Wiser’s Wramblings-Who in the World Lives in Whoville

By Chuck Wiser,I write the words to share what my eyes see and my heart feels

I’m starting this Monday morning as I will never be able to keep the thoughts that are Wrattling and Wrambling in my head until Wednesday night or Thursday Morning. As I began to write a Facebook post I had to decide between the word “Who’s” and “Whose.” I use each of them properly when speaking (however not discernable) but writing is different. By definition, Who’s means “who is” and Whose identifies “something belonging to a person.”

Now that the word “who” is stuck in my head I seem to recall a fairy tale that somehow or somewhere used the word Who. I Wrambled around the various search engines trying to come up with the proper query words to find anything related to that word. My usual search engine for the mundane, my wife, had no idea what story or book had that title. Following various “threads” unable to come up with a proper phrasing to lead me where I wanted to go, the name Whoville eventually popped up. Following that trail, led me to a list of books written by Dr. Seuss (Theodor Seuss Geisel), among which was Horton the Who, who lived in Whoville. As I finished that sentence “Spell check” (auto-defect as I call it) hi-lited the word “who” following “Horton the Who saying it repeated the word “who.”

One of the things I have learned from my extensive use of search engines is the need to work around the word you want to use if it has a common meaning itself and is not being searched, as I did when I entered “books with who in the title.” The following copy/pasted note was typical of many query responses, even after I edited my search string by enclosing the word Who in quote marks.

ATY 2023] Who, What, When, Where, Why in Title

Goodreads

https://www.goodreads.com › list › show › 178531._…

[Aty 2023] Who, What, When, Where, Why In Title ; 1. Where the Crawdads Sing ; 2. Where’d You Go, Bernadette ; 3. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Maya Angelou’s …

Ok, to “whom” do I address the remainder of this Wrambling? I guess to those who haven’t nodded off and whose interest about who’s still remains.

First, I’ll pick back up by adding a couple of comments from last weeks “to do list” that were not included in my Wrambling.

Advertising “pop-ups” or automatic insertions into your communication, are a real invasion and irritation. If you do any, or much, corresponding on your computer, or use any “apps” you will likely be aware of them and as frustrated as I am. Even the “apps” to block these pop-ups have their own pop-ups.
I’ve had a note on my whiteboard reminder for several weeks. It gets erased somehow and I have to re-write it. I am confuzzled as to where it goes or disappears to. I am both confused and puzzled at the same time. Just another contrived Wiser Word.
“Words” as a subject or topic has long been an interest to me. Aside from our facial expressions, “body language,” and a few hand or finger gestures, we are left with words to communicate. All words have meanings but additionally they can evoke mental, physical or physiological reactions. Words, all by themselves can evoke Feelings, such as: love, anger, sadness, happiness, anger, expectations, hopefulness or fearfulness, confusion; or just plain puzzle you. I have mentioned before that words alone can be interpreted incorrectly if they “stand alone” without facial expression to help differentiate between seriousness or jest, irony or sarcasm, or intention.
I read a lot. My reading consists primarily, if non recreational, of the op-eds, or “stories” covering our political and societal activities. Sadly, once again what surrounds us, is the debacle of our pending Presidential elections. After the 2020 elections I was hopeful that we had put a lot of what went into that election behind us. It wasn’t to be, and probably will now haunt us for years to come. The hatred, vitriol and dissent that was spawned by the election of our first African American president, and the presidential campaign of our first female president, prior to, or part of, that election, is now the norm.
Scanner calls over the past several days have left me with much wonderment, sadness, and also the need to contemplate if I would just be better off without the scanner. Some calls on the scanner these days make me reflect on the decade’s past introduction to our curiosity of ongoing activities surrounding us as CB Radios came into vogue. “10-4 Big Buddy” and other such audible greetings often kept us glued to our seats listening to our “CB” to follow whatever the trucker was discussing over the air. One, all too obvious characteristic of the state of mind that now prevails, is the dramatic reporting of “Domestic” problems ranging from the 10-year-old that can’t be controlled all the way to the most severe as the battering or shooting of a spouse, friend, intruder, or whatever else that transpires.
My respect for, and appreciation to, all “Emergency Response” entities has increased exponentially over the past few months. I can’t imagine the roller coaster changes of exposure and involvement to those not only responding, but also to those at the 911 Dispatch Center that are communicating on both ends of that spectrum.
As I listen to emergency response communications between “Dispatch” and those airborne vehicles enroute to the Wellsville Loder Street Helipad site, I wonder if there is, or can be, some kind of transponder signal that incoming airborne vehicles could see and/or hear. Descriptions of the landing zone as given to that incoming traffic over the air are great, but they include landmarks that, it would seem the pilots have to “look for” visually. I know the red corner lights of the pad are visible but, not knowing, I wonder if there are other visual or audio means of identification.

Disclaimer, and apology, if any information included or mentioned “extemporaneously” herein, is incorrect or misleading. My favorite cartoon has always been “Frank and Ernest.” I never really thought about the title much, at least that I recall, but their messing with the language and using the “play on words” the way they do is right up my alley. Given my math and engineering background, these cartoons are interesting to me, as are those that “manipulate” our English language to their literary humor. The cartoon title itself is exactly what the cartoon typically does. The content is typically “Frank” in its content, and “Earnest” in its presentation.

The formula noted above captioning the picture is for calculating the “area or a circle.” Stated phonetically it says “The area (A) of a circle is equal to Pie Are Squared.” The Wiser-assed of the students used to remind the instructor that “Pie Are Round.” Note: Only Frank or Ernest shown.

Valentines’ day is just around the corner, but it will be the day before my next publication. Therein I will include an endearment that I have previously used, but I will end this with a shorter, albeit not any less meaningful, version expressing the same sentiments.