Word-Wednesday for May 31, 2023

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for May 31, 2023, the twenty-second Wednesday of the year, the eleventh Wednesday of spring, and the one-hundred fifty-first day of the year, with two-hundred days fourteen remaining.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for May 31, 2023
Fuzzy Forests
The Diamond Willow (Salix bebbiana), poplar, and other cottony seed-bearing trees have begun to fluff our forests.

The blueberry blossoms continue to thrive thanks to Monday and Tuesday rains, the conifers have painted the forest yellow with their pollen, and the biting flies have emerged.


May 31 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


May 31 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily by 11:00am, usually.


Earth/Moon Almanac for May 31 2023
Sunrise: 5:26am; Sunset: 9:17pm; 1 minutes, 42 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 5:28pm; Moonset: 3:36am, waxing gibbous, 81% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for May 31, 2023
                Average            Record              Today
High             68                     92                     85
Low              46                     28                     62

Heavy Summer Rain
by Jane Kenyon

The grasses in the field have toppled,
and in places it seems that a large, now
absent, animal must have passed the night.
The hay will right itself if the day

turns dry. I miss you steadily, painfully.
None of your blustering entrances
or exits, doors swinging wildly
on their hinges, or your huge unconscious
sighs when you read something sad,
like Henry Adams’s letters from Japan,
where he traveled after Clover died.

Everything blooming bows down in the rain:
white irises, red peonies; and the poppies
with their black and secret centers
lie shattered on the lawn.

May 31 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• World Parrot Day
• World No Tobacco Day
• National Utah Day
• Necrotizing Fasciitis Awareness Day
• National Autonomous Vehicle Day
• National Senior Health & Fitness Day
• National Macaroon Day
• National Speak in Complete Sentences Day
• National Save Your Hearing Day
• Eiffel Tower Day
• National Flip Flop Day
• National Smile Day

May 31 Word Riddle
What substance is responsible for the calming effect of tropical fish in aquariums?*


May 31 Word Pun
Some jumper cables walk into a bar.
The bartender said, “You can come in, but just don’t start anything.”


May 31 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
SAFETY-CLUTCH, n. A mechanical device acting automatically to prevent the fall of an elevator, or cage, in case of an accident to the hoisting apparatus.

Once I seen a human ruin
     In an elevator-well,
And his members was bestrewin’
     All the place where he had fell.

And I says, apostrophisin’
     That uncommon woful wreck:
“Your position’s so surprisin’
     That I tremble for your neck!”

Then that ruin, smilin’ sadly
     And impressive, up and spoke:
“Well, I wouldn’t tremble badly,
     For it’s been a fortnight broke.”

Then, for further comprehension
     Of his attitude, he begs
I will focus my attention
     On his various arms and legs—

How they all are contumacious;
     Where they each, respective, lie;
How one trotter proves ungracious,
     T’other one an /alibi/.

These particulars is mentioned
     For to show his dismal state,
Which I wasn’t first intentioned
     To specifical relate.

None is worser to be dreaded
     That I ever have heard tell
Than the gent’s who there was spreaded
     In that elevator-well.

Now this tale is allegoric—
     It is figurative all,
For the well is metaphoric
     And the feller didn’t fall.

I opine it isn’t moral
     For a writer-man to cheat,
And despise to wear a laurel
     As was gotten by deceit.

For ’tis Politics intended
     By the elevator, mind,
It will boost a person splendid
     If his talent is the kind.

Col. Bryan had the talent
     (For the busted man is him)
And it shot him up right gallant
     Till his head begun to swim.

Then the rope it broke above him
     And he painful come to earth
Where there’s nobody to love him
     For his detrimented worth.

Though he’s livin’ none would know him,
     Or at leastwise not as such.
Moral of this woful poem:
     Frequent oil your safety-clutch.
                            Porfer Poog

May 31 Etymology Word of the Week
elite
/ē-ˈlēt/ n., a select group that is superior in terms of ability or qualities to the rest of a group or society from 1823, from French élite "selection, choice," from Old French eslite (12th century), fem. past participle of elire, elisre "pick out, choose," from Latin eligere "choose" (see election). Borrowed in Middle English as "chosen person" (late 14th century), especially a bishop-elect, but it died out mid-15th century. The word was reintroduced by Byron's Don Juan. As an adjective by 1852. As a typeface, recorded by 1920.

        Usage Trends

May 31 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1279 BC Ramesses II, also known as Ramesses [and by the rebus, Ra-mes-su] the Great becomes Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt.
• 1665 Jerusalem's rabbi Sjabtai Tswi proclaims himself Messiah.
• 1669 Citing poor eyesight, English civil servant Samuel Pepys records the last event in his famous diary.
• 1759 The Province of Pennsylvania bans all theater productions.
• 1911 RMS Titanic launched in Belfast.

