Dies jovis

W w: The letter W is a consonant that makes one sound, /w/.  Say it: /w/.  W is a winner.  We would not make our way very far without W.  What is confusing about W for the little ones at first, is that (unlike V), W so often teams up with other letters (particularly H, but also with a vowel preceding it) that it is not easy to find W making its own sound independently (unless going to Walmart or taking a walk or hanging something on the wall or putting one in the “win” column).  While there are a great many proper names beginning with J and M and other letters, there are not many Walters and Wanitas around these days.  Similarly, Westerns have given way to cartoons on steroid super-powers.  And do children even have wagons anymore?  So we have a lot of work to do in finding (or wishing) our way back to the wild and wide world of W. 

How a canine manifests delight.  (C’mon, how does a dog show he’s happy?)

Wags (his tail).

The Dow just punched above an important line in the sand . .  . 

MarketWatch, 27 May 2020  (Can you punch above a line in the sand?)

happiness

1. archaic: good fortune: good luck: PROSPERITY (all ~ bechance to thee —Shak.)

2.a. (1) a state of well-being characterized by relative permanence, by dominantly agreeable emotion ranging in value from mere contentment to deep and intense joy in living, and by a natural desire for its continuation (2) a pleasurable or enjoyable experience (I had the ~ of seeing you— W.S. Gilbert) b. Aristotelianism: EUDÆMONIA 3: aptness, felicity (his examples lack ~)(a striking ~ of expression)

Webster’s Third New International Dictionary

Milo Winter at Gutenberg.org: p. 75

The Crux: (A wolf often lurks near a flock of sheep, but the shepherds are too watchful for him to seize one.)  One day, the wolf discovers an old sheep’s skin near the flock and puts it on.  He is able to mill in the midst of the sheep and snatch one if he desires.  (The versions vary on whether he takes one or more or none.)  One evening when the wolf is planning on taking a sheep from the flock, the shepherd decides he would like mutton for dinner.  So he leaves his (cabin, campfire, tent), grabs the first sheep he sees—which is the wolf—and cooks that one for his dinner.  (Depending on the version, the shepherd may know that he has snatched the wolf, and the wolf may plead with him—to no avail.)

This fable has given us the common expression “a wolf in sheep’s clothing,” meaning a person who is not what he seems and you cannot trust.

X x: The letter X is a consonant that makes one sound: /ks/.  Say it: /ks/.  Notice that the one sound of X really sounds like two of our other letter friends coming together: K and S.  We find X often coming at the end of words, as in lax, hex, vex (an important word in the parental lexicon) fix, mix, box, fox, crux, and every adult citizen’s least favorite word, particularly in April, tax.  Oh, and there is another common word we can wait on until after children have gotten out of elementary school.

    X does appear in the middle of words, such as toxic and boxer and expert.  X does not team up with other letters; nor does it double itself.  One X can do the job, as in the word exam(ination), every student’s least favorite word, especially during finals.

    X serves at the end of a number of commonly abbreviated words: max for maximum, sax for saxophone.  Sometimes we even forget the original word, e.g., fax (for facsimile machine).  

    Not every word we hear /ks/ at the end uses an X.  As we shall see, C and K have a way of teaming up at the end of a word, and when it becomes plural, we hear /ks/, as in socks (The kind you wear, not the baseball teams, which are orthography outlaws). 

    X has plenty of other work, though.  We often use the prefix ex—, which comes from the Latin preposition, meaning out of, from, etc.  It usually means former.  An expatriate, or expat, for short, is someone who is no longer a citizen of a particular country.  Marines deliberately do not use the term ex-Marine, but prefer “former.”

    Then there are the cases of X standing alone in a syllable:

X-tra is substandard lingo. 

X-ray we accept for some reason, though the X stands for examination.

X-mas is a common abbreviation for Christmas, albeit unacceptable to many Christians.

    X only rarely begins a word, those coming from Greek.  Rather than saying its normal sound, the X is pronounced /z/, as in xylophone or the name Xenophon.

    X also serves to cross things out or put a mark on them, as in “X marks the spot.”  In the old days, people who could not write signed their name with an X.

No joke: What is the greatest bi-cultural food on the planet?

That's easy: Tex-Mex.

https://youtu.be/QuJroujjYDk

Stocks mostly lower as investors await Trump remarks on China

    MarketWatch, 29 May (No news is no news.)

