Word-Wednesday for June 19, 2024

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for June 19, 2024, the twenty-fifth Wednesday of the year, the fourteenth Wednesday of spring, the third Wednesday of June, and the one-hundred-seventy-first day of the year, with one-hundred ninety-five days remaining.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for June 19, 2024
The Other Blue Berry
Clintonia borealis, the Bluebead Lilly, is now blooming in Wannaska. This woodland perennial forms a basal clump of three to five glossy, oblong, thick leaves that reach up to twelve inches long. The flowering stalks rise well above the leafy basal rosette, topped by an umbel [/əM-b(ə)l/ n., a flower cluster in which stalks of nearly equal length spring from a common center and form a flat or curved surface, characteristic of the parsley family] of three to six pale yellow flowers.

Later this summer, the blossoms are replaced by shiny blue berries, which are NOT edible by humans, for whom the berries are mildly toxic. But the chipmunks relish these beautiful blue treats. Interestingly, the Native Americans in our region use the leaves as an antiseptic poultice, which they applied to infections, burns, and other wounds.

June 19 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


June 19 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily, occasionally.


Earth/Moon Almanac for June 19, 2024
Sunrise: 5:20am; Sunset: 9:31pm; 5 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 7:44pm; Moonset: 3:06am, waxing gibbous, 90% illuminated.
Summer Solstice tomorrow at 3:50pm.

Temperature Almanac for June 19, 2024
                Average            Record              Today
High             73                     97                     71
Low              52                     30                    50

A Night in June
by Madison Cawein

    I
    White as a lily moulded of Earth's milk
    That eve the moon bloomed in a hyacinth sky;
    Soft in the gleaming glens the wind went by,
    Faint as a phantom clothed in unseen silk:
    Bright as a naiad's leap, from shine to shade
    The runnel twinkled through the shaken brier;
    Above the hills one long cloud, pulsed with fire,
    Flashed like a great enchantment-welded blade.
    And when the western sky seemed some weird land,
    And night a witching spell at whose command
    One sloping star fell green from heav'n; and deep
    The warm rose opened for the moth to sleep;
    Then she, consenting, laid her hands in his,
    And lifted up her lips for their first kiss.

    II
    There where they part, the porch's steps are strewn
    With wind-blown petals of the purple vine;
    Athwart the porch the shadow of a pine
    Cleaves the white moonlight; and like some calm rune
    Heaven says to Earth, shines the majestic moon;
    And now a meteor draws a lilac line
    Across the welkin, as if God would sign
    The perfect poem of this night of June.
    The wood-wind stirs the flowering chestnut-tree,
    Whose curving blossoms strew the glimmering grass
    Like crescents that wind-wrinkled waters glass;
    And, like a moonstone in a frill of flame,
    The dewdrop trembles on the peony,
    As in a lover's heart his sweetheart's name.


June 19 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• World Sauntering Day
• Juneteenth
• National Watch Day
• National FreeBSD Day
• National Garfield The Cat Day
• World Sickle Cell Day

June 19 Word Pun

June 19 Word Riddle
What was Yoda’s last name?*


June 19 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
LAND, n., A part of the earth's surface, considered as property. The theory that land is property subject to private ownership and control is the foundation of modern society, and is eminently worthy of the superstructure. Carried to its logical conclusion, it means that some have the right to prevent others from living; for the right to own implies the right exclusively to occupy; and in fact laws of trespass are enacted wherever property in land is recognized. It follows that if the whole area of terra firma is owned by A, B and C, there will be no place for D, E, F and G to be born, or, born as trespassers, to exist.

    A life on the ocean wave,
    A home on the rolling deep,
    For the spark that nature gave
    I have there the right to keep.

    They give me the cat-o'-nine
    Whenever I go ashore.
    Then ho! for the flashing brine—
    I'm a natural commodore!
    —Dodle


June 19 Etymology Word of the Week
delight
/dəˈlīt/ n., great pleasure; v., please (someone) greatly, from circa 1200, delit, "high degree of pleasure or satisfaction," also "that which gives great pleasure," from Old French delit "pleasure, delight, sexual desire," from delitier "please greatly, charm," from Latin delectare "to allure, delight, charm, please," frequentative of delicere "entice" (see delicious). Spelled delite until 16th century; the modern unetymological form is by influence of light, flight, etc. For the verb form, circa 1200, deliten, intransitive, "to have or take great pleasure;" circa 1300, transitive, "to affect with great pleasure," from Old French delitier "please greatly, charm," from Latin delectare "to allure, delight, charm, please," frequentative of delicere "entice" (see delicious).


June 19 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1464 French King Louis XI forms postal service.
• 1861 Anaheim Post Office established.
• 1862 Slavery outlawed in US territories.
• 1865 Union General Gordon Granger declares slaves are free in Texas, now the date the end of slavery is celebrated across the US as Juneteenth.
• 2019 Oklahoma writer Joy Harjo is named the first Native American US Poet Laureate by the Library of Congress.

