Wannaska World Wednesday, September 19, 2018

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Wannaska World Wednesday, September 19, 2018.

September 19 is the 262 day of the year, with 103 days remaining until the end of the year, and 194 days remaining until April Fools Day.

Nordhem Lunch: Swedish Meatballs

Earth/Moon Almanac for September 19, 2018
Sunrise: 7:06am; Sunset: 7:29pm
Moonrise: 5:11pm; Moonset: 1:20am, waxing gibbous

Temperature Almanac for September 19, 2018
             Average      Record     Today
High         76               91            64
Low          53               32           42

September 19 Local News Headline
Warroad Police Toilet Stolen: Cops Have Nothing To Go On

September 19 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Butterscotch Pudding Day
• Talk Like A Pirate Day

September 19 Riddle-Pun
Why do forklift operators hate puns?*

September 19 Notable Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1838 Ephraim Morris patents railroad brake
• 1854 Henry Meyer patents sleeping rail car
• 1893 New Zealand becomes the first country to grant all women the right to vote
• 1939 Lord Haw-Haw (William Joyce) becomes radio host of Reichsrundfunk Berlin
• 1945 Lord Haw Haw (William Joyce) sentenced to death in London
• 1961 Betty and Barney Hill claim that they saw a mysterious craft in the sky and that it tried to abduct them; their children wish it had
• 1975 "Fawlty Towers" starring John Cleese, Prunella Scales and Andrew Sachs premieres on BBC2 in the UK

September 19 Author/Artist Birthdays, from On This Day
1911 William Golding, Lord of the Flies
1922 Dana Zatopek, Czech javelin thrower, Olympic gold medal in 1952
1922 Emil Zátopek, Czech distance runner, 4 x Olympic gold 1948, 1952

Words I Looked Up This Week Challenge
Make a single sentence (or poem) from the following words:
balaclava, bitumen, copular, coralline, cumbia, discumb, farrago, libration, quay, scotopia

Wannaska World 2018.09.19
10:10pm, and the darkness inside Otto's north-facing bedroom eclipsed even the astronomical twilight of the clear, moonless night outside his window. Grounded. Big time. No screens. Not even radio. He remembered his panic as Freki ran away across the field. He remembered the anger in his mother's voice, calling after him as he chased Freki. Most of all, Otto remembered his fear, frustration, and disappointment that Freki wasn't...that Freki wouldn't be...easy.

The house was silent. Otto was tired of chasing the day's thoughts, feelings, and memories, but he could not sleep. So Otto climbed out his window and laid back against the cold grit of the asphalt shingles and stared up at Alnilam, the central star in Orion's belt. Without losing his focus, Otto played a game of mental ping pong, swatting away each arising thought, feeling, and memory the instant each arose. Before long, there was only Alnilam.

"I'm Renner. Izzi said you have a lot of questions."
Otto felt a twinge of irritation at the interruption, but he enjoyed the sound of Renner's voice and felt welcome.
"And you live...?
"In Scotland."
"And you're...?
"14."
"Oh! An Elder." Otto said sarcastically.
"No' yet, boo I'm gettin awlderrr. Bad day?"
"How'd you know?"
"I played the odds."
"What'd Izzi tell you?"
"Tha yae were a wee bi' grrray on the whys an' whereforrres of what we dae when we fold."
"Yes. Like what's the point?"

"So, can yae give me the square rrrooot of pi to 100 digi's?"
"Nope. I was never good at that sort of thing."
"Me netherrr. Boo' we can both fold."
"No offense, Renner. You seem like a nice guy. But what's the point of talking like this?"
"It's no' so much aboot wha' yae can dae as aboot how yae can see. The maths wiz can see the warrrld as harrrmoonies ov noomberrrs an' share those harrrmoonies with otherrr tha' can see the same way. We see the warrld an' its beings as a single se' of overlapping possibili'ies - kind ov like a rrreel-life, three-dimensional chess barrrd. We canno' see wha' will defini'ly happen, bu' we can conneck with people (an' dugs and the like) tae see more ov wha' could happen."

"And?"
"We also have a talen' fur seeing the guid in people an' the possibili'ies fur guid tha' each perrrson carrries inside."
"And?"
"We trrain each ootherrr tae help make the warrld a be'er place."
"How?"
"By larrrnin' tae see marrr and conneck the guidness in marrr and marrr people a' any given momen' - the mar we larrrn, the marrr guidness we can see an' conneck in an' farrr the people aroond us."

"And the point?"
"Woodn't yae perferrr tae live in a warrrld where people air their bes' wi' one anootherrr?"
"But HOW?"
"By larrrnin' new ways tae see wha' yae alrrready know, O'o. Tae see tha' yae air all those conneckshuns, guid an' bad, like it or no'. Do the warrrld (an' yaeself) a favorrr an try no' tae over-think this. Yae'rre 12; yae've jist starrrted. Jus' keep connec'in. We larrrn tae lead from the middle of thin's. Thons were life happens - the be'ween tha' connecks. See?"

"I'm starting to. Thanks, Renner. It's not easy, though."

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Be better than yesterday, learn a new word today, and try to stay out of trouble - at least until tomorrow.

*They find them unpalatable.