Word-Wednesday for May 1, 2024

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for May 1, 2024, the eighteenth Wednesday of the year, the seventh Wednesday of spring, the first Wednesday of May, and the one-hunndred twenty-second day of the year, with two-hundred forty-four days remaining.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for May 1, 2024
Peepers and Wasps and Snakes, Oh My!
It’s been a busy week of phenological emergence, when the peepers started singing consistently each morning, when the wasps began buzzing under eaves for the best nesting sities, when the spiders weave anew in the outhouse, and when garter snakes slithered from dark lairs into the admittedly rare sunbeams. And yes, Dermacentor variabilis now squirms and jumps upon passersby.

Interestingly, ticks that carry Borrelia burgdorferi (Lyme’s Disease bacteria) have not yet made it to our neck of the woods.

May 1, 2024 Hummingbird Migration Update

May 1 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


May 1 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily, occasionally.


Earth/Moon Almanac for May 1, 2024
Sunrise: 6:02am; Sunset: 8:39pm; 3 minutes, 8 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 3:32am; Moonset: 12:14pm, waning gibbous, 49% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for May 1 2024
                Average            Record              Today
High             56                     88                     59
Low              14                      14                      41

May And The Poets
by James Henry Leigh Hunt

There is May in books forever;
May will part from Spenser never;
May's in Milton, May's in Prior,
May's in Chaucer, Thomson, Dyer;
May's in all the Italian books:—
She has old and modern nooks,
Where she sleeps with nymphs and elves,
In happy places they call shelves,
And will rise and dress your rooms
With a drapery thick with blooms.
Come, ye rains, then if ye will,
May's at home, and with me still;
But come rather, thou, good weather,
And find us in the fields together.

May 1 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Interpreter Appreciation Day
• National Skilled Trades Day
• May Day
• School Principal’s Day
• Law Day
• Lei Day
• New Homeowner’s Day
• Silver Star Service Banner Day
• National Chocolate Parfait Day
• National Mother Goose Day
• National Loyalty Day
• International Sunflower Guerrilla Gardening Day

May 1 Word Pun
Monique accidentally ripped the fifth page out of Sven’s calendar. He’s dismayed.


May 1 Word Riddle
Where is Walla Walla located?*


May 1 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
TORTOISE, n., A creature thoughtfully created to supply occasion for the following lines by the illustrious Ambat Delaso:

    TO MY PET TORTOISE

    My friend, you are not graceful—not at all;
    Your gait's between a stagger and a sprawl.

    Nor are you beautiful: your head's a snake's
    To look at, and I do not doubt it aches.

    As to your feet, they'd make an angel weep.
    'Tis true you take them in whene'er you sleep.

    No, you're not pretty, but you have, I own,
    A certain firmness—mostly you're backbone.

    Firmness and strength (you have a giant's thews)
    Are virtues that the great know how to use—

    I wish that they did not; yet, on the whole,
    You lack—excuse my mentioning it—Soul.

    So, to be candid, unreserved and true,
    I'd rather you were I than I were you.

    Perhaps, however, in a time to be,
    When Man's extinct, a better world may see

    Your progeny in power and control,
    Due to the genesis and growth of Soul.

    So I salute you as a reptile grand
    Predestined to regenerate the land.

    Father of Possibilities, O deign
    To accept the homage of a dying reign!

    In the far region of the unforeknown
    I dream a tortoise upon every throne.

    I see an Emperor his head withdraw
    Into his carapace for fear of Law;

    A King who carries something else than fat,
    Howe'er acceptably he carries that;

    A President not strenuously bent
    On punishment of audible dissent—

    Who never shot (it were a vain attack)
    An armed or unarmed tortoise in the back;

    Subjects and citizens that feel no need
    To make the March of Mind a wild stampede;

    All progress slow, contemplative, sedate,
    And "Take your time" the word, in Church and State.

    O Tortoise, 'tis a happy, happy dream,
    My glorious testudinous régime!

    I wish in Eden you'd brought this about
    By slouching in and chasing Adam out.


May 1 Etymology Word of the Week
textual
/TEK-(st)SH(əw)-əl/ adj., relating to a text or texts, from late 14th century, textuel "of, pertaining to, or contained in a text," also "well-read, learned in texts," perhaps coined in Middle English or perhaps from Old French textuel; ultimately from Latin textus (see text (n.)).

The English spelling was conformed to Latin from late 15th century. Related: Textually. Another adjective coined to go with text and not textile (n.) was textuary "of or pertaining to texts," also "having authority or importance" (17th century). This also was used as a noun, "one versed in Scripture or other texts," and in 18th century, "one who adheres strictly to the letter of a text." The classical Latin adjectives (textilis, etc.) refer to weaving or weaver.

