Word-Wednesday for July 16, 2025

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for July 16, 2025, the twenty-second Wednesday of the year, the fourth Wednesday of summer, the third Wednesday of July, and the one-hundred ninety-seventh day of the year, with one-hundred sixty-eight days remaining. Brought to you by Bead Gypsy Studio & Scandinavian Shoppe, donating 50% of Jewelry Sales to local ALS Fundraiser, July 23-28th.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for July 16, 2025
Fly Agaric
With all the flies buzzing around now, it's also time for Amanita muscaria var. guessowii, otherwise known as American Yellow Fly Agaric (AYFA) to push up and shine. AYFA is a large, conspicuous, yellow variety of one of the most recognizable Alice in Wonderland mushrooms in the world. It occurs in the United States from Maine to Maryland, west to Minnesota and Indiana, and south along the Appalachian Mountains to North Carolina. It also occurs across southern Canada from Nova Scotia to Alberta. It occurs in coniferous, deciduous, or mixed woodlands, woodland edges, and among planted trees. It is found from June to November - depending on the rains - solitary, scattered, in groups, or in fairy rings, on the ground under pine, spruce, fir, aspen, or birch trees. It is mycorrhizal, obtaining its nutrients from the rootlets of a tree while facilitating greater absorption of nutrients from the soil by the tree.

When it first appears the fruiting body is egg-shaped, completely enclosed in a protective membrane known as the universal veil. As the mushroom expands the universal veil breaks, forming 2 to 4 concentric rings of scales at the base of the stalk. 

The cap on young mushrooms is nearly round at first, becoming convex then ultimately nearly flat at maturity. The mature cap is is 2″ to 12″ in diameter, sometimes larger. The upper surface is hairless, slimy when moist, pale yellow, bright yellow, or orangish-yellow, often with a reddish-orange or yellowish-orange center. Occasionally, the cap is entirely orange. It is densely covered at first with cottony, wart-like fragments of the universal veil. As the mushroom ages, the warts are worn away or washed away by rain.

Most guidebooks and authorities state that American Yellow Fly Agaric is poisonous, and it is true that about 90% of mushroom-related fatalities involve Amanitas. Fly agaric contains the hallucinogenic compounds muscimole and ibotenic acid. They may have been involved in prehistoric rituals. It is poisonous in large, possibly even in moderate amounts, but not normally fatal.

July 16 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


July 16 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily, occasionally.


Earth/Moon Almanac for July 16, 2025
Sunrise: 5:38am; Sunset: 9:22pm; 2 minutes, 1 second less daylight today
Moonrise: 11:57pm; Moonset: 12:28pm, waning gibbous, 66% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for July 16, 2025
                Average            Record              Today
High             78                     99                     66
Low              57                     34                     45

Summer
by John Clare

Come we to the summer, to the summer we will come,
For the woods are full of bluebells and the hedges full of bloom,
And the crow is on the oak a-building of her nest,
And love is burning diamonds in my true lover's breast;
She sits beneath the whitethorn a-plaiting of her hair,
And I will to my true lover with a fond request repair;
I will look upon her face, I will in her beauty rest,
And lay my aching weariness upon her lovely breast.

The clock-a-clay is creeping on the open bloom of May,
The merry bee is trampling the pinky threads all day,
And the chaffinch it is brooding on its grey mossy nest
In the whitethorn bush where I will lean upon my lover's breast;
I'll lean upon her breast and I'll whisper in her ear
That I cannot get a wink o'sleep for thinking of my dear;
I hunger at my meat and I daily fade away
Like the hedge rose that is broken in the heat of the day. 

July 16 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National AI Day
• Corn Fritters Day
• National Personal Chef Day
• National Hot Dog Day
• Guinea Pig Appreciation Day

July 16 Word Pun
Monique used to be in a band called The Hinges;
They opened for The Doors.


July 16 Word Riddle
Who makes the best soybean nuts?*

a Chairman Joe original

July 16 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
APHORISM, n., Predigested wisdom.

