Word-Wednesday for July 17, 2024

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for July 17, 2024, the twenty-ninth Wednesday of the year, the fourth Wednesday of summer, the third Wednesday of June, and the one-hundred-ninety-ninth day of the year, with one-hundred sixty-seven days remaining.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for July 17, 2024
Wood Lilly
Lilium andinum (philadelphicum if you're in Massachusetts or Virginia), also known as the wood lily, flame lily, Philadelphia lily, prairie lily, and western red lily, is a perennial species of lily native to North America, including Wannaska. Wood lilies sport as many as five flowers at the top of the stem, measuring 2½ inches across, with six petal-like tepals [/TE-pəl/ n., a segment of the outer whorl in a flower that has no differentiation between petals and sepals], colored deep orange to red, marked by dark maroon brown spots. The tepals are spatula shaped, with the upper blade portion tapering to a pointed tip. Look for them in partially shaded, dry woods or in sunny meadows.

Spot the Space Station:

Time: Wednesday, July 17 11:01 PM, Visible: 7 minutes, Max Height: 55°, Appears: 10° above WNW, Disappears: 10° above E

July 17 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


July 17 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily, occasionally.


Earth/Moon Almanac for July 17, 2024
Sunrise: 5:39am; Sunset: 9:21pm; 2 minute, 2 seconds less daylight today
Moonrise: 6:38pm; Moonset: 1:32am, waxing gibbous, 78% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for July 17, 2024
                Average            Record              Today
High             77                     93                     73
Low              55                     41                    49

Summer Evening
by John Clare

The frog half fearful jumps across the path,
And little mouse that leaves its hole at eve
Nimbles with timid dread beneath the swath;
My rustling steps awhile their joys deceive,
Till past,—and then the cricket sings more strong,
And grasshoppers in merry moods still wear
The short night weary with their fretting song.
Up from behind the molehill jumps the hare,
Cheat of his chosen bed, and from the bank
The yellowhammer flutters in short fears
From off its nest hid in the grasses rank,
And drops again when no more noise it hears.
Thus nature's human link and endless thrall,
Proud man, still seems the enemy of all.

July 17 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Hot Dog Day
• National Lottery Day
• National Tattoo Day
• World Emoji Day
• National Yellow Pig Day
• National Wrong Way Corrigan Day
• National Peach Ice Cream Day
• World Day for International Justice
• Feast Day of Cynehelm, mentioned in the Canterbury Tales

July 17 Word Pun

Lettuce pray.
Lord, please help vegans keep to themselves about eating habits.
The last thing we need is another Spinach Inquisition.

July 17 Word Riddle
Which of the following words don't belong in the group and why?

CORSET, COSTER, SECTOR, ESCORT, COURTS*

July 17 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
WALL STREET, n. A symbol of sin for every devil to rebuke. That Wall Street is a den of thieves is a belief that serves every unsuccessful thief in place of a hope in Heaven. Even the great and good Andrew Carnegie has made his profession of faith in the matter.

    Carnegie the dauntless has uttered his call
    To battle: "The brokers are parasites all!"
    Carnegie, Carnegie, you'll never prevail;
    Keep the wind of your slogan to belly your sail,
    Go back to your isle of perpetual brume,
    Silence your pibroch, doff tartan and plume:
    Ben Lomond is calling his son from the fray—
    Fly, fly from the region of Wall Street away!
    While still you're possessed of a single baubee
    (I wish it were pledged to endowment of me)
    'Twere wise to retreat from the wars of finance
    Lest its value decline ere your credit advance.
    For a man 'twixt a king of finance and the sea,
    Carnegie, Carnegie, your tongue is too free!
                            —Anonymus Bink


July 17 Etymology Word of the Week
respect
/rə-SPEK(T)/ n., a feeling of deep admiration for someone or something elicited by their abilities, qualities, or achievements; due regard for the feelings, wishes, rights, or traditions of others, from late 14th century, "relationship, relation; regard, consideration" (as in in respect to), from Old French respect and directly from Latin respectus "regard, a looking at," literally "act of looking back (or often) at one," noun use of past participle of respicere "look back at, regard, consider," from re- "back" (see re-) + specere "look at" (from Proto-Indo-European root spek- "to observe").

