Feb. 24, Monday — Painter Winslow Homer born, 1836. Nylon toothbrush bristles made by DuPont, 1938.
Feb. 25, Tuesday — First gas tax began in Oregon, 1919. Painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir born, 1841.
Feb. 26, Wednesday — Moon runs low. Manufacturer Levi Strauss born, 1829. U.S. Army scout and showman "Buffalo Bill" Cody born, 1846.
Feb. 27, Thursday — Writer John Steinbeck born, 1902. Annual Mardi Gras celebration began in New Orleans, 1827. There's no vice like avarice.
Feb. 28, Friday — Forty-three inches of snow, Rochester, N.Y., 1900. First televised basketball game, 1940.
Mar. 1, Saturday — St. David. On St. David's day, put oats and barley in the clay. Baseball player Mickey Mantle announced his retirement, 1969.
Mar. 2, Sunday — New Moon. Children's author Dr. Seuss born, 1904. Battle of Bismarck Sea began, 1943. World premiere of "King Kong," 1933.
Ask The Old Farmer's Almanac: Did jeans come before Levi's, or were they one and the same?— A.N., Durango, Colo.
Answer: First came jeans, then came Levi's, by a long shot. The earliest mention of "jean" came in 1567 and was a corruption of the word "genoese" or "from Genoa," which was the marketplace for a twill cotton fabric. Sailors hailing from Genoa wore pants of this heavy-duty material.
Denim also acquired its name in a similar way. One explanation is that denim was a product of Nimes, France, or "de Nimes," which was the traditional production center in France. For all intents and purposes, though, Oscar Levi Strauss was the creator of jeans for pioneers in the American West. The hard-wearing denim or jean trousers gained their fame on horseback as the West was won. These were originally cut out of a very rugged cloth intended for tentmaking, much like a canvas. Because the cloth was imported from Nimes, France, it became "denim," later taking its name from its creator, and going by Levi's or simply jeans.
Ask The Old Farmer's Almanac: Why is herbalism sometimes referred to as plant centaury? I thought centaury was a cornflower. — F.C., Alton, Ill.
Answer: Well, the cornflower is a common centaury, because it's one of many plants in the genus Centaurea. Plant centaury, however, relates to the myth that the medicinal properties of plants were discovered and taught to humans by the centaurs, those mythical creatures with the head, arms and trunk of a man but the body and legs of a horse.
Specifically, Chiron was supposed to be the discoverer, the wise centaur who had both Jason and Achilles as his students. Chiron was accidentally pierced by a poisoned arrow shot by Hercules and later became the constellation Sagittarius, that ninth sign of the zodiac, represented by a centaur shooting an arrow.
Chiron had taught Jason and Achilles the medicinal properties of various plants, some of which now take their names, such as yarrow (Achillea millefolium), for example. The origin of the centaur myth is speculated to have come from the early (and distant) sightings of nomads on horseback. Centaurs were reputed to be untamed beasts, but very close to nature.
A similar myth had to do with certain diseases or evils coming from elves, or elf-shot. If animals or humans came down with a mysterious or unaccountable virus, it was believed that small arrowheads or flints might be the reason. Actual flints ("elf-stones") were sometimes found when the fields were plowed and bared ancient soils. Paralysis was called "elf-stroke" for the same reason, and our modern-day reference to stroke victims has this early origin.
Ask The Old Farmer's Almanac: When did bicycles first get sensible and start using equally sized wheels? — R.T.D., New Ulm, Texas
Answer: More than a hundred years ago, in 1886, two-wheelers were called "safety bicycles." This name was to distinguish them from their forebears with the largely unstable combination of one very large wheel and one very small one, such as the so-called "ordinary" with its enormous front wheel (about 5 feet tall!) meant to navigate potholes. Early velocipedes, as they were called in the 19th century, were difficult to mount and even more dangerous in the case of an accidental dismounting. But where there had been only about 20,000 bicycles in use in America in 1882, in the next years there were over a million as the first improvements began to appear and stability was improved. The appearance of the "safety bicycle" furthered that trend considerably.
Comfort was still an issue, however, as the safety bikes retained the hard rubber tires that made for a rough ride. In 1888, John Dunlop of Scotland devised the pneumatic or air-filled tire, which provided much more cushioning for the rider. By 1900, the three-speed wheel hub had come into use, and further gears and other improvements came swiftly on the heels of these early inventions.
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