BARROOM bettors beware. Reference librarians, too. And newspaper writers. One of the time-honored founts of wisdom for ascertaining fact and settling friendly wagers has goofed.
As usual, "The World Almanac and Book of Facts for 1994" lists xTC the official beginning of winter -- this year at 9:23 p.m. (EST) on Dec. 21. Correct.
But the almanac puts an asterisk next to that time, noting that it actually occurs on the "Previous Day." Which would mean Dec. 20, an incorrect date. This should puzzle those who are vaguely familiar with the traditional change of seasons, because winter nearly always begins on Dec. 21 or Dec. 22 in these parts.
The confusion in this year's almanac is compounded by a calendar of significant celestial events, including the solstices, printed 17 pages earlier. It declares that winter begins 10:23 p.m. EST on Dec. 21. The date is correct, but the time is one hour later than it should be.
So the answer to the question, "When does winter officially begin here (Maryland) this year?" is 9:23 p.m. on Dec. 21.
Why? The start of winter is calculated at the time the sun is at its farthest distance from the equator, which is called the solstice. That's when the daytime is shortest in the northern hemisphere. There are two winters for Earth. Our summer solstice, which actually marks the start of winter for the southern hemisphere, occurred June 21.
Given the millions of facts contained in the almanac, first published 126 years ago, these lapses are remarkably rare.
But if you've lost a big bet because the almanac ruled against your judgment, you might want to insist on looking it up in a second reference work before paying off.
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ALL TOO often, slow-downs on the beltway occur without rhyme or reason.
But last Sunday afternoon, when traffic backed up on the west-side outer loop, motorists had to forgive the delays when they caught up with the cause -- a caravan of antique trucks, accompanying a 1957 Mack truck with "the People's Christmas Tree" from the Green Mountains of Vermont for the U.S. Capitol.
The tree is a 60-foot balsam fir selected early in 1994 by Paul Pincus, the Capitol's landscape architect. The living tree used by the Capitol for a number of years died after the 1968 tree lighting ceremony. Since then, the U.S. Forest Service has provided the Capitol's tree.
We're not sure what happened at that 1968 ceremony, but we hope the tree wasn't done in by all the tumult that year brought in domestic politics.
Meanwhile, Mr. Pincus must have been tuned in to the political winds of change when he made his selection. A forester who trekked through the woods last summer to show the tree to a Vermont journalist noted that it had an imperfection -- a slight lean to the right.