And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Wannaska World Wednesday, September 5, 2018, brought to you by Grygla Public School, Be Charger Kind!
September 5 is the 248th day of the year, with 117 days remaining until the end of the year, and 208 days remaining until April Fools Day.
Earth/Moon Almanac for September 5, 2018
Sunrise: 6:45am; Sunset: 7:59pm
Moonrise: 1:30am; Moonset: 5:32pm, waning crescent
Temperature Almanac for September 5, 2018
Average Record Today
High 78 95 67
Low 55 42 37
September 5 News Headline
Wannaska Man Sues Airline for Missing Luggage: Loses Case
September 5 Celebrations from National Day Calendar
National Cheese Pizza Day
September 5 Riddle
Why should you never fight a dinosaur?*
September 5 Notable Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day
September 5 is the 248th day of the year, with 117 days remaining until the end of the year, and 208 days remaining until April Fools Day.
Earth/Moon Almanac for September 5, 2018
Sunrise: 6:45am; Sunset: 7:59pm
Moonrise: 1:30am; Moonset: 5:32pm, waning crescent
Temperature Almanac for September 5, 2018
Average Record Today
High 78 95 67
Low 55 42 37
September 5 News Headline
Wannaska Man Sues Airline for Missing Luggage: Loses Case
September 5 Celebrations from National Day Calendar
National Cheese Pizza Day
September 5 Riddle
Why should you never fight a dinosaur?*
September 5 Notable Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day
- 1698 Russian Tsar Peter the Great imposes a tax on beards, ignored by Wannaska inhabitants
- 1816 Louis XVIII has to dissolve the Chambre introuvable ("Unobtainable Chamber"); no one knows how he did it
- 1844 Iron ore discovered in Minnesota's Mesabi Mountains
- 1889 German Christine Hardt patents the first modern brassiere
- 1957 On the Road by Jack Kerouac is published by Viking Press in New York
- 1958 Doctor Zhivago novel by Boris Pasternak published in US
September 5 Author/Artist Birthdays, from On This Day
1750 Robert Fergusson, Scottish poet
1817 Aleksei K. Tolstoi, Russian poet and writer
1827 Goffredo Mameli, Italian poet and writer
1905 Arthur Koestler, writer
1912 John Cage, composer
1914 Nicanor Parra, Chilean poet
1946 Freddie Mercury
Words I looked up this week: bergamot, dactyl, haptic, homberg, littoral, neontology, oblanceolate, perkatory, smeech, tetric, zedonk
1750 Robert Fergusson, Scottish poet
1817 Aleksei K. Tolstoi, Russian poet and writer
1827 Goffredo Mameli, Italian poet and writer
1905 Arthur Koestler, writer
1912 John Cage, composer
1914 Nicanor Parra, Chilean poet
1946 Freddie Mercury
Words I looked up this week: bergamot, dactyl, haptic, homberg, littoral, neontology, oblanceolate, perkatory, smeech, tetric, zedonk
Wannaska World 2018.09.05
With abundant room for several parallel universes, including the universes of Bobby and Izzi, the remaining weeks of the summer in Palmville Township were extremely interesting for our Son of Wannaska, so time passed quickly. When not fishing with Bobby, Otto spent time in the treehouse or in his bedroom - and oh, what a room it was. Disposed harmoniously with a compulsion for collecting and a gift for imaginative design, one of Otto's greatest design challenges was to create space for organizing and storing the raw materials that he gathered for his projects until such time as he became ready to use them. Think Escher - a beautiful, interconnected array of boxes, jars, shelves, drawers, nooks, folders, cabinets, racks, sacks, bureaus, spools, cases, bags, stands, closets, dispensers, hangers, files, bulletin boards, cups, bins, baskets, pans, bottles, secret compartments, and other various depositories, to name but a few.
