Word-Wednesday for June 2, 2021

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Word-Wednesday, June 2, 2021, the 22nd Wednesday of the year, the eleventh Wednesday of spring, and the 153rd day of the year, with 212 days remaining.


Wannaska Nature Update for June 2, 2021
Ants are out.

Minnesota has one hundred one different species of ants, many of which the University of Minnesota Extension Service classifies as pests, with advice on how to control ants, should you be in need of such services.


Nordhem Lunch: Closed.


Earth/Moon Almanac for June 2, 2021
Sunrise: 5:24am; Sunset: 9:20pm; 1 minutes, 31 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 2:38am; Moonset: 1:14pm, waning gibbous, 47% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for June 2, 2021
                Average            Record              Today
High             69                     91                     84
Low              48                     32                     62


June 2 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Rotisserie Chicken Day
• National Rocky Road Day
• National Bubba Day
• National First Ladies Day
• National Leave The Office Early Day
• National Running Day

June 2 Word Riddle
Why aren’t chickens allowed in church?*


June 2 Pun
Do not join dangerous cults; practice safe sects.


June 2 Etymology Word of the Week
Ant
From emete of Middle English, which comes from ǣmette of Old English, where these English forms are all related to the dialectal Dutch, emt, and the Old High German āmeiza, from which comes the modern German ameise.

All of these words come from West Germanic ǣmaitjōn, where the original meaning of this word was "the biter" (from Proto-Germanicai-, "off, away" + *mait- "cut").


June 2 Notable Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1875 Alexander Graham Bell makes first sound transmission.
• 1919 Pulitzer prize awarded to Carl Sandburg for Cornhuskers.
• 1920 Pulitzer prize awarded to Eugene O'Neill for Beyond the Horizon.
• 1924 Snyder Act: US citizenship granted to all American Indians.

June 2 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1740 Marquis de Sade.
• 1840 Thomas Hardy.
• 1857 Edward Elgar, English composer.
• 1857 Karl Adolph Gjellerup, poet and 1917 Nobel Prize winner.
• 1929 Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth.
• 1941 Charlie Watts.

June 2, 2021 Song of Myself
Verse 31 of 52
I believe a leaf of grass is no less than the journey-work of the stars,
And the pismire is equally perfect, and a grain of sand, and the egg of the wren,
And the tree-toad is a chef-d’œuvre for the highest,
And the running blackberry would adorn the parlors of heaven,
And the narrowest hinge in my hand puts to scorn all machinery,
And the cow crunching with depress’d head surpasses any statue,
And a mouse is miracle enough to stagger sextillions of infidels.

I find I incorporate gneiss, coal, long-threaded moss, fruits, grains, esculent roots,
And am stucco’d with quadrupeds and birds all over,
And have distanced what is behind me for good reasons,
But call any thing back again when I desire it.

In vain the speeding or shyness,
In vain the plutonic rocks send their old heat against my approach,
In vain the mastodon retreats beneath its own powder’d bones,
In vain objects stand leagues off and assume manifold shapes,
In vain the ocean settling in hollows and the great monsters lying low,
In vain the buzzard houses herself with the sky,
In vain the snake slides through the creepers and logs,
In vain the elk takes to the inner passes of the woods,
In vain the razor-bill’d auk sails far north to Labrador,
I follow quickly, I ascend to the nest in the fissure of the cliff.


For more on Walt Whitman’s recent appointment with doctor Robert Anderson, click here.


