Word-Wednesday for October 16, 2024

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for October 16, 2024, the forty-second Wednesday of the year, the fourth Wednesday of fall, the third Wednesday of October, and the two-hundred-ninetieth day of the year, with seventy-six days remaining.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for October 16, 2024
Tamarack Splendor
Of all the autumn flora and fauna color changes in Wannaska, few compare to the emerging brilliant gold in a stand of Larix laricina. Our only native deciduous conifer in Wannaska (or in Minnesota), its soft needles and bend easily as you run your fingers across them. Most still have a greenish tinge, but they will soon be pure golden yellow — just before the needles fall.

October 16 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


October 16 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily, occasionally.


Earth/Moon Almanac for October 16, 2024
Sunrise: 7:46am; Sunset: 6:32pm; 2 minutes, 27 seconds less daylight today
Moonrise: 6:06pm; Moonset: 6:33am, waxing gibbous, 97% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for October 16, 2024
                Average            Record              Today
High             50                     79                     60
Low              30                     12                      43

Lightness in Autumn
by Robert Fitzgerald

The rake is like a wand or fan,   
With bamboo springing in a span   
To catch the leaves that I amass   
In bushels on the evening grass.

I reckon how the wind behaves   
And rake them lightly into waves   
And rake the waves upon a pile,   
Then stop my raking for a while.

The sun is down, the air is blue,   
And soon the fingers will be, too,   
But there are children to appease   
With ducking in those leafy seas.

So loudly rummaging their bed
On the dry billows of the dead,
They are not warned at four and three   
Of natural mortality.

Before their supper they require   
A dragon field of yellow fire
To light and toast them in the gloom.   
So much for old earth’s ashen doom.

October 16 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Fossil Day
• National Sports Day
• Bra Day USA
• National Liqueur Day
• Department Store Day
• National Dictionary Day
• National Boss’s Day
• Hagfish Day
• Support Your Local Chamber of Commerce Day
• World Food Day
• Feast Day of Colmán of Kilroot (Colman mac Cathbaid)

October 16 Word Pun
Sven is teaching a poetry class at the Roseau County jail. The job has it prose and its cons.


October 16 Word Riddle
Why do the French eat snails?*


October 16 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
YESTERDAY, n. The infancy of youth, the youth of manhood, the entire past of age.

    But yesterday I should have thought me blest
    To stand high-pinnacled upon the peak
    Of middle life and look adown the bleak
    And unfamiliar foreslope to the West,
    Where solemn shadows all the land invest
    And stilly voices, half-remembered, speak
    Unfinished prophecy, and witch-fires freak
    The haunted twilight of the Dark of Rest.
    Yea, yesterday my soul was all aflame
    To stay the shadow on the dial's face
    At manhood's noonmark! Now, in God His name
    I chide aloud the little interspace
    Disparting me from Certitude, and fain
    Would know the dream and vision ne'er again.
    —Baruch Arnegriff

    It is said that in his last illness the poet Arnegriff was attended at different times by seven doctors.


October 16 Etymology Word of the Week
employ
/imˈploi/ v., give work to (someone) and pay them for it; make use of, from early 15th century, "apply or devote (something to some purpose); expend or spend," from Old French emploiier (12th century) "make use of, apply; increase; entangle; devote," from Latin implicare "enfold, involve, be connected with, unite, associate," from assimilated form of in- (from Proto-Indo-European root en "in") + plicare "to fold" (from Proto-Indo-European root plek- "to plait").

Imply, which is the same word, retains more of the original sense. Sense of "hire, engage" first recorded in English 1580s, from meaning "involve in a particular purpose," which arose in Late Latin.

October 16 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1829 Tremont Hotel, the first US modern hotel opens in Boston.
• 1841 Queens University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, is chartered.
• 1847 Charlotte Brontë's book Jane Eyre published.
• 1854 Abraham Lincoln presents his Peoria Speech, denouncing recent federal legislation extending slavery.
• 1859 Abolitionist John Brown leads 21 men on a raid of the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry, Virginia.
• 1869 Hotel in Boston becomes first to have indoor plumbing.
• 1901 Booker T. Washington and his family are invited to dine at the White House with Teddy and Edith Roosevelt.
• 1913 George Bernard Shaw's play Pygmalion premieres.
• 1922 Influential modernist poem The Waste Land by T. S. Eliot is first published.
• 1942 Aaron Copland and Agnes de Mille's ballet Rodeo premieres.
• 1950 The first edition of C.S. Lewis' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is released.
• 1958 Benjamin Britten's Nocturne, premieres.
• 1986 Wole Soyinka, Nigerian playwright and poet, becomes the first African to receive the Nobel Prize in Literature.
• 2018 Man Booker Prize is won by Anna Burns' Milkman, the first winner from Northern Ireland.

