Aug. 10, Monday - Victory Day, R.I. Smithsonian Institute established, 1846.
Aug. 11, Tuesday - Dog Days end. Andrew Carnegie died, 1919.Aug. 12, Wednesday - U.S. formally annexed Hawaiian Islands, 1898.
Aug. 13, Thursday - Fidel Castro born, 1927. Annie Oakley born, 1860.
Aug. 14, Friday - Oregon forest fire destroyed 270,000 acres, 1933.
Social Security Act passed, 1935. Food cyclamates banned, 1970.
Aug. 15, Saturday - Woodstock Music & Arts Fair opened, 1969.
Aug. 16, Sunday - Bennington Battle Day, Vt. Babe Ruth died, 1948.
Ask the Old Farmer's Almanac: How many college campuses closed their doors after the Kent State killings by the National Guard?
- W.R., Princeton, N.J.
Answer: If you count both those that closed their doors voluntarily and those where the strikes on campuses effectively closed the colleges down, the number comes to about 488 schools, by some tallies. President Richard M. Nixon had ordered the invasion of Cambodia in April 1970, acting without prior consultation with Congress or other elected representatives of the people, and students were already demonstrating their extreme opposition to his politics even before that. His actions seemed to speak louder than the words in his speech of August 1969, when he told a Romanian crowd that "nations can have widely different internal orders and live in peace."
The Kent State demonstration on May 4, 1970, was one more in a long series of anti-war commentaries. Ohio State University, Stanford, Penn State, University of Kansas and many other campuses, both high school and college, were involved in much the same activity. That the National Guard fired into the crowd at Kent State, killing four students and wounding nine others, was a collosal blunder, but one that, sadly, could have happened on many other campuses during that turbulent year. Nixon's tolerance for the anti-war demonstrators was notoriously slim. And the demonstrators were erring toward the side of greater violence, first to buildings and property, but leading to violence toward others, every day. A month after the Kent State fatalities, on June 18, 1970, when Nixon signed into law the right for 18-year-olds to vote in federal elections, it seemed a cruel example of "too little, too late."
Ask the Old Farmer's Almanac: I've heard of calling on St. Anthony for inflammations and on St. Lucy for toothaches, but are there other "saintly specialists" out there?
- H.L., Albany, N.Y.
Answer: We can tell you which ones to invoke, but whether they're out there, we'll leave up to you. Here's a partial list, to get you started.
You'll notice some are redundant, so you'll have your choice of whom to call on first. To start off, there's St. Agatha against sore breasts; St. Anthony (as you said) for inflammations; St. Apollonia and St. Lucy for toothache; and St. Benedict against the stone and poison. St. Blaise helps against bones sticking in the throat. St. Christopher and St. Mark share sudden death, while St. Clara does sore eyes; and St. Genow and St. Maure help with gout. St. Job and St. Fiage take on veneral diseases; St. John works against epilepsy and poison; St. Liberius battles stones and fistula, and St. Maine is the one for the scab.
St. Margaret and St. Edine are a woman's friends for aid in childbirth. St. Martin takes care of the itch. St. Marus is against palsies and convulsions; St. Otilia and St. Juliana help with sore eyes and headache. St. Petronella and St. Genevieve work against fevers; St. Quintan against coughs; St. Romanus against devils possessing people; and St. Ruffin against madness. St. Valentine also takes on epilepsy; St. Venisa is against greensickness; and St. Wolfgang is the one to call for lameness. Now all you need is the saint for a long memory, so you can remember, "Who ya gonna call?"
Ask the Old Farmer's Almanac: You once listed some famous rejections and erroneous predictions. Can you tell us some more?
- Y.O., Dallas, Texas
Answer: Here's one for a rainy day - Pablo Picasso, during his early days as an artist in Paris, France, was once caught in a rainstorm with some of his painted canvases. He asked a nearby art dealer for shelter from the rain and was refused.
In 1889, the San Francisco Examiner wrote a rejection letter to Rudyard Kipling, claiming he didn't know "how to use the English language." And in 1904, James Russell Lowell said of Walt Whitman's "Leaves of Grass," "No, no, this kind of thing won't do . . . the good folks down below (I mean posterity) will have none of it."
Another of our favorites is the commentary on travel by rail. Dr. Dionysus Lardner (1793-1859), a professor of natural philosophy and astronomy at the University College in London, stated, "Rail travel at high speed is not possible, because passengers, unable to breathe, would die of asphyxia." Lardner also believed that no large steamship could ever cross the Atlantic. (Two years later, one did - The Great Western.)
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
This week with The Old Farmer's Almanac
August 10-16, 1998
Assumption, Aug. 15.
Dog Days End
August 11 sees the end of those hot and sultry Dog Days, which commenced July 3 and were named for the Dog Star, Sirius. Summer's not quite over, however, so there's still time for a late-summer planting of turnips. If the onion tops are starting to topple, it's time to begin harvesting. Dry some herbs now for winter use. Keep those tomatoes well watered and well fertilized. Chrysanthemums, too, appreciate a little feeding now and then, and don't let up on your dead-heading of perennials, if you expect flowers to continue to bloom for you.
Summer is a seemly time.
Tip of the Week
If you don't like the heat, get out of the kitchen. (Eat out!)
DILLY BEANS
4 pounds fresh green beans
8 teaspoons dill seed
4 teaspoons mustard seed
16 cloves garlic
5 cups white vinegar
5 cups water
1/2 cup salt
Wash, trim, and cut beans to fit into pint jars. Rinse 8 jars in hot water. Fill each with 1/2 pound of beans, 1 teaspoon each of dill and mustard seeds, and 2 halved cloves of garlic. Boil together the vinegar, water, and salt and pour over the beans, filling to within 1/2 inch of the jar tops. Process in a boiling water bath, tighten lids, and let cool. Store for 2 weeks.
Makes 8 pints.
The Old Farmer's Weather Proverbs
If on St. Lawrence's Day (Aug. 10) the weather be fine, fair autumn and good wine may be hoped for.
When the cat scratches the table legs, a change is coming.
If swallows touch the water as they fly, rain approaches.
When dogs eat grass, it will be rainy.