Word-Wednesday for August 3, 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, August 3, 2022, the thirty-first Wednesday of the year, the seventh Wednesday of summer, and the 215th day of the year, with 150 days remaining.


Wannaska Phenology Update for August 3, 2022
Toad Bloom in Beltrami!
Another famous voice in Wannaska forests and swamps, Anaxyrus americanus, American toad, has recently had a big hatch. A single female lays up to 20,000 eggs. Out here in the forest, it seems like the egg/toadlet ratio was pretty darn good. The toads like the forest because of our sandy soils. To survive the winter, toads burrow beneath the ground, typically just below the frost line. As the frost line gets deeper, so too will the American toad. By the way, a person cannot get warts by handling toads.

August 3 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


August 3 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily by 11:00am, usually.


Earth/Moon Almanac for August 3, 2022
Sunrise: 6:00am; Sunset: 9:00pm; 2 minutes, 53 seconds less daylight today
Moonrise: 12:17pm; Moonset: 11:33pm, waxing crescent, 34% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for August 3, 2022
                Average            Record              Today
High             77                     97                     71
Low              54                    34                     54


August 3 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Georgia Day
• National Grab Some Nuts Day
• National Watermelon Day

August 3 Word Riddle
What do you call the shortest mother?*


August 3 Word Pun
Men of many marriages, Sven and Ula vere arguing von day aboot the difference betveen the vords “completed” and “finished”. Sven said he didn’t see any big difference, but Ula gave him a poignant example:

“Ven you marry the right voman, you are ‘complete’; if you marry the vrong voman, you are ‘finished’; and, if the right voman catches you with the vrong voman, you are ‘completely finished’.”


August 3 Walking into a Bar Grammar
Falling slowly, softly falling, the chiasmus collapses to the bar floor.


August 3 Etymology Word of the Week
tact
/takt/ n., adroitness and sensitivity in dealing with others or with difficult issues, from 1650s, "sense of touch or feeling" (with an isolated instance, tacþe from c. 1200), from Latin tactus "a touch, handling, sense of touch," from root of tangere "to touch," from Proto-Indo-European root tag- "to touch, handle." Meaning "sense of discernment in action or conduct, diplomacy, fine intuitive mental perception" first recorded 1804, from development in French cognate tact. The Latin figurative sense was "influence, effect."


August 3 Notable Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1676 Nathaniel Bacon publishes Declaration of People of Virginia.
• 1778 Teatro alla Scala opens in Milan.
• 1804 Naturalist Alexander von Humboldt lands at Bordeaux, France completing his 5 year expedition to Latin America.
• 1829 Gioachino Rossini's last and greatest opera Guillaume Tell (William Tell) premieres at Salle Le Peletier in Paris.
• 1939 Jean Genet's Ondine premieres in Paris.

August 3 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1871 Vernon Louis Parrington, American author, 1928 Pulitzer Prize winner.
• 1887 Rupert Brooke, British World War I poet.
• 1889 Otto Gutfreund, Czech sculptor.
• 1904 Clifford D. Simak, American science-fiction author.
• 1916 Roger Casement, Irish poet and activist.
• 1921 Hayden Carruth, American poet.
• 1924 Leon Uris, American novelist.
• 1934 Haystacks Calhoun, American professional wrestler.
• 1937 Diane Wakoski, American poet.

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

• apopemptic: /ap-ə-‘pem(p)-tik/ adj., sung or addressed to one departing; valedictory.
• bavian: /BEY-vee-uhn/ n., an incompetent, insignificant or unskilled poet.
• chrestomathy: /kre-ˈstäm-ə-THē/ n., a selection of passages from an author or authors, designed to help in learning a language.
• effutiation: /eh-fyoo-shi-AHY-shuhn/ n., babbling chatter, in a way that unintentionally reveals secrets; spoken or written words that make no sense; gibberish; nonsense, twaddle, humbug, bollocks.
• gallimaufry: /ˌɡal-əˈ-mô-frē/ n., a confused jumble or medley of things.
• hegira: /hi-ˈjī-rə/ n., a journey especially when undertaken to escape from a dangerous or undesirable situation; any flight or journey to a more desirable or congenial place.
• polrumptious: /pɑl-ˈrəm(p)-ʃəs/ adj., unruly; behaving in an obstreperous manner; overconfident.
• rumbustious: /ˌrəm-ˈbəs-CHəs/ adj., boisterous or unruly.
• tyrotoxism: /tī’rō-tok’sizm/ n., poisoning by cheese or any milk product.
• witter: /ˈwɪ-tər/ v., to chatter or babble pointlessly or at unnecessary length.

August 3, 2022 Word-Wednesday Feature
From the definition and etymology featured above, the word tact implies a fine discernment of what is appropriate and the ability to speak or act without giving offense. The tactful person touches another with sensitivity. Many persons living today see tact as a skill, but in the words of authors featured below, most see tact as a personal virtue and character, or a lack thereof.

Although tact is a virtue, it is very closely allied to certain vices; the line between tact and hypocrisy is a very narrow one. I think the distinction comes in the motive: when it is kindliness that makes us wish to please, our tact is the right sort; when it is fear of offending, or desire to obtain some advantage by flattery, our tact is apt to be of a less amiable kind.

Bertrand Russel

Tact is the ability to agree with a person and still convince him he’s wrong.

Orlando Battista

The austere principles of tact tell the tongue to keep away from the aching thought.

Elizabeth Bibesco

It is tact that is golden, not silence.

Samuel Butler

Tact is good taste in action.

Diane De Poitiers

Praise out of season, or tactlessly bestowed, can freeze the heart as much as blame.

Pearl S. Buck

Tact consists in knowing how far to go in going too far.

Jean Cocteau

Don't flatter yourselves that friendship authorizes you to say disagreeable things to your intimates. On the contrary, the nearer you come into relation with a person, the more necessary do tact and courtesy become.

Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Tact is after all a kind of mind-reading.

Sarah Orne Jewett

If criticism is needed, do it tactfully. Don't use a sledgehammer when a fly swatter will do the job.

Ann Landers

In the battle of existence, Talent is the punch; tact is the clever footwork.

Wison Mizner

Tact does not remove difficulties, but difficulties melt away under tact.

Benjamin Disraeli

Tact is the art of putting your foot down without stepping on anyone's toes.

Laurence J. Peter

When you shoot an arrow of truth, dip its point in honey.

Arab proverb

Cultivate tact, for it is the mark of culture, and as important as character itself. It is the lubricant of human relationships, softening contacts and minimizing friction.

Baltasar Gracián

What a fine quality, what an absolute virtue Tact is. Lady Portmore never had a grain of it—a misfortune that fell more heavily on her friends than on herself.

Emily Eden, in The Semi-Attached Couple

Tact is not only kindness, but kindness skillfully extended.

J.G. Randall

Beware of allowing a tactless word, a rebuttal, a rejection to obliterate the whole sky.

Anaïs Nin

Tact does for life just what lubricating oil does for machinery. It makes the wheels run smoothly, and without it there is a great deal of friction and the possibility of a breakdown.

Laura Ingalls Wilder

Opinion! If every one had so little tact as to give their true opinion when it was asked this would be a miserable world.

Edna Ferber

So be sure when you step.
Step with care and great tact,
and remember that Life’s
a Great Balancing Act.

Theodor Geisel [Dr. Seuss]

From A Year with Rilke, August 3 Entry
What the Things Can Teach Us, from The Book of Hours II, 16

This is what the things can teach us:
to fall,
patiently to trust our heaviness.
Even a bird has to do that
before he can fly.

Bluebird
by  Marc Chagall

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.







*a minimum.