Otto collected everything that seemed like it might be useful, including ideas. Had he been born in ancient Greece, Otto would have hobnobbed with the Skeptics, denying that knowledge or rational belief is possible and suspending his judgment on many, if not all controversial matters - particularly with regard to certainty about human emotions. As it turns out, Izzi would have belonged to the Stoics, particularly with regard to those very emotional experiences. Through hours of online research and messaging with Izzi, Otto learned that she used her emotions as tools to evaluate and appraise everything outside her control that might have any impact on her sense of wellbeing and what she loved, which was pretty much everything. As Izzi explained it, since she cannot help but love, and since love for family, friends, and the world tend to make her feel timid with fears of loss, she must therefore learn to master her fears, disgusts, anger, and other emotions that dilute her capacity to put her loves first. In other words, Izzi became the hot current bestirring Otto's cool, deep waters - intellectually, emotionally, and otherwise; and Otto became the asker of unending questions as he challenged weaknesses in the logic of Izzi's structured exuberance.
Otto researched the history of the Cherokee, and Izzi told him about her experiences as a smart, outspoken, athletic brown girl in otherwise white Oologah. Otto learned that Izzi has no siblings, lives with her mother, is friends with more boys that girls, started riding horses when she was 3 years old, works as a stable hand with several ranches and volunteers at the Will Rogers Animal Clinic, likes Polish poets best, and has two best friends - her dog, Jinx, and her horse, Nay.
Otto and Izzi re-began their relationship with each new day. As with all feelings of disgust - an emotion unique to humans - they came to learn that their gender aversion was learned. In the world of 12-year-old cognition, emotion, and socialization, like all such pre-adolescent, gender-linked aversions, their disgust slowly eroded against the unrelenting onslaught of the incremental changes in factual knowledge about one another, reinforced by slowly rising serum testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone levels. Otto also learned as much as he could about how he and Izzi first met. Izzi told Otto that the most important lessons about folding come from the practice of folding. While no one knows how the folding started, because "No one can fold alone" (the first condition), Izzi told Otto that she had so far met 13 different folders - both boys and girls - where Otto was her first first-contact connection. Izzi noted that folding happens according to a few additional basic conditions:
With abundant room for several parallel universes, including the universes of Bobby and Izzi, the remaining weeks of the summer in Palmville Township were extremely interesting for our Son of Wannaska, so time passed quickly. When not fishing with Bobby, Otto spent time in the treehouse or in his bedroom - and oh, what a room it was. Disposed harmoniously with a compulsion for collecting and a gift for imaginative design, one of Otto's greatest design challenges was to create space for organizing and storing the raw materials that he gathered for his projects until such time as he became ready to use them. Think Escher - a beautiful, interconnected array of boxes, jars, shelves, drawers, nooks, folders, cabinets, racks, sacks, bureaus, spools, cases, bags, stands, closets, dispensers, hangers, files, bulletin boards, cups, bins, baskets, pans, bottles, secret compartments, and other various depositories, to name but a few.
Otto collected everything that seemed like it might be useful, including ideas. Had he been born in ancient Greece, Otto would have hobnobbed with the Skeptics, denying that knowledge or rational belief is possible and suspending his judgment on many, if not all controversial matters - particularly with regard to certainty about human emotions. As it turns out, Izzi would have belonged to the Stoics, particularly with regard to those very emotional experiences. Through hours of online research and messaging with Izzi, Otto learned that she used her emotions as tools to evaluate and appraise everything outside her control that might have any impact on her sense of wellbeing and what she loved, which was pretty much everything. As Izzi explained it, since she cannot help but love, and since love for family, friends, and the world tend to make her feel timid with fears of loss, she must therefore learn to master her fears, disgusts, anger, and other emotions that dilute her capacity to put her loves first. In other words, Izzi became the hot current bestirring Otto's cool, deep waters - intellectually, emotionally, and otherwise; and Otto became the asker of unending questions as he challenged weaknesses in the logic of Izzi's structured exuberance.