From late 15th century as "an aspect of a thing, a relative property or quality," hence "point, detail, particular feature" (1580s). The meanings "feeling of esteem excited by actions or attributes of someone or something; courteous or considerate treatment due to personal worth or power" are by 1580s.


July 17 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1505 Martin Luther enters into an Augustinian monastery at Erfurt.
• 1717 George Frideric Handel's Water Music premieres.
• 1841 British humorous and satirical magazine Punch first published.
• 1935 Variety publishes famous headline "Sticks Nix Hick Pix".
• 1938 Douglas "Wrong Way" Corrigan leaves New York flying for Los Angeles, winds up in Ireland supposedly by mistake.
• 1948 US Air Force pilot Gail Halvorsen encounters children in at Templehof Airport in Berlin during the Berlin Blockade, giving him the idea to drop candy in "Operation Little Vittles".

July 17 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1674 Isaac Watts, English writer.
• 1797 Hippolyte Delaroche, French painter.
• 1828 George Bernard O'Neill, Irish artist.
• 1828 Quido Mánes, Czech painter.
• 1832 (Johan) August Söderman, Swedish composer.
• 1870 Ludvík Čelanský, Czech composer.
• 1876 Vittorio Gnecchi, Italian composer.
• 1888 Shmuel Agnon, Israeli write.
• 1889 Erle Stanley Gardner, American writer.
• 1898 Berenice Abbott, American photographer.
• 1901 Bruno Jasieński, Polish poet.
• 1902 Christina Stead, Australia, novelist.
• 1903 Valerian Mikhaylovich Bogdanov-Berezovsky, Russian composer.
• 1911 Yang Jiang, Chinese writer.
• 1913 Bertrand Goldberg, American architect.
• 1914 James Purdy, American writer.
• 1922 Donald Davie, English Movement poet.
• 1928 Vince Guaraldi, American jazz pianist and composer.
• 1930 Ryōhei Hirose, Japanese composer.
• 1934 Rainer Kisch, German writer.
• 1935 Peter Schickele (aka P.D.Q. Bach), American composer.
• 1937 Elmer Fudd [originally Egghead], Warner Brothers cartoon character.
• 1937 Jose Ignacio Cabrujas, Venezuelan playwright and writer.
• 1939 Ma Shui-long, Taiwanese classical composer.
• 1939 Warwick Hutton, British artist and illustrator of children's books.
• 1949 Roger Doyle, Irish composer.
• 1952 Robert R. McCammon, American science fiction author.
• 1971 Cory Doctorow, Canadian author.

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

• auxesis: /ȯg-ZĒ-səs/ n., growth, specifically, increase of cell size without cell division.
• ceol: /kyohl/ n., IRISH, music.
• coulter: /KŌL-tər/ n., a vertical cutting blade fixed in front of a plowshare; the part of a seed drill that makes the furrow for the seed.
• dado: /DĀ-dō/ n., he lower part of the wall of a room, below about waist height, if it is a different color or has a different covering than the upper part; a groove cut in the face of a board, into which the edge of another board is fixed; the part of a pedestal between the base and the cornice.
• eeksie-peeksie: /eek-see-PEEK-see/ adj., evenly balanced; equal.
• elver: /EL-vər/ a young eel, specifically, a small immature catadromous eel chiefly of fresh and brackish water.
• pomology: /pō-MÄ-lə-jē/ n., the science and practice of growing fruit.
• quahog: /KWÔˌhôɡ/ n., a large, rounded edible clam of the Atlantic coast of North America.
• scaramouche: /SKAHR-uh-moosh/ n., a boastful but cowardly person; a stock character in the Italian commedia dell’arte that burlesques the Spanish don and is characterized by boastfulness and cowardliness; a cowardly buffoon; a ruffian; scoundrel.
• tarboosh: /tahr-BOOSH/ n., a red felt cap, similar to a fez, usually worn with a silk tassel at the top. (Sometimes worn as the inner part of a turban.)

