Word-Wednesday for August 17, 2022

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for August 17, 2022, the thirty-third Wednesday of the year, the ninth Wednesday of summer, and the 299th day of the year, with 136 days remaining.

Brought to you by Bead Gypsy Studio, 101 Main Avenue North, in downtown Roseau, featuring a month-long August sock sale — 10% off the first pair; 20% off the second pair; and 30% off the third pair. Ask about fourth pair rates in-person.


Wannaska Phenology Update for August 17, 2022
Wild Rice Season is Open!
Minnesota’s wild rice harvest season opened August 15.  Wild rice (Zizania palustris) is called manoomin — meaning “good berry,” “harvesting berry,” or “wondrous grain" — by the Ojibwe people, who traditionally harvest during manoominike giizis (the wild rice moon) each year. I’m guessing that one of our faithful readers, Nature Lady, has already been out there with her husband and daughter. Can’ou canoe?

August 17 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


August 17 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily by 11:00am, usually.


Earth/Moon Almanac for August 17, 2022
Sunrise: 6:19am; Sunset: 8:37pm; 3 minutes, 15 seconds less daylight today
Moonrise: 11:08pm; Moonset: 1:07m, waning gibbous, 71% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for August 17, 2022
                Average            Record              Today
High             75                     92                     83
Low              52                     32                     61


August 17 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• Black Cat Appreciation Day
• National I LOVE My Feet Day!
• National Massachusetts Day
• National Nonprofit Day
• National Thrift Shop Day
• Congressional Startup Day

August 17 Word Riddle
What were the names of Scooby-Doo’s four litter siblings?*


August 17 Word Pun
Police officer Paddy O’Sullivan answered a call from the local Boston convent about a strange object circling overhead. 

When Paddy arrived, he asked the Mother Superior what kind of object it was. “I can’t say”, she replied, “but Sister Eubestrabius says she knows exactly what it was, do you want to speak with her?”

“That’s okay”, said Paddy, “I’ll just put it down as a nun-identified flying object.”


August 17 Walking into a Bar Grammar
The Oxford comma, an ambiguous statement, and a lawyer walked into a bar, watched wrestling, eating hamburgers, and sleeping on TV, and drank.


August 17 Etymology Word of the Week
Love 

 
/ləv/ v., feel deep affection for (someone); n., an intense feeling of deep affection, from  the Old English lufu "feeling of love; romantic sexual attraction; affection; friendliness; the love of God; Love as an abstraction or personification," from Proto-Germanic lubo (source also of Old High German liubi "joy," German Liebe "love;" Old Norse, Old Frisian, Dutch lof; German Lob "praise;" Old Saxon liof, Old Frisian liaf, Dutch lief, Old High German liob, German lieb, Gothic liufs "dear, beloved"). The Germanic words are from Proto-Indo-Eurpoean root leubh- "to care, desire, love."

The weakened sense "liking, fondness" was in Old English. Meaning "a beloved person" is from early 13c. The sense "no score" (in tennis, etc.) is 1742, from the notion of playing for love (1670s), that is, for no stakes. Phrase for love or money "for anything" is attested from 1580s. The phrase no love lost (between two people) is ambiguous and was used 17c. in reference to two who love each other well (c. 1640) as well as two who have no liking for each other (1620s, the usual modern sense).

To fall in love is attested from early 15c.; to be in love with (someone) is from c. 1500. To make love is from 1570s in the sense "pay amorous attention to;" as a euphemism for "have sex," it is attested from c. 1950. Love affair "a particular experience of love" is from 1590s. Love life "one's collective amorous activities" is from 1919, originally a term in psychological jargon. Love beads is from 1968. Love bug, imaginary insect, is from 1883. Love-handles "the fat on one's sides" is by 1967.


