Word-Wednesday for June 5, 2024

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for June 5, 2024, the twenty-third Wednesday of the year, the twelfth Wednesday of spring, the first Wednesday of June, and the one-hundred-fifty-seventh day of the year, with two-hundred nine days remaining.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for June 5, 2024
Dragonflies Aloft
Dragonflies and damselflies are in the order Odonata - “toothed ones” - a reference to the awesome, toothy lower lip (labium), with which they capture and hold prey while their mandibles do the eating. The order Odonata is divided into two suborders: Anisoptera, the suborder of the dragonflies, means “different wings” as their hindwings are distinctly larger and differently shaped than their forewings; and the damselflies are in the suborder Zygoptera, which means “same wings,” as their forewings and hindwings are about the same size and shape.

Minnesota has twenty-six species of Dragonflies:

Red Damsel – Amphiagrion saucium
Prairie Bluet – Coenagrion angulatum
River Bluet – Enallagma anna
Double-striped Bluet – Enallagma basidens
Zigzag Darner – Aeshna sitchensis
Subarctic Darner – Aeshna subarctica
Ocellated Darner – Boyeria grafiana
Cyrano Darner – Nasiaeschna pentacantha
Spatterdock Darner – Rhionaeschna mutata
Skillet Clubtail - Gomphurus ventricosus
Blue-Eyed Darner – Rhionaeschna multicolor
Lilypad Clubtail - Arigomphus furcifer
Zebra Clubtail – Stylurus scudderi
Eastern Least Clubtail – Stylogomphus albistylus
Skillet Clubtail – Gomphus ventricosus
Various Snaketails – Ophiogomphus sp.
Arrowhead Spiketail – Cordulegaster obliqua
Stygian Shadowdragon – Neurocordulia yamaskenensis
Red Saddlebags - Tramea onusta
Smoky Shadowdragon – Neurocordulia molesta
Ebony Boghaunter – Wiliamsoni fletcheri
All Somatochlora – Somatochlora sp.
Red-veined Meadowhawk – Sympetrum madidum
Blue-faced Meadowhawk – Sympetrum ambiguum
Elfin Skimmer – Nanothemis bella
Slaty Skimmer – Libellula incesta

If you were to discover your own new species in Wannaska, what would you name it?

June 5 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


June 5 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily, occasionally.


Earth/Moon Almanac for June 5, 2024
Sunrise: 5:22am; Sunset: 9:23pm; 1 minute, 18 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 4:15am; Moonset: 9:11pm, waning crescent, 1% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for June 5, 2024
                Average            Record              Today
High             69                     89                     68
Low               47                     33                     52

Sonnet
by Willa Cather

Alas, that June should come when thou didst go;
I think you passed each other on the way;
And seeing thee, the Summer loved thee so
That all her loveliness she gave away;
Her rare perfumes, in hawthorn boughs distilled,
Blushing, she in thy sweeter bosom left,
Thine arms with all her virgin roses filled,
Yet felt herself the richer for thy theft;
Beggared herself of morning for thine eyes,
Hung on the lips of every bird the tune,
Breathed on thy cheek her soft vermilion dyes,
And in thee set the singing heart of June.
And so, not only do I mourn thy flight,
But Summer comes despoiled of her delight.

June 5 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Ketchup Day
• National Start Over Day
• National Veggie Burger Day
• National Moonshine Day
• National Gingerbread Day
• Global Running Day
• World Evironment Day
• World Day Against Speciesism

June 5 Word Pun
Sven’s dog accidentally ate the whole bag of his Scrabble™ tiles, so Sven took Cubby to the vet.
No word, yet.


June 5 Word Riddle
What do you call an alien with three balls?*


June 5 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


June 5 Etymology Word of the Week
gnome
/nōm/ n., a legendary dwarfish creature supposed to guard the earth's treasures underground; a small garden ornament in the form of a bearded man with a pointed hat, from "dwarf-like earth-dwelling spirit," 1712, from French gnome (16c.), from Medieval Latin gnomus, used 16th century in a treatise by Paracelsus, who gave the name pigmaei or gnomi to elemental earth beings, possibly from Greek genomos "earth-dweller" (compare thalassonomos "inhabitant of the sea"). A less-likely suggestion is that Paracelsus based it on the homonym that means "intelligence".

Popularized in England in children's literature from early 19th century as a name for red-capped German and Swiss folklore dwarfs. Garden figurines of them were first imported to England late 1860s from Germany; garden-gnome attested from 1933. Gnomes of Zurich for "international financiers" is from 1964.

June 5 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1661 Isaac Newton admitted as a student to Trinity College, Cambridge.
• 1799 Naturalists Alexander von Humboldt and Aimé Bonpland set sail in the Pizarro from A Coruña, Spain, beginning their 5-year expedition to Latin American.
• 1833 Future first computer programmer Ada Lovelace meets mathematician and inventor Charles Babbage.
• 1851 Anti-slavery novel Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe first published in serial form in The National Era.
• 1934 First formal meeting of Baker Street Irregulars.
• 1940 American Negro Theater organizes.

