And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Word-Wednesday, March 14, 2018, brought to you by Ditchem, Kwik, & Hyde, LLC, divorce attorneys specializing in the accident-prone, muddle-headed, bad-tempered, slow-thinking rabble-rouser, with offices in Wannaska, New York, Pencer, London, Gatzke, Sydney, Greenbush, Beijing, Halma, and Mumbai.
March 14 is the 73rd day of the year, with 2 days remaining until St. Patrick's Day, 5 days remaining until the spring equinox, and 292 days remaining until the end of the year. This date is slightly more likely to fall on a Monday, Wednesday or Saturday.
Sunrise: 7:39am; Sunset: 7:37pm
Moonrise: 6:34am; Moonset: 4:28pm
Today's Riddle: What do potatoes wear to bed?*
Vital statistics for March 14 authors include:
Albert Einstein, born 1879, Entwurf einer verallgemeinerten Relativitätstheorie und eine Theorie der Gravitation, among others
Max Shulman, born 1919, Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
Klement Gottwald, died 1953, Czechoslovak Communist politician and journalist for Hlas Ludu, successively serving as deputy premier, premier, and president of Czechoslovakia.
Words I looked up this week: abulia; anomie; cabal; decoction; inflect; mendacious; seem
This edition of Wannaskan Almanac Word-Wednesday examines the mighty hy·phen, ˈhÄ«fÉ™n/ 1. the sign -, used to join words to indicate that they have a combined meaning or that they are linked in the grammar of a sentence. Rules for hypen use are readily available from the OED word resource provided in last week's Word-Wednesday.
Monday's Child has suggested that Word-Wednesday posts have become too wordy, so I'll endeavor to keep this brief. To the degree that your writing reflects your imaginative capacities (see, decoction), the hyphen is one of the most accessible tools for personalizing your work, if only because you can invent new words that fit precisely into your imaginative intent (see, inflect). When you're at a loss for words (see, anomia), make up your own word!
Example:
T'was the annual Wannaska St. Patty's day party, when with spit-shiny, word-wondrous aplomb, Thor hot-potatoed blame for the perennially-soon-to-be-published edition of THE RAVEN over to The Chairman, who paused in mid-sláinte mhaith - deer-eyed and tongue-tied - for want of his promised-but-not-yet-submitted collection of farm-fresh squibs.
March 14 is the 73rd day of the year, with 2 days remaining until St. Patrick's Day, 5 days remaining until the spring equinox, and 292 days remaining until the end of the year. This date is slightly more likely to fall on a Monday, Wednesday or Saturday.
Sunrise: 7:39am; Sunset: 7:37pm
Moonrise: 6:34am; Moonset: 4:28pm
Today's Riddle: What do potatoes wear to bed?*
Vital statistics for March 14 authors include:
Albert Einstein, born 1879, Entwurf einer verallgemeinerten Relativitätstheorie und eine Theorie der Gravitation, among others
Max Shulman, born 1919, Many Loves of Dobie Gillis
Klement Gottwald, died 1953, Czechoslovak Communist politician and journalist for Hlas Ludu, successively serving as deputy premier, premier, and president of Czechoslovakia.
Words I looked up this week: abulia; anomie; cabal; decoction; inflect; mendacious; seem
This edition of Wannaskan Almanac Word-Wednesday examines the mighty hy·phen, ˈhÄ«fÉ™n/ 1. the sign -, used to join words to indicate that they have a combined meaning or that they are linked in the grammar of a sentence. Rules for hypen use are readily available from the OED word resource provided in last week's Word-Wednesday.
Monday's Child has suggested that Word-Wednesday posts have become too wordy, so I'll endeavor to keep this brief. To the degree that your writing reflects your imaginative capacities (see, decoction), the hyphen is one of the most accessible tools for personalizing your work, if only because you can invent new words that fit precisely into your imaginative intent (see, inflect). When you're at a loss for words (see, anomia), make up your own word!
Example:
T'was the annual Wannaska St. Patty's day party, when with spit-shiny, word-wondrous aplomb, Thor hot-potatoed blame for the perennially-soon-to-be-published edition of THE RAVEN over to The Chairman, who paused in mid-sláinte mhaith - deer-eyed and tongue-tied - for want of his promised-but-not-yet-submitted collection of farm-fresh squibs.
Word-Wednesday Writer's Resource: Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count: https://liwc.wpengine.com/ Learn how the words you use reveal your thoughts, feelings, personality, and motivations. [Note: please visit this site when you have the time and the nerve to expand your writing habits.]
Writing Tips from Writers
You expect far too much of a first sentence. Think of it as analogous to a good country breakfast: What we want is something simple, but nourishing to the imagination. Hold the philosophy, hold the adjectives, just give us a plain subject and verb, and perhaps a wholesome, nonfattening adverb or two. Larry McMurty
You are working in clay, not marble, on paper, not eternal bronze; let that first sentence be as stupid as it wishes. Jacques Barzun
Jump off the cliff and build your wings on the way down. Ray Bradbury
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant. (see, mendacious) Emily Dickinson
Write as if you were a movie camera. Get exactly what is there. John Gardner
Avoid the use of qualifiers. Rather, very, little, pretty — these are the leeches that infest the pond of prose, sucking the blood of words. William Strunk, Jr.
A sentence should read as if its author, had he held a plough instead of a pen, could have drawn a furrow deep and straight to the end. Henry David Thoreau
Do not fire too much over the heads of your readers. Anthony Trollope
Only write when your pillow is on fire. Elie Wiesel
To survive, each sentence must have, at its heart, a little spark of fire. Virginia Woolf
Be yourself and your readers (see, cabal) will follow you anywhere. Try to commit an act of writing and they will jump overboard to get away. William Zinnsser
Be better than yesterday, learn a new word today, and to stay out of trouble - at least until tomorrow.
*Yammies
Writing Tips from Writers
You expect far too much of a first sentence. Think of it as analogous to a good country breakfast: What we want is something simple, but nourishing to the imagination. Hold the philosophy, hold the adjectives, just give us a plain subject and verb, and perhaps a wholesome, nonfattening adverb or two. Larry McMurty
You are working in clay, not marble, on paper, not eternal bronze; let that first sentence be as stupid as it wishes. Jacques Barzun
Jump off the cliff and build your wings on the way down. Ray Bradbury
Tell all the Truth but tell it slant. (see, mendacious) Emily Dickinson
Write as if you were a movie camera. Get exactly what is there. John Gardner
Avoid the use of qualifiers. Rather, very, little, pretty — these are the leeches that infest the pond of prose, sucking the blood of words. William Strunk, Jr.
A sentence should read as if its author, had he held a plough instead of a pen, could have drawn a furrow deep and straight to the end. Henry David Thoreau
Do not fire too much over the heads of your readers. Anthony Trollope
Only write when your pillow is on fire. Elie Wiesel
To survive, each sentence must have, at its heart, a little spark of fire. Virginia Woolf
Be yourself and your readers (see, cabal) will follow you anywhere. Try to commit an act of writing and they will jump overboard to get away. William Zinnsser
Be better than yesterday, learn a new word today, and to stay out of trouble - at least until tomorrow.
*Yammies
Ooohh....that potato picture will keep many a sailor warm on a cold night at sea.
ReplyDeleteA mendacious inflection, and my anomie, abulian seems. Yet decoct I must for Paddy's cabal. C-U-Sat-Ur-Day.
ReplyDelete