Word-Wednesday for May 17, 2023

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for May 17, 2023, the twentieth Wednesday of the year, the ninth Wednesday of spring, and the one-hundred thirty-seventh day of the year, with two-hundred twenty-eight days remaining.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for May 17, 2023
Dragonflies
Did you know that we live in a Dragonfly Paradise? Thanks to one of our faithful readers who previously worked for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources a Wildlife Management Area manager, her sponsored research showed that dragonflies are "an integral part of our ecosystem." Yes, Ginny, they even eat mosquitos.

The infraorder Anisoptera comes from Greek ἄνισος anisos "unequal" and πτερόν pteron "wing" because dragonflies' hindwings are broader than their forewings. Dragonfly fossils date back to the Early Permian, when they had wingspans of around 30 inches.

Around our wildlife areas, over 65 species have been identified so far, where Minnesota has 149 species overall. Agile flyers, their maneuverability is aided by eyes have up to 30,000 lenses. Dragonflies spend time as water nymphs in part of their lifecycle, so our Northwest Minnesota wetlands are a paradise.

Dragonflies are represented in human culture on artifacts such as pottery, rock paintings, and statues — symbols of courage, strength, and happiness across different cultures. Their bright colors and agile flight are admired in the poetry of Alfred, Lord Tennisball.

The Dragonfly
Today I saw the dragonfly
Come from the wells where he did lie.
An inner impulse rent the veil
Of his old husk: from head to tail
Came out clear plates of sapphire mail.
He dried his wings: like gauze they grew;
Thro’ crofts and pastures wet with dew
A living flash of light he flew.

Alfred, Lord Tennyson

Other recent spring sighting include snakes, ferns, marsh marigolds, blueberry flowers, false morels, and mosquitos. Our first hummingbird of the year appeared last Wednesday.

Jupiter will be just next to the crescent moon tonight.


May 17 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


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


Earth/Moon Almanac for May 17 2023
Sunrise: 5:38am; Sunset: 9:00pm; 2 minutes, 34 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 4:42am; Moonset: 7:02pm, waning crescent, 3% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for May 17, 2023
                Average            Record              Today
High             63                     89                    82
Low              40                     21                     46

When I am Among the Trees
by Mary Oliver

When I am among the trees,
especially the willows and the honey locust
equally the beech, the oaks and the pines,
they give off such hints of gladness.
I would almost say that they save me, and daily.
I am so distant from the hope of myself,
in which I have goodness, and discernment,
and never hurry through the world
but walk slowly, and bow often.
Around me the trees stir in their leaves
and call out, “Stay awhile.”
The light flows from their branches.
And they call again, “It’s simple,” they say,
“and you too have come
into the world to do this, to go easy, to be filled
with light, and to shine.”

May 17 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• World Telecommunication and Information Society Day
• World Hypertension Day
• International Day Against Homophobia, Transphobia, and Biphobia
• World Information Society Day
• National Idaho Day
• National Graduation Tassel Day
• Emergency Medical Services for Children Day
• National Walnut Day
• National Cherry Cobbler Day
• National Pack Rat Day
• Syttende Mai

May 17 Word Riddle
What did Sven say when asked why he named his pet Tiny?*


May 17 Word Pun
As I suspected, somebody has been adding soil to my garden.
The plot thickens…


May 17 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
UNDERSTANDING, n. A cerebral secretion that enables one having it to know a house from a horse by the roof on the house. Its nature and laws have been exhaustively expounded by Locke, who rode a house, and Kant, who lived in a horse.

His understanding was so keen
That all things which he’d felt, heard, seen,
He could interpret without fail
If he was in or out of jail.
He wrote at Inspiration’s call
Deep disquisitions on them all,
Then, pent at last in an asylum,
Performed the service to compile ‘em.
So great a writer, all men swore,
They never had not read before.