Samuel Johnson’s Dictionary of the English Language:

happiness

1. Felicity; state in which the desires are satisfied.

Happiness is that estate whereby we attain, so far as possibly may be attained, the full possession of that which simply for itself is to be desired, and containeth in it after an eminent sort, the contentation of our desires, the highest degree of all our perfection.  (Richard) Hooker

Oh! happiness of sweet, retir’d content,

To be at once secure and innocent.  (John) Denham

The various and contrary choices that men make in the world, argue that the same thing is not good to every man alike: this variety of pursuits shews, that every one does not place his happiness in the same thing.  (John) Locke

2. Good luck; good fortune.

3. Fortuitous elegance; unstudied grace.

(two more quotations not featured here)

Coming Soon: Who was Samuel Johnson?

Morals of Fable Editors:

Tricks often put the trickster in peril.  J. Pinkney

The evil doer often comes to harm through his own deceit.  M. Winter

It is what you are, not what you look like, that really counts.  M. Leaf

Morals of Students and Teachers:

Sometimes plans backfire.  (8 yrs. old)

Don’t think you can get away with everything.  (8)

Don’t try to be something you’re not.  (12)

Deceit comes at a greater price than honesty.  (15)

“Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive!” Sir Walter Scott

     Quoted by (50s)

Quest(ion): Wherein consists the Happiness of a rational Creature?

Ans(wer): In having a Sound Mind and a healthy Body, a Sufficiency of the Necessaries and Conveniencies of Life, together with the Favour of God, and the Love of Mankind.

     (in "Queries to be asked the Junto," Franklin’s discussion group made up of young laborers.) 

The Rules of Civility in Company and Conversation

Rule No. 70

Reprehend not the imperfections of others, for that belongs to parents, masters [teachers], and 

    superiors.

Manners in Greetings, cont.

      Last we discussed how to follow up on a greeting by asking how a person is doing.  Now we shall address briefly how to answer such a question.  This would hardly be a topic worth addressing separately, except that we so often get it wrong.  The question “How are you doing?” elicits an adverb.  Yet most people say “good.”  The word good is an adjective unless we are speaking of the Good.  Doing the Good would mean fighting the bad guys or feeding the hungry or some other good work.  If we are simply referring to our everyday experience, we need an adverb.  The appropriate word, then, is well.  So when a child is asked, “How are you doing?” the response should be “well,” or “very well, thank you,” or something along those lines.

      In pointing this out, I realize that I am going against the grain of most folks' habits and am not trying to create pedants who correct their parents or other adults.  My parents and grandparents all said “Oh, perty good” or “fair to middlin’,” in a dialect I miss.  Yet is the responsibility of a teacher or parent to ensure that children are taught “perty good grammar.”

 The following are ways to answer the query “How are you doing?” that we featured last week.

Français

Comment allez vous?

Ça va?

Answers:

Ça va.  (Pronounced /sah vah/.  Literally, “It goes” or “it is going.”)

Ça va bien. (/sah vah bēin/.  It is going well.)  (Bien is tricky to pronounce.  Technically, it is a one

    syllable sound, but the French squeeze two vowel sounds in there, a long E and a short I.  The N 

    is pronounced softly.)

Très bien, merci. (/trā bēin, mer sē/.  Very well, thanks.)  (The R in très is very guttural.) 

Pas mal. (/pah mahl/.  Not badly.)

Comme ci, comme ça.  (/kom sē, kom sah/.  So-so.) 

Je vais bien.  (/zhu vā bēin/.  I am doing well.)

Español

Cómo está usted? 

Cómo está? 

Qué pasa? 

Qué tal? 

Answers:

Muy bien, gracias. (/muē bēin, grah sē əs/.  Very well, thank you.)

Bien.  (Well.)

Excelente.  (Literally, excellently.) 

Más o menos.  (More or less, the equivalent of so-so.)

Deutsch

Wie geht es Ihnen? 

Wie geht es dir? 

Wie geht’s?  

Answers:

Gut, danke.  Und Ihnen?  (/Goot, dahnkə/.  Good (well), thanks.  /oond ēnən/.  And you?)

Sehr gut.  Und dir?  (/Zair goot/.  Very well.  /oond dēr/.  And you?  Informal.)

Ganz gut.  (/Gahntz goot/.  Very well, literally, completely well.)

Es geht.  (/es gāt/.  It goes.)

