Word-Wednesday for September 20, 2023

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for September 20, 2023, the thirty-eighth Wednesday of the year, the fourteenth and final Wednesday of summer, and the two-hundred sixty-third day of the year, with one-hundred two days remaining.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for September 20, 2023
Dropping in for a Quick Snack
It’s that time of year again, and Wannaskaland’s fields flow into the Mississippi Flyway, including the airports, golf courses, and other human-focused venues along the way. These beauties earn the sobriquet “Big Honkers” in several ways besides their vocalizations: Fun fact for Wannaskaland farmers: a Canadian Goose averages a pound of droppings a day.

Spot the Space Station
8:47 PM, Visible: 5 min, Max Height: 57°, Appears: 10° above W, Disappears: 21° above ENE


September 20 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


September 20 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily by 11:00am, usually.


Earth/Moon Almanac for September 20, 2023
Sunrise: 7:07am; Sunset: 7:28pm; 3 minutes, 33 seconds less daylight today
Moonrise: 1:26pm; Moonset: 9:32pm, waxing crescent, 30% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for September 20, 2023
                Average            Record              Today
High             64                     82                    78
Low               41                     16                    54

neaptide—autumn
by Patty McCarthy
    the tidal forest is the whole
    present tense—the first

    winter full
    moon in october

    gossamer overcast
    the wind catches—one

    tree & then the next—
    a tide that reaches the sky—

    a desire path—a split
    infinitive—intertidal fricative

    *

    form is content—content is form—the only commandment
    but there is no shape to days

    the long border of an evening intertidal
    never resolves itself never dissolves

    never solves for any variable—
    it is simply stretched beyond recognition

    or usefulness—a king of nothing
    & nowhere—but if we want

    process not product—which we do—then
    it will be evening all season & we will stretch into it

    *

    the whelked & jinxed intertidal
    furbelows seaweed—

    a boat neaped—you’ve got to be
    kidding me           I say five times a day

    waved like the enridged sea—
    if I could take the sound of you into

    my mouth           I would
    work double tides—

    on the impossibility of measuring the coastline
    shorter stretches of evening—a quarantine

    *

    wrackline palimpsest
    I am so pure I am a bore

    when dusk shed its x
    & waved across both

    the sea & middle
    english & will arrive today

    precisely at 5:00 PM
    & have the least

    difference between high
    & low & sea & sky & light


September 20 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Care for Kids Day
• National Fried Rice Day
• Pepperoni Pizza Day
• National String Cheese Day
• National Punch Day
• Elephant Appreciation Day

September 20 Word Riddle
How many tickles does it take to make an octopus laugh?*


September 20 Word Pun
Sven’s writing a book about Guinness beer, and he just finished his first draft.


September 20 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
ART, n. This word has no definition. Its origin is related as follows by the ingenious Father Gassalasca Jape, S.J.

One day a wag—what would the wretch be at?—
Shifted a letter of the cipher RAT,
And said it was a god's name! Straight arose
Fantastic priests and postulants (with shows,
And mysteries, and mummeries, and hymns,
And disputations dire that lamed their limbs)
To serve his temple and maintain the fires,
Expound the law, manipulate the wires.
Amazed, the populace that rites attend,
Believe whate'er they cannot comprehend,
And, inly edified to learn that two
Half-hairs joined so and so (as Art can do)
Have sweeter values and a grace more fit
Than Nature's hairs that never have been split,
Bring cates and wines for sacrificial feasts,
And sell their garments to support the priests.

September 20 Etymology Word of the Week
goose
/ɡo͞os/ v., poke someone between the buttocks; invigorate; from "jab in the rear," circa 1880, from goose (n.), possibly from resemblance of the upturned thumb to a goose's beak, or from the notion of creating nervous excitement. Related: Goosed; goosing. In 19th century theatrical slang, to be goosed meant "to be hissed" (by 1818). A broad range of sexual slang senses historically cluster around goose and gooseberry; goose and duck was rhyming slang for "f*ck;" Farmer identifies Winchester goose as "a woman; whence, by implication, the sexual favor," and goose as a verb "to go wenching, to womanize, also to possess a woman." He also has goose-grease for a woman's sexual juices, while gooser and goose's neck meant "the penis." Gooseberries (they are hairy) was "testicles," and gooseberry pudding "a woman."


September 20 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1814 Star Spangled Banner published as a song, lyrics by Francis Scott Key, tune by John Stafford Smith.
• 1964 Günter Grass' play, Die Plebejern proben den Aufstand, premieres.

