Word-Wednesday for October 5, 2022

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for October 5, 2022, the fortieth Wednesday of the year, the second Wednesday of fall, and the 278th day of the year, with 87 days remaining.


Wannaska Phenology Update for October 5, 2022
Blanding’s Turtle Hatch
Emydoidea blandingii is a semi-aquatic turtle native to central and eastern parts of Canada and the United States. It is considered to be an endangered species throughout much of its range and is of interest in longevity research, as it shows little to no common signs of aging and is physically active and capable of reproduction into eight or nine decades of life, provided they successfully hatch and aren't run over by Homo stupidens. Most predation on turtle nests occurs within 48 hours after the eggs are laid. If you have Blanding's turtles in your neighborhood, consider installing a Turtle Crossing sign.

Made for Wannaska's Mikinaak Crick environs, Blanding’s turtles need both wetland and upland habitats to complete their life cycle. The types of wetlands include ponds, marshes, shrub swamps, bogs, and ditches and streams with slow-moving water. In Minnesota, Blanding’s turtles are primarily marsh and pond inhabitants. Calm, shallow water bodies (Type 1-3 wetlands) where Blanding's turtles prefer mud bottoms and abundant aquatic vegetation, such as cattails, water lilies. Extensive marshes bordering rivers provide excellent habitat.


October 5 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


October 5 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily by 11:00am, usually.


Earth/Moon Almanac for October 5, 2022
Sunrise: 7:29am; Sunset: 6:55pm; 3 minutes, 32 seconds less daylight today
Moonrise: 5:43pm; Moonset: 1:40am, waxing gibbous, 72% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for October 5, 2022
                Average            Record              Today
High             57                     81                     68
Low              35                     19                     35


October 5 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Apple Betty Day
• National Do Something Nice Day
• National Get Funky Day
• National Rhode Island Day
• World Teachers’ Day
• National Walk to School Day
• National Pumpkin Seed Day
• National Coffee with a Cop Day
• World Space Week
• World Teacher's Day

October 5 Word Riddle
What country’s capital is growing the fastest?*


October 5 Word Pun

October 5 Walking into a Bar Grammar
Ego and superego walk into a bar.
Bartender: "I'm need to see some id."


October 5 Etymology Word of the Week
autumn
/ˈô-dəm/ n., the third season of the year, when crops and fruits are gathered and leaves fall, in the northern hemisphere from September to November and in the southern hemisphere from March to May; the period from the autumnal equinox to the winter solstice, from late 14th century, autumpne (modern form from 16c.), from Old French autumpne, automne (13c.), from Latin autumnus (also auctumnus, perhaps influenced by auctus "increase"), which is of unknown origin.

Perhaps it is from Etruscan, but Tucker suggests a meaning "drying-up season" and a root in auq- (which would suggest the form in -c- was the original) and compares archaic English sere-month "August." De Vaan writes, "Although 'summer', 'winter' and 'spring' are inherited Indo-European words in Latin, a foreign origin of autumnus is conceivable, since we cannot reconstruct a Proto-Indo-European word for 'autumn'".

Harvest (n.) was the English name for the season until autumn began to displace it in the 16th century. Astronomically, from the descending equinox to the winter solstice; in Britain, the season is popularly August through October; in U.S., September through November. Compare Italian autunno, Spanish otoño, Portuguese outono, all from the Latin word.

As de Vaan notes, autumn's names across the Indo-European languages leave no evidence that there ever was a common word for it. Many "autumn" words mean "end, end of summer," or "harvest." Compare Greek phthinoporon "waning of summer;" Lithuanian ruduo "autumn," from rudas "reddish," in reference to leaves; Old Irish fogamar, literally "under-winter."