    The flabby wine-skin of his brain
    Yields to some pathologic strain,
    And voids from its unstored abysm
    The driblet of an aphorism.
            —"The Mad Philosopher," 1697


July 16 Etymology Word of the Week
culture
/KəL-CHər/ n., the arts and other manifestations of human intellectual achievement regarded collectively, from mid-15th century, "the tilling of land, act of preparing the earth for crops," from Latin cultura "a cultivating, agriculture," figuratively "care, culture, an honoring," from past-participle stem of colere "to tend, guard; to till, cultivate" (see colony).

The meaning "the cultivation or rearing of a crop, act of promoting growth in plants" (1620s) was transferred to fish, oysters, etc., by 1796, then to "production of bacteria or other microorganisms in a suitable environment" (1880), then to the product of such a culture (1884).

The figurative sense of "cultivation through education, systematic improvement and refinement of the mind" is attested by circa 1500; Century Dictionary writes that it was, "Not common before the nineteenth century, except with strong consciousness of the metaphor involved, though used in Latin by Cicero."

The meaning "learning and taste, the intellectual side of civilization" is by 1805; the closely related sense of "collective customs and achievements of a people, a particular form of collective intellectual development" is by 1867.

For without culture or holiness, which are always the gift of a very few, a man may renounce wealth or any other external thing, but he cannot renounce hatred, envy, jealousy, revenge. Culture is the sanctity of the intellect. [William Butler Yeats, journal, 7 March, 1909] 

Slang culture vulture "one voracious for culture" is from 1947. Culture shock "disorientation experienced when a person moves to a different cultural environment or an unfamiliar way of life" is attested by 1940. Ironic or contemptuous spelling kulchur is attested from 1940 (Pound), and compare kultur.


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

• 463 Start of the Lunar Cycle of Hilarius.
• 622 Islamic Era begins: Muhammad and his followers begin migration from Mecca to Medina (Hijra).
• 1439 Kissing is banned in England to stop the spread of the Black Death.
• 1782 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail (The Abduction from the Seraglio) premieres.
• 1880 Dr. Emily Stowe becomes the first woman licensed to practice medicine in Canada.
• 1926 National Geographic takes first natural-color undersea photos.
• 1951 Catcher in Rye by J. D. Salinger is published.
• 1953 KROC (now KTTC) TV channel 10 in Rochester, Minnesota (NBC) first broadcast.
• 1990 Ukraine declares independence.
• 2005 Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth book in the series by J. K. Rowling, is published.
• 2017 BBC announces first-ever female Doctor in Doctor Who will be played by Jodie Whittaker.
• 2018 12 new moons discovered orbiting Jupiter bringing planet's moon total to 79, by scientists at Carnegie Institution for Science.

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

• 1571 Theodoor Galle, Flemish engraver.
• 1714 Marc René, Marquis de Montalembert, French writer.
• 1722 Joseph Wilton, English sculptor.
• 1723 Joshua Reynolds, English portrait painter.
• 1725 Georg Simon Löhlein, German pianist and composer.
• 1728 Henri Moreau, Flemish composer.
• 1796 Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, French painter.
• 1822 Luigi Arditi, Italian violinist and composer.
• 1834 Carlo Angeloni, Italian composer.
• 1848 Henri Viotta, Dutch conductor and composer.
• 1855 C. F. Abdy Williams, British organist, composer.
• 1858 Eugène Ysaÿe, Belgian composer.
• 1862 Ida B. Wells, American journalist, civil rights activist, and co-founder of the NAACP.
• 1864 Joseph O'Mara, Irish singer.
• 1865 George A. Birmingham, Irish novelist.
• 1873 Josef Jungmann, Czech poet.
• 1896 Maurits Dekker, Dutch novelist and playwright.
• 1901 Fritz Mahler, Austrian composer.
• 1904 Goffredo Petrassi, Italian composer.
• 1927 Shirley Hughes, English children's literature author and illustrator.
• 1928 Anita Brookner, English novelist.
• 1928 Bella Davidovich, Jewish Soviet-American pianist.
• 1928 Robert Sheckley, American science fiction author.
• 1931 Lady Caroline Blackwood, British writer.
• 1938 Thorkell Sigurbjörnsson, Icelandic composer.
• 1942 Desmond Dekker [Dacres], Jamaican reggae pioneer.
• 1943 Reinaldo Arenas, Cuban poet and novelist.
• 1948 Pinchas Zukerman, Israeli-American violinist.
• 1950 Gary Indiana, American writer, playwright and poet.
• 1955 Susan Wheeler, American poet.
• 1956 Tony Kushner, American playwright.
• 1957 Alexandra Marinina, Russian writer.
• 1958 Michael Flatley, American-Irish dancer and choreographer.
• 1958 Pierre Roland Renoir, Canadian artist.
• 1965 Milan Ohnisko, Czech poet.
• 1966 Johnny Vaughan, English writer.
• 1983 Sarah Quartel, Canadian composer.

