Word-Wednesday for June 29, 2022

Spanning the globe to bring you the constant variety of new words... the trill of frippary... and the apogee of offbeat... the human drama of semantic explication...here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday, June 29, 2022, the twenty-sixth Wednesday of the year, the second Wednesday of summer, and the 180th day of the year, with 185 days remaining.


Wannaska Phenology Update for June 29, 2022
Fireflies are out!

 

The long days of summer even have more light at night. After overwintering as larvae, adult fireflies in the aptly named family, Lampyridae, Photuris lucicrescens emerge in early summer and begin to look for mates. You can find them resting on foliage during the day.

The light show in Wannaska often continues into August, as the fireflies flash a particular message signal in search of a mate, where variables include flash pattern, flash duration, number of flashes per signal, distance flown between signals, time of day, and even signal color.

June 29 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


June 29 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch:
Baked Ham
    Scalloped potatoes
    Buttered peas
Chicken Burger
    Cole slaw
    Fresh fruit
"BOWL" Hamburger Vegetable Soup & your choice:
    Ham sandwich
    Turkey sandwich
    Hamburger

Earth/Moon Almanac for June 29, 2022
Sunrise: 5:23am; Sunset: 9:31pm; 44 seconds less daylight today
Moonrise: 5:22am; Moonset: 10:34pm, new moon, 0% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for June 29, 2022
                Average            Record              Today
High             75                    100                     75
Low              54                     39                     62
Could be worse. Just yesterday in Norway and Tunisia:

June 29 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Almond Buttercrunch Day
• National Camera Day
• National Waffle Iron Day
• National Parchment Day

June 29 Word Riddle
Twin sisters are we,
One is dark and one is fair.
In twin towers dwelling, we’re quite the pair.
One from land and one from sea,
Tell us truly,

Who are we?*

June 29 Word Pun

June 29 Walking into a Bar Grammar
An Oxford comma walks into a bar where it spends the evening watching the television getting drunk and smoking cigars.


June 29 Etymology Word of the Week
cadence
/ˈkā-dns/ n., a modulation or inflection of the voice, from late 14c., "flow of rhythm in prose or verse," from French cadence, from Old Italian cadenza "conclusion of a movement in music," literally "a falling," from Vulgar Latin cadentia, from neuter plural of Latin cadens, present participle of cadere "to fall" (from Proto-Indo-European root kad- "to fall"). A doublet of chance (n.).

The notion is of a "fall" in the voice in reading aloud or speaking, as at the end of a sentence, also the rising and falling in modulation of tones in reciting. Later (1590s) extended to music, in reference to a sequence of chords expressing conclusion at the end of a phrase and resolving to the key in which the piece was written. Also the measure or beat of any rhythmic movement (c. 1600). In 16c., sometimes used literally for "an act of falling."


June 29 Notable Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 512 A solar eclipse is recorded by a monastic chronicler in Ireland.
• 1194 Sverre is crowned King of Norway.
• 1613 Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London, burns down during a performance of Henry VIII.
• 1755 German medieval heroic poem Nibelungenlied (the Song of the Nibelungs) rediscovered in Hohenems Castle Library in Vorarlberg, Austria by Jacob Hermann Oreit.
• 1891 US National Forest Service organized.
• 1940 Batman Comics, mobsters rubbed out a circus highwire team known as the Flying Graysons, leaving their son Dick (Robin) an orphan.

June 29 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1798 Giacomo Leopardi, Italian poet and philosopher.
• 1805 Hiram Powers, American sculptor.
• 1850 Joseph Paul Skelly, Irish-American composer.
• 1874 Georg Göhler, German composer.
• 1900 Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, French writer.
• 1914 Rafael Kubelik, Czech conductor.
• 1922 Vasko Popa, Yugoslavia-Serbian poet.
• 1963 Anne-Sophie Mutter, German violinist.

