The Old Farmer's Almanac

My Father-in-law, John, likes to share interesting bits of information with me from time to time. Somehow we got on the topic of the Old Farmer's Almanac and John informed me that the hole in the corner of the magazine is for hanging it on a nail in your outhouse.  Now, neither of us have an outhouse, but he does have a great barn in New Mexico. Therefore, this Christmas, John became the lucky recipient of a 2009 Old Farmer's Almanac to hang beside his john at the barn.  

I had never browsed a Farmer's Almanac prior to this but found it full of lots of things that I never knew that I wanted to know about.

Wikipedia describes it as this:  a reference book that contains weather forecasts, tide tables, planting charts, astronomical data, recipes, and articles on a number of topics including gardening, sports, astronomy, and farming. The book also features anecdotes and a section that predicts trends in fashion, food, home décor, technology, and living for the coming year.

side-note: Wikipedia also states that in 1858, Abraham Lincoln used a copy of a Farmer's Almanac to argue the innocence of his client, William ("Duff") Armstrong, who was on trial for murder in Beardstown, Illinois.  Lincoln used an almanac to refute the testimony of Charles Allen, an eyewitness who claimed he had seen the crime by the light of the moon on August 29, 1857. The book stated that not only was the Moon in the first quarter, but it was riding "low" on the horizon, about to set.  See?  Random, perhaps useful, interesting stuff.

another side-note: the term john, came to be used in America in reference to a toilet or "indoor water closet"  because it was first invented by a man named John Harrington.  The phenomenal facts just keep coming.