May 14, Monday — Moon at apogee. Do not plant daylilies in the last days before the New Moon (May 22); wait until the light of the Moon (May 22-June 5).
May 15, Tuesday — Census Day in Canada. Conjunction of Uranus and Jupiter. L. Frank Baum, author of "The Wizard of Oz," born, 1856. Gas rationing began, 1942.
May 16, Wednesday — Conjunction of Mercury and Jupiter. First "Oscars" awarded, 1929. Nickel coin authorized by Congress, 1866.
May 17, Thursday — First Kentucky Derby held, 1875. Eighteen percent of tornadoes occur this month.
May 18, Friday — Compulsory school attendance law for ages 8 to 14, Mass., 1852. Warm and nice, but the lake's still like ice.
May 19, Saturday— St. Dunstan. Moon on equator. Conjunction of Venus and the moon.
May 20, Sunday — Rogation Sunday. Levi Strauss and Jacob Davis patented rivet-pocket pants, 1873. James Stewart born, 1908.
Ask The Old Farmer's Almanac: What's so unlucky about Friday? After all, it's the end of the workweek. — G.R., Chatsworth, Calif.
Answer: Most of us hear about Mondays being the toughest day of the week, because of going back to work, but it's Friday that has been considered unlucky almost universally. One theory is that the reputation for ill omens was a result of its being the day of Christ's crucifixion. Good Friday, of course, is the anniversary of that Friday; the word "good" probably stems from "God" and signifies "holy."
Centuries ago, some called Friday "Hangman's Day," but the Irish considered Fridays a fortunate day to die. Our words for "hell" and "Friday" both come from goddesses associated with cats, Hel (or Hela) and Freya (or Freyja), and their names were sometimes interchanged. Hel was queen of the dead, while Freya was the goddess of love, wife to Odin, who deserted her because she preferred finery to him. Scandinavians, Scots and Hindus consider Fridays a lucky day to wed, however, and fertility is thought to be assured in those marriages. In other countries, however, Friday was no day for marriage. "Monday for health, Tuesday for wealth, Wednesday the best day of all. Thursday for crosses, Friday for losses, Saturday no luck at all," goes one saying.
Even apart from one's nuptials, Fridays were considered bad days to begin new projects, start a journey, commence a new job or move. Domestic chores such as mending or sewing new clothes, visiting the sick and making the beds were also discouraged on Fridays. If you were the one who fell sick, getting up again on a Friday was a bad idea. Even clipping one's nails on a Friday was considered dangerous! In the theater, it was considered foolish to open a play on a Friday, despite it being the start of the weekend. Fishing and kissing were both considered unlucky activities on Friday, even though Friday was ruled by Venus. And, of course, Friday the 13th was the unluckiest Friday of all.
Ask The Old Farmer's Almanac: We have black raspberries growing wild here. Some years they do well, while other years there's little fruit. How can we encourage them? — M.J., Plymouth, N.H.
Answer: Early spring or late fall applications of fertilizer may help, especially where you are, in a more northern climate. If it's possible to till around the plants without disturbing their roots too much, this might also help in the long run by eliminating some of the competing weeds. If you can, till about 50 bushels of composted manure into 1,000 square feet of land area, or about a quarter-bushel of manure per bush. If the berry patch is too thickly grown to be able to till, just apply the fertilizer around the base of the plants and let the rains wash it in. If the berries are on a hillside, you might do a little judicious landscaping with hay bales or other mulch to minimize run-off. You don't want to fertilize berry bushes in midsummer, however, because you will encourage too much new growth and the stems may not toughen up sufficiently before the winter frosts and snowfall. Late fall is okay, because there's not time for much new growth then.
Consider, too, whether it's worth trying to support your berry canes with posts and wires. If the bushes are roughly in a long row, this fenced arrangement makes picking much easier and can also enhance the amount of sunlight available to the individual bushes. Most black raspberries prefer sunny or only partially shaded sites. You might also test the soil; if it's too alkaline, the berries may be suffering from mineral deficiencies that you could correct with commercial supplements.
To American Indians and colonists, raspberry season meant not only fresh berries and fruit for jam but also a fresh supply of remedies. The scraped bark was used as an astringent, to cure nausea and to aid labor. A tea made of the leaves was considered by some to cure almost anything. The dried, ground stems were made into a powder and applied to wounds. An infusion of the leaves was used as a mouth rinse, thought to treat tartar, though not as effective as strawberry leaves. The early explorer John Josselyn (1672) described New England's "Rasp-berry, here called Mul-berry" as being very plentiful, while the herbalist John Gerard (1597), said the "Raspie bush or Hinde berry" was good for fastening teeth and healing eyes that "hang out."
Ask The Old Farmer's Almanac: Is it true that the pig call, "Soooeeyy!" is actually Latin? —J.K., Athens, Ga.
Answer: Pig Latin, you mean? All kidding aside, it may be true, although nobody really knows for sure. Of the genus Sus and family Suidae, swine have been responding (or not responding, as the case may be) to this pig call for centuries, and possibly the sound is an abbreviated (but not shortened, if you've ever heard a real hog caller!) version of their Latin family name, Suidae. We've also heard it argued that it is the Latin "sui" for "himself, herself or itself," but this seems far less likely. Whether pigs actually understand Latin is another subject.
While we're on the subject of Latin, though, maybe we can clear up some other Latin pet peeves. Our language is still peppered with Latin abbreviations, despite fewer and fewer students learning Latin in school, so it's not surprising that the misuse of some of these terms is on the rise. Almost everyone gets "et cetera" correct, or its more common abbreviation, ("etc.") both meaning "and so on" or "and other unspecified things of the same class." But it's not uncommon to see i.e. confused with e.g. E.g., short for "exempli gratia," means "for the sake of an example." i.e., on the other hand, means "that is" and is short for "id est"—not, as some people believe, "in example." So, you might say, "A style book (e.g., Strunk & White's "The Elements of Style," etc.) would tell you to avoid foreign languages unless their use is absolutely necessary (i.e., unavoidable). When in doubt, substitute the English words "as an example" and "that is" in their place.
Et al. is another Latin abbreviation commonly seen and the mistake, in this case, is often in the placement of the period. Because it is short for "et alii" or "et aliae," meaning "and others," there should always be a period after the al., which is the only word abbreviated. So, for example, you would write, "The authors of the cookbook were Allen, Doe, Jones, Smith, et al. and the editors were . . ."
Another misuse of Latin that makes some editors sick at heart is the misunderstanding of sic. Contrary to common belief, sic does not stand for "spelling is correct." In fact, it is Latin for "yes, that is so" or "that is right." When we printed that Captain George Waymouth's crew planted early "pease and barley," we might have marked "pease" with "sic," not because it's the correct spelling of peas, but because that's how Waymouth recorded it in his journal. Sic tells the reader that "pease" is not a typographical error but is an accurate transcription of what Waymouth actually wrote.
Send your questions to: Ask the Almanac, The Old Farmer's Almanac, Main St., Dublin, NH 03444; Web site: www.almanac.com © Yankee Publishing Inc.