Word-Wednesday for August 14, 2019

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Word-Wednesday, for August 14, 2019, the 33rd Wednesday of the year,  the 226th day of the year, with 139 days remaining.


Nordhem Lunch: Hot Ham Sandwich w/Potatoes & Gravy


Earth/Moon Almanac for August 14, 2019
Sunrise: 6:15am; Sunset: 8:42pm; 3 minutes, 11 seconds less daylight today
Moonrise: 8:40pm; Moonset: 5:03am, full moon


Temperature Almanac for August 14, 2019
                Average           Record          Today
High             77                    95                 75
Low              54                   36                 55


August 14 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National V-J Day
• National Creamsicle Day
• National Hug Your Boss Day

August 14 Riddle
How much does a pirate pay for corn?*


August 14 Pun
Don’t interrupt Jack Pine Savage when she’s working intently on a puzzle. 

Chances are, you’ll hear some crosswords.


August 14 Word-Wednesday Wrestling
Spanning the globe for Word-Wednesday professional wrestling fans, click here for a special feature direct from Bolivia.

August 14 Notable Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1846 Henry David Thoreau jailed for refusing to pay taxes.

August 14 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1945 Steve Martin.
• 1945 Wim Wenders.
• 1949 Bob Backlund, American wrestler, born in Princeton, Minnesota.
• 1970 Slava Dosedel, Czech tennis star.
• 1986 SpongeBob SquarePants.

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

• canopic: of, relating to, or being an ancient Egyptian vase, urn, or jar used to hold the viscera of an embalmed body.
• cartouche: a carved tablet or drawing representing a scroll with rolled-up ends, used ornamentally or bearing an inscription.
• epichoric: characteristic of or peculiar to a particular country or district, such as Palmville Township.
• galliard: a lively dance in triple time for two people, including complicated turns and steps.
• natron: a mineral salt found in dried lake beds, consisting of hydrated sodium carbonate.
• pavonine: of or like a peacock.
• pinny: an apron.
• prorogue: to extend in time, cause to last longer.
• taikonaut: a Chinese astronaut.
• zaftig: (of a woman) having a full, rounded figure; plump.

August 14, 2019 Word-Wednesday Feature
Cloth
If clothes make the man, cloth [a simple word of unknown origin] should be important to a careful writer. Whether male or female, here’s a list of fabrics for you to choose from so that the clothing of your dramatis personae speaks volumes about that character’s character.


Brocade: a thick, weighty, fancy material with a raised pattern.

Buckskin: the skin of a male deer.

Burlap: coarse canvas woven from jute, hemp, or a similar fiber, used especially for sacking; a material similar to burlap but lighter, used in dressmaking and furnishing.

Calico: printed cotton fabric.

Cambric: a lightweight, closely woven white linen or cotton fabric.

Canvas: an extremely heavy-duty plain-woven fabric used for making sails, tents, marquees, backpacks, and other items for which sturdiness is required.

Chino: a twill fabric, originally made of 100% cotton. The most common items made from it, trousers, are widely called chinos.

Corduroy: a textile with a distinct pattern, a "cord" or wale. Modern corduroy is most commonly composed of tufted cords, sometimes exhibiting a channel (bare to the base fabric) between the tufts. The fabric looks as if it is made from multiple cords laid parallel to each other and then stitched together.

Crêpe: a silk, wool, or synthetic fiber fabric with a distinctively crisp, crimped appearance. The term crape typically refers to a form of the fabric associated specifically with mourning.

Crochet: from the French word croche, meaning "hook", is the process of creating fabric from yarns or threads using a crochet hook.

Denim: a sturdy cotton warp-faced textile in which the weft passes under two or more warp threads. This twill weaving produces a diagonal ribbing that distinguishes it from cotton duck. The most common denim is indigo denim, in which the warp thread is dyed, while the weft thread is left white.

Drill: a stout durable cotton fabric with a strong bias (diagonal) in the weave.

Felt: a textile material that is produced by matting, condensing and pressing fibers together. Felt can be made of natural fibers such as wool or animal fur, or from synthetic fibers such as petroleum-based acrylic or acrylonitrile or wood pulp-based rayon.

Flannel: a soft woven fabric, of various fineness. Flannel was originally made from carded wool or worsted yarn, but is now often made from either wool, cotton, or synthetic fiber.

Gabardine: a kind of slender woven fine wool or cotton fabric with a simple definition. It is used for making durable and durable fabrics. The twill is woven through the braid.

Gingham: a medium-weight balanced plain-woven fabric made from dyed cotton or cotton-blend yarn made of carded, medium or fine yarns, where the coloring is on the warp yarns and always along the grain (weft).

Gore-Tex: a waterproof, breathable fabric membrane and registered trademark of W. L. Gore and Associates. Invented in 1969, Gore-Tex can repel liquid water while allowing water vapor to pass through and is designed to be a lightweight, waterproof fabric for all-weather use.

Hessian: a strong, coarse fabric made from hemp or jute, used for sacks.

Linen: cloth woven from flax.