                                            Jorrock Wormley


May 17 Etymology Word of the Week
franchise
/ˈfran-ˌchīz/ n.,  the right or license granted to an individual or group to market a company's goods or services in a particular territory, from circa 1300, fraunchise, "a special right or privilege (by grant of a sovereign or government);" also "national sovereignty; nobility of character, generosity; the king's authority; the collective rights claimed by a people or town or religious institution," also used of the state of Adam and Eve before the Fall, from Old French franchise "freedom, exemption; right, privilege" (12th century), from variant stem of franc "free".

From late 14th century as "freedom; not being in servitude; social status of a freeman;" early 15th century as "citizenship, membership in a community or town; membership in a craft or guild." The "special right" sense narrowed in the 18th century to "particular legal privilege," then "right to vote" (1790). From mid-15th century as "right to buy or sell," also "right to exclude others from buying or selling, a monopoly;" meaning "authorization by a company to sell its products or services" is from 1959.


May 17 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 218 Seventh recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.
• 1620 First merry-go-round seen at a fair in Philippapolis, Turkey.
• 1824 The diaries of Lord Byron are burnt by six of the poet's friends at the office of John Murray in London, sometimes described as “the greatest crime in literary history”.
• 1881 Frederick Douglass appointed recorder of deeds for Washington, D.C..
• 1890 Clyde Fitch's play Beau Brummel premieres.
• 1890 Comic Cuts, first weekly comic paper, published in London.
• 1900 The Wonderful Wizard of Oz is first published by L. Frank Baum with illustrations by William Wallace Denslow.
• 1904 Maurice Ravel's song cycle Shéhérazade premieres.

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

• 1155 Jien, Japanese poet.
• 1732 Francesco Pasquale Ricci, Italian composer.
• 1794 Anna Brownell Jameson, Irish author.
• 1803 Robert Smith Surtees, British novelist.
• 1819 Johann Nepomuk Kafka, Bohemian pianist.
• 1836 Virginie Loveling, Flemish writer and poet.
• 1866 Erik Satie, French composer.
• 1873 Dorothy M. Richardson, English novelist.
• 1873 Henri Barbusse, French novelist.
• 1889 Alfonso Reyes, Mexican author.
• 1896 Hannah Tillich, German-American writer.
• 1914 Guido Masanetz, German composer.
• 1924 Frantisek Kovaricek, Czech composer.
• 1961 Enya, Irish singer.

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

• bruckle: /ˈbrə-kəl/ adj., easily broken or crumbled.
• castellan: /ˈka-stə-lən/ n., governor of a castle.
• foulder: /ˈfaʊld-ər/ v., to flash forth like a thunderbolt.
• geck: /ˈgek/ intr.v., to be scornful or derisive.
• joss: /ˈjäs/ n., a Chinese idol or cult image.
• kinnikinnick: /ˈki-ni-kə-ˌnik/ n., a mixture of dried leaves and bark and sometimes tobacco smoked by the Indians and pioneers especially in the Ohio valley; a plant (such as a sumac or dogwood) used in kinnikinnick.
• monotreme: /ˈmä-nə-ˌtrēm/ n., any of an order (Monotremata) of egg-laying mammals comprising the platypuses and echidnas.
• purlieu: /PUR-loo/ n., the area near or surrounding a place.
• scald: /skahld/ n., a medieval Scandinavian poet, bard or minstrel especially one writing in the Viking age; the poets and musicians of the ancient northern nations.
• washikong: /'wa-ʃi-kɑŋ/ n., a light canvas shoe with a rubber sole, a plimsoll; a trainer or running shoe.

May 17, 2023 Word-Wednesday Feature
Talking Words
Whether you’re a writer, a reader, a (grand)parent, or a (grand)child, today’s Word-Wednesday has something for everyone. Writers always need to improve character dialogue; readers of poetry and more modern fiction that omits the use of quotation marks must often read cues as to character intent and emotion; (grand)parents want to be more intellectually and emotionally available to their (grand)children; and children just want to have fun as they learn to be more intellectually and emotionally literate and expressive.

Borrowing from Wannaskan Almanac’s creative list-maven, the Word-Wednesday staff began compiling a list of how-we-talk works and idioms several weeks ago.