October 5 Notable Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1869 The Eastman Tunnel in Minneapolis collapses during construction causing a landslide that nearly destroys St. Anthony Falls.
• 1907 Canadian Interprovincial Rugby Football Union (IRFU) plays first game; Montreal beats Toronto, 17-8 in Montreal.
• 1924 First Little Orphan Annie comic strip appears in New York City Daily News.
• 1944 Suffrage is extended to women in France.
• 1969 Monty Python's Flying Circus begins airing on BBC TV fogamar season programming.
• 1970 PBS becomes a US television network..
• 1978 Isaac Bashevis Singer wins the Nobel Prize for literature.
• 1983 Lech Wałęsa wins Nobel Peace Prize.

October 5 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1609 Paul Fleming, German poet.
• 1713 Denis Diderot, French enlightenment philosopher.
• 1743 Giuseppe Gazzaniga, Italian composer.
• 1817 Eduard Franck, German composer.
• 1822 Hans Hampel, Czech composer.
• 1879 John Erskine, American poet.
• 1899 Bolesław Woytowicz, Polish pianist and composer.
• 1911 Brian O'Nolan, Irish novelist.
• 1923 Stig Dagerman, Swedish writer.
• 1936 Vaclav Havel, Czech politician.
• 1939 Marie-Claire Blais, French Canadian author and playwright.
• 1950 Edward P. Jones, American writer.
• 1959 David Shannon, American children's book writer and illustrator.

2022 Ig Nobel Prize Winners
The 32nd Annual Ig Nobel Prize ceremony, on Thursday, September 15, 2022, and the winners continue to prove interesting. Relevant to the arts, Word-Wednesday readers may appreciate the following papers that won this year's awards:

LITERATURE PRIZE [CANADA, USA, UK, AUSTRALIA]
Eric Martínez, Francis Mollica, and Edward Gibson, for analyzing what makes legal documents unnecessarily difficult to understand.
REFERENCE: “Poor Writing, Not Specialized Concepts, Drives Processing Difficulty in Legal Language,” Eric Martínez, Francis Mollica, and Edward Gibson, Cognition, vol. 224, July 2022, 105070.
<https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2022.105070>

ART HISTORY PRIZE [THE NETHERLANDS, GUATAMALA, USA, AUSTRIA]
Peter de Smet and Nicholas Hellmuth, for their study “A Multidisciplinary Approach to Ritual Enema Scenes on Ancient Maya Pottery.”
REFERENCE: “A Multidisciplinary Approach to Ritual Enema Scenes on Ancient Maya Pottery,” Peter A.G.M. de Smet and Nicholas M. Hellmuth, Journal of Ethnopharmacology, vol. 16, no. 2-3, 1986, pp. 213-262.
<https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-8741(86)90091-7>

PEACE PRIZE [CHINA, HUNGARY, CANADA, THE NETHERLANDS, UK, ITALY, AUSTRALIA, SWITZERLAND, USA]
Junhui Wu, Szabolcs Számadó, Pat Barclay, Bianca Beersma, Terence Dores Cruz, Sergio Lo Iacono, Annika Nieper, Kim Peters, Wojtek Przepiorka, Leo Tiokhin and Paul Van Lange, for developing an algorithm to help gossipers decide when to tell the truth and when to lie.
REFERENCE: “Honesty and Dishonesty in Gossip Strategies: A Fitness Interdependence Analysis,” Junhui Wu, Szabolcs Számadó, Pat Barclay, Bianca Beersma, Terence D. Dores Cruz, Sergio Lo Iacono, Annika S. Nieper, Kim Peters, Wojtek Przepiorka, Leo Tiokhin and Paul A.M. Van Lange, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, vol. 376, no. 1838, 2021, 20200300.
<https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0300>

and for the Svens and Ulas who may still be actively dating...

