And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Word-Wednesday, for August 21, 2019, the 34th Wednesday of the year, the 233rd day of the year, with 132 days remaining.
Nordhem Lunch: Sloppy Joe
Earth/Moon Almanac for August 21, 2019
Sunrise: 8:05am; Sunset: 5:06pm; 2 minutes, 37 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 8:35pm; Moonset: 9:50am, waxing gibbous
Temperature Almanac for August 21, 2019
Average Record Today
High 76 91 68
Low 53 30 46
August 21 Local News Headline
Disbarred Gatzke Lawyer Finds New Work as Sue Chef
- National Brazilian Blowout Day
- National Spumoni Day
- National Senior Citizens Day
- Congressional Startup Day
- International Left Handers Day
August 21 Riddle and Pun
Where would Voldemort go if he played the trumpet?*
August 21 Notable Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day
- 1911 Mona Lisa stolen from the Louvre.
- 1962 Verne Gagne beats Doctor X to become NWA champ.
- 1965 The Crusher beats Mad Dog Vachon to become NWA champ.
- 1989 Voyager 2 begins a flyby of planet Neptune.
- 1904 [William] Count Basie.
- 1920 Christopher Robin.
- 1925 Judy Grable [Nellya Baughman], American professional wrestler.
- 1928 Zdeněk Lukáš, Czech composer.
- 1952 Jiřà Paroubek, former Czech prime minister.
- 1967 Stéphane Charbonnier [Charb], French cartoonist and editor of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Words-I-Looked-Up-This-Week Writer's Challenge
Make a single sentence (or poem) from the following words:
- cintre: a temporary framework used to support an arch, dome, etc., esp. while it is under construction; (in plural) the pieces comprising this.
- furphy: Australian slang for an erroneous or improbable story that is claimed to be factual.
- greave: a piece of armor used to protect the shin.
- lactivist: a passionate advocate of (exclusive) breastfeeding as the preferred means to feed a baby.
- mahout: a person who works with, rides, and tends an elephant.
- massif: a compact group of mountains, especially one that is separate from other groups.
- mastaba: an ancient Egyptian tomb rectangular in shape with sloping sides and a flat roof, standing to a height of 17–20 feet (5–6 m), consisting of an underground burial chamber with rooms above it (at ground level) in which to store offerings.
- parvis: an enclosed area in front of a cathedral or church, typically one that is surrounded with colonnades or porticoes.
- raster: a rectangular pattern of parallel scanning lines followed by the electron beam on a television screen or computer monitor.
- tawaf: the ritual of performing seven circumambulations of the Kaaba as part of the haj to Mecca.
August 21, 2019 Word-Wednesday Feature
Onomatopoeia
Defined as the formation of a word from a sound associated with what is named, onomatopoeia is also fun to say. Onomatopoeia is derived from two Greek words, onoma meaning "name" and poiein meaning "to make". An onomatopoeia usually means nothing more than the sound it makes, unless you're James Joyce.
Interestingly, an onomatopoeia is often both a verb or a noun. Examples include common Guinness drinking onomatopoeia such as dribble, splash, drip, sprinkle, drizzle, and squirt; or common vocal sounds that accompany the drinking of Guinness such as blurt, murmur (see rhubarb), chatter, mumble, grunt, or gurgle.
Many onomatopoeia are simply sounds that commonly fall into three categories:
air: flutter, fwoosh, swish, swoosh, whoosh, whizz
animal: arf, baa, cheep, cock-a-doodle-doo, oink, ribbit [hummingbirds hum because they don't need words]
collisions: bam, clank, clink
water: bloop
Some write to live; some live to write. Then there's James Joyce. Mr. Joyce developed his own onomatopoeia for page one of Finnegan's Wake to represent the sound of the thunderclap just after Adam and Eve were naughty, using bits and pieces of thunder onomatopoeia from a variety of languages, including French, Greek Italian, and Japanese:
bababadalgharaghtakamminarronnkonnbronntonnerronntuonnthunntrovarrhounawnskawntoohoohoordenenthurnuk!
From A Year with Rilke, August 21 Entry
The Carousell (II), from New Poems.
It goes on and hurries to some end,
just circling and turning without a goal.
Flashes of red, of green, of grey whirl past,
solid shapes barely glimpsed.
Sometimes a smile comes toward us,
and like a blessing, shines and is gone
in this dizzying parade with no destination.
Be better than yesterday,
think up a new onomatopoeia today,
try to stay out of trouble - at least until tomorrow,
and write when you have the time.
* Jazzkaban.
Down in the mastaba. the raster was flickering.
ReplyDeleteThe mahout and me mum as usual were bickering.
"Prop up the cintre, you silly old clown!
"If you don't do your job, the roof will come down."
Lactivist me, I just wanted a drink
From mum's massif central, but she said, "Let me think."
Then up in the parvis there arose such a clatter.
She threw on her greaves and said, "What is the matter?"
The tawaf had started and that ain't no furphy.
This story is true or my name isn't Murphy.
Mastaba: cellar apartment
Raster: TV without program
Mahout: elephant man
Cintre: roof support
Lactivist: breast feedee
Massif: mound
Parvis: porch
Greaves: shin guards
Tawaf: procession
Furphy: yarn
They keep getting better! And I thought all the architectural words might throw you for a loop.
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