Word-Wednesday for November 20, 2019

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Word-Wednesday, November 20, 2019, the 47th Wednesday of the year,  the 324th day of the year, with 41 days remaining.


Earth/Moon Almanac for November 20, 2019
Sunrise: 7:40am; Sunset: 4:49pm; 2 minutes, 29 seconds less daylight today
Moonrise: 12:18am; Moonset: 1:39pm, waning gibbous


Temperature Almanac for November 20, 2019
                Average           Record          Today
High             30                   49                31
Low              15                   -18                12


November 20 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Peanut Butter Fudge Day
• National Absurdity Day
• National Educational Support Professionals Day
• National Square Dance Day
• Celebrate Your Unique Talent Day

November 20 Word Riddle
Complete, I am an ill-placed zephyr; behead me, and I am floating logs; behead me again, and I am part of a ship.


November 20 Pun
I asked the Roseau librarian for a book about Pavlov’s dog and Schrodinger’s cat. She said it rang a bell, but she wasn’t sure if it was there or not.


November 20 Notable Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1805 Ludwig van Beethoven's Fidelio, his only opera, premieres in Vienna.
• 1866 Howard University founded.
• 1886 The first Sherlock Holmes story, A Study in Scarlet, is accepted by publisher Ward and Lock with payment of £25.
• 1985 Microsoft Windows 1.0 is released.

November 20 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1752 Thomas Chatterton.
• 1858 Selma Lagerlöf, Swedish author and Nobel laureate.
• 1889 Edwin Hubble.
• 1936 Don DeLillo.

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

• asphodel: an immortal flower said to grow in the Elysian fields.
• clafart: to gossip, to tittle-tattle; to chatter idly or pointlessly. Also /transitive/: to reveal (information, esp. a secret) by speaking indiscreetly.
• clinker: the stony residue from burned coal or from a furnace.
• contectome: network of nerve cells and their connections found in the brain or other part of the nervous system; a description or map of such a network.
• dirk: a short dagger of a kind formerly carried by Scottish Highlanders.
• fingle: a trifle; something of no importance.
• paratactic: a style of using sentences together which have little or no relationship.
• ropy: poor in quality or health; inferior.
• tarantella: a rapid whirling dance originating in southern Italy.
• whang: a sharp, pungent, or unpleasant flavor or aftertaste.

November 20, 2019 Word-Wednesday Feature
Synathroesmus
A rhetorical term for the piling up of words - usually adjectives - most often used in literature and politics to hurl verbal abuse This technique is also known as congeries, accumulatio, and seriation. The English seem to be fond of this technique.

From Charles Dickens:
"He's a proud, haughty, consequential, turned-up-nose peacock." Nicholas Nickleby
"He was a gasping, wheezing, clutching, covetous old man." A Christmas Carol

From William Shakespeare:
Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious,
Loyal and neutral, in a moment?" Macbeth

From Monty Python's Flying Circus:
"You don't frighten us, English pig-dogs! Go and boil your bottoms, sons of a silly person. I blow my nose at you, so-called Arthur-king, you and all your silly English knnnniggets. Thppppt! I don't want to talk to you no more, you empty headed animal food trough wiper! I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father smelt of elderberries!" Holy Grail


But the sine qua non of synathroemusticians must certainly be Yosemite Sam:
"You low-down, pig-headed, high-fallutin', bamboozlin', flim-flammin', two-eared, four-footed, lilly-livered, pettifoggin', shot-cloggin', fuzzy-tailed, back-stabbin', hood-winkin' varmit!"

From A Year with Rilke, November 20 Entry
Paintings, from Letters to Countess Margo Sizzo-Noris-Crouy.

I am most truck by the small paintings you sent. I experience in them your old form, in miniature, where vast inner space is mirrored, where even winter and snow (and we have or share of both!) bespeak huge distance and wandering, the freshness and joy of pure undiluted youth.

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.

*Draft - raft - aft.