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

• amurcous: /uh-MURR-kuhss/ adj., full of dregs or sediment.
• dormition: /dôr-MI-SHən/ n., (in the Orthodox Church) the passing of the Virgin Mary from earthly life.
• hoaching: /HAH-ching/ adj., swarming, thronging, crowded; turbulent.
• nidorous: /NIGH-duhr-uhss/ adj., of a belch: accompanied by a strong, unpleasant taste or odor.
• roborate: /RAH-buh-rayt/ v., to strengthen, fortify, particularly in a figurative or medicinal manner.
• segnity: /SEG-nit-ee/ n., sluggishness; negligence, slowness, slothfulness; also barrenness.
• sustentate: /Sə-stən-tāt/ v., to hold up under; withstand; to sustain great provocation.
• telesis: /TEL-uh-suhss/ n., intelligent direction of effort towards the achievement of a goal or end.
• weltanschauung: /VEL-tän-SHouo͝oNG/ n., a particular philosophy or view of life; the worldview of an individual or group.
• yawl: /yôl/ n., a two-masted fore-and-aft-rigged sailboat with the mizzenmast stepped far aft so that the mizzen boom overhangs the stern.

July 16, 2025 Word-Wednesday Feature
apothegm
apothegm: /AP-ə-THem/ n., a concise saying or maxim; an aphorism, from 1550s, from Greek apophthegma "terse, pointed saying," literally "something clearly spoken," from apophthengesthai "to speak one's opinion plainly," from apo "from" + phthengesthai "to utter" (see diphthong). See aphorism for nuances of use. The spelling apophthegm, restored by Johnson, is "now more frequent in England," according to OED (1989). An apothegm and an aphorism are both short, concise sayings that express a general truth, but an aphorism is often more formal and philosophical, while an apothegm is typically more direct and instructive. Apothegms are often witty and memorable, while aphorisms can be more profound statements of principle. If you're an author, you can leave it to your reader to decide. The four essential ingredients of apothegm are: brevity, clarity, impact, and memorability. If you want to create an apothegm and be quoted by everyone, create a maxim that speaks as much to the heart as the mind.

Know thyself.

Socrates

The truth is not always beautiful, nor beautiful words the truth.
Brevity is the soul of wit.

William Shakespeare, Hamlet 

Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know.

Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching 

Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise.

Victor Hugo, Les Misérables 

Common sense is not so common.

Voltaire, A Pocket Philosophical Dictionary 

The nicest feeling in the world is to do a good deed anonymously-and have somebody find out.

Oscar Wilde 

Neither the sun nor death can be looked at with a steady eye.

François de La Rochefoucauld, Reflections, or Sentences and Moral Maxims

Squibs shuffle the world's stacked deck.

Chairman Joe, Wannaskan Almanac, International Squib Day

From A Year with Rilke, July 16 Entry
Who Shows a Child, from the Fourth Duino Elegy

Who shows a child her true world?
Who sets her among the stars, and places
in her hand the true measure of space?
Death can do this, the hugeness of death,
even before life has begun—
to hold it gently and feel no resentment,
that is enough.

Songe d'un amoureux
by Marc Chagall

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.







*Eddie’s mommy.