Word-Wednesday for February 20, 2019

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Word-Wednesday, February 20, 2019, brought to you by the Love to Read Event, Roseau Library, February 23 from 10:30am - 12:00pm, featuring crafts, games, a movie, snacks, and a free Pete the Cat book! 

February 20 is the 51st day of the year, with 314 days remaining until the end of the year, 40 days remaining until April Fools Day, and 1,098 days until Twosday, February 22, 2022.

Nordhem Lunch: Meatloaf Dinner


Earth/Moon Almanac for February 20, 2019
Sunrise: 7:24am; Sunset: 5:52pm; 2 minutes, 28 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 7:26pm; Moonset: 8:16am, waning gibbous


Temperature Almanac for February 20, 2019
          Average      Record      Today
High       21               50            21
Low        0              -42             13


February 20 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Cherry Pie Day
• National Love Your Pet Day

February 20 Literary Riddle
What does Charles Dickens keep in his spice rack?*


February 20 Spelling Pun

February 20 Punctuation Point

• STANDARD COMMA: The Chairman, WannaskaWriter and Jack Pine Savage went for a walk in the forest.
• OXFORD COMMA: The Chairman, WannaskaWriter, and Jack Pine Savage went for a walk in the forest.
• CHRISTOPHER WALKEN COMMA: The Chairman, WannaskaWriter, and Jack Pine Savage, went, for a walk, in the forest.
• WILLIAM SHATNER COMMA: The, Chairman, Wannaska,Writer, and, Jack, Pine, Savage, went, for, a, walk, in, the, forest.

February 20 Notable Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1673 First recorded wine auction held in London.
• 1816 Gioacchino Rossini's opera Barber of Seville premieres in Rome.
• 1909 Publication of the Futurist Manifesto in the French journal Le Figaro.
• 1944 Batman & Robin comic strip premieres in newspapers.

February 20 Author/Artist Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1523 Jan Blahoslav, Czech humanist/bishop.
• 1794 William Carleton, Irish novelist.
• 1902 Ansel Adams.
• 1903 Karel Janeček, Czech composer.
• 1910 Millicent Fenwick.

Words-I-Looked-Up-This-Week Writer's Challenge
Make a single sentence (or poem) from the following words:

• alcazar: a castle or fortress of the Spanish Moors.
• curculio: a beetle of the weevil family, especially one which is a pest of fruit trees.
• demotic: denoting or relating to the kind of language used by ordinary people; popular or colloquial.
• epigone: a less distinguished follower or imitator of someone, especially an artist or philosopher.
• immiseration: economic impoverishment.
• nugatory: of no value or importance.
• pinguid: resembling fat; oily or greasy.
• skimmington: a kind of procession once undertaken to make an example of a nagging wife or an unfaithful husband.
• uncinate: (of a part of the body) having a hooked shape.

February 20 Word-Wednesday Feature
I know that one! (I think...)
Jack Pine Savage recently observed that we all probably read past many a word for which we are uncertain of the definition, especially when the word looks familiar (or like we should know it), and when the word's context provides us with a reasonable assurance of the definition.

This week, Word-Wednesday presents a list of 10 such words - words featured in previous Word-Wednesday posts - but without the context. To test your certainty/memory, a second list of 11 randomized definitions follows for you to match with its word, where only one definition** does not match any word from the first list. Please post your percentage in the comment section.

adduce:

celerity:

empasm:

ictus:

littoral:

noisome:

plangent:

recondite:

sidereal:

woopie:


The Definitions

(1) having an extremely offensive smell.

(2) loud, reverberating, and often melancholy.

(3) a rhythmical or metrical stress; a stroke or seizure; a fit.

(4) little known; abstruse.

(5) an affluent retired person able to pursue an active lifestyle.

(6) relating to or situated on the shore of the sea or a lake.

(7) of or with respect to the distant stars.

(8) a perfumed powder to be sprinkled on the body to mask the odor of sweat.

(9) chaotic, disorganized, or mismanaged.

(10) swiftness of movement.

(11) cite as evidence.


From A Year with Rilke, February 20 entry
What Is Within You, from Letters to a Young Poet, Rome, December 23, 1903
Think, dear sir, of the world you carry within you...be it remembrance of your own childhood or longing for your own future. Only be attentive to what is arising in you, and prize it above all that you perceive around you. What happens most deeply inside you is worthy of your whole love. Work with that and don't waste too much time and courage explaining it to other people.

Be better than yesterday, learn a new word today, try to stay out of trouble - at least until tomorrow, and write when you have the time.

*the best of thymes, the worst of thymes...
**chaotic, disorganized, or mismanaged.