Otto researched the history of the Cherokee, and Izzi told him about her experiences as a smart, outspoken, athletic brown girl in otherwise white Oologah. Otto learned that Izzi has no siblings, lives with her mother, is friends with more boys that girls, started riding horses when she was 3 years old, works as a stable hand with several ranches and volunteers at the Will Rogers Animal Clinic, likes Polish poets best, and has two best friends - her dog, Jinx, and her horse, Nay.
Otto and Izzi re-began their relationship with each new day. As with all feelings of disgust - an emotion unique to humans - they came to learn that their gender aversion was learned. In the world of 12-year-old cognition, emotion, and socialization, like all such pre-adolescent, gender-linked aversions, their disgust slowly eroded against the unrelenting onslaught of the incremental changes in factual knowledge about one another, reinforced by slowly rising serum testosterone, estrogen, and progesterone levels. Otto also learned as much as he could about how he and Izzi first met. Izzi told Otto that the most important lessons about folding come from the practice of folding. While no one knows how the folding started, because "No one can fold alone" (the first condition), Izzi told Otto that she had so far met 13 different folders - both boys and girls - where Otto was her first first-contact connection. Izzi noted that folding happens according to a few additional basic conditions:
- Folders connect only in a quiet, distracted frame of mind.
- Folding takes practice for beginning and maintaining connections.
- Folders learn from their first companion until they become ready for multiple connections.
- Folders learn to connect and acquire the necessary skills with folder teams before becoming a solo companion to new folders.
Izzi said there were more, but these were the conditions Otto needed to know for now. Izzi also complimented Otto by volunteering that she was amazed at how long their first fold lasted. Otherwise, Izzi suggested that Otto read some of her poems and some of her favorite Polish poets to learn more about this new world. Otto puzzled over Izzi's love of poetry until she likened her it to his compulsions for collecting, designing, and building. Otto particularly liked two poems that Izzi listed on her Facebook page:
The bright side of the planet moves toward the darkness
And the cities are falling asleep, each in its hour,
And for me, now as then, it is too much.
There is too much world. Czeslaw Milosz, The Separate Notebooks
and
View with a Grain of Sand, by Wislawa Szymborska.
As the first day of middle school drew closer and closer, Otto and Izzi practiced folding, mostly at night, but twice during the day. At the end of the last fold on the last midnight before the first day of school, Otto asked when he would meet a new folder. "Justas soon as y'all're ready, Aught. S'not really up ta me. We'll just be joined by a new'n when it's time." Otto walked home under the just risen crescent moon along Mikinaak Crick, when he heard panting just off the path ahead. He pulled out his phone, activated the flashlight, stepped cautiously toward the sound, and there she was, left hind paw caught in an offset leghold trap.
Wannaska World is a community writing project, where story ideas or contributions left in the comment section or elsewhere on Wannaskan Almanac will be incorporated into ongoing installments.
Be better than yesterday, learn a new word today, and try to stay out of trouble - at least until tomorrow.
*Because you will just get jurasskicked.
The bright side of the planet moves toward the darkness
And the cities are falling asleep, each in its hour,
And for me, now as then, it is too much.
There is too much world. Czeslaw Milosz, The Separate Notebooks
and
View with a Grain of Sand, by Wislawa Szymborska.
As the first day of middle school drew closer and closer, Otto and Izzi practiced folding, mostly at night, but twice during the day. At the end of the last fold on the last midnight before the first day of school, Otto asked when he would meet a new folder. "Justas soon as y'all're ready, Aught. S'not really up ta me. We'll just be joined by a new'n when it's time." Otto walked home under the just risen crescent moon along Mikinaak Crick, when he heard panting just off the path ahead. He pulled out his phone, activated the flashlight, stepped cautiously toward the sound, and there she was, left hind paw caught in an offset leghold trap.
Wannaska World is a community writing project, where story ideas or contributions left in the comment section or elsewhere on Wannaskan Almanac will be incorporated into ongoing installments.
Be better than yesterday, learn a new word today, and try to stay out of trouble - at least until tomorrow.
*Because you will just get jurasskicked.
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