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

• abscotchalater: /ahb-SKOCH-uh-lay-ter/ n., someone who is avoiding arrest by hiding from the police.
• bunbury: /BUHN-ber-ee/ v., to avoid responsibilities or social engagements by claiming to have an ill friend that must be cared for.
• crepitation: /krep-ih-TEY-shuhn/ n., the eldritch bombination produced by cicadas when vibrating their tymbals.
• esculent: /ˈes-kyə-lənt/ adj., fit to be eaten, edible; n., a thing, especially a vegetable, which is fit to be eaten.
• harridan: ˈherəd(ə)n n., a strict, bossy, or belligerent old woman.
• mullock: /‘ˈmʌələk/ intransitive, to be in the way; to idle, to loiter, or to trail around aimlessly.
• negroni: /nəˈɡ-‘grō-nē/ n., Italian cocktail, made of one part gin, one part vermouth rosso, and one part Campari, garnished with orange peel. It is considered an apéritif. A traditionally made Negroni is stirred, not shaken, and built over ice in an old-fashioned or rocks glass and garnished with a slice of orange.
• pismire: /ˈpisˌ-mī(ə)r/ n., an ant.
• quoit: /k(w)oit/ n., 1.  a ring of iron, rope, or rubber thrown in a game to encircle or land as near as possible to an upright peg; 2. the flat covering stone of a dolmen.
• strappado: /strəˈ-‘pā-dō/ n., a form of punishment or torture in which the victim was secured to a rope and made to fall from a height almost to the ground before being stopped with an abrupt jerk.
  

June 2, 2021 Word-Wednesday Feature
2021 Summer Travel Pronunciation Guide
As you venture bravely forth into the mostly post-COVID world, please review and practice safe and proper pronunciations if you plan to visit any of the designated destinations and introduce your self a visitor from Wannaska (wahn-AS-kah):

Bangkok, Thailand
Wrong: BANG-kok; Right: bahng-gawk

Baudette, Minnesota
Wrong: bôd-ET; Right: bDET

Beijing, China
Wrong: BAY-zhhhing; Right: bey-jing

Brisbane, Australia
Wrong: bris-BAYNE; Right: BRIS-bn

Budapest, Hungary
Wrong: boo-da-PEST; Right: boo-da-PESHT

Columbia, South America
Wrong: co-LUM-bee-a; Right: CO-LOHM-bee-a

Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Wrong: doo-BYE; Right: du-BAY

Iraq
Wrong: EYE-rack; Right: ih-RAHK

Kissimmee, Florida
Wrong: KISS-a-mee; Right: ka-SIM-ee

Lafayette, Louisiana
Wrong: lah-FEY-et; Right: laff-Ē-yet

La Jolla, California
Wrong: La JOL-la; Right: la HOY-a

Melbourne, Australia
Wrong: mel-BORN; Right: MELB-n

Montreal, Canada
Wrong: MON-tree-ALL; Right: MUN-tree-all

Nijer, Africa
Wrong: NYE-jer; Right: nee-ZHAIR

Phuket, Thailand
Wrong: FOO-kit or FOO-ket; Right: poo-KHET

Qatar
Wrong: kah-TAR; Right: KUH-ter

Reykjavik, Iceland
Wrong: RAKE-ja-vik; Right: REY-kya-vik

Roseau, Minnesota
Wrong: RŌ-zō; Right: RŌ-sō

Thames, river in the United Kingdom
Wrong: THAYms; Right: TEMs

Versailles, France
Wrong: ver-SAYLZ; Right: ver-SYE

Via Dolorosa, Jerusalem
Wrong: ve-ya-DEL-a RO-sa; Right: vee-ya-DOLL-o-RO-sa

Worcestershire, United Kingdom
Wrong: wor-CHES-ter-shyr; Right: WUS-tar-sheer

Yosemite Park
Wrong: yo-SE-mi-nee or yo-se-MIGHT; Right: yo-SEM-it-ee

If you’re looking for a travel itinerary, Roseau County citizens can visit all 48 contiguous states in a round-trip sequence of non-rectangular counties:

From A Year with Rilke, June 2 Entry
Often When I Imagine You, from The Book of Hours I, 45

Often when I imagine you
your wholeness cascades into many shapes.
You run like a herd of luminous deer
and I am dark, I am forest.



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.




*Because of their fowl language.