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

• architrave: /ˈär-kəˌ-trāv/ n., (in classical architecture) a main beam resting across the tops of columns, specifically the lower third entablature; the molded frame around a doorway or window.
• bammy: /ˈbæ-mi/ n., in Jamaican cookery, a round flatbread made from cassava flour.
• chaffer: /ˈCHafər/, v., haggle about the terms of an agreement or price of something.
• gugering: /GOO-jə-riNG/ v. IRISH, the act of dropping seed potatoes into holes in the ground.
• jorts: /johrts/ n., jean shorts.
• libricide: /ˈlib-rē-cīde/ v., the destruction of books.
• paysagist: /pay-ZAHZH-ist/ n., one who paints landscapes; a landscape artist.
• snell: /snel/ n., a short line of gut or horsehair by which a fishhook is attached to a longer line; v., tie or fasten (a hook) to a line.
• triturate: /TRICH-uh-reyt/ v., to reduce to fine particles or powder by rubbing, grinding, bruising; to pulverize; to chew or grind (food) thoroughly, and n., /TRICH-er-it/ that which has been ground into particles; the result of trituration.
• vicinage: /VIS-uh-nij/ n., a particular neighborhood or district, or the people belonging to it.

June 29, 2022 Word-Wednesday Feature
Summertime Word Fun
Here we are, only the second Wednesday of summer, and the days are already getting shorter. Today's Word-Wednesday feature will help you maximize your time under the sun and minimize your time in front of a screen. Still reading? Then check out this helpful Web site, designed to help you and your family appropriately plan (and limit) your daily screen time.

If you're still reading, today's Word-Wednesday feature otherwise features a short word game so that you can get off your screen and go outside and enjoy your summer sun-time. One of the words defined below is from The Meaning of Liff - a made up word; and one of the words defined below carries the definition as it appears in The Devil's Dictionary, by Ambrose Bierce, as recently discussed by Chairman Joe. Find each of those two nonstandard word/definitions.

• abear: /ə-ˈbɛər/ trans. v., to enure or to behave.
• brannigan: /ˈbran-ə-ɡən/ n., a brawl or violent argument.
• cabotage: /ˈkab-ə-ˌtäZH/ n., the right to operate sea, air, or other transport services within a particular territory.
• dottle: /ˈdä-dl/ n., a remnant of tobacco left in a pipe after smoking.
• everywhen: /EV-ree-hwen/ adv., all the time; always.
• firkin: /ˈfər-kən/ n., a small cask formerly used for liquids, butter or fish; a unit of volume equal to half a kilderkin (about 11 gallons or 41 liters.
• fubsy: /ˈfəb-zē/ adj., fat and squat.
• godwottery: /ˌɡɒd-ˈwɒt-ə-rē/ n., an affected quality of archaism, excessive fussiness, and sentimentality.
• hoecake: /ˈhō-kāk/ n., a course cake made of cornmeal, originally baked on the blade of a hoe.
• inkle: /ˈiNG-kəl/ n., a kind of linen tape formerly used to make laces, or the linen yarn from which this is manufactured.
• knurly: /ˈnɜr-li/ adj., full of knurls, as wood; gnarled.
• lickspittle: /'lik-,spi-dl/ n., a useful functionary, not infrequently found editing a newspaper, wherein his character of editor he is closely allied to the blackmailer by the tie of occasional identity; for in truth the lickspittle is only the blackmailer under another aspect, although the latter is frequently found as an independent species. Lickspittling is more detestable than blackmailing, precisely as the business of a confidence man is more detestable than that of a highway robber; and the parallel maintains itself throughout, for whereas few robbers will cheat, every sneak will plunder if he dare.
• motspur: /'mät-spər/ n., the fourth wheel of a supermarket cart renders the cart difficult to control.
• perissology: /ˌper-ə-ˈsä-lə-jē/ n., superfluity of words; a pleonasm.
• spondulicks: /spän-ˈdü-liks/ n., money, cash.
• taradiddle: /ˈter-ə-ˌdidl/ n., a petty lie; pretentious nonsense.
• ufology: /yo͞o-ˈfä-lə-jē/ n., the study of UFOs.
• widdendream: /ˈwid-ən-ˌdrēm/ n., mental excitement or confusion; a mad fit; fury.

Don’t forget your sunscreen!


From A Year with Rilke, June 29 Entry http://yearwithrilke.blogspot.com/
Slowness, from Letter to a friend, February 3, 1923

As for me, my internal pace is slow. Mine is the intrinsic slowness of the tree that embraces its growth and its blooming. Yes, I have a bit of its admirable patience. I had to train myself in it from the moment I understood the secret slowness that engenders and distills any work of art. But if I know its temporal measure, I know nothing of its immobility. Oh, the joys of travel!



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.





*salt and pepper.