Word-Wednesday for July 26, 2023

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for July 26, 2023, the thirtieth Wednesday of the year, the sixth Wednesday of summer, and the two-hundred seventh day of the year, with one-hundred fifty-eight days remaining.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for July 26, 2023
Sunflowers Blooming
The common sunflower, Helianthus annuus, is a large annual forb [/ˈfȯrb/ n., an herbaceous flowering plant other than a grass] of the genus Helianthus, is now blooming in crops planted around Wannaska. Commonly grown as a crop for its edible oily seeds and cooking oil, sunflower is also used as livestock forage, as bird food, and as an ornamental in domestic gardens. Wild H. annuus is a widely branched annual plant with many flower heads. The domestic sunflower, however, often possesses only a single large inflorescence (flower head) atop an unbranched stem.

Helianthus is derived from the Greek ἥλιος: hḗlios or sun, and ἄνθος: ánthos or flower. Sunflowers are heliotropic [/hee-lee-uh-TROP-ik/ adj., facing the sun] only in their early stage of development, when the entire field of flowers faces east and the rising sun. Sunflowers do not follow the sun as it moves across the sky from day to day.

July 26 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


July 26 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily by 11:00am, usually.


Earth/Moon Almanac for July 26, 2023
Sunrise: 5:49am; Sunset: 9:12pm; 2 minutes, 32 seconds less daylight today
Moonrise: 3:18pm; Moonset: 12:15am, waxing gibbous, 51% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for July 26, 2023
                Average            Record              Today
High             78                     93                    89
Low              55                     39                    61

O do not ask
if I am beach body ready.

Observe how the folds of my stomach ripple
like the wind-pulled waves.

Rub your hands over these pale buttocks,
sand-smoothed by time.

Note my milk-white limbs like washed up whalebones,
stranded and useless.

Consider these tufts of hair on my back and shoulders
sprouting wildly like sea-grass.

And listen to the lapping of my socks
at the shores of my sandals.

and still you ask me
if I am beach body ready.
                                                        Brian Bilston

July 26 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Bagelfest Day
• National Coffee Milkshake Day
• National All or Nothing Day
• National Disability Independence Day
• National Aunt and Uncle Day
• Esperanto Day

July 26 Word Riddle
Why do Peruvian owls always hunt in pairs?*


July 26 Word Pun
In Esperanto:
Kiel mi suspektis, iu aldonis grundon al mia ĝardeno.
La intrigo densiĝas...
In English:
As I suspected, somebody has been adding soil to my garden.
The plot thickens…


July 26 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
FASHION, n. A despot whom the wise ridicule and obey.

A king there was who lost an eye
     In some excess of passion;
And straight his courtiers all did try
     To follow the new fashion.

Each dropped one eyelid when before
     The throne he ventured, thinking
'Twould please the king. That monarch swore
     He'd slay them all for winking.

What should they do? They were not hot
     To hazard such disaster;
They dared not close an eye— dared not
     See better than their master.

Seeing them lacrymose and glum,
     A leech consoled the weepers:
He spread small rags with liquid gum
     And covered half their peepers.

The court all wore the stuff, the flame
     Of royal anger dying.
That's how court-plaster got its name
     Unless I'm greatly lying.

                                                        Naramy Oof


July 26 Etymology Word of the Week
day
/ˈdā/ n., a period of twenty-four hours as a unit of time, reckoned from one midnight to the next, corresponding to a rotation of the earth on its axis, from Old English dæg "period during which the sun is above the horizon," also "lifetime, definite time of existence," from Proto-Germanic dages- "day" (source also of Old Saxon, Middle Dutch, Dutch dag, Old Frisian di, dei, Old High German tag, German Tag, Old Norse dagr, Gothic dags), according to Watkins, from Proto-Indo-European root agh- "a day."  He adds that the Germanic initial d- is "of obscure origin." But Boutkan says it is from Proto-Indo-European root dhegh- "to burn" (see fever). Not considered to be related to Latin dies (which is from Proto-Indo-European root dyeu- "to shine").

Meaning originally, in English, "the daylight hours"; it expanded to mean "the 24-hour period" in late Anglo-Saxon times. The day formerly began at sunset, hence Old English Wodnesniht was what we would call "Tuesday night." Names of the weekdays were not regularly capitalized in English until the 17th century.

