Wannaskan Almanac

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Word-Wednesday, February 28, 2018, brought to you by Luv's Chihuahua Cannikin Collection; "Large or small, size matters!" February 28 is the 59th day of the year with 306 days remaining until the end of the year. February 28 is slightly more likely to fall on a Tuesday, Thursday or Sunday than on Friday or Saturday, and like so many other dates, slightly less likely to occur on a Monday or Wednesday. Today's weather calls for a high of 33 and a low tonight of 8 with winds from the southeast. Sunrise: 7:08am; Sunset: 6:05pm Moonrise: 4:36pm; Moonset: 6:30am Tonight the star Regulus, also knows as the Heart of the Lion, appears near the moon in in the constellation Leo. On this date in literature: Henry Fieldings' Tom Jones was published in 1749 Pope Clement XIII allowed the Bible to be translated into various languages in 1759 The erroneous word dord was discovered in the Webster's New International...

Hi and welcome to the Almanac for Tuesday, February 27, 2018. For fun, I am going to throw random February quotes throughout today’s almanac. Here is the first one. Without Valentine's Day, February would be... well, January. -Jim Gaffigan Today is International Polar Bear Day, National Kahlua Day (I’ll drink to that), National Polar Bear Day, and National Strawberry Day. The first decision you need to make today is which Polar Bear Day you intend to celebrate. National Polar Bear Day has a more homey flavor to it, whereas International Polar Bear Day is a more inclusive celebration. So many things to consider…maybe just stick with the Kahlua and strawberries! Kahlúa is a coffee-flavored liqueur which comes from Mexico. The drink contains rum, sugar, vanilla bean, and coffee. For Christmas this past year I gave my wife a very powerful blender. Since she is out grocery shopping right now, I will mix up a strawberry Kahlúa drink and let you know how it is. Commercial...

This twice-published poem is on the lighter side, in contrast to the first three verse offerings in Monday’s past posts. “About time,” you might say. Or better, spoken with military authority, “Make it so,” as Star Trek’s Captain Jean Luke Picard often commands. Below, you will find that lighter experience focused on a big black bird up here in Northwest Minnesota: The Raven, or Corvus Corax , if you prefer the taxonomic name. Raven’s presence is year-round, and provides us with a pretty constant source of awe and amusement. Raven is the premiere trickster of the bird world akin to Coyote of myth, legend, and verity. The bird is a feathered beauty famous for thrilling aerobatics and amazing tricks. In the wild, ravens have pushed rocks on people to keep them from climbing to their nests, and they steal fish by pulling fishermen’s lines out of ice holes . Relevant to this poem, the bird has a distinctive voice of at least 79 call types including a deep croaking. In captivity...

The squib relies upon the help of friends to haul the bursting nets into the boat. The healthy revel in their undying fame. While the invalid nurses his guttering flame. If bad men must come, it is better they come when times are good. The price we pay for being born normal is to care for the abnormal, without a lot of back talk. When I discovered orange juice had almost as much sugar as Coke, I started enjoying Coke again. Why have no advanced civilizations visited earth? Have their advances led to self-destruction? Or has wisdom turned them into homebodies? I look down from my retirement condo on the toiling masses with gratitude...and pity. People want guns to protect themselves against an awful government. But it didn't work. One-sided coins have no value. So too, our thoughts. Our nation provides her poor with shelters for the night and libraries for the day. My meditation was a one-man chat room, so I went back to scratch, and now I'm up to one m...

Welcome to the Wannaskan Almanac for Saturday, February 24th. Thanks to an informative posting on the Wannaskan Almanac, two Saturdays ago , I learned there was a trove of Tarzan readers discarded and homeless in the Wannaskan recycling bins. Who would throw books away? And perfectly good ones, according to my fellow W.A. writer (who has since confessed a penchant for embellishing, but, in this case, was telling the truth.) Quelle horreur! Fortunately, I just happened to be heading west on that very day to the city of Great Pronged Silverware and could swing through Wannaska to save the day. With an accomplice in tow, we asked for directions to the bins at the Wannaskan general store. As a thank you, we purchased a bag of lemon drops and 4 deluxe chocolate kisses. One block later, we arrived at our destination. The child dubious, warned me of legalities, technicalities and windy weather. "Pa-shaw!" I answered, waving off his worry. I lifted the lid and peered in. Ther...

