Word-Wednesday for September 25, 2024

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for September 25, 2024, the thirty-ninth Wednesday of the year, the first Wednesday of fall, the fourth Wednesday of September, and the two-hundred-sixty-ninth day of the year, with ninety-seven days remaining.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for September 25, 2024
Why Did the Woolly Bear Cross the Road?
It's that time of year. Banded woolly bears are the larval caterpillar form of Pyrrharctia isabella, also known as Isabella tiger moth, and they can be found on Wannaskan roads heading to the other side. Woolly bears at the end of summer overwinter underneath leaf litter and pupate in spring.

Some oldtimers say that the width of a woolly bear’s brown and black bands predict how severe a winter might be. In reality, the width of the bands is determined by the caterpillar’s age. The older the caterpillar, the wider the reddish-brown band around its midsection.

The good folks of Vermilion, Ohio apparently have little to do this time of year, so they celebrate an annual Woolly Bear Festival, which they claim to be the largest one-day festival in Ohio. Festivities include a parade, woolly bear races, and an “official” analysis of the woolly bears and forecast for the coming winter.

To date, there is no scientific explanation for why woolly bears cross the road, nor have Sven or Ula resolved their differences of opinion about this phenological phenomenon.

September 25 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


September 25 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily, occasionally.


Earth/Moon Almanac for September 25, 2024
Sunrise: 7:15am; Sunset: 7:15pm; 3 minutes, 33 seconds less daylight today
Moonrise: -; Moonset: 4:43pm, waning crescent, 43% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for September 25, 2024
                Average            Record              Today
High             62                     84                     78
Low              39                     18                      57

Lines Written in the Days of Growing Darkness
by Mary Oliver

Every year we have been
witness to it: how the
world descends

into a rich mash, in order that
it may resume.
And therefore
who would cry out

to the petals on the ground
to stay,
knowing as we must,
how the vivacity of what was is married

to the vitality of what will be?
I don't say
it's easy, but
what else will do

if the love one claims to have for the world
be true?

So let us go on, cheerfully enough,
this and every crisping day,

though the sun be swinging east,
and the ponds be cold and black,
and the sweets of the year be doomed.

September 25 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• World Dense Breast Day
• National Open the Magic Day
• National Daughter’s Day
• National Quesadilla Day
• National Lobster Day
• National Research Administrator Day
• National Tune-Up Day
• National Comic Book Day
• Math Storytelling Day
• National One-Hit Wonder Day
• National Women’s Health and Fitness Day
• Bangladeshi Immigration Day
• Feast Day of Finbarr

September 25 Word Pun
It never went up for sale at the farm sale, because neither Teresa nor Becky wanted to advertise the one nightstand.


September 25 Word Riddle
How do you repair a broken jack o' lantern?*


September 25 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
HELPMATE, n. A wife, or bitter half.

    "Now, why is yer wife called a helpmate, Pat?"
    Says the priest. "Since the time 'o yer wooin'
    She's niver assisted in what ye were at—
    For it's naught ye are ever doin'."

    "That's true of yer Riverence," Patrick replies,
    And no sign of contrition evinces;
    "But, bedad, it's a fact which the word implies,
    For she helps to mate the expinses!"
                                —Marley Wottel


September 25 Etymology Word of the Week
bodega
/bō-DĀ-ɡə/ n., a small grocery store, especially in a Spanish-speaking neighborhood, from 1846, "wine shop," from Mexican Spanish, from Spanish bodega "a wine shop; wine-cellar," from Latin apotheca, from Greek apothēkē "depot, store" (see apothecary). Since 1970s in American English it has come to mean "corner convenience store or grocery," especially in a Spanish-speaking community, but in New York City and some other places used generically. Also a doublet of boutique. Italian cognate bottega entered English c. 1900 as "artist's workshop or studio," especially in Italy.


September 25 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1639 First printing press in America set up in Cambridge under the guaranty of Harvard College.
• 1639 Suzuki Shosan, Samurai monk of Zen Buddhism, found awakening.
• 1690 Publick Occurrences, first newspaper in the American colonies (Boston), publishes first & last edition.
• 1789 US Congress proposes the Bill of Rights .
• 1867 Congress creates first all-black university, Howard U in Washington, D.C.
• 1890 Sequoia National Park established by US President Benjamin Harrison - California's first national park and the country's second.
• 1907 Jean Sibelius' 3rd Symphony premieres.
• 1912 Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is founded in New York City.

