Word-Wednesday for June 12, 2019

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Word-Wednesday, for June 12, 2019, the 24th Wednesday of the year,  the 163rd day of the year, with 202 days remaining. Today is Jupiter’s closest day this year if you happen to get out tonight.

Nordhem Lunch: Hot Turkey Plate


Earth/Moon Almanac for June 12, 2019
Sunrise: 5:20am; Sunset: 9:27pm; 45 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 4:08pm; Moonset: 3:06am, waxing gibbous


Temperature Almanac for June 12, 2019
                Average        Record         Today
High            72                 91                68
Low             51                 33                45


June 12 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Red Rose Day
• National Jerky Day
• National Peanut Butter Cookie Day
• National Loving Day

June 12 Riddle and Pun Rolled into One
What does the dairy farmer say to the cows at night?*


June 12 Notable Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1942 Anne Frank gets her diary as a birthday present in Amsterdam.

June 12 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1929 Anne Frank.
• 1941 Armando "Chick" Corea.
• 1965 Filip Topol, Czech musician and writer.
• 1968 Marty McFly, Back to the Future.

Words-I-Looked-Up-This-Week Writer's Challenge
Make a single sentence (or poem) from the following words:

• amphigory: a nonsense verse or composition; a rigmarole with apparent meaning which proves to be meaningless.
• bung: n., a stopper for closing a hole in a container; v., close with a stopper.
• chronemics: the study of the role of time in communication.
• clerestory: the upper part of the nave, choir, and transepts of a large church, containing a series of windows. It is clear of the roofs of the aisles and admits light to the central parts of the building.
• estivation: prolonged torpor or dormancy of an animal during a hot or dry period.
• furze: a yellow-flowered shrub of the pea family, the leaves of which are modified to form spines, native to western Europe and North Africa.
• iniquitous: grossly unfair and morally wrong.
• rigwelted: a sheep: lying on its back and unable to stand up without assistance. Also in extended use (of a person): confined to bed or reduced to inactivity as a result of illness, fatigue, etc.
• sabbat: witches' sabbath. 2 : any of eight neo-pagan religious festivals commemorating phases of the changing seasons.
• wassail: n., spiced ale or mulled wine drunk during celebrations for Twelfth Night and Christmas Eve; lively and noisy festivities involving the drinking of plentiful amounts of alcohol; revelry; and, v., drink plentiful amounts of alcohol and enjoy oneself with others in a noisy, lively way.

June 12 Word-Wednesday Feature
Summer Reading

Just in case you need some ideas for summer reading, MPR's Kerri Miller, the Association for Library Service to Children, Common Sense Media, and for those reluctant readers with learning or attention issues, Understood, all have lists for your consideration.

By way of follow up to a previous Word-Wednesday post, here's a specialized reading list for those authors who need to brush up on the authenticity of their profanity:

• Swearing: A Social History of Foul Language, Oaths and Profanity in English, by Geoffrey Hughs
• What the F: What Swearing Reveals about Our Language, Our Brains, and Ourselves, by Benjamin K. Bergen
• The F-Word, by Jesse Sheidlower
• n*gg*r: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word, by Randall Kennedy
• The Stuff of Thought, by Steven Pinker

From A Year with Rilke, June 12 Entry
The Watchman in the Vineyards, from The Book of Hours I, 58

Just as the watchman in the vineyards
has a hut, keeps vigil there,
I am that hut, Lord.
And I am night, Lord, within your night.

Wine garden, meadow, apple orchard,
field that no springtime forgets,
fig tree that yields a thousand figs
though rooted in ground as hard as marble:

fragrance exudes from your rounding branches.
you never ask if I am keeping watch.
Fearless, dissolved in juices,
your depths rise quietly around me.

Be better than yesterday, learn a new word today, try to stay out of trouble - at least until tomorrow, and write when you have the time.

It’s pasture bedtime.*