September 20 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1706 František Václav Habermann, Czech composer.
• 1738 Václav Norbert Brixi, Czech organist.
• 1840 Ellen Mary Clerke, Irish writer.
• 1846 Agnes Tyrrell, Czech pianist and composer.
• 1873 Luise "Lulu" von Strauss und Torney, German poet.
• 1878 Upton Sinclair, American author.
• 1884 Maxwell Perkins, American editor and publisher for Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Thomas Wolfe.
• 1886 Charles Williams, British poet.
• 1897 Efim Golishev, Ukrainian painter.
• 1902 Stevie Smith [Florence Margaret Smith], English poet and novelist.
• 1920 Jay Ward, Rocky & His Friends, Bullwinkle, American cartoonist.
• 1923 Geraldine Clinton Little, Irish poet.
• 1928 Donald Hall, American writer, literary critic and Poet Laureate of the United States.
• 1935 Lubos Fiser, Czech composer.
• 1941 Sylvester [J. Pussycat Sr.,], Warner Bros. cartoon character.
• 1946 Finbarr Dwyer, Irish musician.
• 1948 George R. R. Martin, American fantasy and science fiction author.
• 1962 Fionnuala Sherry, Irish musician.
• 1963 Joseph O'Connor, Irish author.

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

• antithalian: /æn-tɪ-ˈθeɪ-lɪ-ən/ adj., disapproving of fun or festivity.
• boscaresque: /BOSK-uh-RESK/ adj., adorned with thickets or groves; sylvan; pleasantly rural or pastoral; picturesque.
• cavanita: /ˌkav-ə-ˈtē-nə/ n., a short operatic aria in simple style without repeated sections.
• echelon: /ˈeSH-ə-län/ n., a level or rank in an organization, a profession, or society.
• idolon fori: /igh-doh-lahn-FOR-ee/ n., a false or misleading belief caused by ambiguous or erroneous use of language.
• krewe: /kro͞o/ n., an organization or association that stages a parade or other event for a carnival celebration. Krewes are associated especially with Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
• modoc: /MOH-dahck/ n., a person who takes up aviation for reasons of self-publicity or social prestige; (also) a pilot who talks boastfully about flying, but rarely flies.
• scriggle: /SKRIG-uhl/ v., to wriggle; to struggle to move or escape.
• thersitical: /θər-ˈsɪ-tɪ-kəl/ adj., scurrilous; foulmouthed; grossly abusive.
• vug: /vəɡ/ n., a cavity rock, lined with mineral crystals.

September 20, 2023 Word-Wednesday Feature
2023 Ig Nobel Prizes
Wannaskan Almanac traces its lineage to THE RAVEN: Northwest Minnesota’s Original Art, History & Humor Journal. As an ongoing Wannaskan Almanac tradition in the spirit of THE RAVEN, today Word-Wednesday proudly presents this year's Ig Nobel prize winners for improbable research. The Ig Nobel Prizes honor achievements that make people laugh, then think, like many contributors to Wannaskan Almanac. The 2022 Ig Nobel ceremonies won the Heinz Oberhummer Award for “outstanding science communication”, so this year's Ig Nobel prize winners have a high laugh-bar. Oberhummer Award winners receive a glass of alpaca droppings and 20,000 euros. With any luck, one of our loyal readers might nominate Wannaskan Almanac for the 2023 Oberhummer…

LITERATURE PRIZE
Winners from: FRANCE, UK, MALAYSIA, FINLAND
Chris Moulin, Nicole Bell, Merita Turunen, Arina Baharin, and Akira O’Connor for studying the sensations people feel when they repeat a single word many, many, many, many, many, many, many times.
AWARD-WINNING PAPER: “The The The The Induction of Jamais Vu in the Laboratory: Word Alienation and Semantic Satiation,” Chris J. A. Moulin, Nicole Bell, Merita Turunen, Arina Baharin, and Akira R. O’Connor, Memory, vol. 29, no. 7, 2021, pp. 933-942.

COMMUNICATION PRIZE
Winners from: ARGENTINA, SPAIN, COLOMBIA, CHILE, CHINA, USA
María José Torres-Prioris, Diana López-Barroso, Estela Càmara, Sol Fittipaldi, Lucas Sedeño, Agustín Ibáñez, Marcelo Berthier, and Adolfo García, for studying the mental activities of people who are expert at speaking backward.
AWARD-WINNING PAPER: “Neurocognitive Signatures of Phonemic Sequencing in Expert Backward Speakers,” María José Torres-Prioris, Diana López-Barroso, Estela Càmara, Sol Fittipaldi, Lucas Sedeño, Agustín Ibáñez, Marcelo L. Berthier, and Adolfo M. García, Scientific Reports, vol. 10, no. 10621, 2020.

PSYCHOLOGY PRIZE
Winners from: USA
Stanley Milgram, Leonard Bickman, and Lawrence Berkowitz for experiments on a city street to see how many passersby stop to look upward when they see strangers looking upward.
AWARD-WINNING PAPER: “Note on the Drawing Power of Crowds of Different Size,” Stanley Milgram, Leonard Bickman, and Lawrence Berkowitz, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol. 13, no. 2, 1969, pp. 79-82.

