Word-Wednesday for May 8, 2024

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for May 8, 2024, the nineteenth Wednesday of the year, the eighth Wednesday of spring, the second Wednesday of May, and the one-hundred twenty-ninth day of the year, with two-hundred thirty-seven days remaining.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for May 8, 2024
The Blue Jay (Cyanocitta cristata) is a passerine, omnivore, forest-dwelling bird in the family Corvidae, along with ravens, crows, and magpies. Singing loudly now, Blue Jays are intelligent, noisy birds with tight, complex social systems. Wannaskan Blue Jays will winter in one location, but others migrate in flocks along the Great Lakes, where the young are more likely to migrate than the adults. Blue Jays are known to take and eat eggs and nestlings of other birds, but most of their diet was composed of insects and nuts. If you want more Blue Jays, they prefer tray feeders or hopper feeders on a post rather than hanging feeders, and they prefer peanuts, sunflower seeds, and suet.

May 8, 2024 Hummingbird Migration Update

May 8 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


May 8 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily, occasionally.


Earth/Moon Almanac for May 8, 2024
Sunrise: 5:51am; Sunset: 8:49pm; 2 minutes, 55 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 5:47am; Moonset: 10:15pmm, new moon, 0% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for May 8, 2024
                Average            Record              Today
High             59                     86                     68
Low              36                     20                     41

May-Flower
by Emily Dickenson

Pink, small, and punctual,
Aromatic, low,
Covert in April,
Candid in May,

Dear to the moss,
Known by the knoll,
Next to the robin
In every human soul.

Bold little beauty,
Bedecked with thee,
Nature forswears
Antiquity.

May 8 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Student Nurse Day
• National Third Shift Workers Day
• National Have a Coke Day
• National Coconut Cream Pie Day
• National Receptionists Day
• National School Nurse Day
• No Socks Day
• World Red Cross and Red Crescent Day

May 8 Word Pun
Sven vas standing in front of the bathroom mirror, carefully flossing his teeth. "Oooh!" he vould say every vonce in a vhile, or "Aaah!" as the little thread did its work. Monique valked into the bathroom and said, "You don't exist." Sven said, "Vhat do you mean?"

Monique replied, "I don't believe in sighing flossers."


May 8 Word Riddle
What do you call a fly without wings?*


May 8 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
GEOGRAPHER, n., A chap who can tell you offhand the difference between the outside of the world and the inside.

    Habeam, geographer of wide renown,
    Native of Abu-Keber's ancient town,
    In passing thence along the river Zam
    To the adjacent village of Xelam,
    Bewildered by the multitude of roads,
    Got lost, lived long on migratory toads,
    Then from exposure miserably died,
    And grateful travelers bewailed their guide.
                            —Henry Haukhorn


May 8 Etymology Word of the Week
May
/mā/ n., fifth month of the modern calendar, from early 12th century, Mai, from Old French mai and directly from Latin Majus, Maius mensis "month of May," possibly from Maja, Maia, a Roman earth goddess (wife of Vulcan) whose name is of unknown origin; possibly from Proto-Indo-European mag-ya "she who is great," fem. suffixed form of root meg- "great" (cognate with Latin magnus).

"[R]eckoned on the continent of Europe and in America as the last month of spring, but in Great Britain as the first of summer" [Century Dictionary, 1897]. Replaced Old English þrimilce, month in which cows can be milked three times a day. May marriages have been considered unlucky at least since Ovid's day. May-apple, perennial herb native to North America, so called for its time of blooming and its yellowish fruit, is attested from 1733, American English.

Corinna's Going a-Maying
by Robert Herrick, written in 1648

    And as a vapour, or a drop of raine

    Once lost, can ne'r be found againe:

                         So when or you or I are made

                         A fable, song, or fleeting shade;

                         All love, all liking, all delight

                         Lies drown'd with us in endlesse night.

    Then while time serves, and we are but decaying;

    Come, my Corinna, come, let's goe a Maying.


May 8 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1254 University of Salamanca granted a royal charter by Alfonso IX. Third oldest university still operating and the oldest Hispanic.
• 1521 Parliament of Worms installs edict against Martin Luther.
• 1777 Richard Brinsley Sheridan's comedy play School for Scandal premieres.
• 1835 First installment of Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales published.
• 1882 David Belasco's La Belle Russe premieres.
• 1899 The Irish Literary Theatre in Dublin opens.
• 1968 Pulitzer prize awarded to William Styron for Confessions of Nat Turner.

