Word-Wednesday April 25, 2018

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Word-Wednesday, April 25, 2018, brought to you by Pipe Dreams Plumbing, Sprague, Manitoba; "We can even repair what your husband has fixed!" Reach us from anywhere at www.#1@#2.ca.

April 25 is the 115th day of the year, with 250 days remaining until the end of the year, and 342 days remaining until April Fools Day.

Earth/Moon Almanac for April 25, 2018
Sunrise: 6:14am; Sunset: 8:30pm
Moonrise: 3:32pm; Moonset: 4:39am; waxing gibbous

Temperature Almanac for April 25, 2018
         Average    Record    Today
High    58              83           65
Low     32              13            36

April 25 Celebrations
National DNA Day
National East Meets West Day
National Hug a Plumber Day
National Telephone Day
National Zucchini Bread Day
National Administrative Professionals Day

April 25 Riddle-Pun
What do you call a bunch of chess players bragging about their games in a hotel lobby?*

April 25 Notable historic events, literary or otherwise
1507, German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller first to use the name America on his world map Universalis Cosmographia
1684, Patent granted for thimble
1719, Daniel Defoe publishes Robinson Crusoe
1886, Sigmund Freud opens practice in Vienna
1928, Buddy, a German Shepherd, becomes 1st guide dog for a US citizen Morris Frank
1954, 1961, 1962, 1971, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1980, 1982, 1982 [different country], 1983, 1984, nuclear weapon tests by US, France, USSR, and/or Britain, but not the Czech Republic

April 25 author/artist birthday
1917, Ella Fitzgerald

Words I looked up this week: carabistouilles, ergate, furbelows, gaslight, froward, het, ignominy, novia, pestiferous, plonker, remonstrate, revanant, smosh

Today's edition of Wannaskan Almanac Word-Wednesday examines the id·i·om, ˈidēəm, noun, a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words. 

Idioms help the author establish a degree of casual intimacy, particularly in dialogue, but only if used judiciously. One must also be wary of the cultural context of most idioms. Consider a few of the direct translations from Thor's Norway: 

Jeg har en høne å plukke med deg. Translation: I have a hen to pluck with you. English idiom equivalent, I have a bone to pick with you.

Å være født bak en brunost. Translation: To be born behind a brown cheese, i.e., a person who is not smart.

Å være midt i smørøyet. Translation: To be in the middle of the butter eye, i.e., a great place to be [Norwegians are very fond of their butter].

Å tråkke i salaten. Translation: To step in the salad, something a person born behind a brown cheese might do.

Å være pling i bollen. Translation: To be a ping in the bowl, another way Norwegians refer to the person who is not smart.

Å få blod på tannen. Translation: To get blood on your tooth, i.e., to be driven or inspired by Guinness, roundabouts, or other personal passions.

Å stå med skjegget i postkassa. Translation: To stand with your beard in the post box, i.e., where a person born behind brown cheese or who's a ping in a bowl gets into a socially awkward situation of his/her/their own making.

Å være helt Nils. Translation: To be completely Nils, i.e., to be born behind brown cheese, be a bowl ping, live with your beard in the box, or otherwise simply have too much blood on your tooth [the original Nils remains unknown, but the Norwegian preoccupation with idioms for the less-than-smart appears to follow the patterns of the English].

Det er helt Texas! Translation: That’s completely Texas! An explication for something that is crazy [the Norwegians like to read westerns almost as much as the Germans].

So that's the Wannaskan Almanac for Word-Wednesday, April 25, 2018. Don't cry over spilled milk, make a long story short, and don't count your chickens - at least until they've hatched.

*Chess nuts boasting in an open foyer.