From late 12th century as "a time period as distinguished from other time periods." Day-by-day "daily" is from late 14th century.; all day "all the time" is from late 14th century.  Day off "day away from work" is attested from 1883; day-tripper first recorded 1897. The days in nowadays, etc., is a relic of the Old English and Middle English use of the adverbial genitive.

All in a day's work "something unusual taken as routine" is by 1820. The nostalgic those were the days is attested by 1907. That'll be the day, expressing mild doubt following some boast or claim, is by 1941. To call it a day "stop working" is by 1919; earlier call it a half-day (1838). One of these days "at some day in the near future" is from late 15th century. One of those days "a day of misfortune" is by 1936.


July 26 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1609 English mathematician Thomas Harriot is the first person to draw a map of the Moon by looking through a telescope.
• 1656 Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn declares he is insolvent after living beyond his means and spending too much on artwork and rare items. Leads to the most experimental and exuberantly creative period of his career.
• 1878 In California, poet and American West outlaw calling himself "Black Bart" makes his last clean getaway when he steals a safe box from a Wells Fargo stagecoach. The empty box found later with a taunting poem inside.
• 1882 Richard Wagner's opera Parsifal premieres.
• 1887 First Esperanto book published.
• 1891 Henry James' American premieres in London.
• 1915 International School for Wijsbegeerte forms.
• 1955 Ted Allen throws a record 72 consecutive horseshoe ringers.

July 26 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1782 John Field, Irish pianist and composer.
• 1796 George Catlin, American author and painter.
• 1856 George Bernard Shaw, Irish dramatist.
• 1875 Carl Jung, Swiss founder of analytic psychology.
• 1885 Andre Maurois [Emile Herzog], French writer.
• 1894 Aldous Huxley, English author.
• 1895 Gracie Allen, American comedian and actress.
• 1897 Paul Gallico, American novelist.
• 1921 Jean Shepherd, American writer.
• 1923 Bernice Rubens, Welsh author.
• 1926 Ana María Matute, Spanish author.
• 1928 Ibn-e-Safi, Pakistani fiction writer and Urdu poet.
• 1928 Stanley Kubrick, American director.
• 1928 Bert, the Sesame Street Muppet.
• 1939 Wopko Jensma, South African poet.
• 1948 Luboš Andršt, Czech guitarist.
• 1954 Lawrence Watt-Evans, American science fiction author.

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

• aeolian: /ē-ˈō-lē-ən/, adj., giving forth or marked by a moaning or sighing sound or musical tone produced by or as if by the wind; borne, deposited, produced, or eroded by the wind.
• bogomil: /ˌbə-gə-ˈmēl/ n., a member of a medieval Bulgarian sect holding that God has two sons, the rebellious Satan and the obedient Jesus.
• charivari: /shəˌ-ri-və-RĒ/ n., a noisy mock serenade performed by a group of people to celebrate a marriage or mock an unpopular person.
• garth: /ˈgärth/ n., a small yard, garden, or enclosure.
• headdesk: /ˈhɛd-ˌdɛsk/ v., to strike one’s head against (or as if against) a desk or table at which one is sitting, often repeatedly, typically as an ostentatious or dramatic gesture of frustration, exasperation, dismay.
• loganamnosis: /LOH-gahn-am-NOH-sis/ n., mania, or obsession, for trying to recall forgotten words or a specific word.
• manrent: /ˈman-rent/ n., homage.
• palliasse: /pal-ˈyas/ n., a thing straw mattress used as a pallet.
• Scouser: /ˈskau̇-sər/ n., a native or inhabitant of Liverpool.
• tetchy: /ˈteCH-ē/ adj., bad-tempered and irritable.