July 17, 2024 Word-Wednesday Feature
Clouds
/kloud/ n., a visible mass of condensed water vapor floating in the atmosphere, typically high above the ground, from Old English clud "mass of rock, hill," related to clod. The modern sense "rain-cloud, mass of evaporated water visible and suspended in the sky" is a metaphoric extension that begins to appear circa 1300 in southern texts, based on similarity of cumulus clouds and rock masses. The usual Old English word for "cloud" was weolcan (see welkin). In Middle English, skie also originally meant "cloud." The last entry for cloud in the original rock mass sense in Middle English Compendium is from circa 1475.

The four fundamental types of cloud classification (cirrus, cumulus, stratus, nimbus) were proposed by British amateur meteorologist Luke Howard (1772-1864) in 1802. Meaning "cloud-like mass of smoke or dust" is from late 14th century Figuratively, as something that obscures, darkens, threatens, or casts a shadow, from circa 1300; hence under a cloud (circa 1500). In the clouds "removed from earthly things; obscure, fanciful, unreal" is from 1640s. Cloud-compeller translates (poetically) Greek nephelegereta, a Homeric epithet of Zeus.

Picking up on the beginnings made by Luke Howard, Gavin Pretor-Pinney, founder of Cloud Appreciation Society, and artist William Grill bring us Cloudspotting for Beginners, and excellent guide to the science of summer cloud watching. Today Word-Wednesday presents a glossary of cloud words to get you started:

• altocumulus: /al-tō-KYo͞o-myə-ləs/ n., cloud forming a layer of rounded masses with a level base, occurring at medium altitude, usually 6,500–23,000 feet (2–7 km).
• altostratus: /al-tō-STRA-təs/ n., cloud forming a continuous uniform layer that resembles stratus but occurs at medium altitude, usually 6,500–23,000 feet (2–7 km).
• asperitas: /as-PE-ri-tas/ n., a cloud formation characterized by wavy undulations in the cloud base.
• cirrocumulus: /si-rō-KYo͞o-myə-ləs/ n., cloud forming a broken layer of small fleecy clouds at high altitude, usually 16,500–45,000 feet (5–13 km), typically with a rippled or granulated appearance (as in a mackerel sky).
• cirrus: /SI-rəs/ n., cloud forming wispy filamentous tufted streaks (“mare's tails”) at high altitude, usually 16,500–45,000 feet (5–13 km).
• cumulonimbus: /kyo͞o-my-lō-NIM-bəs/ n., cloud forming a towering mass with a flat base at fairly low altitude and often a flat top, as in thunderstorms.
• cumulus: /KYo͞o-myə-ləs/ n., cloud forming rounded masses heaped on each other above a flat base at fairly low altitude.
• fibratus: /fahy-BREY-tuhs/ adj., (of a cloud) hairlike or striated in composition.
• fluctus: /FLUK-tus/ adj., (of a cloud formation) wavelike in composition.
• lenticularis: /len-ti-kyə-LA-rə̇s/ adj., (of a cloud) shaped like a lens.
• radiatus: /rey-dee-EY-tuhs/ adj., (of a cloud) having bands that appear to converge toward a point on the horizon.
• undulatus: /uhn-doo-LEY-tuhs/ n., billow cloud.

William Grill's colorful illustrations in Cloudspotting for Beginners do all these dry definitions justice.


From A Year with Rilke, July 17 Entry
The Golden Hive, from Letter to Witold Hulewicz, November 13, 1925

Nature, and the things we live with and use, precede us and come after us. But they are, so long as we are here, our possession and our friendship. They know us with our needs and our pleasures, as they did those of our ancestors, whose trusted companions they were.

 So it follows that all that is here is not to be despised and put down, but, precisely because it did precede us, to be taken by us with the innermost understanding that these appearances and things must be seen and transformed.

Transformed? Yes. For our task is to take this earth so deeply and wholly into ourselves that it will resurrect within our being. We are bees of the invisible. Passionately we plunder the honey of the visible in order to gather it in the great golden hive of the invisible.

atelier of 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.






*COURTS; all the others are anagrams.