Word-Wednesday for May 15, 2024

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for May 15, 2024, the twentieth Wednesday of the year, the ninth Wednesday of spring, the third Wednesday of May, and the one-hundred-thirty-sixth day of the year, with two-hundred thirty days remaining.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for May 15, 2024
Morels, Truly
First typified in 1794, Morchella esculenta, was officially adopted as the Minnesota State mushroom in 1984, pursuant to Minnesota Statute §1.149:

Laws of Minnesota 1984

CHAPTER 394-S.F.No. 868
An act relating to natural resources; designating the
morel as the official state mushroom; proposing new
law coded in Minnesota Statutes, chapter 1.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MINNESOTA:
Section 1.  [1.149] [STATE MUSHROOM.]
Subdivision 1.  [DESIGNATION.] Morchella esculenta,
commonly known as the morel, sponge mushroom, or honeycomb
morel, is adopted as the official state mushroom of the state of
Minnesota.
Subd. 2.  [PHOTOGRAPH.] A photograph of the morel, approved
by the commissioner of natural resources, shall be preserved and
may be displayed in the office of the secretary of state.
Approved April 17, 1984

Morchella esculenta, commonly known as the morel, sponge mushroom, or honeycomb morel, is a tasty and rare delicacy, unless you know where to look in Wannaska. They are cone-shaped mushrooms growing from the soil through the leaf mat. They usually are two to six inches high, creamy tan or shades of brown and gray (darkening as they age), with pitted, spongy heads, smooth stems, and hollow interiors. Old timer mushroom pickers say to start looking for morels in poplar or birch stands when the new leaves are the size of mouse ears, which would be now. Note: not all morels are true.
This on is false:

Don't Eat Me

This one is true:

Eat Me

Should your morels be true, here's a recipe for their preparation. If not, here's the link to Minnesota Poison Control.

May 15, 2024 Hummingbird Migration Update

May 15 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


May 15 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily, occasionally.


Earth/Moon Almanac for May 15, 2024
Sunrise: 5:42am; Sunset: 8:59pm; 2 minutes, 37 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 12:39pm; Moonset: 3:01am, waxing crescent, 46% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for May 15, 2024
                Average            Record              Today
High             62                     88                     59
Low              39                     21                      49

342 It Will Be Summer — Eventually
by Emily Dickinson

It will be Summer — eventually.


Ladies — with parasols —


Sauntering Gentlemen — with Canes


And little Girls — with Dolls —



 

Will tint the pallid landscape —


As 'twere a bright Bouquet —


Tho' drifted deep, in Parian —


The Village lies — today —



 

The Lilacs — bending many a year —


Will sway with purple load —


The Bees — will not despise the tune —


Their Forefathers — have hummed —

 



The Wild Rose — redden in the Bog —


The Aster — on the Hill


Her everlasting fashion — set —


And Covenant Gentians — frill —



 

Till Summer folds her miracle —


As Women — do — their Gown —


Or Priests — adjust the Symbols —


When Sacrament — is done —

May 15 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• Bring Flowers to Someone Day
• National Juice Slush Day
• National Nylon Stocking Day
• National Chocolate Chip Day
• Peace Officers Memorial Day
• International Conscientious Objectors Day
• International Day of Families

May 15 Word Pun
Pickleball in Gaza
Net 'n Yahoo
                            (a Chairman Joe original)


May 15 Word Riddle
I belong to Sven, but others use me more than Sven does.
What am I?*


May 15 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
JURY, n., A number of persons appointed by a court to assist the attorneys in preventing law from degenerating into justice.

    Against all law and evidence,
    The prisoner was acquitted.
    The judge exclaimed: "Is common sense
    To jurors not permitted?"

    The prisoner's counsel rose and bowed:
    "Your Honor, why this fury?
    By law the judge is not allowed
    To sit upon the jury."


