Word-Wednesday for July 1, 2020

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Word-Wednesday, July 1, 2020, the 27th Wednesday of the year, the second Wednesday of summer, and the 183rd day of the year, with 183 days remaining.


Wannaska Nature Update for July 1, 2020
Black bear sightings have started.

Nordhem Lunch: Closed.


Earth/Moon Almanac for July 1, 2020
Sunrise: 5:23am; Sunset: 9:29pm; 59 seconds less daylight today
Moonrise: 5:52pm; Moonset: 2:47am, waxing gibbous


Temperature Almanac for July 1, 2020
                Average            Record              Today
High             78                     95                     81
Low              57                     35                     61


July 1 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Postal Worker Day
• National U.S. Postage Stamp Day
• National Creative Ice Cream Flavors Day
• National Gingersnap Day
  

July 1 Word Riddle
I am a word of four letters.
In me may be found a verb, an animal, a viscid liquid, a science, a conjunction, and a preposition.*


July 1 Pun
My neighbor, Jack, talks to his garden. And yes, the beans talk.


July 1 Notable Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1200 Sunglasses are invented in China.
• 1858 The joint reading of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace's papers on evolution to the Linnean Society.
• 1861 First public schoolhouse opens at Washington and Mason Streets, San Francisco.
• 1896 Wilfrid Laurier assermenté comme premier Premier ministre francophone du Canada.
• 1905 Albert Einstein introduces his theory of special relativity.
• 1908 SOS · · · – – – · · · distress signal becomes the worldwide standard for help.
• 1949 WCCO television channel 4 in Minneapolis-St Paul begins broadcasting.
• 1963 ZIP (Zone Improvement Plan) Codes are introduced for United States mail.

July 1 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1646 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz.
• 1834 Jadwiga Łuszczewska, Polish poet.
• 1899 Henry "Indiana" Jones Jr.
• 1941 Twyla Tharp.
• 1952 Daniel Aykroyd.

July 1 Word Fact
The average child learns seven words/day in the first seven years of life.


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

• ambiate: to aspire to have; to desire strongly, be ambitious for.
• brabble: v., to argufy stridently; to altercate over trivialities; n., a stentorious and contumelious altercation.
• contumelious: (of behavior) scornful and insulting; insolent.
• hormesis: any process in a cell or organism that exhibits a biphasic response to exposure to increasing amounts of a substance or condition; within the hormetic zone, there is generally a favorable biological response to low exposures to toxins and other stressors, where a low dose of something can have the opposite effect of a high dose.
• misology: the hatred of reasoning; the revulsion or distrust of logical debate, argumentation, or the Socratic method.
• objurgate: to chide vehemently; to upbraid sharply; to rebuke, scold, or berate.
• paternoster: an elevator consisting of a series of linked doorless compartments moving continuously on an endless belt.
• satisdiction: the action of saying enough.
• umwelt: the behavioral environment that consists of all the things that matter to an organism's wellbeing.
• unansinous: united in stupidity; displaying ignorance or foolishness by all.

July 1, 2020 Word-Wednesday Feature
Pseudonym
ˈsuːdəˌnɪm: a fictitious name, especially one used by an author.  In addition to most Wannaskan Almanac contributors, many other famous authors used pseudonyms — where some of the most familiar include: Dr. Seuss, Mark Twain, Robert Kalbraith, Currier, Ellis, and Acton Bell, Richard Bachman, Stan Lee, Lemony Snicket, Maya Angelou, Pablo Neruda, O. Henry, and of course, Boz. Unfamiliar with any of these authors' actual names? You can find them at the end of this section.

Edward Gorey was also fond of pseudonyms. Author of works ranging from irreverent children’s books, paperback covers for literary classics, naughty thrills for grownups, and illustrated envelopes, each works bears the stamp of his unique imagination.

A darkly enigmatic character, Gorey was himself a curious self-created piece of work — where many have wondered about the veracity of his own name. It is, in fact, Edward Gorey, but he enjoyed pseudonyms so much that he used many. In Who’s Writing This?: Notations on the Authorial I with Self-Portraits Gorey draws his own self-portrait and tells the stories of his name and his pseudonyms. Here's an excerpt for a taste of his prolific pseodonymphicphilia:

About the time the first book was published over forty years ago I found my name lent itself to an edifying number of anagrams, some of which I’ve used as pen names, as imaginary authors, and as characters in their or my books. A selection of examples follows.

Ogded Weary has written The Curious Sofa, a pornographic work, and The Beastly Baby, a book no one wanted to publish.

Mrs. Regera Dowdy, who lived in the nineteenth century, is the author of The Pious Infant and such unwritten works as The Rivulets of Gore and Nets to Subdue the Deranged; she also translated The Evil Garden by Eduard Blutig, the pictures for which were drawn by O. Müde.

Madame Groeda Weyrd devised the Fantod Pack of fortune-telling cards.

Miss D. Awdrey-Gore was a celebrated and prolific mystery writer. . . . Her detective is Waredo Dyrge, whose favorite reading is the Dreary Rwedgo Series for Intrepid Young Ladies. . . .

Dogear Wryde’s work appears only on postcards.

Addée Gorrwy is known as the Postcard Poetess.

Wardore Edgy wrote movie reviews for a few months.

Wee Graddory was an Infant Poet of an earlier century.

Dora Greydew, Girl Detective, is the heroine of a series (The Creaking Knot, The Curse on the Sagwood Estate, etc.) by Edgar E. Wordy.

Garrod Weedy is the author of The Pointless Book.

Agowy Erderd is a spirit control.

However, I am still taken aback whenever someone asks me if that indeed is my real name.

Names behind the pseudonyms:

• Dr. Seuss: Thodor Seuss Geisel
• Mark Twain: Samuel Langhorne Clemens
• Robert Kalbraith: Joanne Rowling, where J.K is another pseudonym
• Currier, Ellis, and Acton Bell: Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë
• Richard Bachman: Stephen King
• Stan Lee: Stanley Martin Lieber, Marvel Comics
• Lemony Snicket: Daniel Handler
• Maya Angelou: Marguerite Annie Johnson
• Pablo Neruda: Ricardo Neftalí Reyes Basoalto
• O. Henry: William Sydney Porter
• Boz: Charles Dickens

I hope someone finds an Edward Gorey card and mails it to me.


From A Year with Rilke, July 1 Entry
Sky Within Us, from Uncollected Poems.

Oh, not to be separated,
shut off from the starry dimensions
by so thin a wall.

What is within us
if not intensified sky
traversed with birds

and deep
with winds of homecoming?

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.

*Star: sat - rat - tar - art - as - at.