June 17, Monday — Conjunction of Venus and the moon. Battle of Bunker Hill, 1775.
June 18, Tuesday — James Montgomery Flagg, illustrator of "I Want You" Uncle Sam poster, born, 1877.
June 19, Wednesday — Musician Guy Lombardo born, 1902. The French and Indian War began, 1754.
June 20, Thursday — West Virginia became 35th state, 1863. Plant above-ground crops.
June 21, Friday — Summer solstice at 9:24 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time. French philosopher, dramatist and novelist Jean-Paul Sartre born, 1905.
June 22, Saturday — St. Alban. Anne Morrow Lindbergh, pilot and author of "Gift from the Sea," born, 1906.
June 23, Sunday — Wilma Rudolph, Olympic track star and first American woman to receive three gold medals, born, 1940.
Ask The Old Farmer's Almanac: Is the month of June named after Jupiter? — N.F., Houston, Texas
Answer: No, but you're close. The sixth month takes its name from Juno, Jupiter's wife (identified with the Greek Hera). Jupiter was king of the Roman gods (identified with the Greek Zeus).
Juno was not only the queen of the heavens, but also the goddess of women, marriage and childbirth, which probably accounts, in part, for June being such a popular month for weddings. (The weather may have something to do with it, too.) The goddess is depicted as statuesque and matronly and sometimes called the "venerable, ox-eyed Juno," with the cow, cowry shell and peacock among her symbols. She was sometimes called Great Mother, Regina (queen) or Lucina (light), and she was considered responsible for the light on the night of the full moon (June 24 this month).
The peacock was dedicated to this goddess-queen. According to an old fable by Aesop, the peacock asked Juno for a singing voice as beautiful as that of the nightingale, but Juno refused, saying that no one should expect to be the best at everything. Her intended moral was that the peacock should be happy with its beautiful feathers and content with its lot, not be envious of others.
In ancient Rome, a woman's soul was called "juno," in honor of this goddess; it was the counterpart to the men's guardian spirit, called "genius." Dictionaries later dropped the word juno, but retained genius. In their early meanings, however, both juno and genius referred to the individual wisdom in each of us.
Ask the Old Farmer's Almanac: What is the Olympic oath that the athletes repeat at the start of the games? — W.R. Columbus, Ohio
Answer: "In the name of all competitors, I promise that we will take part in these Olympic Games, respecting and abiding by the rules which govern them, in the true spirit of sportsmanship, for the glory of sport and the honor of our teams." As you can imagine, the "rules which govern them" are far more extensive and complex today than ever before. The oath is spoken at the opening ceremony by a representative from whichever country is hosting the event.
There's also a creed: "The most important thing in the Olympic Games is not to win but to take part, just as the most important thing in life is not the triumph but the struggle. The essential thing is not to have conquered but to have fought well." Both the oath and the creed were written by the founder of the modern Olympics, Pierre de Coubertin.
Lest oath and creed not be enough, there is an Olympic motto: "Citius, Altius, Fortius." It was originally translated as "faster, higher, braver," but more recent interpretations state it as "swifter, higher, stronger." Father Henri Martin Didon, another Frenchman, wrote the motto in 1895; De Coubertin adopted it for the Olympics.
Beyond that, it's "On your mark, get set, go!" or something like that.
Ask the Old Farmer's Almanac: My grandmother's diary from the 1930s mentions my father, saying, "He's looking for salt pork and sundown." Does that mean he was looking to settle down? — N.A.S., Encino, Calif.
Answer: Uh, no . . . but probably her opinion changed by the time he evidently did settle down and have a family. Literally, the phrase means that she thought he was looking to shirk his work, that he was a little shiftless, perhaps, and more interested in dinner and bedtime than in the work at hand. It's the sort of metaphor that almanac writers and language lovers enjoy collecting, similar to "much would have more" (greed fosters greed), "slower than a hop toad in hot tar" (real slow!), or "faster than a cat lapping chain lightning" (real fast!).
Send your questions to: Ask the Almanac, The Old Farmer's Almanac, Main St., Dublin, NH 03444; Web site: www.almanac.com; © Yankee Publishing