Word-Wednesday for June 28, 2023

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for June 28, 2023, the twenty-sixth Wednesday of the year, the second Wednesday of summer, and the one-hundred seventy-ninth day of the year, with one-hundred eighty-six days remaining.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for June 28, 2023
Loon Hatch
Loons, Minnesota's state bird, are members of the genus Gavia, family Gaviidae and order Gaviiformes /ˈɡæ-vi-ɪfɔːr-miːz/. They lay and incubate their eggs in May or early June, building nests in vegetation on the edge of an island, bog mat, log, or even on a large rock so that they can slip quietly into the water if danger threatens. Momma loon lays one or two (rarely three) 3-4 inches long, oval, olive-green to brown eggs. Should you venture to Hayes Lake any time soon, you might see something like this:

photo by Pam Shaw

June 28 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


June 28 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily by 11:00am, usually.


Earth/Moon Almanac for June 28, 2023
Sunrise: 5:23am; Sunset: 9:31pm; 37 seconds less daylight today
Moonrise: 4:21pm; Moonset: 1:55am, waxing gibbous, 67% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for June 28, 2023
                Average            Record              Today
High             75                     99                     74
Low              54                     36                     60

And Now for the Weather
by Brian Bilston

Today is set to be agreeably alliterative
across an assortment of areas
although the occasional metaphor
may cause some faces to cloud.

Idioms will be coming down like stair rods
in northern regions, while the south
may experience the odd outbreak of similes,
like an unexpected shower of arrows.

In coastal, littoral, and seaside areas,
synonyms remain likely.
Further inland, sudden gusts of hyperbole
look set to take your breath away

and a series of scattered euphemisms
will have you reaching for you wellies.
If you're driving, please be aware that tautologies
of frozen ice are still affecting some roads,

after a heavy and prolonged flurry of oxymorons.
And finally  -- from tomorrow evening --
expect to see the return of some light litotes,
making next week's outlook hardly the best.

June 28 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• International Body Piercing Day
• INTERNATIONAL CAPS LOCK DAY
• National Logistics Day
• National Alaska Day
• National Parchment Day
• National Insurance Awareness Day
• National Paul Bunyan Day
• National Eat At A Food Truck Day
• Constitution Day, Ukraine

June 28 Word Riddle
How do hardware stores set the price of hammers?*


June 28 Word Pun
Musician and homemaker, Sven’s wife, Monique, likes to write songs about sewing.
She’s a Singer songwriter, or sew it seams…


June 28 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
IMMODEST, adj. Having a strong sense of one’s own merit, coupled with a feeble conception of worth in others.

There was once a man in Ispahan
     Ever and ever so long ago,
And he had a head, the phrenologists said,
     That fitted him for a show.

For his modesty’s bump was so large a lump
     (Nature, they said, had taken a freak)
That its summit stood far above the wood
      Of his hair, like a mountain peak.

So modest a man in all Ispahan,
     Over and over again they swore—
So humble and meek, you would vainly seek;
     None ever was found before.

Meantime the hump of that awful bump
     Into the heavens contrived to get
To so great a height that they called the wight
     The man with the minaret.

There wasn’t a man in all Ispahan
     Prouder, or louder in praise of his chump:
With a tireless tongue and a brazen lung
     He bragged of that beautiful bump

Till the Shah in a rage sent a trusty page
     Bearing a sack and a bow-string too,
And that gentle child explained as he smiled:
     “A little present for you.”

The saddest man in all Ispahan,
     Sniffed at the gift, yet accepted the same.
“If I’d lived,” said he, “my humility
     Had given me deathless fame!”

                                                        Sukker Uffro


June 28 Etymology Word of the Week
friend
/ˈfrend/  n., a person whom one knows and with whom one has a bond of mutual affection, typically exclusive of sexual or family relations, from Old English freond "one attached to another by feelings of personal regard and preference," from Proto-Germanic frijōjands "lover, friend" (source also of Old Norse frændi, Old Danish frynt, Old Frisian friund, Dutch vriend, Middle High German friunt, German Freund, Gothic frijonds "friend"), from Proto-Indo-European priy-ont-, "loving," present-participle form of root pri- "to love."