September 25 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1683 Jean-Philippe Rameau, French composer.
• 1741 Vaclav Pichl, Czech composer.
• 1765 Michał Ogiński, Polish violinist, balalaika player, and composer
• 1782 Charles Robert Maturin, Irish playwright and novelist.
• 1793 Felicia Dorothea Hemans, English-Welsh poet.
• 1796 Antoine-Louis Barye, French sculptor.
• 1798 Henri Scheffer, Dutch painter.
• 1816 Anton de Kontski [Antoni Kątski], Polish-American pianist and composer.
• 1829 William Michael Rossetti, English writer.
• 1839 Mina Kruseman, Dutch writer and feminist.
• 1879 Lope K. Santos, Filipino writer.
• 1879 Luiz Costa, Portuguese pianist, and composer.
• 1881 Lu Xun, Chinese writer.
• 1884 John Howard Lawson, American playwright.
• 1886 Jesús Guridi, Spanish composer.
• 1889 C. K. Scott-Moncrieff, Scottish writer.
• 1896 Elsa Triolet [Ella Kagan], Russian-French writer.
• 1897 William Faulkner, American author.
• 1902 Ernst von Salomon, German writer.
• 1902 Jeno Takacs, Austrian composer.
• 1903 Mark Rothko [Marcus Rothkovich], Latvian-American abstract expressionist.
• 1905 Edith Barstow, American choreographer.
• 1906 Dmitri Shostakovich, Russian composer.
• 1906 Jaroslav Ježek, Czech composer.
• 1906 Madeleine Bourdouxhe, Belgian writer.
• 1906 Phyllis Pearsall, British painter and writer.
• 1908 Eugen Suchoň, Slovak organist and composer.
• 1911 Lionel Henry Nowak, American composer.
• 1913 Tony O'Malley, Irish artist.
• 1916 Jessica Anderson, Australian novelist.
• 1916 Tolia Nikiprowetzky, Russian-French composer.
• 1921 Remy C. van de Kerckhove, Flemish poet.
• 1930 Herbert Heckmann, German writer.
• 1930 Shel Silverstein, American writer and cartoonist.
• 1931 Manouchehr Atashi, Persian poet.
• 1932 Glenn Gould, Canadian classical pianist.
• 1933 Ian Tyson, Canadian folk singer-songwriter.
• 1935 Maj Sjowall, Swedish writer.
• 1936 (Roosevelt) "Booba" Barnes, American blues guitarist.
• 1942 John Taylor, British jazz pianist,.
• 1944 Eugenia Zukerman, American flutist and novelist.
• 1951 Deirdre O'Connor, Irish architect.
• 1952 Bell Hooks [Gloria Jean Watkins], American author.
• 1964 Carlos Ruiz Zafón, Spanish writer.

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

• bespoke: /bə-SPŌK/ adj., made for a particular customer or user.
• cosplay: /KÄZ-plā/ n., the practice of dressing up as a character from a movie, book, or video game.
• hurkle: /HəR-kəl/ v., to draw up the limbs and crouch or squat; hurkle-durkle: /HəR-kəl DəR-kəl/ v., to lie in bed or lounge about when one should be up and about.
• impigrity: /im-PIG-ri-tee/ n., quickness or readiness to act, as well as diligence or industriousness.
• jeroboam: /jer-ə-BŌ-əm/ n., a wine bottle with a capacity four times larger than that of an ordinary bottle.
• lido: /LĒ-dō/ n., a public, open-air swimming pool or beach.
• lubency: /LOO-ben-see/ n., the willingness or pleasure in doing something.
• mulcible: /MUL-sih-bul/ adj., capable of being appeased or soothed.
• prebition: /preh-BIH-shun/ n., the act of offering or providing something.
• tundish: /TəN-dish/ n., funnel; a reservoir in the top part of a mold into which molten metal is poured.

September 25, 2024 Word-Wednesday Feature
autumn
/ˈôdəm/ n., the third season of the year, when crops and fruits are gathered and leaves fall, in the northern hemisphere from September to November and in the southern hemisphere from March to May, from season after summer and before winter, late 14th century, autumpne (modern form from 16th century), from Old French autumpne, automne (13th century), from Latin autumnus (also auctumnus, perhaps influenced by auctus "increase"), which is of unknown origin.

Perhaps it is from Etruscan, but Tucker suggests a meaning "drying-up season" and a root in auq- (which would suggest the form in -c- was the original) and compares archaic English sere-month "August." De Vaan writes, "Although 'summer', 'winter' and 'spring' are inherited Indo-European words in Latin, a foreign origin of autumnus is conceivable, since we cannot reconstruct a Proto-Indo-European word for 'autumn'."

