Word-Wednesday for June 4, 2025

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for June 4, 2025, the sixteenth Wednesday of the year, the eleventh Wednesday of spring, the first Wednesday of June, and the one-hundred fifty-fifth day of the year, with two-hundred ten days remaining.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for June 4, 2025
Urocyon cinereoargenteus is an omnivorous mammal of the family Canidae, widespread throughout North America and Central America. The genus Urocyon comes from Ancient Greek οὐρά (ourá, “tail”) + κύων (kúōn, “dog”); and the study of the gray fox is urocyonology /yuh-oh-sy-uh-NAHL-uh-jee/.
The species epithet cinereoargenteus is a combination of cinereo (from cinereus) meaning ashen, and argenteus (from argentum), meaning silver, referencing the color of the tail.

The gray fox is specifically adapted to climb trees. Its strong, hooked claws allow it to scramble up trees to escape many predators, such as the domestic dog or the coyote, or to reach tree-bound or arboreal food sources. It can climb branchless, vertical trunks to heights of 59 feet and jump from branch to branch. It descends primarily by jumping from branch to branch, or by descending slowly backwards like a domestic cat.

Gray fox likes mice, rabbits, rats, and squirrel. While they may occasionally eat a bird, chewing on feathers disgusts them. All mammals started small, and genetic studies studies suggest that all canids are descendants of the gray fox.

June 4 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


June 4 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily, occasionally.


Earth/Moon Almanac for June 4, 2025
Sunrise: 5:23am; Sunset: 9:22pm; 1 minutes, 22 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 2:49pm; Moonset: 2:23am, waxing gibbous, 59% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for June 4, 2025
                Average            Record              Today
High             69                     91                     72
Low              48                     27                     45

June
by James Russell Lowell

And what is so rare as a day in June?
Then, if ever, come perfect days;
Then Heaven tries the earth if it be in tune,
And over it softly her warm ear lays:
Whether we look, or whether we listen,
We hear life murmur, or see it glisten;
Every clod feels a stir of might,
An instinct within it that reaches and towers,
And, groping blindly above it for light,
Climbs to a soul in grass and flowers;
The flush of life may well be seen
Thrilling back over hills and valleys;
The cowslip startles in meadows green,
The buttercup catches the sun in its chalice,
And there’s never a leaf nor a blade too mean
To be some happy creature’s palace;
The little bird sits at his door in the sun,
Atilt like a blossom among the leaves,
And lets his illumined being o’errun
With the deluge of summer it receives;
His mate feels the eggs beneath her wings,
And the heart in her dumb breast flutters and sings;
He sings to the wide world, and she to her nest,—
In the nice ear of Nature which song is the best?

Now is the high-tide of the year,
And whatever of life hath ebbed away
Comes flooding back with a ripply cheer,
Into every bare inlet and creek and bay;
Now the heart is so full that a drop over-fills it,
We are happy now because God wills it;
No matter how barren the past may have been,
‘Tis enough for us now that the leaves are green;
We sit in the warm shade and feel right well
How the sap creeps up and the blossoms swell;
We may shut our eyes, but we cannot help knowing
That skies are clear and grass is growing;
The breeze comes whispering in our ear,
That dandelions are blossoming near,
That maize has sprouted, that streams are flowing,
That the river is bluer than the sky,
That the robin is plastering his house hard by;
And if the breeze kept the good news back,
For other couriers we should not lack;
We could guess it all by yon heifer’s lowing,—
And hark! how clear bold chanticleer,
Warmed with the new wine of the year,
Tells all in his lusty crowing!

June 4 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Hug Your Cat Day
• National Clean Beauty Day
• National Safe Day
• National Cognac Day
• National Cheese Day
• National Old Maids Day

June 4 Word Pun
Economists report that while cactus sales have spiked, aquarium sales have tanked.


June 4 Word Riddle
What pizza do opera singers find most relaxing?*

a Chairman Joe original

June 4 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
ALONE, adj., In bad company.

    In contact, lo! the flint and steel,
    By spark and flame, the thought reveal
    That he the metal, she the stone,
    Had cherished secretly alone.
                    —Booley Fito


June 4 Etymology Word of the Week
alone
/ə-LŌN/ adj., having no one else present; adv., on one's own, from circa 1300, a contraction of all ane, from Old English all ana "unaccompanied, all by oneself," literally "wholly oneself," from all "all, wholly" (see all) + an "one" (see one). It preserves the old pronunciation of one.

