Wise Words

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Meriam Webster
Words for the Wise
August 3, 2004
Sailing the parallels and shooting the sun

“In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
It was on August 3, 1492, that the navigator
first set sail from southwest Spain. Like other mariners
before and after him, Christopher Columbus "sailed the parallels";
that is, he followed a straight path west across the Atlantic,
using the stars to guide him
toward (he believed) the Indies.

Although sailing into unknown seas
was certainly not without its danger,
the technical know-how needed to steer a course
along the latitudes was a relatively straightforward
matter. Remember the astrolabe?
And navigators also relied on the cross-staff
to help estimate the altitude of the sun
(and thus, locate themselves along the latitude).

The cross-staff resembles the crossbow:
it consists of a horizontal staff or stock holding a perpendicular,
sliding cross-piece with sights at either end.
A sailor lifts the cross-staff to his eye
and looks at the sun through its sights.

The similarity of the cross-staff to the crossbow
probably influenced the descriptive phrase 'shooting the sun'
to refer to the navigational application of the instrument.
Unfortunately, shooting the sun also harmed
the eye of the navigator,
who would commonly lose the sight in one eye.”

~ Word for the Wise comes to us
From Kathleen Taylor
At WAMC radio

“Anything that serves as a hint
or reminder of the past, either of two prayers
in the canon beginning with the word ‘Memento’,
the first being for the living, the second for the dead,
each serving as a reminder of the past.
At the line of the apparent meeting of the sky
with the earth, the bounds of one's observation, knowledge
and experience unfold upon the point
where the observer stands. The great circle
of a celestial sphere cutting the center of the mind
midway between its zenith and nadir,
revealing a layer of memory characterized by the presence
of one or more distinctive centers of attraction.
I came to know her again, to perceive her
as identical with the one I had previously known.
So related, as two concepts, that if the first
determines the second, then the second
determines the first.”

~ Virginia Hooper,
From “The Lamentation”

“An inventor is a person who makes an ingenious arrangement
of wheels, levers and springs,
and believes it civilization.”

~ Ambrose Bierce,
From “The Devil's Dictionary”

Time’s Waif

“I am but the warp when the woof is gone,
A bee in a flowerless waste,
A throbbing trout on a brooklet’s shore;
Half of me is effaced.”

~ Andrew Todd McClintock
From “Through Old Roads to Cosmic Seas”
(William Edwin Rudge, New York, 1928)

Moon’s shining tonight ~
Should I
Taper or surmount danger?

My cog’s caged cannibal gnawed all my knowledge...
Left only bones.

Dear Mum...
Me very sad. Can’t you hear me?
I’ve been ringing you for a while now.
Please answer.

Love,
Moi

“To pursue for the purpose of catching; to range over an area
In search of game; to chase, drive away,
Or pursue with greed; to search for eagerly.
To search for until found; to find after a search.
To utter the loud, mournful wail of a dog, wolf,
Or other animal. To utter such a cry in pain, grief or rage.

The first part of the romance
Began on an ancient instrument of execution,
A horizontal piece near the top, upon which condemned
Persons were fastened until they died. A sacred symbol
In many ancient religions, consisting basically of two
Intersecting lines.”

~ Virginia Hooper,
From “The Lamentation”
_______
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