Blog of List of Almanacs (Jeopardy Geeks Unite)

One time at the home of Grandma Cheese, I discovered a couple of slightly out of date almanacs and a "Book of Lists" from the 1970s. I found a chair, plopped down, and combed through them, fascinated by all the lists, facts, figures, etc. She let me take them home, where Mom and Pop Cheese and I had fun laughing at some of the outdated information. Eventually they bought me an updated almanac and we played games like "Alive or Dead" and "Guess the Celebrity Age." Ever since those days, I've always had an almanac in the house, it may be a year or two old before I replace it, but it's always recent enough to remain useful. Even in these days of the internet and Wikipedia and countless other fact-based websites, a good ol' paperback almanac is a great book to thumb open and read some random factoid.

Some random thought hit me the other day to list movies that have almanacs in them. After only a few moments of thought, I came up with three, but I figure there has to be more.

Back to the Future Part II (1989) - The retrieval of a sports almanac from Biff/Griff (Thomas F. Wilson) is the plot point of the movie.

White Men Can't Jump (1992) - Who can forget Gloria (Rosie Perez) constantly reading a tattered copy of a world almanac and asking her boyfriend Billy (Woody Harrelson) to quiz her from it, all to prepare for her shot on the game show Jeopardy.

The Bucket List (2007) - In one of the opening scenes a young mechanic quizzes Carter (Morgan Freeman) from an almanac, in which Carter not only knows the answers, but is able to provide the correct answer when the almanac is wrong.

In the tradition of "The Book of List...." send me more if you can think any so I can compile a more exhaustive list. Almanacs have been a part of American history since before America was born, they've been the behind-the-bar bible bartenders have consulted to settle debates between patrons, and the Farmer's Almanac has been the daily planner for generations of farmers that there is no way these wonderful books haven't appeared in more movies.

Keep one around the house, have fun with it, make notes in the margin, dog-ear those pages, show it much love. You'll thank yourself.

Until Next Time...
Listly Yours,
Michael