Merry Marcescence and Wikimedia shopping!

RantWoman's agenda includes TWO holiday parties but rantWoman needs to pop off about a few things first. RantWoman's #ChristmasCactus blossoms have not lasted as long this year as some years. RantWoman thinks her Cacti may need to be repotted and will get about reading up on this sometime later in the 12 days of Christmas.



Christmas Cactus 12 19 2015

In the meantime, the #ChristmasCactus is terribly self-conscious about being photographed in its  marcescent faded blossoms not fallen off state. But RantWoman is so excited about the opportunity to use the word marcescence  in a blog post that probably the plants will have to cope.

(Readers who have been following RantWoman's #ChristmasCactus thread MAY note an entertaining Photographing While Blind element recurring in the photos: RantWoman's feet. Cope. It's all RantWoman can do to get the main element of the photo framed on her Smartphone. RantWoman cannot even tell her feet  are in the picture until she enlarges it more dramatically than is possible on her phone.)

And furthermore.

And furthermore, Blogger as of this writing gives the word marcescence a red underline, but  when RantWoman looked it up Marcescence Wikipedia  Wikipedia, RantWoman urk realized she had blundered but so has Blogger.

Marcescence is a spelling bee word, meaning the time when blossoms or fade but do not fall off a plant. RantWoman did not pick this info up because she is much of an authority about anything biological. RantWoman picked up one steamy Indiana afternoon in graduate school watching the Scripps Howard National Spelling Bee on TV in one of her departments' lounges. RantWoman is excited to use it here not only for its precise expressiveness but also as a protest against too much information age streamlining of language. Sometimes the right word is way better than a big dollop of verbal mush.

And furthermore, one more thing, well two but RantWoman will riff on screen reading and Blogger accessibility and Zoomtext another time:

Furthermore, it's end of the tax year donation time. Wikipedia, like every other red-blooded crowd-funded entity on the planet needs funds. RantWomn is SO grateful for correct spelling and the accumulating crowd-sourced wisdom, not to mention accessible (to RantWoman at least) presentation as well as some places where she knows great matters are being hashed out in passionate arguments. RantWoman is so impressed that she used the authority that comes with one title to make a donation. RantWoman encourages readers to head over to Wikipedia and make tax-deductible donations to the Wikimedia foundation yourselves.

Or if you do not want to hand over funds without some merchandise in return, definitely check out  the Wikimedia Store