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The Hidden Almanac for
Wednesday April 23rd, 2014
Episode 96
The Hidden Almanac
Previous episode: 2014-04-21
Next episode: 2014-04-25

Summary[]

Today, Eland the Younger discovered a moth. It is also the day a violin played in Echo Harbor, and the Dippity-Doo candy company was founded. It is the Feast Day of St. Olaf, and in the garden, there is milkweed.

Be Safe, and Stay Out of Trouble.

Transcription[]

Welcome to the Hidden Almanac, I’m Reverend Mord.

Today is April 23rd, 2014.

It was on this day that the naturalist Eland the Younger discovered the Ungrateful Saddlemoth. This enormous moth, a relative of the Common Saddlemoth, is of a size for riding, but strongly opposed to the idea. Attempted moth-riders say that the Ungrateful Saddlemoth can buck like a Titan Swallowtail and is not responsive to nectar bribes.

And it was on this day in the Year of Broken Sunsets that a violin began to play by itself in an attic in Echo Harbor. It played many popular songs of fifty years before, for nearly three days, before several prominent citizens pelted it with requests and it stopped in a huff.

The total destruction of the building by a freak piano-fall the next day was almost certainly coincidence.

And it was on this day in 1899 that the Dippity-Doo Candy Company was formed in the city of Troyzantium. It was widely praised for its unusual savory flavor and almost fizzy texture. The discovery that it was using unfiltered water directly from the algae flats harmed sales enormously. Dippity-Doo began advertising a serving of vegetables in every bag, which led to some small recovery in sales, but eventually the health inspectors were forced to step in. Dippity-Doo was sold at auction for barely enough to pay its creditors and the founders fled the country.

It is the Feast Day of Saint Olaf the Plumber, who worked a great miracle upon the Pope’s bathroom and was duly canonized. St. Olaf is represented as an otter with a halo, holding aloft a plunger crowned with the sun.

In the garden, slow-to-emerge perennials such as Joe Pye Weed and milkweed are beginning to show themselves above ground. There is an excellent chance that you have already planted over them, because you assumed they were dead. Some milkweeds, such as swamp milkweed, are sturdy enough to survive this treatment, whereas common butterflyweed will probably die in protest. Gardening is full of many such self-fulfilling prophecies.

The Hidden Almanac is brought to you by Red Wombat Tea Company, purveyors of fine and inaccessible teas. Red Wombat --- “We Dig Tea.”

Also brought to you by the Ancient Order of Linguists. It’s the Festival of the Semicolon! Are you prepared to punctuate? Stop by the Order’s headquarters for a free balloon and style guide today!

That’s the Hidden Almanac for April 23rd, 2014. Be safe, and stay out of trouble.

Outro[]

Out of Character

The Hidden Almanac is a production of Dark Canvas Media, and is written by Ursula Vernon. Our exit music is Red in Black and our into music is Moon Valley, both by Kosta T. You can hear more music from Kosta T at the Free Music Archive. The Hidden Almanac is copyright 2013-2014, Ursula Vernon.

Notes[]

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