Meaning "a Quaker" (a member of the Society of Friends) is from 1670s. Feond ("fiend," originally "enemy") and freond often were paired alliteratively in Old English; both are masculine agent nouns derived from present participle of verbs, but they are not directly related to one another (see fiend).


June 28 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1776 Final draft of Declaration of Independence submitted to Continental Congress.
• 1820 Tomato is proven to be non-poisonous by Colonel Robert Gibbon eating a tomato on steps of courthouse in Salem, New Jersey.
• 1846 Saxophone is patented by Antoine-Joseph "Adolfe" Sax.
• 1895 French painter Paul Gauguin leaves France for Tahiti for the second time.
• 1914 Assassination of Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria and his wife Sophie by Bosnian-Serb assassin Gavrilo Princip in Sarajevo, setting off chain of alliances that begin WWI.
• 1919 Treaty of Versailles, ending WWI and establishing the League of Nations, is signed in France.
• 2009 Professor Stephen Hawking hosts a "party" for time travelers at the University of Cambridge, not sending out the invites until after the party.

June 28 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1491 Henry VIII.
• 1503 Giovanni Della Casa, Italian poet.
• 1577 Peter Paul Rubens, Flemish Baroque painter.
• 1712 Jean-Jacques Rousseau, French philosopher.
• 1844 John Boyle O'Reilly, Irish poet and novelist.
• 1847 Sveinbjörn Sveinbjörnsson, Icelandic composer.
• 1865 Otto Julius Bierbaum, German writer.
• 1874 Oley Speaks, American composer.
• 1887 Boleslav Vomáček, Czech composer.
• 1891 Esther Forbes, American novelist.
• 1894 Ronald Ossory Dunlop, Irish painter and writer.
• 1900 Leon Kruczkowski, Polish author.
• 1902 Richard Rogers, American composer.
• 1909 Eric Ambler, English author.
• 1912 Sergiu Celibidache, Romanian conductor.
• 1922 Terje Stigen, Norwegian author.
• 1926 Mel Brooks.
• 1928 Nick Virgilio, American Haiku poet.
• 1936 Gisela Kraft, German writer.
• 1946 Gilda Radner.
• 1946 Robert L Asprin, American science fiction writer.
• 1947 Mark Helprin, American writer.
• 1979 Florian Zeller, French novelist.

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

• ambledangling: /ˈam-bəl-,daŋ-g(ə-)liŋ/ v., a nude elderly person moving through a public space with maximum rapidity.
• borasca: /bəˈ-ras-kə/ n., a squall attended with a thunderstorm.
• casefy: /ˈkeɪ-sə-ˌfaɪ/ v., to make or become cheeselike.
• diseasement: /də-ˈziz-mənt/ n., he fact or condition of being deprived of ease; uneasiness, disquiet, trouble; (as a count noun) a cause of uneasiness, discomfort, or trouble; an illness or ailment.
• glebe: /ɡlēb/ n., a piece of land serving as part of a clergyman’s benefice and providing income.
• highbinder: /HAHY-bahyn-der/ n.), one who engages in fraudulent or shady activities; esp. a corrupt, scheming politician; a gangster.
• misneach: /mʲɪʃ-ˈnʲax/ n., IRISH, courage, spirit.
• osmatic: /ˈäz-‘ma-tik/ adj., depending chiefly on the sense of smell for orientation.
• paralipsis: /ˌpar-ə-ˈlip-sis/ n., the rhetorical device of giving emphasis by professing to say little or nothing about a subject.
• schnorrer: /ˈshnȯr-ər/ n., a beggar or scrounger; a layabout; one who wheedles others into supplying his or her wants.