June 4 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 781 BC Oldest Chinese recording of a solar eclipse.
• 1070 Roquefort cheese created in a cave near Roquefort, France.
• 1769 A transit of Venus is followed five hours later by a total solar eclipse, the shortest such interval in history.
• 1783 Joseph and Jacques Montgolfier make first public hot-air balloon flight (unmanned), covering two kilometers and lasting ten minutes with an estimated altitude of 1,600-2,000 meters.
• 1784 Madame Elizabeth Thible becomes the first female balloonist.
• 1824 First free press (without government approval) founded in Australia - the Hobart Town Gazette by ex-convict Andrew Bent.
• 1850 Self-deodorizing fertilizer patented in England.
• 1919 US Congress passes the Women's Suffrage Bill, the 19th Amendment.
• 1970 43rd National Spelling Bee: Libby Childress wins spelling croissant.
• 1981 54th National Spelling Bee: Paige Pipkin wins spelling sarcophagus.

June 4 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1700 Theodoor Verhaegen, Flemish sculptor.
• 1701 Nikolaj Eigtved, Danish architect.
• 1801 James Pennethorne, English architect.
• 1821 Apollon Maykov, Russian poet.
• 1838 Servaas Daems [Peeter Klein], Flemish writer.
• 1864 Nelly O'Brien, Irish miniaturist and landscape artist.
• 1865 Guido Gasperini, Italian composer.
• 1879 Mabel Lucie Attwell, English children's author and illustrator.
• 1881 Natalia Goncharova, Russian avant-garde artist and painter.
• 1891 Erno Rapee, American composer.
• 1893 Daan Boens, Flemish poet.
• 1899 Hassan Fathy, Egyptian architect.
• 1899 Leo Spies, Russian-born German composer.
• 1907 Jacques Roumain, Haitian writer.
• 1907 Marjan Kozina, Slovene composer.
• 1907 Patience Strong [Winifred Emma May], English poet.
• 1909 Paul Nordoff, American composer.
• 1911 Austin Andrew Wright, British sculptor.
• 1912 Robert Jacobsen, Danish sculptor.
• 1913 Bruno Bettinelli, Italian composer.
• 1914 Willy-August Linnemann, Danish writer.
• 1921 Nina Vyroubova, Russian-French ballerina.
• 1922 Irwin Bazelon, American composer.
• 1923 Elizabeth Jolley, British-born Australian writer.
• 1926 Ivo Žídek, Czech opera singer.
• 1928 Lloyd Lambert, American bassist.
• 1929 Andor Kovács, Hungarian composer.
• 1930 Pentti Raitio, Finnish composer.
• 1931 Jan Zábrana, Czech poet.
• 1932 Maurice Shadbolt, New Zealand writer.
• 1934 Carl Fredrik Reutersward, Swedish artist.
• 1937 Robert Fulghum, American author.
• 1940 Dorothy Rudd Moore, African-American composer.
• 1944 Alec Finn, Irish musician.
• 1945 Daniel Topolski, British writer.
• 1946 Magdalena Jetelová, Czech sculptor.
• 1951 Charles Dickinson, American author.
• 1951 Wendy Pini, American comic book writer.
• 1955 Paul Stewart, British children's literature writer.
• 1959 John Bickerton, Canadian composer.
• 1964 Michael Collins, Irish novelist.

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

• appetitost: /Ä-pə-tēt-u̇st/ n., a soft Danish cheese made from sour buttermilk.
• bate: /bāt/ v., to reduce the force or intensity of, restrain; to take away; to lower especially in amount or estimation; to blunt.
• boulevardier: /bo͝o-lə-vär-DIR/ n., a wealthy, fashionable socialite.
• dhole: /dōl/ n., a wild dog (*Cuon alpinus*) occurring from India to southern Siberia that typically hunts in packs and often preys on large animals.
• fay: /fā/ n., a fairy.
• felloe: /FE-lōz/ n., the outer rim of a wheel, to which the spokes are fixed.
• fredagsmys: /frey-DAGS-mees/ n., a Swedish tradition of spending Friday nights at home with family and friends eating comfort food, playing games, or watching TV.
• grawlix: /GRAW-licks/ n., andom string of typographical symbols (such as %@$&*!) used in place of an obscenity.
• redditive: /RED-uh-div/ adj., restorative; relating to the function of restoring.
• rimbombo: /reem-BOHM-boh/ n., a deep loud reverberation; a deeply resonant or thunderous sound; a booming noise.