June 5 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1553 Bernardino Baldi, Italian writer.
• 1640 Pu Songling, Qing Dynasty Chinese writer.
• 1686 Cristoph Raupach, Danish composer.
• 1729 Cláudio Manuel da Costa, Brazilian poet.
• 1759 Theodor Zwetler, Austrian composer.
• 1826 Ivar Hallström, Swedish composer.
• 1863 Arthur Somervell, English composer.
• 1875 Stanislav Kostka Neumann, Czech anarchist, poet, Esperantist, literature reviewer, publicist, politic writer, translator, writer and art reviewer.
• 1882 Antonín Procházka, Czech painter.
• 1884 Ivy Compton-Burnett, English novelist.
• 1884 Ralph Benatzky, Czech composer.
• 1888 Raden Mas Noto Soeroto, Javanese poet.
• 1898 Federico Garcia Lorca, Spanish poet.
• 1902 Hugo Huppert, Austrian writer and poet.
• 1907 Rolf Bongs, German writer.
• 1915 Alfred Kazin, American writer.
• 1918 Branimir Sakač, Croatian composer.
• 1919 Richard Scarry, American children's author and illustrator.
• 1930 Alifa Rifaat, Egyptian writer.
• 1930 Nikolay Nikolayevich Sidel'nikov, Russian composer.
• 1932 Christy Brown, Irish novelist.
• 1939 Margaret Drabble, British author.
• 1943 Matthew Lesko, American author.
• 1944 Colm Wilkinson, Irish singer.
• 1947 David Hare, English playwright.
• 1949 Ken Follett, Welsh author.
• 1960 Margo Lanagan, Australian author.
• 1964 Rick Riordan, American author.

Words-I-Looked-Up-This-Week Writer's Challenge
Write a story or pram from the following words:
As a special offering this week, since I looked up every word on the list in this week’s Word-Wednesday Feature below, writers can use any of those ten words to complete this week’s Words-I-Looked-Up-This-Week Writer's Challenge.


June 5, 2024 Word-Wednesday Feature
Every year Word-Wednesday presents words from the year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee. Test your spelling skills with the following list of pronunciations and definitions, just as the contestants hear each word they must spell:

• /ə-SIK-yə-lər/ adj., (chiefly of crystals) needle-shaped.
• /BAG-wə̇n/ n., a fabulous beast like an antelope but having a goat's horns and a horse's tail.
• /Də-rē/ n., a heavy cotton rug of Indian origin.
• /E-lo͞o-ət/ n., CHEMISTRY, a solution obtained by elution - to remove (adsorbed material) from an adsorbent by means of a solvent.
• /FE-tə̇-kəs/ n., corn salad.
• /ɡō-AN-ə/ n., a monitor lizard.
• /hi-PĒTH-rəl/ adj., (of a classical building) having no roof; open to the sky.
• /I-mē/ n., a glass marble streaked with colors.
• /hə-RŌ-pō/ n., the national ballroom dance of Venezuela marked by lilting stamping steps in three-quarter time.
• /KI-ḵəl/ n., a semisweet baked product made of eggs, flour, and sugar usually rolled and cut in diamond shape and baked until puffed.
• /lē-E(ə)R/ n., a grayish to moderate olive.
• /MI-tə-məs/ n., a warrant of commitment to prison.
• /nēm/ n., a tropical Old World tree, that yields timber resembling mahogany, oil, medicinal products, and insecticide.
• /PŌ-thäs/ n., a southeastern Asian climbing plant (Epipremnum aureum) of the arum family widely grown as a houseplant for its leathery or waxy heart-shaped green leaves with yellow or white variegation.
• /kwäŋk/ n., noise (as from conversation) that disturbs or disrupts a television or radio program because of its proximity to the microphones or cameras.
• /rā-käm-YĀ/ n., a sometimes backless couch with a high curved headrest and low footrest.
• /SI-nə̇f/ n., a stinging or biting insect in Exodus 8:17 (Douay Version) or a gnat (Revised Standard Version).
• /TER-ə-ˌtiz-əm/ n., abnormal form or structure; developmental abnormality.
• /yo͝o-FĒ-əs/ n., a representation of a sacred serpent as an emblem of supreme power, worn on the headdresses of ancient Egyptian deities and sovereigns.
• /vī-AD-ə-kəm/ n., the Eucharist as given to a person near or in danger of death; ARCHAIC, a supply of provisions or an official allowance of money for a journey.
• /WEN-(t)l-trap/ n., a marine mollusk which has a tall spiral shell with many whorls that are ringed with oblique ridges.
• /zī-LÄG-lə-fē/ n., artistic wood carving.
• /YÜ-lō/ n., a Chinese sculling oar with a fixed fulcrum.
• /zə̇-MÄ-kə/ n., a rather harsh commercial sponge (Spongia zimocca or S. officinalis zimocca) of a massive more or less conical form occurring in the Mediterranean Sea.

Official Scripps Spellings:

acicula
bagwyn
caixinha
dhurrie
eluate
fetticus
goanna
hypaethral
immie
joropo
kichel
lierre
mittimus
neem
oopuhue
pothos
quonk
recamier
sciniph
teratism
uraeus
viaticum
wentletrap
xyloglyphy
yuloh
zimocca

From A Year with Rilke, June 5 Entry
Lullaby, from New Prams

When it happens that I lose you,
will you find that you can sleep
without my whispering over you
like the rustling linden tree?

Without my lying awake beside you
and letting my words
fall upon your breast, your limbs,
your mouth, like petals of a rose?

Without my letting you be cradled
alone with what is yours,
like a garden abundant
with lavender and lemon balm.

Sardinian Lullaby
by Romualdo Locatelli

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.






*An extratertesticle.