Nicht so gut.  (/nichhht zō goot/.  Not so good/well.  The ch sound is hard to reproduce in a key 

   and is not something Americans use.  Try holding /k/ for a while to get the hang of it.)

Und gute Wochenende!

Y y: The letter Y acts as both a consonant and a vowel.  That’s right: it is the only letter that is both a consonant and a vowel.  As a consonant, Y makes only one sound, /y/.  As a vowel, Y makes three sounds: /ĭ/, /ī/, /ē/.

(*Okay, you try to marshal all four sounds of Y in order into a sentence suitable for children.)

The complaint of a frustrated and articulate mother:

 “I can’t keep up with that kid.  First he runs hither; then he runs ___.”

Yon.

Anger, Unrest Sweep Across U.S., WSJ, 1 June 2020

Happiness, cont.

Word Root/History of happiness:

Happiness comes from the Middle English hap, which itself derives from the Old Norse happ, both meaning luck, fortune, or chance.  Happy and happiness share this origin with the words happen and hapless, the latter meaning unlucky or unfortunate.

Oxford English Dictionary Definitions and Quotations:

Happiness. The quality or condition of being happy. [Seven meanings defined at happy, largely referring to fortune, luck, etc.]

1. Good fortune or luck in life or in a particular affair; success, prosperity.

[several quotations from Shakespeare, et alia]

2. The state of pleasurable content of mind, which results from success or the attainment of what is considered good.

1667 Milton in PL: Let it suffice thee that thou know’st Us happie, and without Love no happiness.

1734 Pope, Essay on Man: Oh Happiness! Our being’s end and aim! Good, Pleasure, Ease, Content! whate’er thy name. 

1868 (Alexander) Bain, Ment(al) & Mor(al) Sc(ience): Each one’s happiness may be defined as the surplus gained when the total of pain is subtracted from the total of pleasure.

b. Greatest happiness for the greatest number, as a principle of moral and political action: first annunciated by Hutcheson 1725, thence taken into Italian ‘la massima felicità nel maggior numero’ by Beccaria . . . thence in Priestly 1768, and Bentham 1776 . . . 

1725 Hutcheson, Ideas Beauty & Virtue: That action is best which accomplishes [1726 procures] the greatest Happinessfor the greatest Numbers: and that worst which in like manner occasions Misery.

3. Successful or felicitous aptitude, fitness, suitability, or appropriateness; felicity.

[several quotations]

     Milo Winter at Gutenberg.org: p. 65.

The crux: An old farmer with several sons was on his deathbed.  He called his sons to him and told them that somewhere on the land they would inherit “there is a treasure in the ground.”  The farmer died a few days later.  Soon after he was buried, the sons began to look for the treasure.  They spent many days digging but found nothing that looked like a treasure.  Finally, exhausted and disappointed, they wondered what they should do.  They may have wondered if their father had lied to them.  They noticed, however, that the other farmers were beginning to plant their fields with crops.  The brothers figured they might as well do the same.  When they harvested the crops later that fall, they all received a large amount of money.  Then it dawned on them: there was a treasure in the ground, the ground itself.  They would just have to . . .

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

—Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken” 

Z z: The letter Z is a consonant with one sound: /z/.  Say it: /z/.  Recall that it shares that sound with S.  But when you go to the zoo to see the zebra, or you zoom in on something (which used to not be on a computer), or you need some zip in your step, Z will be there.  Z comes at the beginning of words, as when he is “in the zone.”  Z can be found alone as when the breeze is blowing, or you need to sneeze.  Z doubles up in the middle, whether in a fizzle or a drizzle, or when a steak sizzles.  He can also double at the end, when we need some jazz or pizzazz, Z’s favorite word.  Otherwise, coming at the very end of the Alphabet—after twenty-five letters and their many quirks and sounds—Z can often be found sawing Z’s.  Zzzzzz.

Sage advice: Never ___ when you should zag.

Zig.

Trump use of military to quell protest could stop rebounding markets and

   economy in their tracks: influential economist, MarketWatch, 2 June 2020

Happiness

Philosophers who have written about happiness have largely agreed about the kind of life which is favorable to it—a life of uprightness, not given to excesses, and infused with understanding of the world and man’s place in it.  from The Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics, I.10:

     Why then should we not say that he is happy who is active in accordance with complete virtue and is sufficiently equipped with external goods, not for some chance period but throughout a complete life?