Welcome to the Wannaskan Almanac for Friday.      It's the birthday, in 1633 in London, of Samuel Pepys. Pepys is considered the greatest diarist of all time. His diary is a very thorough combination of his personal life and what was happening in English politics in his day. His first entry talks about the movements of a rebel army in northern England, and also about his wife's period.     Pepys was born into a middle class family. The family had good connections which allowed him to obtain an education at Cambridge and an appointment to the Naval Board.      Pepys had witnessed the beheading of King Charles I in 1649. He was a supporter of Cromwell during the years of the Commonwealth, but switched to the Royalist party after Cromwell's death. He was on the ship that brought Charles II back to England from exile.      Once on the Naval board, Pepys taught himself maritime science and played an important role in professional...

 Tomorrow, February 23, is my wife's birthday. One of the first of the real Baby Boomer generation, she was born in 1944 in Orlando, Florida, the first child of a WWII soldier and a lovely Minnesota maiden. Jacqueline White, a professional singer for forty years, was among many other notables born that year who made something of their lives: The Baby Boomers, 1944-53 1944: Angela Davis, Martin Jay, Al Kooper, Alice Walker, Kim Deitch, Stockard Channing, Bill Griffith, Jonathan Demme, Johnny Winter, Bobby Womack, Sly Stone, Sirhan Sirhan, Richard Ford, Diana Ross, Sherry Lansing, Jack Casady, Rob Tyner, George Lucas, Patti LaBelle, Rudy Giuliani, Leonard Peltier, Paul Wellstone, Michael Douglas, Gene Clark, Danny DeVito, Wesley Clark. Elsewhere: Jimmy Page, Lorne Michaels, Frank Oz, Dave Mason, Pete Townshend, Rem Koolhaas. Happy Birthday, Jackie! Actress Drew Barrymore was born on February 22, 1975. She started using alcohol and cocaine at a...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Word-Wednesday, February 21, 2018, brought to you by Jablonsky Lodge and Bakery - home of Václav's Halva - located in uptown Poplar Township, Boleslav Jablonsky, poet, priest, Czech nationalist, and proprietor. [https://www.minnpost.com/mnopedia/2014/05/preserving-czech-culture-northern-minnesota-lodge-boleslav-jablonsky-no-219] February 21 is the 52nd day of the year, with 313 days remaining until the end of the year. This date is slightly more likely to fall on a Tuesday or Thursday, and slightly less likely to occur on a Monday or Word-Wednesday, so this may be your lucky day. Today should be mostly sunny in Palmville Township, with a high of 12 degrees and a low of -4 tonight, where sunrise is at 7:21am and sunset at 5:54pm - giving us 11 hours and 36 minutes of visible light, and where we can look forward to tomorrow having 3 minutes and 29 seconds more visible light. Events of note involving published works on this day include: ...

Good Morning and welcome to the Almanac for Tuesday, February 20, 2018. Today is Love Your Pet Day, National Cherry Pie Day, Northern Hemisphere Hoodie Hoo Day, and World Day for Social Justice. I recommend not trying to celebrate all these events with just one cake, especially not a cupcake! My pet is a little Chihuahua named Luv. “He is a whiny, mean, and annoying little guy.” It is okay though…Luv says he loves me anyway. Here are some famous quotes about pets (not like Luv’s quote above about me) “Until one has loved an animal, a part of one's soul remains unawakened.” ― Anatole France “A dog reflects the family life. Whoever saw a frisky dog in a gloomy family, or a sad dog in a happy one? Snarling people have snarling dogs, dangerous people have dangerous ones.” ― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Case-Book of Sherlock Holmes (quote has been discredited by a grouchy Chihuahua) “Dogs have important jobs, like barking when the doorbell rings, but cats have no functi...

Ymmm. . . red silk – what a luscious image, eh? Then again, consider just what has colored this elegant cloth. Simple dye? Unintended leaching from another piece of cloth? An image for the setting sun? A metaphor for blood? As in last week’s post, this poem is a metaphor heaven. If you took last week’s challenge and worked a bit to ferret out the metaphors in “Serpent Saint,” you are now equipped for the metaphor hunting safari that “Red Silk” provides. RED SILK                                                                                     For one I know, dying ...