July 26, 2023 Word-Wednesday Feature
Summer Reading Words
As part of my summer reading, I recently began Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. Written in 1973, this rainbow's narrative arcs between high and low culture, science and metaphysics, the proper and the profane. Set in London and Europe near the end of World War II, Gravity's Rainbow shared the 1974 National Book Award for Fiction with Isaac Bashevis Singer's A Crown of Feathers and Other Stories. Interestingly, though selected by the 1974 Pulitzer Prize fiction jury, the Pulitzer Advisory Board turned up their collective noses at Gravity's Rainbow's content characterized as unreadable, turgid, overwritten and obscene, where the Pulitzer Prize for fiction was not even awarded that year. Gravity's Rainbow otherwise won the 1973 Nebula Award for Best Novel, and Time magazine has listed Gravity's Rainbow one of its "All-Time 100 Greatest Novels" from 1923-2005. As always, you be the judge.

From a Word-Wednesday perspective, the first thirty-four pages yielded a plethora of words to look up, including:

• brennschluss: /ˈbʁen-ʃlʊs/ n., burnout; moment in the path of a rocket when the fuel burns out.
• busby: /ˈbəz-bē/ n., a military full-dress fur hat with a pendent bag on one side usually of the color of regimental facings; the bearskin worn by British guardsmen, not used by the guardsmen themselves.
• caza: /kəˈzä/ n., a subdivision of a Turkish vilayet.
• cordwainer: /ˈkȯrd-ˌwā-nər/ n., a worker in cordovan leather; showmaker.
• dacoit: /də-ˈkȯit/ n., one of a class of criminals in India and Burma who rob and murder in roving gangs.
• euchre: /ˈyü-kər/ n., a card game in which each player is dealt five cards and the player making trump must take three tricks to win a hand; v., to prevent from winning three tricks in euchre; cheat, trick.
• kreplach: /ˈkrep-ləḵ/ n., square or triangular dumplings filled with ground meat or cheese, boiled or fried, and usually served in soup.
• lascar: /ˈla-skər/ n., a sailor from India or Southeast Asia.
• lisle: /ˈlī(-ə)l/ n., a smooth tightly twisted thread usually made of long-staple cotton.
• loosestrife: /ˈlü(s)-ˌstrīf/ n., any of a genus (Lysimachia) of plants of the primrose family with leafy stems and usually yellow or white flowers; any of a genus (Lythrum, family Lythraceae, the loosestrife family) of herbs having entire leaves and including some with showy spikes of purple flowers.
• Magyar: /ˈmag-ˌyär/ n., a member of the dominant people of Hungary.
• musaceous: /mju-ˈzei-ʃəs/ adj., belonging to the Musaceae, the banana family of plants.
• musette: / myu̇-ˈzet/ n., a small knapsack.
• naphtha: /ˈnaf-thə/ n., any of various volatile often flammable liquid hydrocarbon mixtures used chiefly as solvents and diluents.
• Narodnik: /народники/ n., a politically conscious movement of the Russian intelligentsia in the 1860s and 1870s, some of whom became involved in revolutionary agitation against tsarism, from народ (narod: people, folk.
• phaeton: /ˈfā-ə-tən/ n., any of various light four-wheeled horse-drawn vehicles.
• preterition: /ˌpret-ə-ˈri-shən/ n., the Calvinistic doctrine that having elected to eternal life such as he chose God passed over the rest leaving them to eternal death.
• puttee: /ˌpə-ˈtē/ n., a cloth strip wrapped around the leg from ankle to knee; a usually leather legging secured by a strap or catch or by laces.
• rallentando: /ˌrä-lən-ˈtän-(ˌ)dō/ n., in music, a gradual decrease in speed.
• sanjak: /san-ˈjak/ n., a district or subdivision of a vilayet.
• sitrep: /ˈsit-rep/ n., a periodic report of the current military situation.
• trews: /ˈtrüz/ pl. n.,  tight-fitting trousers usually of tartan; close-cut tartan shorts worn under the kilt in Highland dress.
• vilayet: /vē-ˈlä-yet/ n., one of the chief administrative divisions of Turkey having as head a vali who represents the government and is assisted by an elective council and being subdivided into cazas.

With seven-hundred forty-two pages to go, you can expect more words from Gravity's Rainbow in coming Wednesdays.


From A Year with Rilke, July 26 Entry
No Worthless Place, from Paris, February 17, 1903 Letters to a Young Poet

If your daily life seems of no account, don't blame it; blame yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its treasures. For the creative artist there is no impoverishment and no worthless place.

Shoes
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 they are Inca hoots.