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

• 1836 Charles Darwin leaves South America for the last time on HMS Beagle.
• 1859 First air mail (in a balloon) took off from Lafayette, Indiana.
• 1903 Joe Pulitzer donates $1 million to Columbia University and begins the Pulitzer Prizes in America.
• 1939 Musical film The Wizard of Oz, starring Judy Garland, Ray Bolger, Bert Lahr, and Jack Haley premieres.
• 1946 George Orwell publishes Animal Farm in the United Kingdom.
• 1979 Monty Python's Life of Brian premieres.

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

• 1753 Josef Dobrovský, Czech linguist.
• 1878 Oliver St. John Gogarty, Irish writer.
  
• 1780  George Croly, Irish poet, novelist, historian, and divine.
• 1863 Gene Stratton-Porter, American author.
• 1866 Mir Mahboob Ali Khan, 6th Nizam of Hyderabad.
• 1893 Mae West.
• 1896 Henry P. de Vries, Dutch painter/poet.
• 1907 Roger Peyrefitte, French writer.
• 1910 Erkki Aaltonen, Finnish composer.
• 1924 Evan Connell, American author.
• 1930 Ted Hughes, English Poet.
• 1932 V.S. Naipaul, British novelist.
• 1936 Ivan Parik, Czech composer.
• 1936 Floyd Red Crow Westerman, Native American musician and actor and activist.
• 1942 Lois Lane.
• 1959 Jonathan Franzen, American author.
• 1962 Buddy Landel 'Nature Boy', American professional wrestler.
• 1964 Colin James, Canadian singer-songwriter.

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

• brummagem: /ˈbrəm-ə-jəm/ adj., cheap, showy, or counterfeit.
• cathect: /kə-ˈthekt/ v., to invest with mental or emotional energy.
• defenestrate: /dē-ˈfen-ə-ˌstrāt/ v., throw (someone) out of a window.
• euphorius: /yo͞oˈfôrēə adj., feeling or state of intense excitement and happiness.
• glebe: /ɡlēb/ n., a piece of land serving as part of a clergyman’s benefice and providing income.
• lucida: /ˈlu-‘sɪ-də/ n., the brightest star in a constellation.
• muso: /ˈmju-zoʊ/ n., musician; esp. a classical one; musician or music enthusiast, esp. (frequently mildly depreciative) one who takes himself or herself too seriously.
• pinquinitescent: /pɪŋ-ɡwɪ-na-‘tɛ-cənt/ adj., having a greasy lustre.
• roux: /ro͞o/ n., a mixture of fat (especially butter) and flour used in making sauces.
• unhemlich: /ˈʊn-haim-lɪç/ GERMAN adj., sinister, eerie, frightening.

No Doctors Today, Thank You
by Ogden Nash

They tell me that euphoria is the feeling of feeling wonderful, well,
      today I feel euphorian,
Today I have the agility of a Greek god and the appetite of a Vic-
      torian.
Yes, today I may even go forth without my galoshes,
Today I am a swashbuckler, would anybody like me to buckle any
      swashes?
This is my euphorian day,
I will ring welkins and before anybody answers I will run away.
I will tame me a caribou
And bedeck it with marabou.
I will pen me my memoirs.
Ah youth, youth! What euphorian days them was!
I wasn’t much of a hand for the boudoirs,
I was generally to be found where the food was.
Does anybody want any flotsam?
I’ve gotsam.
Does anybody want any jetsam?
I can getsam.
I can play chopsticks on the Wurlitzer,
I can speak Portuguese like a Berlitzer.
I can don or doff my shoes without tying or untying the laces be-
      cause I am wearing moccasins,
And I practically know the difference between serums and anti-
      toccasins.
Kind people, don’t think me purse-proud, don’t set me down as
      vainglorious,
I’m just a little euphorious.


August 17, 2022 Word-Wednesday Feature
Periodic Table of the Writing Elements
In a new and unfolding Word-Wednesday feature, today we begin a word-related series on the Periodic Table of Writing Elements (PTOWE) /p(ə)-ˈtū-ē/.

