Word-Wednesday for June 17, 2020

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Word-Wednesday, June 17, 2020, the 25th Wednesday of the year, the last Wednesday of spring, the 169th day of the year, with 197 days remaining.

Palmville Township Nature Update: Bees be busy.

The Bees
by Audre Lorde

In the street outside a school
what the children learn
possesses them.
Little boys yell as they stone a flock of bees
trying to swarm
between the lunchroom window and an iron grate.
The boys sling furious rocks
smashing the windows.
The bees, buzzing their anger,
are slow to attack.
Then one boy is stung
into quicker destruction
and the school guards come
long wooden sticks held out before them
they advance upon the hive
beating the almost finished rooms of wax apart
mashing the new tunnels in
while fresh honey drips
down their broomsticks
and the little boy feet becoming expert
in destruction
trample the remaining and bewildered bees
into the earth.
Curious and apart
four little girls look on in fascination
learning a secret lesson
and trying to understand their own destruction.
One girl cries out
“Hey, the bees weren’t making any trouble!”
and she steps across the feebly buzzing ruins
to peer up at the empty, grated nook
“We could have studied honey-making!”

Nordhem Lunch: Closed.

Earth/Moon Almanac for June 17, 2020
Sunrise: 5:20am; Sunset: 9:30pm; 15 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 3:27am; Moonset: 5:51pm, waning crescent


Temperature Almanac for June 17, 2020
                Average            Record               Today
High             74                     93                      90
Low              52                     37                      67


June 17 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• Global Garbage Man Day
• National Eat Your Vegetables Day
• National Stewart’s Root Beer Day
• National Apple Strudel Day
• National Cherry Tart Day

June 17 Word Riddle
My first is a verb;
add to me one letter, and I become an insect;
add another, and I become a kind of vegetable;
add two more letters, and I become the name of another insect.*


June 17 Pun
From a COVID-19 Parenting Diary
March 13:

I asked Dad about the plans for the day. He said:
“First, Mom and I will go pick up our new prescription glasses. And then, we’ll see.”


June 17 The Nordly Headline:
Toay Warroa Polce Sa They Are nvestgatng A Strng of ID Thefts.


June 17 Notable Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1631 Mumtaz Mahal dies during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, then spends more than 20 years building her tomb, the Taj Mahal.
• 1885 Statue of Liberty arrives in NYC aboard French ship Isere.
• 1919 Barney Google cartoon strip, by Billy De Beck, premieres.
• 2006 Science fiction author Anne McCaffrey inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame.

June 17 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1808 Henrik Wergeland, Norwegian poet.
• 1811 Jón Sigurðsson, Icelandic independence fighter and Icelandic historian.
• 1867 Henry Lawson, Australian writer and poet.
• 1871 James Weldon Johnson, American civil rights activist, leader of the NAACP and Harlem Renaissance poet.
• 1882 Igor Stravinsky, Russian composer .
• 1895 Slavko Osterc, Slovenian composer.
• 1898 M. C. Escher, Dutch graphic artist and lithograph carver.
• 1903 Mikhail Svetlov, Russian poet and writer.
• 1904 Coenraad van Emde Boas, Dutch sexologist.
• 1909 Elmer L. Andersen, 30th Governor of Minnesota.
• 1912 Wessel Couzijn, Dutch sculptor and cartoonist.
• 1914 John Hersey, American author.
• 1916 Einar Englund, Finnish composer.
• 1930 Romuald Twardowski, Polish composer.
• 1957 Philip Chevron, Irish musician.

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

• abditory: a place for hiding or preserving articles of value.
• broigus: angry; irritated.
• druxy: having a healthy or sturdy outward appearance, whilst being rotten and crumbling beneath the surface.
• fettle: condition.
• guntz: with /the/: everything possible or available, “the lot”.
• mugwump: one who is unable to make up her/his mind or one who is neutral on a controversial issue.
• pandemain: white bread of the finest quality; a loaf or cake of this bread.
• simony: the buying or selling of ecclesiastical or spiritual benefits; /esp./ the sale or purchase of preferment or office in the church. Also sometimes more generally: trading in sacred things.
• tendentious: expressing or intending to promote a particular cause or point of view, especially a controversial one.
• yark: a sharp blow with a whip, hand, or other object; a stroke, a lash.