Harvest (n.) was the English name for the season until autumn began to displace it circa 1600. Astronomically, from the descending equinox to the winter solstice; in Britain, the season is popularly August through October; in U.S., September through November. Compare Italian autunno, Spanish otoño, Portuguese outono, all from the Latin word.

As de Vaan notes, autumn's names across the Indo-European languages leave no evidence that there ever was a common word for it. Many "autumn" words mean "end, end of summer," or "harvest." Compare Greek phthinoporon "waning of summer;" Lithuanian ruduo "autumn," from rudas "reddish," in reference to leaves; Old Irish fogamar, literally "under-winter."

Whether you prefer astronomical or meteorological determinations of the seasons, Wannaska is now autumnal.

We here at Word-Wednesday headquarters prefer to also characterize the season with words. Each season begins with its own unique sense of transition, each with own beauty, each with a blend of gain and loss. Depending on one's location, autumn dreams up changes we in Wannaska would never dream of. For some, autumn is a time a quiescence; for others it is a time of vitality. For all its visual beauty, autumn is a season rich in smells, tastes, touches, and sounds. Here are some words that capture many of these autumnal qualities:

Autumn burned brightly, a running flame through the mountains, a torch flung to the trees.

Faith Baldwin

Of all the seasons, autumn offers the most to man and requires the least of him.

Hal Borland

Autumn wins you best by this its mute
Appeal to sympathy for its decay.

Robert Browning

All through autumn we hear a double voice: one says everything is ripe; the other says everything is dying. The paradox is exquisite. We feel what the Japanese call “aware”—an almost untranslatable word meaning something like “beauty tinged with sadness.”

Gretel Ehrlich

The year’s last, loveliest smile.

John Howard Bryant

Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.

Samuel Butler

A second spring, where every leaf is a flower.

Albert Camus

On the motionless branches of some trees, autumn berries hung like clusters of coral beads, as in those fabled orchards where the fruits were jewels.

Charles Dickens

Autumn is the best season in which to sniff, and to sniff for pleasure, for this is the season of universal pungency.

Bertha Damon

It was a beautiful bright autumn day, with air like cider and a sky so blue you could drown in it.

Diana Gabaldon

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.

George Eliot

In autumn, when the leaves are brown,
Take pen and ink, and write it down.

Lewis Carroll

Autumn comes to the sea with a fresh blaze of phosphorescence, when every wave crest is aflame. Here and there the whole surface may glow with sheets of cold fire, while below schools of fish pour through the water like molten metal.

Rachel Carson

It is a vast wilderness of rocks in a sea of light, colored and glowing like oak and maple in autumn, when the sun gold is richest.

John Muir

I’ve never known anyone yet who doesn’t suffer a certain restlessness when autumn rolls around.

Sue Grafton

There is no better time than the autumn to begin forgetting the things that trouble us, allowing them to fall away like dried leaves. There is no better time to dance again, to make the most of every crumb of sunlight and warm body and soul with its rays before it falls asleep and becomes only a dim light bulb in the skies.

Paulo Coelho

The essence of autumn, an unbearable concentration of nostalgia.

Helen Fowler

Spring is the season of hope, and autumn is that of memory.

Marguerite Gardiner

I am struck by the simplicity of light in the atmosphere in the autumn, as if the earth absorbed none, and out of this profusion of dazzling light came the autumnal tints.

Henry David Thoreau

It almost seems as if autumn were the true creator, more creative than the spring, which is too even-toned, more creative when it comes with its will-to-change and shatters the much too ready-made, self-satisfied and really almost bourgeois-complacent image of summer.

Rainer Maria Rilke

Just as a painter needs light in order to put the finishing touches to his picture, so I need an inner light, which I feel I never have enough of in the autumn.

Leo Tolstoy

As long as autumn lasts, I shall not have hands, canvas and colors enough to paint the beautiful things I see.

Vincent van Gogh

Beauty for some provides escape,
Who gain a happiness in eyeing
The gorgeous buttocks of the ape
Or Autumn sunsets exquisitely dying.

Aldous Huxley

From A Year with Rilke, September 25 Entry
My Own Deep Soul, from Book of Hours I, 39

You, my own deep soul,
trust me. I will not betray you.
My blood is alive with many voices
telling me I am made of longing.

What mystery breaks over me now?
In its shadow I come into life.
For the first time I am alone with you—

you, my power to feel.

Leo Tolstoy
by Leonid Pasternak

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.






*Use a pumpkin patch.