Multiverse of Writing Elements
Writing is clearly a multiverse rather than a simple universe. Using terms from the scientific model of the physical universe, there’s matter — otherwise known as non-fiction; and there’s dark matter — otherwise known as poetry and fiction. Non-fiction deals with the realms of right versus wrong; poetry and fiction deal with the realms of good versus evil. As such, the multiverse of non-fiction is primarily determined in terms of the writer’s platform (FOX, MSNBC, Twitter, FaceBook, Blooger, Random House), whereas the multiverse of poetry and fiction are determined by the interplay of imagination between the writer and the reader. Clearly, the multiverse writing elements of poetry and fiction dwarf those of non-fiction.


PTOWE Structure
Unlike the confusing structure of the periodic table of the elements, the PTOWE intuitively demonstrates increasing complexity as one reads both from left to right and from top to bottom, as befits the limitations of the human left hemisphere — start simple and let the right hemisphere take over the heavy lifting.

Similarly, unlike the grouping system in the periodic table of the atomic elements, which groups elements according to chemical behaviors, the complexity-oriented PTOWE features the simple monads on left-most group, aptly named, Monads, with increasing complexity as one reads rightward. The elements in the Second group, the Multipliad group, are various possible groupings or relationships of the Monads. The left hemisphere is still happy.

Whereas the periodic table of the atomic elements specifies atomic structure, the PTOWE specifies character structure (being true-to-life rather than true-to-matter), where PTOWE prioritizes self-referencing characters, and where the PTOWE incorporates principles of intersectionality to the degree possessed by the writers themselves. Where the number of subnuclear protons specify the identity of atoms on the periodic table of elements, the PWOWE uses the  charactron, all unique Monad cores: medrogen, youdrogen, hedrogen, shedrogen, themdrogen, itdrogen.

Interestingly, each of these six elemental Monads carries an identical charactron, where the Monads identity is actualized through its corresponding spinectron (think electron). Predictably, the spinectron of the medrogen cohabitates the position of it's charactron; the spinectron of the youdrogen maintains a fixed location always at the opposite pole of the charactron facing any and all medrogens; the spinectron of the hedrogen moves in a vertical orbit whenever possible; the spinectron of the shedrogen moves in an horizontal orbit whenever possible; the spinectrons of the themdrogen depends on kind and number of gender identifications held by the charactron, where multiple spinectrons may manifest; and the spinectron of the itdrogen maintains a fixed location always directly, but passively, facing the charactron of any and all medrogens, hedrogens, shedrogens, themdrogens, and other itdrogens. So yes, depending on the story’s Narrativium (discussed below) the supreme, self-referencing position of the medrogen can render any other Monad into a passive, static, controllable it.

The elements in the Second group, the Multipliad group include Useim, Themeium, Thoseium in a multiplicity of configurations with two or more Monads, known as Relationagons, depending on number of Monads in the story, and on each Monad’s spinectron configuration. The PTOWE also incorporates elements of time and infinitude, where each box in the Multipliad group may range in size from a simple dyad to almost, but not quite, infinitely large. Why almost? Even for the mystic fiction writer, the Us inherently implies a Them.

Often defined in terms of point of view, the Narrativiums are grouped as First - , Second - , and Third - , where the X may be a person, animal, vegetable, mineral, or any other imaginable it telling the story — at least in the fiction writer’s PTOWE.

Right Side Limits of the PTOWE
A fierce, perhaps unresolvable debate rages in almost all writing circles from literary theorists to graphic novelists to Sven and Ula, regarding the group representing the greatest degree of writing complexity: Inspiration versus Imagination. These two elements constantly battle one another for the far-right position of the PTOWE — perhaps, this is as it should be. This is where the right hemisphere thrives.

Word-Wednesday will explore other groups in the PTOWE as an ongoing project. Please let us know if you have any word ideas for naming new groups.


From A Year with Rilke, August 17 Entry
Confession, from Early Journals
I always wish to tell someone (I don't know who) "Don't be sad." And it seems to me that this is so trusting a confession that I must express it softly and delicately and in the dimness of twilight.

Landscape at Moonrise
by  Vincent van Gogh

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.







*Whoopdee, YabbaDabba, Nocan, and Dobedobe.