October 16 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1605 Charles Coypeau Dassoucy, French poet.
• 1679 Jan Dismas Zelenka, Czech composer.
• 1726 Daniel Chodowiecki, Polish painter.
• 1729 (Pieter) Pierre van Maldere, Flemish violinist and composer.
• 1758 Noah Webster, American lexicographer.
• 1811 Gaetano Capocci, Italian composer.
• 1821 Albert Franz Doppler, Austrian composer.
• 1826 Piotr Studzinski, Polish composer.
• 1837 John Francis Barnett, British composer.
• 1849 Arnold Krug, German composer.
• 1854 Oscar Wilde, Irish playwright and novelist.
• 1870 Helge Rode, Danish poet.
• 1878 Carlos Pedrell, Uruguayan composer.
• 1884 Rembrandt Bugatti, Italian sculptor.
• 1888 Eugene O'Neill, American playwright.
• 1890 Paul Strand, American photographer.
• 1897 Harrison Kerr, American composer.
• 1900 Edward Ardizzone, artist and illustrator.
• 1900 Primo Conti, Italian painter.
• 1903 Cecile de Brunhoff, French storyteller.
• 1907 Roger Vailland, French author.
• 1916 George Turner, Australian author.
• 1918 Géori Boué, French soprano.
• 1919 Kathleen Winsor, American writer.
• 1927 Günter Grass, German writer and playwright.
• 1932 Henry Jay Lewis, American double-bassist.
• 1936 Gerardo Gandini, Argentinian composer.
• 1941 Erkki Jokinen, Finnish composer.
• 1943 Paul Edwin Zimmer, American science fiction writer.
• 1944 Paul Durcan, Irish poet.
• 1945 Paul Monette, American writer.
• 1956 Marin Alsop, American conductor and first woman to head a major American orchestra.
• 1959 Erkki-Sven Tüür, Estonian composer.
• 1961 Marc Levy, French novelist.
• 1972 Emily Doolittle, Canadian composer.

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

• arrant: /ER-ənt/ adj., complete, utter.
• basial: /BĀ-sē-əl/ adj., of, like, or pertaining to kissing.
• dak: /däk/ n., transport or post by relays of men and horses; a post station or traveler's rest house located originally on post roads.
• emicate: /EM-i-kāt/ v., to spring up.
• fantigue: /fan-TĒG/ n., a state of excitement or great tension.
• grufted: /GRUFT-id/ adj., soiled or dirty.
• omotenashi: /uh-moh-duh-NAH-shee/ n., JAPANESE, good hospitality, characterized by thoughtfulness, close attention to detail, and the anticipation of a guest's needs.
• ℞evolutionist: /ˌre-və-LŪ-sh(ə-)nist/ n., a new type of revolutionary where the ℞ is the prescription for, or design of, evolution, coined by John B. Calhoun.
• sepoy: /SĒ-poi/ n., an Indian soldier serving under British or other European orders.
• wrythening: /RIGH-dhuhn-ing/ n., spirally twisted ornamentation on glassware.

October 16, 2024 Word-Wednesday Feature
Professions of Yore
If you’re reading older classics like Emma, which the members of the Hard Book Club currently enjoy, it might be handy to brush up on the vocabulary of the professions of earlier centuries:

• Accomptant: /uh-KUMP-tuhnt/ n., Accountant.
• Amanuensis: /uh-man-yoo-EN-sis/ n., Secretary or Stenographer.
• Baxter: /BAK-stur/ n., Baker.
• Chandler: /CHAN-dler/ n., Dealer or Trader who makes or sells candles.
• Drayman: /DRAY-muhn/ n., one who drives a long strong cart without fixed sides for carrying heavy loads.
• Faulkner: /FAWK-ner/ n., Falconer.
• Gerber: /GER-ber/ n., Tanner; one who tans (cures) animal hides into leather.
• Hacker: /HAK-er/ n., Maker of Hoes.
• Jagger: /JAG-er/ n., Hunter.
• Kempster: /KEM-ster/ n., Wool Comber.
• Leech: /lēch/ n., Physician.
• Manciple: / MAN-si-puhl/ n., A Steward
• Neatherder: /NEE-thur-der/ n., Herder of Cows.
• Ordinary: /OR-din-er-ee/ n., Innkeeper with fixed prices.
• Peruker: /puh-ROO-kur/ n., A Wig Maker.
• Quarrier: /KWAR-ee-er/ n., Quarry Worker
• Ripper: /RIP-er/ n., Seller of Fish.
• Scribler: /SCRIB-lər/ n., A minor or worthless author.
• Snobscat: /SNOB-skat/ n., One who repaired shoes.
• Squibster: /KWIB-ster/ n., Author of Bon Mots.
• Svenster: /SVEN-ster/ n., A guy that is mega hot and rad and sweet but doesn't realize it.
• Tapley: /TAP-lee/ n., One who puts the tap in an ale cask.
• Vulcan: /VUL-kin/ n., Blacksmith.
• Webster: /WEB-stər/ n., Operator of Looms.
• Yeoman: /YOH-mən/ n., Farmer who owns his own land.

From A Year with Rilke, October 16 Entry
In a Foreign Park, from New Prams

Two paths appear. They open to no one.
But sometimes, as you face them,
one allows you to proceed.
Then you think you've lost your way,
but suddenly there you are in that inner garden,
left alone again with the carved stone

and reading it again:
Baroness Britta Sophie—and once again
tracing with your finger
the time-worn number of the year.
Why does this discovery never grow faint?

What makes you stop here
just the way you did before,
as though you expected something
in this damp, untrodden place
shadowed by elms?

Memories of the Garden at Etten
(or Ladies of Arles)
by 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.







*They don’t like fast food.