I found some old World Almanacs in my attic the other day.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

I think they might still make them, but if you're not familiar with what they are- they're sort of like the Guinness Book of World Records. Big old tomes filled with pretty much useless information. Back in the dark ages before the innertubes that's how we'd look things up. Sort of like wikipedia, only with less information and probably the same number of errors. And they'd publish a new one every year with more useless information. If that strikes you as a stupid way to get information, yes, you're one hundred percent correct. They were very stupid times. These were from the seventies. I've no recollection of how I acquired them, but there they were.

One of the features in the book was "most hated person." Now this wasn't a multiple choice poll like modern polls, it was more like family feud. A survey of so many people were asked who they hated the most, and these were the most popular answers. Two names consistently on the list were Hitler and Satan. Now you may tell yourself that Satan was not a real person, and was in fact fictional. I already told you these were stupid times. Anyway, Hitler and Satan always took the top two spots year after year. Sometimes Hitler would take the lead. Sometimes Satan. Except for one year. In 1975 one person took the top spot and displaced both Hitler and Satan- Richard Milhouse Nixon. No matter how many Robert Redford movies, PBS documentaries, or DU threads on the subject I view, nothing sums up Watergate to me better then that one little blurb in the 1975 World Almanac. At one point in our nation's history, Richard Nixon was more hated then any other person, either historical or fictional.

Which is why it warms my heart to hear that George W. Bush is leaving office with the lowest popularity rating of any president in recorded history. That makes him even worse than Richard Nixon. And by default: Hitler and Satan.

[Starry Messenger]

1. Niiiice.

I've never seen anyone actually buy an almanac. Perhaps they are what the universe sends in exchange for making socks disappear. They just appear from the void.

Anyway, kick and rec.

[bunkerbuster1]

2. See George, if you'd resigned, you could be rehabbing your image by now!

[hvn_nbr_2]

3. You remind of another "old books" story

When I was a kid, our family had an old encyclopedia set that was my father's when he was a kid. My father was born in 1914, so the encyclopedia was probably from the 1920s, but I don't remember exactly. It could have been the 1910s.

Anyway, being something of a bookworm, I used to browse around in that old encyclopedia. One day I came upon a world map showing major imports and exports of countries all over the world, with arrows and labels showing who exported what to whom. There were all the usual major trade materials: farm products, textiles, various raw materials, machinery, gold, diamonds, oil, and so on. But there was this one "thing" that I didn't know what it was, and it seemed that virtually every country in the world was either a major importer or a major exporter of this mysterious "thing" that was unfamiliar to me.

So I asked my mother what it was, and I got the same sort of embarassed non-answer that I got when I asked adults questions about sex or illogical religious things.

Many years later I finally found out what this embarrassing "thing" was that nearly every country in the world depended on, either for exports or as an import. The "thing" that was imported and exported more than oil, gold, wheat, textiles, or machinery and that was as embarassing to adults as sex: hemp.

[Silver Swan]

4. Being a dorky old woman

who has always loved useless information, I admit to buying and reading more than one World Almanac back in the day!

[customerserviceguy]

5. Another fun thing to see

is anything predicting what life was going to be like in the future. There are books on the subject, but a real hoot is to see old Popular Science type magazines from the 40's and 50's. You see quite a few products being pushed in them, some seem to be just foolish, but you wonder why others never took off.

[CrispyQ]

6. And, I'd be willing to bet that Satan is still tops on the list!

I used to buy one every year. In the past, you could find them in the mag section at the grocery store. Now you have to go to a bookstore.

Keep them! They are a wonderful view on the past. I have atlas' from when I was a young girl. It is interesting to see how borders & country names have changed over the years.

[Javaman]

7. Nice post, hitler/satan! nt

[nam78_two]

8. And Cheney has a lower approval rating even than Bush does! nt