EDUCATION PRIZE
Winners from: HONG KONG, CHINA, CANADA, UK, THE NETHERLANDS, IRELAND, USA, JAPAN
Katy Tam, Cyanea Poon, Victoria Hui, Wijnand van Tilburg, Christy Wong, Vivian Kwong, Gigi Yuen, and Christian Chan, for methodically studying the boredom of teachers and students.
AWARD-WINNING PAPER: “Boredom Begets Boredom: An Experience Sampling Study on the Impact of Teacher Boredom on Student Boredom and Motivation,” Katy Y.Y. Tam, Cyanea Y. S. Poon, Victoria K.Y. Hui, Christy Y. F. Wong, Vivian W.Y. Kwong, Gigi W.C. Yuen, Christian S. Chan, British Journal of Educational Psychology, vol. 90, no. S1, June 2020, pp. 124-137.

MEDICINE PRIZE
Winners from: USA, CANADA, MACEDONIA, IRAN, VIETNAM
Christine Pham, Bobak Hedayati, Kiana Hashemi, Ella Csuka, Tiana Mamaghani, Margit Juhasz, Jamie Wikenheiser, and Natasha Mesinkovska, for using cadavers to explore whether there is an equal number of hairs in each of a person’s two nostrils.
AWARD-WINNING PAPER: “The Quantification and Measurement of Nasal Hairs in a Cadaveric Population,” Christine Pham, Bobak Hedayati, Kiana Hashemi, Ella Csuka, Tiana Mamaghani, Margit Juhasz, Jamie Wikenheiser, and Natasha Mesinkovska, International Journal of Dermatology, vol. 61, no. 11, November 2022, pp. e456-e457.

PUBLIC HEALTH PRIZE
Winners from: SOUTH KOREA, USA
Seung-min Park, for inventing the Stanford Toilet, a device that uses a variety of technologies — including a urinalysis dipstick test strip, a computer vision system for defecation analysis, an anal-print sensor paired with an identification camera, and a telecommunications link — to monitor and quickly analyze the substances that humans excrete.
AWARD-WINNING PAPERS:
“A Mountable Toilet System for Personalized Health Monitoring via the Analysis of Excreta,” Seung-min Park, Daeyoun D. Won, Brian J. Lee, Diego Escobedo, Andre Esteva, Amin Aalipour, T. Jessie Ge, et al., Nature Biomedical Engineering, vol. 4, no. 6, 2020, pp. 624-635. 
and
“Digital Biomarkers in Human Excreta,” Seung-min Park, T. Jessie Ge, Daeyoun D. Won, Jong Kyun Lee, and Joseph C. Liao, Nature Reviews Gastroenterology and Hepatology, vol. 18, no. 8, 2021, pp. 521-522. 
and
“Smart Toilets for Monitoring COVID-19 Surges: Passive Diagnostics and Public Health,” T. Jessie Ge, Carmel T. Chan, Brian J. Lee, Joseph C. Liao, and Seung-min Park, NPJ Digital Medicine, vol. 5, no. 1, 2022, article 39.
and
“Passive Monitoring by Smart Toilets for Precision Health,” T. Jessie Ge, Vasiliki Nataly Rahimzadeh, Kevin Mintz, Walter G. Park, Nicole Martinez-Martin, Joseph C. Liao, and Seung-min Park, Science Translational Medicine, vol. 15, no. 681, 2023.

APPLIED ANIMAL AERONAUTICS PRIZE
Winners from: Wannaska, USA
Sven Guyson for inventing the Powderless Skunk Chucker, an aerial relocation apparatus for Mephitis mephitis, to facilitate the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Catch and Release Program. The device deploys a finely tuned combination of cartridge cap, trapdoor, frame, in door, out door, blower tube, two-step locking mechanism, holding peg, muzzle cap, and red safety flag.
AWARD-WINNING PAPER:
"Pressure-to-Mass Aerodynamic Profiles for Mephitis mephitis Powderless Parabolic Flight", Sven Guyson, Ula Josephson, and Knorr Helmersson, project supervisor, self-published in Journal of Animal Aeronautics, vol. 1, no. 1, 2020.


From A Year with Rilke, September 20 Entry
The Portal (I), from New Prams

They stayed right here, as if left behind
by a flood that had washed their forms
free from the rock.
The waters receding erased some details,

but their hands are generous
and grasp at nothing.
They stayed, distinguished from their native rock
only by a halo or a bishop's mitre,

and sometimes by a tranquil smile
kept it alive in a face
where it lasts forever.

They retreat now into the shadowed doorway
that could be the shell of a listening ear
which captures every moan of a city in pain.

Chartres Cathedral
by  Chaim Soutine

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.




*ten tickles.