Word-Wednesday for May 22, 2024

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for May 22, 2024, the twenty-first Wednesday of the year, the tenth Wednesday of spring, the fourth Wednesday of May, and the one-hundred-forty-third day of the year, with two-hundred twenty-three days remaining.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for May 22, 2024
Ferns and Lycophytes
A fern /fərn/ n., is a flowerless plant which has feathery or leafy fronds and reproduces by spores released from the undersides of the fronds. A lycophyte /LYE-koh-fyte/ n., is basically any other species reproducing by spores in the club moss, quillwort, and spike moss orders, where Smooth Scouring Rush (Equisetum laevigatum) or Tall Scouring Rush (Equisetum praealtum) might be the most familiar to Wannaskans. Minnesota has about thirty-four species of fern, and forty-two species of lycophyte. The ferns are just beginning to unfurl in the forests of Wannaska.

and the Smooth Scouring Rush is not far behind.

May 22 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


May 22 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily, occasionally.


Earth/Moon Almanac for May 22, 2024
Sunrise: 5:33am; Sunset: 9:08pm; 2 minutes, 16 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 8:47pm; Moonset: 4:41am, waxing gibbous, 98% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for May 22, 2024
                Average            Record              Today
High            65                     93                     59
Low             42                     25                     38

May Song
by Wendell Berry

For whatever is let go
there's a taker.
The living discovers itself

where no preparation
was made for it,
where its only privilege

is to live if it can.
The window flies from the dark
of the subway mouth

into the sunlight
stained with the green
of the spring weeds

that crowd the improbable
black earth
of the embankment,

their stout leaves
like the tongues and bodies
of a herd, feeding

on the new heat,
drinking at the seepage
of the stones:

the freehold of life,
triumphant
even in the waste

of those who possess it.
But it is itself the possessor,
we know at last,
seeing it send out weeds
to take back
whatever is left.

Proprietor, pasturing foliage
on the rubble,
making use

of the useless—a beauty
we have less than not
deserved.

May 22 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Craft Distillery Day
• National Solitaire Day
• National Vanilla Pudding Day
• National Buy A Musical Instrument Day
• National Maritime Day
• Emergency Medical Services For Children Day
• World Goth Day

May 22 Word Pun

Restrooms Are Out of Odor
Repairmen Have Been Scent

May 22 Word Riddle
What did Van Gogh call his painting when he saw Ula being ridden out of town on a rail last night?*


May 22 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
ABRACADABRA.

    By Abracadabra we signify
    An infinite number of things.
    'Tis the answer to What? and How? and Why?
    And Whence? and Whither?—a word whereby
    The Truth (with the comfort it brings)
    Is open to all who grope in night,
    Crying for Wisdom's holy light.

    Whether the word is a verb or a noun
    Is knowledge beyond my reach.
    I only know that 'tis handed down.
    From sage to sage,
    From age to age—
    An immortal part of speech!

    Of an ancient man the tale is told
    That he lived to be ten centuries old,
    In a cave on a mountain side.
    (True, he finally died.)
    The fame of his wisdom filled the land,
    For his head was bald, and you'll understand
    His beard was long and white
    And his eyes uncommonly bright.

    Philosophers gathered from far and near
    To sit at his feet and hear and hear,
    Though he never was heard
    To utter a word
    But "Abracadabra, abracadab,
    Abracada, abracad,
    Abraca, abrac, abra, ab!"
    'Twas all he had,
    'Twas all they wanted to hear, and each
    Made copious notes of the mystical speech,
    Which they published next—
    A trickle of text
    In a meadow of commentary.
    Mighty big books were these,
    In number, as leaves of trees;
    In learning, remarkable—very!

    He's dead,
    As I said,
    And the books of the sages have perished,
    But his wisdom is sacredly cherished.
    In Abracadabra it solemnly rings,
    Like an ancient bell that forever swings.
    O, I love to hear
    That word make clear
    Humanity's General Sense of Things.
                —Jamrach Holobom

May 22 Etymology Word of the Week
auspice
/ÔS-pəs/ n., a divine or prophetic token, from 1530s, "observation of birds for the purpose of taking omens," from French auspice (14th century), from Latin auspicum "divination from the flight of birds; function of an auspex" (q.v.).