May 8 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1592 Francis Quarles, English poet.
• 1673 Johann Valentin Eckelt, German composer.
• 1735 Sir Nathaniel Dance-Holland, English painter.
• 1742 Jean-Baptiste Krumpholz [Jan Křtitel Krumpholtz], Czech-French harpist and composer.
• 1750 Elias Mann, American composer.
• 1753, Phillis Wheatley, American poet who was both the second published African-American poet and first published African-American woman, born in West Africa.
• 1778 Johann Baptist Gansbacher, Austrian composer.
• 1806 Johann Friedrich Kittl, Czech composer.
• 1828 Henri Dunant, Swiss humanitarian, Founder of Red Cross.
• 1846 Oscar Hammerstein, German opera and playwright.
• 1858 John Meade Falkner, English novelist.
• 1898 Vera Chapman, English writer and Tolkien Society founder.
• 1899 Frits van Hall, Dutch sculptor.
• 1905 Inglis Gundry, British composer, musicologist and novelist.
• 1910 Mary Lou Williams, American jazz pianist and composer.
• 1911 Robert Johnson, American blues singer-songwriter, and guitarist.
• 1912 Gertrud Fussenegger, Austrian writer.
• 1914 Romain Gary, Polish writer.
• 1919 Soltan Hajibeyov, Azerbaijani composer.
• 1920 Sloan Wilson, American novelist.
• 1920 Tom of Finland [Touko Laaksonen], Finnish fetish artist.
• 1930 Gary Snyder, American beat poet.
• 1930 Heather Harper, Irish operatic soprano.
• 1932 Julieta Campos, Cuban-Mexican writer.
• 1936 Clyde Bellecourt, American Native American civil rights activist.
• 1937 Daniel Robberechts, Belgian writer.
• 1937 Thomas Pynchon, American novelist.
• 1952 Beth Henley, American playwright.
• 1958 Roddy Doyle, Irish author.

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

• bop: /bäp/ n., short for bebop, a type of jazz originating in the 1940s and characterized by complex harmony and rhythms. It is associated particularly with Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, and Dizzy Gillespie.
• flacon: /ˈflak-ən/ n., a small stoppered bottle, especially one for perfume.
• flam: /flam/ n.,  one of the basic patterns (rudiments) of drumming, consisting of a stroke preceded by a grace note.
• funk: /fəNGk/ n., a strong musty smell of sweat or tobacco; a style of popular dance music of African American origin, based on elements of blues and soul and having a strong rhythm that typically accentuates the first beat in the bar.
• paradiddle: /PER-ə-di-dəl/ n., a quick succession of drumbeats slower than a roll and alternating left- and right-hand strokes in a typical L-R-L-L, R-L-R-R pattern.
• psychomancy: /SIGH-koh-man-see/ n., conjuration of, or communication with, the spirits or souls of the dead; necromancy.
• ratamacue: /ra-də-mə-KYOO/ n., one of the basic patterns (rudiments) of drumming, consisting of a two-beat figure, the first beat of which is played as a triplet and preceded by two grace notes.
• rasshibalochka: /rah-shee-bah-LOCH-kah/ term of endearment, playful and affectionate nickname, representing their close friendship and camaraderie.
• rutilate: /ROO-duhl-ayt/ v., to glow, shine, gleam, glitter, with either a reddish or golden light.
• taiga: /TĪ-ɡə/ n., the sometimes swampy coniferous forest of high northern latitudes, especially that between the tundra and steppes of Siberia and North America.

May 8, 2024 Word-Wednesday Feature
May-related Scrabble™ Words
As the weather warms, arguments often heat up, too — particularly during Scrabble™ games in the home of Sven and Monique — even when they take their games outside to the screen tent. For these and other Scrabble™ aficionados, Word-Wednesday provides a list of Merriam-Webster-approved words that start with may-, with definitions for the less common words on the list.

• maya: /MÄ-yə/ n., the sense-world of manifold phenomena held in Vedanta to conceal the unity of absolute being.
• Mayan
• Mayance: /mä-YÄn(t)(ˌ)sā/ adj., Mayan.
• mayapis: /mə-YÄ-pə̇s/ n., any of several Philippine timber trees of the genera Dipterocarpus and Shorea some of which also yield resins.
• mayapple
• maybe
• maybird
• maybush
• maycock
• mayday
• mayed: /mād/ v., simple past and past participle of may.
• mayeng: /mə-YEŋ/ n., an Indian timber tree (Pterospermum acerifolium) with a reddish moderately hard and heavy wood used largely for planking.
• mayest: /MĀ-əst/ v., archaic present tense second-person singular of may, see mayst.
• mayflower
• mayfly
• mayhap
• mayhappen
• mayhaw: /MĀ-hô/ n., a hawthorn (Crataegus aestivalis) of the southern U.S. that bears a juicy scarlet acid fruit often used in jellies or preserves, see maybush.
• mayhem
• maying
• mayo
• Mayoid: /MÄ-(y)oid/ n., a linguistic subdivision of the Mayan of Guatemala, Honduras, and the states of Chiapas, Tabasco, San Luis Potosi, Tamaulipas, and Veracruz, Mexico.
• mayonnaise
• mayor
• mayoral
• mayoress
• mayorship
• maypole
• maypop: /MĀ-päp/ n., the yellow edible fruit of a North American passionflower.
• mayst
• maytansine: /MĀ-tan-sēn/ n., an antineoplastic agent C34H46ClN3O10 isolated from several members of a genus (Maytenus of the family Celastraceae) of tropical American shrubs and trees.
• maythe: /MĀTH/ n., any of various weedy composite plants.
• Maytide
• mayvin: /MĀ-vən/ n., one who is experienced or knowledgeable; expert; see also mavin and maven.
• mayweed

From A Year with Rilke, May 8 Entry
I Love the Dark Hours, from The Book of Hours I, 5

I love the dark hours of my being.
My mind deepens into them.
There I can find, as in old letters,
the days of my life, already lived,
and held like a legend, and understood.

Then the knowing comes: I can open
to another life that's wide and timeless.

The Starry Night
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.






*A walk.