June 4, 2025 Word-Wednesday Feature
2025 Scripps Spelling Bee Words
Congratulations to Faizan Zaki, a 13-year-old from Dallas who won this year’s Scripps National Spelling Bee after coming in second place last year. His winning word was éclaircissement: /ā-kler-sēs-MÄNT/ n.,  an enlightening explanation of something, typically someone's conduct, that has been hitherto inexplicable. Yes, contestants must know how to spell many immigrant words from many different languages that have found their way into English — often in their original spelling and pronunciation. Contestants must also become familiar with foreign foods and scientific names.

To test your spelling skills, here are a few words from this year’s list, as you would hear them pronounced if you were a contestant. As usual, Word-Wednesday staff kindly present these words in alphabetical order, so you got that going for you. The correct spellings appear at the bottom of this post.**

• /ə-GYŪ-zē-ə/ n., the absense or impairment of the sense of taste.
• /bo͞o-TÄD/ n., a sudden outburst or outbreak.
• /kal-VISH-ē-ēz/ n., the condition of being bald; baldness.
• /DəR-ē/ n., a thick flat-woven cotton or wool cloth or rug made in India.
• /e-də-MÄ-mā/ n., immature green soybeans usually in the pod.
• /fär-FÄ-lā/ n., butterfly-shaped pasta.
• /JING-ɡlə-məs/ n., a hinge-like joint such as the elbow or knee, that allows movement in only one plane.
• /hȯr-DĒ-ə-ləm/ n., an acute infection of a sebaceous gland in the eyelid.
• /IM-ē/ 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.
• /KIK-əl/ n., a semisweet baked product made of eggs, flour, and sugar usually rolled and cut in diamond shape and baked until puffed.
• /LÄB-skau̇s/ n., a sailor's dish of stewed or baked meat with vegetables and hardtack.
• /MÔR-ē-än/ n., a high-crested helmet with no visor.
• /ni-MĪ-ə-tē/ n., excess; redundancy.
• /ÄP-ə-dən/ n., a resident of a town; a townsman.
• /pə-SI-və-rəs/ adj., feeding on fishes.
• /kē-YÄS/ n., the principle of analogy applied in the interpretation of points of Islamic law not clearly covered in the Koran or sunna; analogical inference or deduction.
• /FÄJ-prə-mu̇k/ n., the constitutional head of a state of India formed from several former princely states who is elected by a council of rulers.
• /sklaf/ v., to scrape the ground instead of hitting the ball cleanly on a golf stroke.
• /THĒ-shəḵ/ n., prime minister.
• /ən-GWIK-yə-lāt/ adj., having nails or claws; tapering below into a claw or a stalklike base.
• /vēn-yə-RŌN/ n., winegrower.  
• /wä-HĒ-nē/ n., a Polynesian woman; a female surfer.
• /ZIF-ē-əs/ n., a swordfish.
• /i-TRIF-ər-əs/ adj., bearing or containing yttrium or related elements.
• /TSÜK-tsfäŋ/ n., the necessity of moving in chess when it is to one's disadvantage.

From A Year with Rilke, June 4 Entry
Wild Rosebush, from Uncollected Prams

How it stands there against the dark
of this late rainy hour, young and clean,
swaying its generous branches
yet absorbed in its essence as rose;
with wide-open flowers already appearing,
each unsought and each uncared-for.
So, endlessly exceeding itself
and ineffably from itself come forth,
it calls the wanderer, who in evening contemplation
passes on the road:
Oh see me standing here, see how unafraid I am
and unprotected. I have all I need.

Roses and Beetle
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.







*Domino’s Placido.

 

**
ageusia
boutade
calvities
dhurrie
edamame
farfalle
ginglymus
hordeolum
immie
joropo
kichel
lobscouse
morion
nimiety
oppidan
piscivorous
qiyas
rajpramukh
sclaff
taoiseach
unguiculate
vigneron
wahine
xiphias
yttriferous
zugzwang