I read the news with a mix of resignation and sadness that the inevitable has happened. The longest running published “book” is coming to and end after 208 years. The Farmers’ Almanac (not to be confused with The Old Farmers’ Almanac which has been in continuous publication since 1792) is an annual American periodical that has been in continuous publication since 1818.

Published by Geiger of Lewiston, Maine, the Farmers’ Almanac provides long-range weather predictions for both the U.S. and Canada. The periodical also provides calendars and articles on topics such as full moon dates, folklore, natural remedies, and the best days to do various outdoor activities.

Each new year’s edition is released at the end of August of the previous year and contains 16 months of weather predictions broken into 7 zones for the continental U.S., as well as seasonal weather maps for the winter and summer ahead.

The publication follows in the heritage of American almanacs such as Benjamin Franklin’s Poor Richard’s Almanack.

I have been working on edits to the To All My Darling books and also analyzing poetry (with fearful baby steps!) and have been thinking about Miss MacIntosh’s disappearance/death.

What does it mean when the “common sense”, “practical”, “guiding light”, “Rock of Ages”, etc. disappears? That central hub that Young called Miss MacIntosh is pulled out of the middle of the "wheel of fortune” (as I have likened the structure of the novel’s characters to). What are we left with?

This is fly-over country, the heart of America, the rural landscape so what happens when all of its defining attributes like those listed above of Miss MacIntosh disappear?

According to the novel I think it makes a pretty clear case: racism, antisemitism, bigotry, prejudice.

The rural is this ideal that very real and impactful legislature like the Electoral College was supposed to “protect” them and ensure their voices/viewpoints were counted. I mean it was also to ensure slavery continued to exist. Only it hasn’t protected any of the good stuff that could have come out of the Middle West. Politics and politicians have only wielded it as a way to manipulate and control, not democratize.

Of all the things I liked about the farm and spending some of my growing up years there, there are more things I don’t like about it (racism, antisemitism, bigotry, prejudice) and the fact that most still seem to think is necessary and part of the fabric of the Midwest.