Word-Wednesday for December 11, 2019

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Word-Wednesday, December 11, 2019, the 50th Wednesday of the year,  the 345th day of the year, with 20 days remaining.


Nordhem Lunch: Spaghetti Dinner


Earth/Moon Almanac for December 11, 2019
Sunrise: 8:07am; Sunset: 4:24pm; 57 seconds less daylight today
Moonrise: 4:20pm; Moonset: 7:19am, full moon


Temperature Almanac for December 11, 2019
                Average           Record          Today
High             20                   51                   1
Low                3                  -34                -4


December 11 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National App Day
• National Noodle Ring Day
• Official Lost and Found Day

December 11 Word Riddle
What 4-letter word can be written forward, backward or upside down, and can still be read from left to right?*


December 11 Pun

Walken in a Winter Wonderland

December 11 Notable Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1913 Mona Lisa recovered 2 years after it was stolen from the Louvre Museum.

December 11 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1803 Hector Berlioz.
• 1889 Paul Kornfeld, Czech playwright.
• 1918 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.
• 1922 Grace Paley.
• 1974 Rey Mysterio, American professional wrestler.

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

• bae: a person’s boyfriend or girlfriend (often as a form of address).
• botter: one who operates a bot. 
• chaparral: vegetation consisting chiefly of tangled shrubs and thorny bushes.
• conation: the mental faculty of purpose, desire, or will to perform an action; volition.
• etymon: a word or morpheme from which a later word is derived.
• hasbian: a former lesbian who is now heterosexual.
• kombucha: a beverage produced by fermenting sweet tea with a culture of yeast and bacteria.
• scurf: flakes on the surface of the skin that form as fresh skin develops below, occurring especially as dandruff.
• tankini: a two-piece bathing suit consisting of a tank top and a bikini bottom.
• yeesh: used to express disbelief or exasperation.

December 11, 2019 Word-Wednesday Feature
Latin Words
Most English-speakers know and use a lot of Latin words: affidavit, agenda, alibi, alias, and alumni are just of few of the Latin words starting with the letter A. Many common English phrases are also Latin - some requiring no translation, such as alter ego; some requiring translation for first-time users, such as bona fide, and carpe diem; some requiring translation and endless debate for elected adults of all ages, such as quid pro quo.

Beyond these familiar examples, the English language includes a number of less familiar but oh so colorful Latin phrases that writers of nonfiction, fiction, and poetry may find useful, figuratively, or otherwise.

auribus teneo lupum
A popular proverb in Ancient Rome that applies equally to rural Wannaskans, is equivalent to "holding a tiger by the tail".

barba tenus sapientes
The Romans apparently weren't as fond of beard wearers as are Wannaskans. A man barba tenus sapientes -  literally, to be "wise as far as his beard" — might look intelligent but looks in this case are deceptive. Other Roman beard associations with questionable intelligence include: barba non facit philosophum, "a beard does not make a philosopher", and barba crescit caput nescit, "the beard grows, but the head doesn’t grow wiser."

castigat ridendo mores
"Laughing corrects morals," a Latin motto coined by the French poet Jean de Santeul (1630-97), who intended it to show how useful satirical writing is in affecting social change. Sven, Ula, and Iclic come to mind here.

ex nihilo nihil
From the Roman philosopher Lucretius, the Latin motto ex nihilo nihil, "nothing comes from nothing," could surely stand as a work ethic for Wannaskan Almanac contributors.

ignotum per ignotius
"The unknown by the more unknown", also known as obscurum per obscurius, "the obscure by the more obscure"). Suits us to a tee.


Wannaskan Almanac Contributor Challenge
Whether one writes poetry or prose, fiction or nonfiction, text books or children’s books, clarity and precision matter. Wannaskan Almanac will soon celebrate its second anniversary on January 8, 2020, a Wednesday. I’m proposing a writing challenge to my fellow Wannaskan Almanac contributors: submit a piece of original writing to me by email - opusprime@gmail.com - no later than noon, January 1, 2020, describing the process for tying shoe laces from start to finish, using any format you choose. Words only, please. Entries by non-contributors are also welcome. All entries will be featured on January 8, 2020.


From A Year with Rilke, December 11 Entry
The Sybil, from New Poems.

They called her old even long ago.
But she kept living on, coming down the same street
day after day. They began to reckon
her age in centuries, the way they do with forests.

There she was every evening,
standing in the same place
like the tower of a ruined fortress,
unbent and hollowed out by fire.

Words that, against her will,
swarmed within her,
now fly around her, shrieking,
while other that she still holds back,
lurk in the caverns of her eyes,
waiting for night.



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.

*NOON.