Monday, October 5, 2020

Even after the book’s published, I still jot stuff in my journals

 

              If I were publishing a supplement to my latest book, “A Compendium of Journal Jottings,” here are some of the things I’d add—from my journals of late.

                NATION – A Kennedy, who was in the House of Representatives ran for a Massachusetts Senate seat and lost. – I didn’t know that Sitka, Alaska used to be a Russian settlement founded in 1804 by a Mr. Baranov, a colonist and early 19c. governor of Russian Alaska. The land was long inhabited previously by Alaskan natives, many of whom he killed or enslaved. (WaPo)—NIAID ( National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases) is one of the 27 institutes and centers that make up the National Institute of Health. (WaPo)—I hadn’t heard that FDR wanted/ tried to pack the SCOTUS in 1937. (WaPo) –William Howard Taft served as chief justice of SCOTUS after he was president.  –Thurgood Marshall became the first black justice in 1967. –Harry Blackmun authored the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision. All three of these men are buried at Arlington where Justice Ginsburg now lies beside her husband. (AP) -- One-hundred-thirty-nine-thousand families are renters.


                GIVEN NAMES – Agence, Lummie, Mudelean, Raygan, Brudcus, Thor, Alleyene, Emonya, Earnese, Idrees, Andeessen, Tolton, Finus, Qindi, Lopha, Edathara, Genois, Dareh, Larynzo, Arnon, Ashaki, Astead, Ledyard, Precilla, Dekeesha.


                SURNAMES – Greenfieldboyce, Sussman, Lacina, Greenhouse, Clodfelter, Samenow, Sun, Wen, Tubiana, Bleacher, Ameringen, Gregorian, Glassman, Hausfather, Steptoe.


                WORLD -A quarter of all known animal species are beetles. (NPR)


                WEATHER – Medicane = a Mediterranean cyclone; a storm all but unknown until the 1990s, was headed for Greece on September 18, ’20.


                UNIVERSE – Phosphine, a chemical detected in Venus’ atmosphere that could have been produced by a biological source. We won’t know until sending a spacecraft there to take a reading of the atmosphere. (NYT News Quiz, mid-Sept.) Venus roasts at 100s of degrees and is cloaked by clouds containing droplets of corrosive sulfuric acid. (Ibid.) – Cygnus Loop =  colorful ribbons of a supernova’s blast wave that screaming (sic) through space, heating and compressing dust and gas in a way that causes the ribbons to glow. So bright that humans would have seen it from Earth 15,000 years ago. (Business Insider)


                ANIMALS – Elephants are the only animals drinking below the surface of the water and sucking the silt, which is where neurotoxins reside. Botswana has the largest population of elephants at135,000 animals. (Bloomberg)


              PLACES IN ARKANSAS – Crosses, Wild Cherry, Tollville, Ingalls.


              UNKNOWN WORDS – “caravanning” – a group of motorists driving to a specific area and planning to loiter. . . blocking off intersections or loitering on private property. (AD-G) – “shambolic” = chaotic, disorganized, or mismanaged.—“abstruse” = difficult to understand; obscure. – “kakistocracy” = government by the least suitable or competent citizens of a state. (FB) – “non sequitur" = a conclusion or statement that does not logically follow from the previous argument/statement; usually untrue; an absurd statement. (Bing).



c 2020, PL dba lovepat press, Benton AR USA


             

2 comments:

Dot said...

Caravanning ... making a verb out of a noun. Also a strategy used often in crossword puzzles. As in "Renting again" RE-LETTING. That's a word? LOL

Elephant's Child said...

Smiling.
Learning is a lifelong task and joy.
Kakistocracy is the only word from that list which was unknown to me - and is now known. And hopefully retained.