June 28, 2023 Word-Wednesday Feature
now
/ˈnau̇/ adv., at the present time or moment, from Middle English nou, from Old English nu "at the present time, at this moment, immediately; now that," also used as an interjection and as an introductory word; from Proto-Germanic nu (source also of Old Norse nu, Dutch nu, Old Frisian nu, German nun, Gothic nu "now"), from Proto-Indo-European nu "now" (source also of Sanskrit and Avestan nu, Old Persian nuram, Hittite nuwa, Greek nu, nun, Latin nunc, Old Church Slavonic nyne, Lithuanian nū, Old Irish nu-). Perhaps originally "newly, recently," and related to the root of new. Since Old English often merely emphatic, without a temporal sense (as in now then, which is attested from early 13th century). As a noun, "the present time," from late 14th century. The adjective meaning "up to date" was revived by 1967, but the word was used also as an adjective with the sense of "current" from late 14th century through 18th century. Now and then "occasionally, at one time and another" is from mid-15th century; now or never attested from early 13th century (nu oþer neure).

Though commonly associated with eastern spiritualism and squibbing, the present moment is also a common theme for western thinkers, writers, and summertime daydreamers. Everybody seems to want to live in the moment — even under difficult circumstances — but we don’t often succeed. Several factors appear to play havoc with living in the moment: distractions, regrets, remorse, guilt, and worries about the future. Today, Word-Wednesday features some words to help you in the endless return to your next present moment:

Every man's life lies within the present; for the past is spent and done with, and the future is uncertain.

Marcus Aurelius

PRESENT, n. That part of eternity dividing the domain of disappointment from the realm of hope.

Ambrose Bierce, The Devil’s Dictionary

No mind is much employed upon the present: recollection and anticipation fill up almost all our moments.

Samuel Johnson

With the Past, as past, I have nothing to do; nor with the Future as future. I live now.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.

Henry David Thoreau

Hold every moment sacred. Give each clarity and meaning, each the weight of thine awareness, each its true and due fulfillment.

Thomas Mann

The older one gets the more one feels that the present moment must be enjoyed; it is a precious gift, comparable to a state of grace.

Marie Curie

 We are here and it is now. Further than that, all human knowledge is moonshine.

H. L. Mencken

The only valid tense is the present, the Now.

Hannah Arendt

The past is a bucket of ashes, so live not in your yesterdays, nor just for tomorrow, but in the here and now.

Carl Sandburg

You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope.

Thomas Merton

Realize deeply that the present moment is all you ever have. Make the Now the primary focus of your life.

Eckhart Tolle

All other days have either disappeared into darkness and oblivion or not yet emerged from it. Today is the only day there is.

Frederick Buechner

The word “now” is like a bomb through the window, and it ticks.

Arthur Miller

Love the moment
and the energy
of that moment
will spread
beyond all boundaries.

Corita Kent

Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.

Albert Camus

The first thing necessary for a constructive dealing with time is to learn to live in the reality of the present moment.
For psychologically speaking, this present moment is all we have.

Rollo May

Life is all memory except for the one present moment that goes by you so quick you hardly catch it going.

Tennessee Williams

I'm in the Now a lot more now
And here's what's even greater
I never ever can run out
There's always more Now later.

Greg Tamblyn

The present was enough, though my work in the cemetery told me every day what happens when you let an unsatisfactory present go on long enough: it becomes your entire history.

a reflection of the narrator and protagonist Evelina Harp, in The Plague of Doves, by Louise Erdrich

I got the blues thinking of the future, so I left off and made some marmalade. It’s amazing how it cheers one up to shred oranges or scrub the floor.

D. H. Lawrence

No longer forward nor behind
I look in hope or fear;
But, grateful, take the good I find,
The best of now and here.

John Greenleaf Whittier

Let others worship the past: I much prefer the present. Am delighted to be alive today.

Ovid, The Art of Love

Now thyself is more important than Know thyself.

Mel Brooks

From A Year with Rilke, June 28 Entry
Gathering God, from Book of Hours I, 55

The poets have scattered you.
A storm ripped through the stammering.
I want to gather you up again
in a vessel that makes you glad.

I wander in the thousand winds
that you are churning,
and bring back everything I find.

The blind man needed you as a cup.
The servant concealed you.
The beggar held you out as I passed.

You see, I am one who likes to look for things.

The Man is at Sea
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.



*by the pound.