Our decidedly A-to-Z list of how-we-talk words and idioms appears at the end of this post. But first, exercise your own gray matter — left and right hemispheres — to expand your vocabulary and your emotional range. To warm up, consider the following from Ambrose Bierce and Ha Jin.

TALK, v.t. To commit an indiscretion without temptation, from an impulse without purpose.

Ways of Talking
By Ha Jin

We used to like talking about grief
Our journals and letters were packed
with losses, complaints, and sorrows.
Even if there was no grief
we wouldn’t stop lamenting
as though longing for the charm
of a distressed face.

Then we couldn’t help expressing grief
So many things descended without warning:
labor wasted, loves lost, houses gone,
marriages broken, friends estranged,
ambitions worn away by immediate needs.
Words lined up in our throats
for a good whining.
Grief seemed like an endless river—
the only immortal flow of life.

After losing a land and then giving up a tongue,
we stopped talking of grief
Smiles began to brighten our faces.
We laugh a lot, at our own mess.
Things become beautiful,
even hailstones in the strawberry fields.

From A Year with Rilke, May 17 Entry
Brother Body, from Uncollected Poems

(in the sanitarium, in Rilke’s final illness)

Brother body is poor…that means we must be rich for him.
He was often the rich one; so may he be forgiven
for the meanness of his wretched moments.
Then, when he acts as though he barely knows us,
may he be gently reminded of all that has been shared.

Of course, we are not one but two solitaries:
our consciousness and he.
But how much we have to thank each other for,
as friends do! And illness reminds us:
friendship demands a lot.

Good Samaritan (after Delacroix)
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.


*”Because it’s my newt.”

How We Talk

• accuse, advertise, affirm, air, allege, argue, articulate, aver, avouch, avow;
• babble, baby-talk, backstab, bandy, bang, beg, beg-the-question, betray, bicker, blab, blabber, blame, blather, blether, blither, blow smoke, blurt, breathe, broadcast, burble;
• cajole, cackle, call, call out, chat, chatter, chew the fat, chew the rag, chaffer, chinwag, chirp, circulate, comment, complain, complement, compliment, confide, converse, coo, couch, crap on, croak, croon, cross;
• decant, declaim, direct, disclose, discourage, discuss, dissect, divulge, drawl, double-cross, drone, drone, drop a dime on,
• echo, enthuse, enunciate, evangelize, expand, expatiate, expostulate, expound, express;
• fib, filibuster, fink, formulate;
• gab, gabber, gabble, gas, gasp, gibber, give, go on, gossip, grieve, grunt;
• harangue; hector; hint; hold court; hold the floor;
• imply, inform, insinuate, interrogate, intimate;
• jabber, jaw;
• kibitz;
• lament, let lie, lip, loose, lecture, lyricize;
• mansplain, maunder, meander, mother, mouth /ˈmau̇t͟hz/, mumble, murmur, mutter;
• name, natter;
• orate, order, overstate;
• palaver, patter, pipe, pipe-up, pontificate, post, prate, prattle, proclaim, project, promulgate, pronounce, purr, put;
• quaver, quibble;
• ramble, rant, rap, rattle, rattle, rave, recite, reel, reel something off, remark, repeat, rhyme, riff, rumor;
• say, sell out, sermonize, share, shmooze, shoot, shoot the breeze, shoot your mouth off, shout, sing, sink, slur, snarl, soliloquize, snitch, speak, speak up, spill the beans, spit, spit something out, spout, splutter, spout, squeak, squeal, squib, stage-whisper, stammer, state, stutter, suggest, surprise;
• talk, talk a blue streak, talk sweet nothings, talk nonsense, talk sh*t, talk through your hat, trash talk, tattle, telegraph, throw your voice, tip off, trade trash,  trill, turn in, turn off, turn on, twitter;
• ululate, understate, utter;
• vent, sventilate, verbalize, visit, voice;
• waffle, wang, wax, whang, whisper, witter, word;
• x out;
• yack, yak, yammer, yap;
• Zoom.