Morals of fable editors:

Industry itself is a treasure.  M. Winter

Good work pays dividends.  M. Leaf

Morals of Students and Teachers:

Not everything in life is about money.  It’s about working hard and earning stuff.  (8 yrs. old)

Your future lies in the soil.  (12)

A job well-done is its own reward.  (12)

Strive today, earn tomorrow.  (40s)

Find a treasure in your work, or make your work a treasure.  (50s)

He who sows, reaps.  He who reaps, smiles.  (50s)

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,

And sorry I could not travel both

And be one traveler, long I stood

And looked down one as far as I could

To where it bent in the undergrowth;

R. Frost, "The Road Not Taken," 1st stanza

(Poetry is not memorized in a day by most of us.)

A a: /ă/, /ā/, /ah/, /aw/

B b: /b/

C c: /k/, /s/

D d: /d/

E e: /ĕ/, /ē/

F f: /f/

G g: /g/, /j/ 

H h: /h/

Blast from the Past:

“Let’s go to ___,” said Sleepy Head.

“Let’s wait a bit,” said Slow.

“Let’s eat a bit,” said Greedy Gut, “just before we go.”

(Hint: word uses first sound of E.)

Bed.

Dow reclaims 26,000 level as jobs and services data offer hope . . .

    MarketWatch, 3 June 2020

Benjamin Franklin, Letter to Jane Mecom, 1 March 1766 (This is a longer selection but worth reading, written when he was being criticized while defending American interests during the Stamp Act crisis.  Editors title it from the lines below “A Pretty Good Sort of a World”):

     As to the reports you mention that are spread to my Disadvantage, I give myself as little Concern about them as possible.  I have often met with such Treatment from People that I was all the while endeavoring to serve.  At other times I have been extoll’d extravagantly when I have had little or no Merit.  These are the Operations of Nature.  It sometimes is cloudy, it rains, it hails; again ’tis clear and pleasant, and the Sun shines on us.  Take one thing with another, and the World is a pretty good sort of a World; and ’tis our Duty to make the best of it and be thankful.  One’s true Happiness depends more upon one’s own Judgement of one’s self, on a Consciousness of Rectitude in Action and Intention, and in the Approbation of those few who judge impartially, than upon the Applause of the unthinking undiscerning Multitude, who are apt to cry Hosanna today, and tomorrow, Crucify him.

     Milo Winter at Gutenberg.org: p. 20 (no illustration)

The Crux: A father had several sons who were always quarreling.  The father had tried again and again to get them to stop, but nothing he said ever worked.  One day when the sons were arguing even more than they normally did (presumably out in the fields), he sent each of them off in different directions to get a stick.  (Had they all gone together, they would have argued about which stick to bring or who should carry them).  When they returned, the father tied all the sticks together and then asked the sons to break the bundle he had created.  Each tried to break the bundle over his thigh, but no matter how hard they tried, they could not break the sticks tied together.  The farmer then untied the bundle of sticks and asked his sons each to break a single stick.  They did so easily.  “Do you not see the difference?” the father asked his sons.  “When you fight with each other, you are no stronger than each one of these sticks on its own.”

Then took the other, as just as fair,

And having perhaps the better claim,

Because it was grassy and wanted wear;

Though as for that the passing there

Had worn them really about the same,

Robert Frost, "The Road Not Taken," 2nd stanza

I i: /ĭ/, /ī/, /ē/

J j: /j/

K k: /k/

L l: /l/

M m: /m/ 

N n: /n/

O o: /ŏ/, /ō/, /o͞o/, /aw/, /ŭ/ 

P p: /p/

Never at the dentist, never in school.

You can have some at home; 

But it will make you drool.

(Hint: Uses first sound of U.)

Gum.

Indictment Says CEO Fixed Price of Chicken, WSJ front page, 4 June 2020

   (With everything else going on, you would like to think chicken prices would be a safe harbor.)

The Declaration of Independence:

. . . We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. . . . 

Morals of fable editors:

In unity is strength.  MW

In unity there is strength.  JP

Stick together.  ML

Morals of students and teachers:

Together you’re better.  (8 yrs. old)

Fighting is useless.  (8)

Strong together you are.  Weak apart you are.  (12, imitating Yoda)

A house divided against itself cannot stand.  (15)

United we stand, divided we fall.*  (50s)

(*The author of this moral came up with it independently.  Researching this saying’s origin, he found that it is first attributed to Aesop, albeit for a different fable, which we may feature soon.  Whether Aesop originally coined it, however, is debatable, since many contend that Aesop—if he truly existed—did not attach morals to the fables, but rather counted on the lessons to be self-evident from the telling.)