May 31 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1656 Marin Marais, French composer.
• 1773 Ludwig Tieck, German writer.
• 1817 Georg Herwegh, German poet.
• 1819 Walt Whitman.
• 1821 Beaver Henry Blacker, Irish author.
• 1838 Henry Sidgwick, English philosopher.
• 1872 W. Heath Robinson, English illustrator and cartoonist.
• 1887 Saint-John Perse [Alexis Leger], French poet, Nobel Prize for Literature 1960.
• 1892 Bohuslav Reynek, Czech poet.
• 1893 Janet Sobel [Jennie Olechovsky], Ukrainian-American abstract expressionist and drip-paint pioneering artist.
• 1898 Johan Brouwer, Dutch writer.
• 1921 Robert Arthur Ley, English science fiction author.
• 1938 Peter Yarrow, American folk singer-songwriter.
• 1948 Svetlana Alexievich, Ukrainian author, Noble Prize for Literature 2015.

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

• adumbrant: /æ-ˈdəm-br(ə)n(t)/ adj., casting shadows; shadowy, shady; in extended use: represented in outline; vague, indistinct.
• britchka: /ˈbrich-kə/ n., a long open horse-drawn carriage with a folding top over the rear seat and a front seat facing the rear.
• contumacious: /ˌkän-tü-ˈmā-shəs/ adj., stubbornly or willfully disobedient to authority.
• fain: /ˈfān/ adv., with pleasure; gladly.
• gramogram: /ˈgra-mə-ˌgram/ n., type of rebus — a letter or group of letters which can be pronounced to form one or more words, e.g., ICURAQT.
• melisma: /mi-ˈliz-mə/ n., a group of notes sung to one syllable of text.
• noctilucent: /ˌnɑk-təˈ-lu-s(ə)nt/ adj., luminescent at night or in the dark; (also) shining at night or in the dark; Designating a cloud that appears luminescent at night.
• polyonymous: /ˌpä-lē-ˈä-nə-məs/ adj., having or known by various names.
• skrik: /skrik/ n., a sudden fright or panic.
• tidsoptimist: /tidz-ˈäp-tə-mist/ n., SWEDISH, literally “time optimist”, a person who’s habitually late because they think they have more time than they do.

May 31, 2023 Word-Wednesday Feature
rebus
/ˈrē-bəs/ n., a representation of words or syllables by pictures of objects or by symbols whose names resemble the intended words or syllables in sound, the English form of the word dates from Latin rebus (and meaning literally "by means of objects"), ablative plural of res "thing, object". According to French sources (Gilles Ménage, "Les origines de la langue françoise," 1650), principally from the phrase de rebus quæ geruntur "of things which are going on," in reference to the satirical pieces composed by Picardy clerks at carnivals, subtle satires of current events using pictures to suggest words, phrases or things. Or this use of the Latin word might be from the representations being non verbis sed rebus "not by words, but by things."

In linguistic history, the Rebus Principle is the use of existing symbols, such as pictograms, purely for their sounds and regardless of their meaning, to represent new words. Many ancient writing systems used what we now call "the Rebus Principle" to represent abstract words, which otherwise would be hard to represent with pictograms. An example that illustrates the Rebus Principle is the representation of the sentence "I can see you" by using the pictographs of "eye—can—sea—ewe".

Some linguists believe that the Chinese developed their writing system according to the Rebus Principle, and Egyptian hieroglyphs sometimes used a similar system. It was a favorite form of heraldic expression used in the Middle Ages to denote surnames, where the rebus composition alludes to the name, profession, or personal characteristics of the bearer. Beatrice of York used this one:

Be-a-trice

(three bees)

In more modern times, and closer to the royalty of Wannaskan Almanac…

Beer drinkers appear to be suckers for the rebus. Lone Star beer has rebus puzzles under the crown caps of its bottled beer, as do National Bohemian, Lucky Lager, Falstaff, Olympia, Rainier, Haffenreffer, Kassel, Pearl, Regal, Ballantine, Mickey's, Lionshead, and Texas Pride during the 1970s and the 1980s. These puzzle caps are also called "crown ticklers". Narragansett Beer uses rebus puzzles on their bottle caps, and bar coasters.

**

There's nothing

 about the rebus. Actually, with a little thought, they're a p walk ark. Give it a try.


From A Year with Rilke, May 31 Entry
What Kind of Courage is Required of Us?, from Borgebygärd, Sweden, August 12, 1904, Letters to a Young Poet

What kind of courage is required of us?

Imagine a person taken out of his room, and without preparation or transition placed on the heights of a great mountain range. He would feel an unparalleled insecurity, an almost annihilating abandonment to the nameless. He would feel he was falling into outer space or shattering into a thousand pieces. What enormous lie would his brain concoct in order to give meaning to this and validate his senses? In such a way do all measures and distances change for the one who realizes his solitude. These changes are often sudden and, as with the person on the mountain peak, bring strange feelings and fantasies that are almost unbearable. But it is necessary for us to experience that too. We must accept our reality in all its immensity. Everything, even the unheard of, must be possible within it. This is, in the end, the only kind of courage that is required of us: the courage to meet the strangest, most awesome, and most inexplicable of phenomena.

A Wind-Beaten Tree
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.






*indoor fins.

**I've never seen it to fail.