Jamdani: a fine muslin cloth on which decorative motifs are woven on the loom, typically in grey and white, typically of Bangladeshi origin.

Lace: a delicate fabric made of yarn or thread in an open weblike pattern, made by machine or by hand. Originally linen, silk, gold, or silver threads were used. Now lace is often made with cotton thread, although linen and silk threads are still available. Specific types of lace include:

• Broomstick Lace
• Carrickmacross Lace
• Hairpin Lace
• Inishmacsaint Lace
• Kenmare Lace
• Limerick Lace
• Youghal Lace

Lamé: a type of fabric woven or knit with thin ribbons of metallic fiber, as opposed to guipé, where the ribbons are wrapped around a fiber yarn.

Madras: a lightweight cotton fabric with typically patterned texture and plaid design, used primarily for summer clothing such as pants, shorts, dresses, and jackets. The fabric takes its name from the former name of the city of Chennai in India.

Muslin: plain-woven cotton fabric made in various weights. The better qualities of muslin are fine and smooth in texture and are woven from evenly spun warps and wefts, or fillings. They are given a soft finish, bleached or piece-dyed, and are sometimes patterned in the loom or printed.

Percale: a closely woven plain-weave fabric often used for bed covers. It is made from both carded and combed yarns, and may be woven of various fibers, such as cotton, polyester, or various blends.

Plaid: a pattern created by bars and stripes of color that cross at right angles, or a piece of fabric with this pattern on it. An example of plaid is Scottish tartan.

Poplin: also called tabinet, a plain weave material characterized by crosswise ribs. Tightly woven, it contains fine warp yarns and coarser weft yarns. It is a strong material most often found in shirts, dresses and pajamas.

Ripstop: woven fabrics, often made of nylon, using a special reinforcing technique that makes them resistant to tearing and ripping. During weaving, (thick) reinforcement threads are interwoven at regular intervals in a crosshatch pattern.

Satin: a weave that typically has a glossy surface and a dull back, one of three fundamental types of textile weaves along with plain weave and twill. The satin weave is characterized by four or more fill or weft yarns floating over a warp yarn, four warp yarns floating over a single weft yarn.

Scrim: also known as gauze, a very light textile made from cotton, or sometimes flax. It is lightweight and translucent, which means it is often used for making curtains. The fabric can also be used for bookbinding and upholstery. Scrims have also seen extensive use in theatre.

Selvage: a “self-finished” edge of fabric, keeping it from unraveling and fraying. The term “self-finished” means that the edge does not require additional finishing work, such as hem or bias tape, to prevent fraying.

Serge: a type of twill fabric that has diagonal lines or ridges on both sides, made with a two-up, two-down weave. The worsted variety is used in making military uniforms, suits, great coats and trench coats. French serge is a softer, finer variety. The word is also used for a high-quality woven woolen fabric.

Shearling: a skin from a recently shorn sheep or lamb that has been tanned and dressed with the wool left on. It has a suede surface on one side and a clipped fur surface on the other. Usually the suede side is worn outward.

Suede: a type of fuzzy leather with a napped finish, commonly used for jackets, shoes, shirts, purses, furniture, and other items. The term comes from the French gants de Suède, which literally means "gloves from Sweden".

Taffeta: a fine lustrous silk or similar synthetic fabric with a crisp texture.

Tartan: a woolen or worsted cloth woven with stripes of different colors and widths crossing at right angles, worn chiefly by the Scottish Highlanders, each clan having its own distinctive plaid.

Tweed: a rough, woolen fabric, of a soft, open, flexible texture, resembling cheviot or homespun, but more closely woven. It is usually woven with a plain weave, twill or herringbone structure. Color effects in the yarn may be obtained by mixing dyed wool before it is spun.

Twill: a type of textile weave with a pattern of diagonal parallel ribs. This is done by passing the weft thread over one or more warp threads then under two or more warp threads and so on, with a “step,” or offset, between rows to create the characteristic diagonal pattern.

Velour: a plush, knitted fabric or textile similar to velvet or velveteen. It is usually made from cotton, but can also be made from synthetic materials such as polyester. Velour is used in a wide variety of applications, including clothing and upholstery.

Velvet: a type of woven tufted fabric in which the cut threads are evenly distributed, with a short dense pile, giving it a distinctive soft feel. By extension, the word velvety means "smooth like velvet." Velvet can be made from either synthetic or natural fibers.

Whipcord: a strong worsted or cotton fabric made of hard-twisted yarns with a diagonal cord or rib. The weave used for whipcord is a steep-angled twill, essentially the same weave as a cavalry twill or a steep gabardine.

Worsted: a high-quality type of wool yarn, the fabric made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from Worstead, a village in the English county of Norfolk.



From A Year with Rilke, August 14 Entry
I Am Sometimes Like a Tree, from The Book of Hours I, 5

So I am sometimes like a tree
rustling over a gravesite
and making real the dream
of the one its living roots
embrace:

a dream once lost
among sorrows and songs.

Be better than yesterday, change your underwear today, try to stay out of trouble - at least until tomorrow, and write when you have the time.

*A buccaneer.