The meaning "any indication of the future (especially favorable)" is from 1650s; it is attested earlier (1630s) in extended sense of "benevolent influence of greater power, influence exerted on behalf of someone or something," originally in the expression under the auspices of.


May 22 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 760 Fourteenth recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.
• 1570 First atlas Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Theatre of the World), published by Abraham Ortelius in Antwerp with 70 maps.
• 1803 First US public library opens in Connecticut.
• 1849 Abraham Lincoln receives a patent (only US President to do so) for a device to lift a boat over shoals and obstructions.
• 1892 Dr. Washington Sheffield invents the toothpaste tube.
• 1907 Plaza Cinema opens in Ottawa, Kansas, the world's oldest purpose-built movie theatre.
• 1933 World Trade Day/National Maritime Day first celebrated.
• 1965 Mad Dog Vachon beats Igor Vodic in Omaha, to become NWA champ.

May 22 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1009 Su Xun, Chinese writer.
• 1780 Jan Emmanuel Doležálek, Bohemian organist and composer.
• 1805 Michael Doheny, Irish writer and poet.
• 1808 Gérard de Nerval [Gérard Labrunie], French writer.
• 1813 Richard Wagner, German composer.
• 1841 Catulle Mendès, French poet.
• 1844 Mary Cassatt, American impressionist painter.
• 1859 Arthur Conan Doyle, British author.
• 1862 August Cuppens, Flemish author.
• 1870 Eva Gore-Booth, Irish writer.
• 1879 Eastwood Lane, American composer.
• 1885 Julio Fonseca, Costa Rican composer.
• 1891 Johannes R. Becher, German writer.
• 1896 Cyril Fagan, Irish author.
• 1897 Robert Neumann, Austrian-British author.
• 1904 Anne de Vries, Dutch writer.
• 1904 Paul Viiding, Estonian poet.
• 1907 Hergé, Belgian comic book creator.
• 1913 František Jílek, Czech composer.
• 1917 Daniel Nagrin, American modern dancer and choreographer.
• 1921 Gustav Brom, Czech composer.
• 1924 Claude André François Ballif, French composer.
• 1925 Jean Tinguely, Swiss sculptor.
• 1930 Marisol (Maria Sol) Escobar, Venezuelan sculptor.
• 1936 M. Scott Peck, American psychiatrist and writer.
• 1938 Alain Gagnon, Canadian composer.
• 1939 Árni Egilsson, Icelandic classical and jazz bassist and composer.
• 1950 Bernie Taupin, British lyricist.
• 1950 Bill Whelan, Irish composer.
• 1956 Lucie Brock-Broido, American poet.

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

• defectology: /dē-fek(t)-Ä:-ə-jē/ n., a branch of Russian psychology which studies the development of children with disabilities (both physical and mental) such as intellectual disability, hearing impairment, visual impairment, and others.
• étagère: /ā-tä-ZHER/ n., a piece of furniture with a number of open shelves for displaying ornaments.
• kund: /kuund/ n., a small reservoir or tank in which rainwater is collected for drinking.
• mundungus: /muhn-DUNG-guhss/ n., offal, refuse; tobacco of poor quality; bad-smelling tobacco.
• palisade: /pal-ə-SĀD/ n., a fence of wooden stakes or iron railings fixed in the ground, forming an enclosure or defense.
• pomander: /pō-MAN-dər/ n., a ball or perforated container of sweet-smelling substances such as herbs and spices, placed in a closet, drawer, or room to perfume the air or (formerly) carried as a supposed protection against infection; a piece of fruit, typically an orange or apple, studded with cloves and hung in a closet by a ribbon for a similar purpose.
• ruction: /ˈrək-SHən/ n., a disturbance or quarrel; unpleasant reaction to or complaint about something.
• selbstverständlich: /zɛlpst-fɛɐ-'ʃtɛnt-lɪç/ adv., GERMAN, of course, naturally, certainly, as a matter of course.
• tubeteika: /too-beh-TĀ-kah/ n., a Russian word for many varieties of traditional Central Asian skull caps. Tubeteikas are today worn in Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan, as well as in Muslim-populated regions of Russia (mainly Tatars) and Azerbaijan.
• zeitenwende: /TSYE-ten-ven-duh/ n., GERMAN, epochal change or turning point.