APPLIED CARDIOLOGY PRIZE [CZECH REPUBLIC, THE NETHERLANDS, UK, SWEDEN, ARUBA]
Eliska Prochazkova, Elio Sjak-Shie, Friederike Behrens, Daniel Lindh, and Mariska Kret, for seeking and finding evidence that when new romantic partners meet for the first time, and feel attracted to each other, their heart rates synchronize.
REFERENCE: “Physiological Synchrony is Associated with Attraction in a Blind Date Setting,” Eliska Prochazkova, Elio Sjak-Shie, Friederike Behrens, Daniel Lindh, and Mariska E. Kret, Nature Human Behaviour, vol. 6, no. 2, 2022, pp. 269-278.
<https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01197-3>

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

• alexithymia: /ə-ˌleks-ə-ˈTHī-mē-ə/ n., the inability to recognize or describe one's own emotions.
• buddle: /ˈbəd-(ə)l/ n., a shallow inclined container in which ore is washed.
• cerement: /ˈsir-mənt/ n., waxed cloth for wrapping a corpse.
• duple: /ˈd(y)o͞o-pəl/ adj., (of rhythm) based on two main beats to the measure.
• estivate: /ˈes-tə-ˌvāt/ v., (of an animal, particularly an insect, fish, or amphibian) spend a hot or dry period in a prolonged state of torpor or dormancy.
• lourd: /ˈlu̇rd/ adj., dull; stupid.
• mataeology: /MAT-ee-AHL-uh-jee/ n., a useless or pointless discourse; worthless conversation; a discourse that is fruitless or in vain.
• pavane: /pə-ˈvän/ n., a stately dance in slow duple time, popular in the 16th and 17th centuries and performed in elaborate clothing.
• secateur: /se-kə-ˈtər/ pruning shears, usually used in plural.
• undercroft: /ˈən-dər-krôft/ n., the crypt of a church.

October 5, 2022 Word-Wednesday Feature
litotes
/ˈlī-də-ˌtēz/ n., an understatement, often ironic, in which a positive or negative statement is expressed by negating its opposite, often, but not always used to humorous effect, not to be confused with a double negative. Sven and Ula provide several examples of litotes in everyday conversations:
That’s not a bad effort for your first try.
You’re not wrong about that.
The apple doesn’t fall from the tree.
Boiling water isn’t rocket science.
That Mephitis mephitis is none too bright.

The use of litotes in literature can often be less transparent. Here are a few examples.

But though I have wept and fasted, wept and prayed,
Though I have seen my head (grown slightly bald) brought in upon a platter,
I am no prophet – and here’s no great matter;

from The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock by T. S. Eliot

        Meaning: He might be an ordinary man, but his ruminations have a significant impact.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments.

Sonnet 116 by William Shakespeare

        Meaning: Don't interfere with two people who belong together.

Once he’s led you to Achilles’ hut,
that man will not kill you—he’ll restrain
all other men. For he’s not stupid,
blind, or disrespectful of the gods.
He’ll spare a suppliant, treat him kindly.

The Iliad by Homer

        Meaning: King Priam need not fear Achilles. Achilles is fair, reasonable, and intelligent.

[Beowulf] raised the hard weapon by the hilt,
angry and resolute — the sword wasn’t useless to the warrior.

Beowulf, author unknown

        Meaning: Beowulf could, and would, use his sword.

And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.

Jeremiah 30:19, The Bible

        Meaning: The Hebrews will be many and large in number.

“I can not say that I consider you to be kind to the ladies.”

Abigail Adams to John Adams in personal correspondence

        Meaning: You didn’t do right by the women, John. I am not happy with you.

Elizabeth Bennett: “He looks miserable, poor soul.”
Charlotte Lucas: “Miserable he may be, but poor he most certainly is not.”

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen

        Meaning: He's got plenty of money.

“It isn’t very serious. I have this tiny little tumor on the brain.”

The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

        Meaning: No biggy. I just need surgery to remove this tumor. (Never mind that it’s not actually true.)

“Tis but a scratch…I’ve had worse.”

Monty Python and the Holy Grail

        Meaning: Nothing to worry about here (as his arm falls off).

From A Year with Rilke, October 5 Entry
Il Poverello, from Book of Hours III, 33

Where is he now, who leaving wealth behind
grew so bold in poverty
that he threw off his clothes before the bishop
and stood naked in the square?

The most inward and loving of all,
he came forth like a new beginning,
the brown-robed brother of your nightingales,
with his wonder and good will
and delight in Earth.

St. Francis
by  Piero della Francesca

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.









*Ireland. Every day it’s Dublin.