:19:08.480 amazing like he didn't invent the whole thing. He I mean, 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:11.320 he came along centuries after the first one started being published, 0:19:11.560 --> 0:19:14.879 but he was just that interesting that his publication has 0:19:14.920 --> 0:19:19.000 been around two hundred and thirty years. That's pretty remarkable 0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:20.800 if you really stop and think about it. That's how 0:19:21.160 --> 0:19:24.600 That's how much of a nerve that guy touched. And 0:19:24.800 --> 0:19:27.439 that list of stuff that you talked about, that's essentially 0:19:27.560 --> 0:19:31.320 exactly what you're gonna find today. And I went and 0:19:31.359 --> 0:19:33.040 looked up some of the math problems. I'm like, oh, 0:19:33.040 --> 0:19:36.080 I'll bet I can do that. Sure, there was now 0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:40.520 now mathematician I found from the nineteen seventy four edition. Huh, 0:19:42.040 --> 0:19:44.600 And it was it has three circles and they're separate 0:19:44.640 --> 0:19:47.359 from one another, okay, And the question is how many 0:19:47.400 --> 0:19:51.359 circles can you draw that touch all three circles in 0:19:51.520 --> 0:19:54.320 just one point? And I'm like, well, you can draw 0:19:54.359 --> 0:19:56.040 one in the center of them, he can draw one 0:19:56.080 --> 0:19:58.879 on the outside, so two. And I went and flipped 0:19:58.920 --> 0:20:01.240 forward to see what the answer was, and the answer 0:20:01.359 --> 0:20:05.000 was seven. And I still have no idea and I 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:09.200 probably never will how how you could possibly draw seven 0:20:09.240 --> 0:20:13.560 circles that fulfilled that criteria? And I'm just sticking with two. 0:20:13.640 --> 0:20:14.680 I think it's a misprint. 0:20:15.240 --> 0:20:17.000 No, someone didn't show you though. 0:20:17.200 --> 0:20:20.239 No, it just said seven. That was it, and then 0:20:20.240 --> 0:20:21.480 it moved on to the next thing. 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:24.720 Really annoying. Someone will send in an answer, so we 0:20:24.800 --> 0:20:25.880 have plenty of math help. 0:20:26.960 --> 0:20:29.160 I don't want to know a different answer the answers too. 0:20:29.880 --> 0:20:34.080 Oh all right, okay. So one example, you know we 0:20:34.160 --> 0:20:36.200 talked about people liking his writing and him being a 0:20:36.240 --> 0:20:39.080 little more creative than maybe your average almanac at the time, 0:20:40.080 --> 0:20:43.639 was he did one on cider making, but instead of 0:20:43.680 --> 0:20:47.000 just leaving instructions and a recipe, he made it more 0:20:47.040 --> 0:20:50.080 of a story about he and a farmer with some 0:20:50.080 --> 0:20:53.840 witticisms and jokes and stuff. Kind of like maybe he 0:20:53.880 --> 0:20:56.560 started that recipe trend of having the scroll for ten 0:20:56.640 --> 0:20:58.120 pages before you get to the recipe. 0:20:58.160 --> 0:21:00.880 Thank god for that jump to recipe. 0:21:01.600 --> 0:21:01.959 Amen. 0:21:02.280 --> 0:21:04.560 But that cider making thing, that's a good example of 0:21:04.600 --> 0:21:07.080 what you'd find. That was for like the month of October. 0:21:07.119 --> 0:21:11.040 So each month would have you know, some information or 0:21:11.160 --> 0:21:14.439 some suggestions on what you should do around the farm 0:21:15.040 --> 0:21:17.880 that month, and it's making cider is what you would 0:21:17.920 --> 0:21:20.879 do in October. And then on the opposite page, I 0:21:20.920 --> 0:21:23.639 love this. I hope they still use it so I 0:21:23.680 --> 0:21:26.040 can get it my twenty twenty four edition. But it 0:21:26.080 --> 0:21:28.960 would say at the top of the month, October half 0:21:29.119 --> 0:21:32.160 thirty one days, And for some reason, it just makes 0:21:32.200 --> 0:21:35.480