May 15 Etymology Word of the Week
garden
/GÄR-dən/ n., a small piece of ground used to grow vegetables, fruit, herbs, or flowers, from late 13th century (late 12th century in surnames), from Old North French gardin "(kitchen) garden; orchard; palace grounds" (Old French jardin, 13th century., Modern French jardin), from Vulgar Latin hortus gardinus "enclosed garden," via Frankish gardo or some other Germanic source, from Proto-Germanic gardan- (source also of Old Frisian garda, Old Saxon gardo, Old High German garto, German Garten "a garden," Old English geard, Gothic gards "enclosure"), from Proto-Indo-European root gher- (1) "to grasp, enclose." Italian giardino, Spanish jardin are from French.

As an adjective from circa 1600. Garden-party "company attending an entertainment on the lawn or garden of a private house" is by 1843. Garden-variety in figurative sense first recorded 1928. To lead someone up the garden path "entice, deceive" is attested by 1925. Garden-glass "round dark glass reflective globe (about a foot and a half across) placed on a pedestal, used as a garden ornament," is from 1842.

Somewhere beyond right and wrong, there is a garden, I will meet you there.
–Jalaluddin Rumi


May 15 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1514 Jodocus Badius Ascensius publishes Christiern Pedersen's Latin version of Saxo's Gesta Danorum (Deeds of the Danes).
• 1618 German astronomer Johannes Kepler discovers the third of his three planetary laws, the "harmonic law".
• 1672 First copyright law enacted by Massachusetts.
• 1711 Alexander Pope's An Essay on Criticism is published anonymously.
• 1863 Salon des Refusés opens in Paris, exhibition of works rejected by official Salon, features Paul Cézanne, Camille Pissarro, Henri Fantin-Latour, James Whistler, and Édouard Manet.
• 1869 National Woman Suffrage Association forms in New York, founded by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton.
• 1897 The Scientific-Humanitarian Committee is founded in Berlin by Magnus Hirschfeld, the first-ever LGBT rights organization.
• 1928 Mickey Mouse makes his first ever appearance in silent film Plane Crazy.
• 1965 Igor Vodic beats Mad Dog Vachon in Omaha, to become NWA champ.

May 15 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1689 Mary Wortley Montagu, English poet and writer.
• 1759 Maria Theresia von Paradis, Austrian blind pianist, singer, organist, and composer.
• 1808 Michael William Balfe, Irish violinist and composer.
• 1822  Leopold Kompert, Czech writer.
• 1833 Sofie Podlipská, Czech writer.
• 1856 (Lyman) L. Frank Baum, American children's book author, including The Wizard of Oz.
• 1862 Arthur Schnitzler, Austrian playwright.
• 1890 Katherine Anne Porter, American writer.
• 1891 Mikhail Bulgakov, Russian playwright and novelist.
• 1901 Xavier Herbert, Australian author.
• 1912 Alexis Kagame, Rwandan poet.
• 1923 Richard Avedon, American photographer.
• 1924 Jaime Garcia Terrés, Mexican poet.
• 1930 Jasper Johns, American painter and sculptor.
• 1936 Donald [Anthony] Moffitt, American science fiction author.
• 1936 Milan Kymlicka, Czech composer.
• 1936 Ralph Steadman, British cartoonist.
• 1936 Wavy Gravy, American clown and activist.
• 1958 Ronan Walsh, Irish painter.

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

• athanasy: /uh-THAN-uh-see/ n., an absence of death or the condition of everlasting life; deathlessness.
• baryphony: /buh-RIF-uh-nee/ n., speech characterized by a thick, heavy voice quality.
• cacotopia: /kak-oh-TOH-pee-uh/ n., an imaginary place where everything is as bad as it can be.
• demephitise: /dee-MEF-i-tize/ v., to purify air.
• kefir: /kə-FIR/ n., a fermented milk drink with a sour taste, made using a culture of yeasts and bacteria.
• kintsugi: /kint-SOO-gee/ n., the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery by joining pieces back together and filling cracks with lacquer dusted with powdered gold, silver, or platinum, thereby highlighting the flaws in the mended object. Also in extended use: an aesthetic or world view characterized by embracing imperfection and treating healing as an essential part of human experience.
• legiferous: /luh-JIFF-uh-ruhss/ adj., that makes or lays down laws.
• mossify: /MAW-suh-fī/ v., to eulogize or idealize moss or mossiness, and hence the rural idyll.
• solfeggio: /säl-FE-jē-ō/ or solfège /säl-FEZH/ n., MUSIC, solmization, an exercise in singing using solmization syllables; the study of singing and musicianship using solmization syllables.
• solmization: /säl-m-ZĀSHən/ n., MUSIC, a system of associating each note of a scale with a particular syllable, especially to teach singing, e.g., Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti.