June 17, 2020 Word-Wednesday Feature
code-switch
Code switching (or code-switching) is a sociolinguistic concept with two definitions. The first definition — linguistic —  describes the use of more than one language or grammatical system, usually by multilingual speakers or writers, in the course of a single conversation or written text.

The second definition of code-switching — sociolinguistic perspective —  describes the use of different  dialects, accents, language combinations, and mannerisms within social groups in order to project a particular identity. Using this term, code-switching is used by everyone as they change their language style based on who they’re talking to, what they’re talking about, where they are, and much more.

Why do we code-switch? We primarily use code-switch to identify with a particular social group, where most of the time we don’t even realize that we’re doing it. Code-switching happens subtly and unconsciously. We speak differently at work than we do at home, often in a more measured tone with more professional words and with more formal postures. Around our friends we speak more casually and openly, and around our children we speak — well, I’m not sure how you may speak with your children.

Code-switches become more noticeable based on the social setting and mixes of settings and cultures within the social communications space. Sven and Ula speak much differently together or with one of their many wives than they do with the boys at the bar. We see this coded language become more pronounced when spoken by public figures with wide audiences, particularly when these public figures engage in rhetorical discourse.

Perhaps the clearest example of code-switching for larger audiences is the term “politically correct”, which means depending on the speaker and/or the listener,  politically wise or invalid or hypersensitive or cowardice with regard to the person or agency described with this term. As an example of code-switching with dialect, accent, or mannerisms, many people were caught off guard during Barrack Obama’s 2007 campaign speeches to mostly black audiences when he adopted a more preacherly tone.

Examples of code-switching during interpersonal communications often demonstrate the cultural nature of our awareness when using such terms. A classic example used in many movies is when a white person addresses a black adult male as “boy” or “son”.  Alternatively, referring to associates with the term “guys” in the black culture is serious insult.

Not ready to buy the “subconscious” element of some code-switching? The etiology of this unawareness is called implicit bias — also known as implicit social cognition. This isn't voodoo science; we routinely perform complex activities without thinking: walking, driving, typing. Implicit bias training has been in the news almost every day this June. Implicit bias is defined as the attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. These biases, which encompass both favorable and unfavorable assessments, are activated involuntarily and without an individual’s awareness or intentional control. Residing deep in the subconscious, these biases are different from known biases that individuals may choose to conceal for the purposes of social and/or political correctness. By definition, implicit biases are not accessible through introspection.

Implicit bias has been researched continuously since 1998, and there is a Web site called Project Implicit,  maintained by a non-profit organization of international research collaboration who continuously gather and share discoveries about our implicit biases — those thoughts and feelings outside of our conscious awareness and control. Why? Because they can be changed once identified. The Project Implicit goal is to educate the public about hidden biases, where anyone can take a fool-proof, uncheatable personal assessment of one’s own subconscious biases. Do your biases favor men or women? Do you biases favor a particular skin color? Do your biases inform you about a person's character based on how much a person weighs? Do your biases favor the health or the disabled? Test your own social attitudes for bias here.


From A Year with Rilke, June 17 Entry
You, Orpheus, from Sonnets to Orpheus I, 26

But you, divine poet, to the end a singer:
falling prey to the pack of Maenads,
you wove their shrieking into wider harmonies,
and brought from that destruction a song to build with.

No one to call when they raged and wrestled,
but the jagged stones they hurled
turned gentle when reaching you,
as if able to hear you.

Hounded by hatred, you were torn to pieces
while your music still rang amidst rocks and lions,
trees and birds. There you are singing still.

O dear lost god, you endless path!
Only because you were broken and scattered
have we become the ears of nature, and her voice.




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.

*be-e-t-le