May 22, 2024 Word-Wednesday Feature
Gardening
Act of sustenance, self-indulgence, divine metaphor, creation, madness, love, attentiveness, hopefulness, mastery, humility, learning, physicality, nature, legacy, or imagination (to name but a few), gardening stands as one of the most varied of human metaphors. Here are some words by authors who have pondered this topic as we begin our own gardening season (or not):

God Almighty first planted a garden, and indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures.

Francis Bacon

The Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

The Bible—Genesis 2:8

Gardening is an instrument of grace.

May Sarton

Gardening is not a rational act.

Margaret Atwood

For there is no gardening without humility, an assiduous willingness to learn, and a cheerful readiness to confess you were mistaken.

Alfred Austin

I think there are as many kinds of gardening as of poetry: your makers of parterres and flower-gardens are epigrammatists and sonneteers in this art: contrivers of bowers and grottos, treillages and cascades, are romance writers.

Joseph Addison

Devising a vocabulary for gardening is like devising a vocabulary for sex. There are the correct Latin names, but most people invent euphemisms. Those who refer to plants by Latin name are considered more expert, if a little pedantic.

Diane Ackerman

Colette wrote of vegetables as if they were love objects and of sex as if it were an especially delightful department of gardening.

Brigid Brophy

I never had any other desire so strong and so like to covetousness, as that one which I have had always, that I might be master at last of a small house and a large garden.

Abraham Cowley

The kiss of the sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,
One is nearer God’s Heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth.

Dorothy Frances Gurney

All gardening is landscape painting.

Alexander Pope

Gardening in England is a hobby, about midway on the social scale between throwing darts and composing sonnets.

Abby Adams

In what other job can a person be inventor, scientist, landscape gardener, ditch digger, researcher, problem solver, artist, exorcist, and on top of all that eat one’s successes at dinner?

Dorothy Gilman

Weather means more when you have a garden: there’s nothing like listening to a shower and thinking how it is soaking in around your lettuce and green beans.

Marcelene Cox

A modest garden and a country rectory, the narrow horizon of a garret, contain for those who know how to look and to wait, more instruction than a library.

Henri-Frédéric Amiel

The process of weeding can be as beneficial to the gardener as to the garden.

Bertha Damon

Remember that children, marriages, and flower gardens reflect the kind of care they get.

H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

There are no child prodigy gardeners.

Robin Chotzinoff

Gardening is one of the rewards of middle age, when one is ready for an impersonal passion, a passion that demands patience, acute awareness of a world outside oneself, and the power to keep on growing through all the times of drought, through the cold snows, towards those moments of pure joy when all failures are forgotten and the plum tree flowers.

May Sarton

I’m not a dirt gardener. I sit with my walking stick and point things out that need to be done. After many years, the garden is now totally obedient.

Hardy Amies

Gardening simply does not allow one to be mentally old, because too many hopes and dreams are yet to be realized.

Allan M. Armitage

But though an old man, I am but a young gardener.

Thomas Jefferson

Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you’re there.

Ray Bradbury, from Fahrenheit 451

Our bodies are gardens,
To the which our wills are gardeners.

William Shakespeare

Fall is not the end of the gardening year; it is the start of next year’s growing season. The mulch you lay down will protect your perennial plants during the winter and feed the soil as it decays, while the cleaned up flower bed will give you a huge head start on either planting seeds or setting out small plants.

Thalassa Cruso

When I go into my garden with a spade and dig a bed, I feel such an exhilaration and health, that I discover that I have been defrauding myself all this time in letting others do for me what I should have done with my own hands.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Isn’t it enough to see that a garden is beautiful without having to believe that there are fairies at the bottom of it too?

Douglas Adams, from The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy

The Glory of the Garden lies in more than meets the eye.

Rudyard Kipling

From A Year with Rilke, May 22 Entry
Is It Not Time, from the First Duino Elegy

Is it not time
to free ourselves from the beloved
even as we, trembling, endure the loving?
As the arrow endures the bowstring's tension
so that, released, it travels farther.
For there is nowhere to remain.

Der Spaziergang
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.






*The Tarry Sight.