May 1 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1006 Supernova observed by Chinese and Egyptians in constellation Lupus.
• 1394 Ekiho exorcises the Zen temple and its surroundings of an old badger.
• 1704 Boston Newsletter publishes first newspaper advertisement.
• 1753 Publication of Species Plantarum by Carl Linnaeus - the formal start date of plant taxonomy adopted by the International Code of Botanical Nomenclature.
• 1776 Adam Weishaupt founds secret society of Illuminati.
• 1786 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera Marriage of Figaro premieres in Vienna with Mozart himself directing.
• 1851 First public flushing toilets the "Monkey Closets", unveiled by George Jennings as part of The Great Exhibition at Hyde Park, London, costing one penny.
• 1852 Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm publish the first part of their German Dictionary, Deutsches Wörterbuch.
• 1867 Howard University chartered.
• 1928 Lei Day begins.
• 1930 The planet Pluto is officially named by 11-year-old English schoolgirl Venetia Burney.
• 1939 Batman first appears in Detective Comics #27.
• 1939 Pulitzer Prize awarded to Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings for The Yearling.
• 1943 First edition of illegal The Free Artist appears in Amsterdam.
• 1944 Pulitzer prize awarded to American Martin Flavin for his novel Journey in the Dark.
• 1950 Gwendolyn Brooks is first African American awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry.
• 1952 Mr Potato Head first introduced by toy distributor Hasbro.
• 1961 Pulitzer prize awarded to Harper Lee for her novel To Kill a Mockingbird.
• 1967 Pulitzer Prize awarded to Bernard Malamud for Fixer.
• 1972 Pulitzer prize awarded to Wallace Stegner for his novel Angle of Repose.
• 1978 Naomi Uemura became first to reach North Pole overland alone.
• 1986 Will Stegers expedition reaches North Pole.
• 2009 Carol Ann Duffy is appointed British Poet Laureate - first Scot and woman Laureate.

May 1 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1567 Michiel Janszoon van Mierevelt, Dutch royal painter.
• 1672 Joseph Addison, English playwright.
• 1764 Gottfried Rieger, Czech composer.
• 1803 James Clarence Magnan, Irish poet.
• 1804 Aleksey Stepanovich Khomyakov, Russian poet.
• 1818 José Amador de los Ríos, Spanish poet.
• 1829 José de Alencar, Brazilian writer.
• 1830 Guido Gezelle, Flemish poet.
• 1831 Emily Stowe, Canadian suffragist and first woman licensed to practice medicine in Canada.
• 1851 Laza Lazarević, Serbian writer.
• 1854 Percy French, Irish composer and artist.
• 1855 Cecilia Beaux, American portrait painter.
• 1858 Jennie Wyse Power, Irish feminist and activist.
• 1859 Bohuslav Jeremiáš, Czech composer.
• 1880 Conrad Weiss, German writer and poet.
• 1881 Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, French philosopher.
• 1900 Ignazio Silone, Italian novelist.
• 1901 Antal Szerb, Hungarian author.
• 1907 George Reavey, Irish poet.
• 1908 Giovannino Guareschi, Italian writer.
• 1909 Yiannis Ritsos, Greek poet.
• 1923 Joseph Heller, American novelist.
• 1934 Alette Beaujon, Curacaos poet.
• 1944 Frank Corcoran, Irish composer.
• 1947 Sergio Infante, Chilean poet.
• 1969 Wes Anderson, American director.

Words-I-Looked-Up-This-Week Writer's Challenge
Write a story or pram from the following words:

• atlatl: /AT-lad(ə)l/ n., a stick used by some indigenous peoples of North America to propel a spear or dart.
• bast: /bast/ n., fibrous material from the phloem of a plant, used as fiber in matting, cord, etc.; the phloem or vascular tissue of a plant.
• criollo: /krē-Ō-lō/ n., a person from Spanish South or Central America, especially one of pure Spanish descent; a cacao tree of a variety producing thin-shelled beans of high quality.
• imago: /i-MÄ-ɡō/ n., the final and fully developed adult stage of an insect, typically winged; an unconscious idealized mental image of someone, especially a parent, which influences a person's behavior.
• makai: /muh-KIGH/ adv., HAWAIIAN, in a seaward direction.
• moonbow: /MOON-boh/ n., a rainbow produced by moonlight.
• neoteny: /nē-ÄT-ə-nē/ n., the retention of juvenile features in the adult animal.
• oligophagous: /ä-lə-GÄ-fə-gəs/ adj., eating only a few specific kinds of food.
• parfait: /pär-FĀ/ n., a flavored custard containing whipped cream and syrup frozen without stirring; a cold dessert made of layers of fruit, syrup, ice cream, and whipped cream.
• tope: /tōp/ v., drink alcohol to excess, especially on a regular basis. From The Devil's Dictionary: to tipple, booze, swill, soak, guzzle, lush, bib or swig. In the individual, toping is regarded with disesteem, but toping nations are in the forefront of civilization and power. When pitted against the hard-drinking Christians the abstemious Mahometans go down like grass before the scythe. In India one hundred thousand beef-eating and brandy-and-soda-guzzling Britons hold in subjection two hundred and fifty million vegetarian abstainers of the same Aryan race. With what an easy grace the whisky-loving American pushed the temperate Spaniard out of his possessions! From the time when the Berserkers ravaged all the coasts of western Europe and lay drunk in every conquered port it has been the same way: everywhere the nations that drink too much are observed to fight rather well and not too righteously. Wherefore the estimable old ladies who abolished the canteen from the American army may justly boast of having materially augmented the nation's military power.

May 1, 2024 Word-Wednesday Feature
Medical Dictionaries
Bane of Dr. Bob's practice, the explosion of medical dictionaries and other online medical resources leads to many incorrect self-diagnoses and ensuing panic. Merriam-Webster now has an online Medical Dictionary to improve the words you use when reporting your most recent symptoms and fatal diagnosis to your family physician.

Word-Wednesday had compiled a list of medical definition so that your next frantic visit with your family physician will be more humorous for her:

• artery: /AR-tuh-ree/ n., the study of paintings.
• bacteria: /bak-TI-rē-ə/ n., back door to cafeteria.
• barium: /BER-ē-əm/ v., what doctors recommend when patients die.
• benign: /bə-NĪN/ v., what you be after you finish being eight.
• Caesarean section: /sə-ZER-ē-ən SEK-SHən/ n., a neighborhood in Rome.
• cauterize: /KÔ-də-rīz/ v., made eye contact with her.
• colic: /KÄ-lik/ n., a sheep dog.
• coma: /KŌ-mə/ n., a punctuation mark.
• dilate: /DĪ-lāt/ v., to live long.
• enema: /EN-ə-mə/ adj., not a friend.
• fester: /FES-tər/ adj., quicker than someone else.
• fibula: /FI-byə-lə/ n., a small lie.
• impotent: /IM-pə-d(ə)nt/ adj., distinguished; well known.
• labor pain: /LĀ-bər pān/ n., injury incurred while working.
• medical staff: /MED-ə-k(ə)l staf/ n., a doctor's cane.
• morbid: /MÔR-bəd/ n., a higher offer.
• nitrates: /NĪ-trāt/ adj., cheaper than day rates.
• node: /nōd/ exclam., I knew it.
• outpatient: /out-pā-SH(ə)nt/ v., exposing someone pretending not to be sick; n., a person who has fainted.
• Pelvis: /PEL-vəs/ proper name, second cousin to Elvis.
• post-operative: /pōst-Äp(ə)r-ə-div/ n., a secretive letter carrier.
• recovery room: /rə-KəV(ə)-rē ro͞om/ n., a place to do upholstery.
• rectum: /REK-təm/ v., nearly killed him.
• secretion: /sə-KRĒSH(ə)n/v., hiding something.
• seizure: /SĒ-ZHər/ n., Roman emperor.
• tablet: /TAB-lət/ n., a small table.
• terminal illness: /TəR-mə-nəl IL-nəs/ n., sickness acquired at the airport.
• tumor: /TÜ-mər/ n., one, plus one more.
• urine: /Yo͝o-rən/ adv., opposite of you're out.

From A Year with Rilke, May 1 Entry
Tell Me, Orpheus, from Sonnets to Orpheus I, 20

Tell me, Orpheus, what offering can I make
to you, who taught the creatures how to listen?
I remember a spring day in Russia;
it was evening, and a horse ...

He came up from the village, a gray horse, alone.
With a hobble attached to one leg
he headed to the fields for the night.
How the thick mane beat against his neck

in rhythm with his high spirits
and his impeded, lurching gallop.
How all that was horse in him quickened.

He embraced the distances as if he could sing them,
as if your songs were completed in him.
His image is my offering.

Horse
by Marc Chagall

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.






*Right between Ting Tang and Bing Bang.