The Bundle of Sticks: the Sequel  [For teachers and parents only.]

This lesson went straight to the hearts of the farmer’s sons—for a moment.  Yet when they came in from the fields that evening for dinner, they were covered with lashes about the face and neck and, really, all over.  The farmer asked what had happened.  One son piped up, “Well, father, we got mad at each other for some reason and started hitting each other with the sticks you had us gather.”  From that day onward, the father carried around a bundle of sticks to knock some sense into his sons.  (Written by a father of four.)  

And both that morning equally lay

In leaves no step had trodden black.

Oh, I kept the first for another day!

Yet knowing how way leads on to way,

I doubted if I should ever come back.

Robert Frost, "The Road Not Taken," 3rd stanza

Qu, qu: /kw/ 

R r: /r/

S s: /s/, /z/

T t: /t/

U u: /ŭ/, /ū/, /o͞o/, /o͝o/ 

V v: /v/ 

W w: /w/

X x: /ks/

Y y: /y/; /ĭ/, /ī/, /ē/

Z z: /z/

Blast from the Past:

Deep down in Louisiana close to New Orleans,

Way back up in the woods among the evergreens,

There stood a log cabin made of earth and wood,

Where lived a country boy named Johnny B. Goode,

Who never ever learned to read or write so well,

But he could play a guitar just like a ringin’ a ____.

(Hint: Word uses first sound of E.)

Bell.  

Chuck Berry, “Johnny B. Goode” 

https://youtu.be/Uf4rxCB4lys

Poor Johnny.  He just needed some phonics lessons.

Congrats, young Johnnies.  We have made it through the alphabet.

(But you ain’t seen nothin’ yet.)

U.S. Gains 2.5 Million Jobs in May . . . MarketWatch, 5 June 2020

George Washington on national Happiness:

This selection is taken from Washington’s famous “Circular to the States” upon resigning his commission at the end of the Revolutionary War, 8 June 1783.  Notice his use of happiness and happily several times, as well as his metaphor of the theatre, which we have used for Washington.

“The Citizens of America . . . are, from this period, to be considered actors on a most conspicuous Theatre, which seems to be peculiarly designated by Providence for the display of human greatness and felicity; Here, they are not only surrounded with every thing which can contribute to the completion of private and domestic enjoyment, but Heaven has crowned all its other blessings, by giving a fair oppertunity [sic.] for political happiness, than any other Nation has ever been favored with.  Nothing can illustrate these observations more forcibly, than a recollection of the happy conjuncture of times and circumstances, under which our Republic assumed its rank among the Nations; The foundation of our Empire was not laid in the gloomy age of Ignorance and Superstition, but at an Epocha when the rights of mankind were better understood and more clearly defined, than at any former period, the researches of the human mind, after social happiness, have been carried to a great extent, the Treasures of knowledge, acquired by the labours of Philosophers, Sages and Legislatures, through a long succession of years, are laid open for our use, and their collected wisdom may be happily applied in the Establishment of our forms of Government . . . At this auspicious period, the United States came into existence as a Nation, and if their Citizens should not be completely free and happy, the fault will be intirely [sic.] their own.

I shall be telling this with a sigh

Somewhere ages and ages hence:

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference.

—Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken”  4th stanza

Without justice, courage is weak. 

(I would add, "and vice versa.")

“Rules of Civility”: 

Rule 88th:  Be not tedious in Discourse, make not many Digressions, nor repeat often

     the Same manner of Discourse.

Latin

felicitas: n. fertility; good fortune, felicity, happiness, luck.

felix, felicis: adj. fruitful, fertile; happy, fortunate; favorable, propitious.  

Français

le bonheur: n. happiness.  Literally, the word means “the good hour.”

heureux: adj. happy, lucky, fortunate.

Español

la felicidad: n. happiness; bliss.

feliz: adj. happy, fortunate.

Deutsch 

das Glück: n. luck, fortune, happiness.

glücklich: adj. fortunate, happy.

Our defining of happiness/happy is not yet complete.

https://youtu.be/y6Sxv-sUYtM

He who soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he who soweth bountifully shall reap also  

      bountifully.  II Corinthians 9:6