June 19 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1507 Annibale Caro, Italian writer and poet.
• 1613 Christiaan de Placker, Flemish poet and composer.
• 1623 Blaise Pascal, French philospher.
• 1708 Johann Gottlieb Janitsch, German Baroque composer.
• 1783 Thomas Sully, American portrait painter.
• 1790 John Gibson, British sculptor.
• 1815 Cornelius Krieghoff, Dutch-Canadian painter.
• 1815 John William Glover, Irish composer.
• 1842 Carl Johann Adam Zeller, Austrian composer.
• 1856 Elbert Hubbard, American author.
• 1861 José Rizal, Filipino author.
• 1880 Jóhann Sigurjónsson, Icelandic writer.
• 1884 Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes, French Dadaist artist and writer.
• 1885 Stevan Hristić, Serbian composer.
• 1899 George Călinescu [Gheorghe Vișan], Romanian poet, novelist.
• 1905 Taneli Kuusisto, Finnish organist and composer.
• 1909 Osamu Dazai [pseudonym of Tsushima Shūji, Japanese novelist.
• 1914 Lester Flatt, American bluegrass guitarist.
• 1924 Sybren Polet [Sijbe Minnema], Dutch writer and poet.
• 1924 Wassil Bykau, Belarusian writer.
• 1927 Karel Kupka, Czech composer.
• 1944 Chico Buarque, Brazilian samba singer-songwriter, and poet.
• 1945 Tobias Wolff, American writer.
• 1947 Salman Rushdie, British-Indian novelist.
• 1978 Garfield the Cat, cartoon character.

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

• chairoplane: /CHAIR-uh-playn/ n., a fairground ride consisting of a type of merry-go-round, having a revolving top from which seats are suspended on chains, the riders being swung around in a wide circle as the ride revolves.
• chemurgy: /KEM-ər-jē/ n., the chemical and industrial use of organic raw materials.
• equalify: /ee-KWAH-luh-figh/ v., to make (something) equal or uniform; to equalize; to equate (something) to something else.
• hodmandod: /HOD-man-dod/ n., a strange or maladroit person; a scarecrow; adj., diminutive in stature and ungainly.
• Lehrfreiheit: /LEːɐ̯-fra͜i-ha͜it/ n., GERMAN, freedom to teach what one wants, as opposed to Lehrverpflichtung, the duty to teach what one is told to teach.
• matryoshka: /ma-trē-ÄSH-kə/ n., each of a set of brightly painted hollow wooden dolls of varying sizes, designed to nest inside one another.
• nescience: /NE-sh(ē-)ən(t)s/ n., lack of knowledge or awareness, ignorance.
• obnebulate: / ä-NEB-yə-lāt/ v., to obscure with or as with a mist; to befog, cloud.
• raiment: /RĀ-mənt/ n., clothing, garments.
• tristesse: /trē-STES/ n., a state of melancholy sadness.

June 19, 2024 Word-Wednesday Feature
Musical Song Words
The latest source of new Word-Wednesday words is The Time of Our Singing, by Richard Powers. The story follows the histories of a family whose members are united in music and singing together, told from the late 1930s through 2003, when the novel was published. A perfect Juneteenth novel, the father is a German immigrant, and the mother is Black. Powers tells the story from the perspective of the accomplished musician in a manner accessible to any non-musician, as long as you're willing to look up some words. Here are a few examples that pepper the pages of this narrative:

• bagatelle: /BAG-ə-tel/ n., a game in which small balls are hit and then allowed to roll down a sloping board on which there are holes, each numbered with the score achieved if a ball goes into it, with pins acting as obstructions; a thing of little importance; a very easy task; a short, light piece of music, especially one for the piano.
• cavatina: /kav-ə-TĒN-nə/ n., a short operatic aria in simple style without repeated sections; a piece of lyrical instrumental music similar to a cavatina.
• katabasis: /kə-TAB-ə-sə̇s/ n., a going or marching down or back, a retreat; a troparion sung after the two sides of the choir descend to the middle of the church at the end of each ode of the canon at matins in the Eastern Orthodox Church.
• portamento: /pôr-də-MEN-(t)ō/ n., a slide from one note to another, especially in singing or playing a bowed string instrument; piano playing in a manner intermediate between legato and staccato.
• quodlibet: /KWÄD-lə-bet/ n., a topic for or exercise in philosophical or theological discussion; a lighthearted medley of well-known tunes.
• rubato: /ro͞o-BÄ-dō/ n., the temporary disregarding of strict tempo to allow an expressive quickening or slackening, usually without altering the overall pace.
• sostenuto: /sôs-tə-No͞o-dō/ adj., (of a passage of music) to be played in a sustained or prolonged manner.
• spinto: /SPIN-(t)ō/ n., a lyric soprano or tenor voice of powerful dramatic quality.
• tessitura: /tes-ə-To͝o-rə/ n., the range within which most notes of a vocal part fall.

From A Year with Rilke, June 19 Entry
A Wondrous Knowing of the World, from Worpswede, July 16, 1903, Letters to a Young Poet

Sexual pleasure is no different from the sensory experience of pure looking or the feel on the tongue of a luscious fruit; it is a wondrous knowing of the world, given to us so that we may learn its fullness and radiance. The problem is not our acceptance of it; the problem is that this experience is so often misused and squandered. It is taken to enliven the deadened places of our lives, to distract instead of heightening our awareness.

People have even made eating into something it is not meant to be. Experienced as automatic impulse on the one hand, or as excess on the other, the nature of this physical necessity is distorted, and similarly distorted are all the other simple requirements for the renewing of life.

Apples, Peaches, Pears, Grapes
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.






*Layheehoo.