Word-Wednesday for March 20, 2019

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Word-Wednesday, March 20, 2019, the 12th Wednesday of the year,  the 79th day of the year, with 286 days remaining until the end of the year, 12 days remaining until April Fools Day, and 1,070 days until Twosday, February 22, 2022.


Nordhem Lunch: Hot Pork Sandwich


Earth/Moon Almanac for March 20, 2019
Sunrise: 7:15am; Sunset: 7:36pm; 3 minutes, 37 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 7:15pm; Moonset: 7:42am, full moon
Happy Equinox!

Temperature Almanac for March 20, 2019
           Average        Record        Today
High       36                  66              39
Low        16                 -25               27


March 20 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Ravioli Day
• National Native HIV/AIDS Awareness Day
• National Proposal Day
• National Kick Butts Day 

 

March 20 Riddle
I’m in you,
But not in him, or in her,
I go up,
But not down,
I’m in the Colosseum,
But not the Tower,
I’m in a puzzle,
But not a riddle.*


March 20 Pun
An oxymoron walked into a bar, and the silence was deafening.


March 20 Writing Workshop
How to Avoid Mixing Your Metaphors

It’s not rocket surgery.
First, get all your ducks on the same page.
After all, you can’t make an omelette
without breaking stride.

Be sure to watch what you write
with a fine-tuned comb.
Check and re-check until the cows turn blue.
It’s easy as falling off a piece of cake.

Don’t worry about opening up
a whole hill of beans:
you can burn that bridge when you come to it,
if you follow where I’m coming from.

Concentrate! Keep your door closed
and your enemies closer.
Finally, don’t take the moral high horse:
if the metaphor fits, walk a mile in it.

Brian Bilston


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

• 1852 Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin published.
• 1888 Start of the Sherlock Holmes adventure, A Scandal in Bohemia.
• 1996 Jack Pine Savage marries Wannaskan Almanac Word-Wednesday contributor.

March 20 Author/Artist Birthdays, from On This Day

• 43 BC Ovid.
• 1828 Henrik Ibsen.
• 1957 Spike Lee.
• 1969 Big Bird, Sesame Street.

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

• echt: adj. or adv., authentic and typical.
• fillip: something which acts as a stimulus or boost to an activity.
• gloaming: twilight, dusk.
• hessian: a strong, coarse fabric made from hemp or jute, used for sacks.
• hooey: nonsense.
• mercer: a dealer in textile fabrics, especially silks, velvets, and other fine materials.
• obverse: 1. the side of a coin or medal bearing the head or principal design; 2. the opposite or counterpart of a fact or truth.
• port de bras: an exercise designed to develop graceful movement and disposition of the arms, typically involving a bend accompanied by arm movement.
• runt: v. to berate, rebuke.
• wanwit: n. foolishness, witlessness.

March 20 Word-Wednesday Feature
Urban Dictionary
Fiction or non-fiction, prose or poetry - all writers should have a browser bookmark for the Urban Dictionary. Founded in 1999 as a crowdsourced online dictionary for slang words and phrases not usually found in standard dictionaries, Urban Dictionary’s definitions commonly include descriptions as well as definitions. Some of the following seem like they were made in Wannaska.

askhole: person who constantly asks for your advice, yet ALWAYS does the complete opposite of what you told them to do..

blamestorming: collectively or individually finding someone/something to blame for a problem, as opposed to brainstorming which connotes finding solutions to a problem

bropocalypse: A large gathering of bros on a mission to do one thing, to get bombed, tanked, or wasted usually ending in some people doing something stupid.

dejabrew: to remember things you did last night while drinking an excessive amount of Guinness.

destinesia: when you get to where you were intending to go, you forget why you were going there in the first place.

dweet: Tweeting while defecating.

fart lapse: the period of time it takes between the fart and the recognition of the fart, from another person.

fauxpology: a person makes it sound like they are apologizing when, in fact, they are just shifting the blame or using twisted logic to argue their way out of responsibility for their actions.

geem: a word used by geeks to describe something they are excited about.

hundo: to describe one as feeling their best, or one-hundred percent.

juggaling: when you are so hungry that your stomach growls loudly.

mantrum: when a grown man throws a tantrum when he can't have his way.

pregret: the feeling of regretting something you're about to do anyway.

snowffeur: the individual who drives you around in inclement weather. Maybe be used because you lack winter driving skills, a road-worthy vehicle or if you prefer to get picked up at the curb by a warm car that's already had all the windows scraped.

trash panda: a raccoon.

typeractive: someone who is overly talkative on emails or text messages.

ufdah: an expression of emotional or physical exhaustion, surprise or disbelief, used primarily by Norwegians and people of Scandinavian descent in the urban metropolis of Northern Wisconsin and Minnesota

word out: to mark the end of a conversation and your departure; opposite of word up.


From A Year with Rilke, March 20 entry
Coming to Be, from Book of Images
From infinite longings
finite deeds arise…

But in these dancing tears,
what is often withheld can be found:
our strength.


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 letter U*