May 15, 2024 Word-Wednesday Feature
Unsoviet Words
/ˈsōvēət/ n., from the Russian sovet, "governing council," where its Greek source, symboulion, "council of advisors." After the Russian Revolution, the term soviet was used for local governments elected by workers, as well as the higher councils that those local soviets elected in turn. Soviet initially referenced the Russian people and their government, but it became just another misapplication of government power. The initial idea was that all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs — except for leadership — and where citizen puts the state first.

Setting aside the ways that capitalism had turned the great American individual into a shopping soviet, and having finished The Satanic Verses, the Word-Wednesday staff search for words has moved on to The Big Green Tent (Russian: Зелёный шатёр), a 2010 novel by 81-year-old Russian novelist and short story writer Lyudmila Evgenyevna Ulitskaya (Russian: Людмила Евгеньевна Улицкая), who is now on her third husband, in case any Irish readers might be interested in such demographic information. Lyudmila learned German, French, and English in her childhood, but she researches words from many other languages to authenticate her cast of international characters who seek to preserve their Russian and other cultural identities and to skirt the Soviet control systems — a word-lover's paradise.

The Big Green Tent follows three Russian literature nerds from their schoolboy days through their philological adulthoods, as each collects and distributes samizdat: /ˈsäm-ēz-dat/ n., (Russian: самиздат, literally, "self-publishing") a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed such documents from reader to reader. No plot spoilers on Word-Wednesday, but here are a few choice words from the first third of the book:

• age-otori: /AH-geh OH-toh-ree/ n., JAPANESE, the feeling of looking worse after a haircut.
• balabusta: /bah-LAH-boo-stah/ YIDDISH, בעל־הביתטע, n., a good homemaker.
• cafuné: /ka-FOO-neh/ n., BRAZILIAN PORTUGUESE, to run one’s fingers through someone else’s hair in a gesture of affection and comfort.
• hanyauku: /han-YOW-koo/ v., NAMIBIAN OSHIWAMBO, to walk on tiptoes across hot sand.
• meriggiare: /meh-RĒ-jah-reh/ v., ITALIAN, to be in the shade during the hottest hours of the day.
• pannochka: /puh-NOCH-kuh/ n., RUSSIAN, a young maiden; a witch.
• peiskos: /PEI-skohs/ n., NORWEGIAN, the cozy warmth that comes from sitting in front of a fire.
• shakshuka: /SHäk-SHo͞o-kə/ n., MAGHREBI, (in North African and Israeli cooking) a dish consisting of eggs poached in a spicy sauce of tomatoes and other vegetables.
• schermer: /SHUR-mur/ DUTCH, n., a man who can fight or fence with a sword.
• tarab: /TAH-rahb/ n., ARABIC, a state of ecstasy or enchantment experienced while listening to music or poetry.
• uitwaaien: /OWT-vahy-n/ v., DUTCH, to take a break and go outside to clear one's head.
• umay: /OO-mai/ n., TAGALOG, a feeling of satiation or weariness due to excessive consumption or repetition.
• zhuzh: /ZHo͝oSH/ POLARI, v., make something more stylish, lively, or attractive; n., an act, addition, or quality that makes something more stylish, lively, or attractive.

Naslazhdat'sya! /nuh-slahzh-DAHT-suh/ v., enjoy!


From A Year with Rilke, May 15 Entry
Offering, from Third Duino Elegy

...Our loving is not, like the flowers', the offering
of a single year. When we love, there rises in us
a sap from time immemorial. Oh my dear girl,
it is this: that we loved, in each other, not an individual
or one coming toward us, but brimming multitudes;
not a single child but the fathers
fallen to the depths of us like crumbled mountains,
and the dry riverbeds of ancestral mothers;
the whole soundless landscape
under the clear or clouded sky of fate:
all this, my dear, came before you.

Bathers
by Paul Cézanne

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.






*Sven’s name.