Word-Wednesday for February 24, 2021

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac for Word-Wednesday, February 24, 2021, the 8th Wednesday of the year, the 10th Wednesday of winter, and the 55th day of the year, with 310 days remaining.


Wannaska Nature Update for February 24, 2021
When it’s released later this summer, this new nature stamp from the United States Postal Service will illuminate a piece of Indigenous culture associated with an escape from darkness. Titled “Raven Story,” the history-making postage stamp features the iconic bird rendered by Rico Lanáat’ Worl, who is the first Tlingit and Athabascan artist to be featured by U.S.P.S.

An yesterday the first sprinkle of Snow Fleas were sighted in Wannaska for 2021.

Nordhem Lunch: Closed


Earth/Moon Almanac for February 24, 2021
Sunrise: 7:15am; Sunset: 5:59pm; 3 minutes, 31 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 2:41pm; Moonset: 6:15am, waxing gibbous, 88% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for February 24, 2021
                Average            Record              Today
High             25                     56                     25
Low               3                    -43                     13


February 24 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Tortilla Chip Day
• Gregorian Calendar Day

February 24 Word Riddle
What do you get when you teach a wolf to meditate?*


February 24 Pun
Bigfoot is sometimes confused with Sasquatch, Yeti never complains.


February 24 Definition of the Week
NYMPHOMANIAC: a woman as obsessed with sex as an average man.

Mignon McLaughlin

February 24 Notable Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1582 Pope Gregory XIII announces New Style (Gregorian) calendar.
• 1711 George Frideric Handel's opera Rinaldo premieres at Haymarket theatre in London.
• 1876 Henrik Ibsen's Peer Gynt premieres in Oslo.
• 1940 Frances Langford records When You Wish Upon a Star.

February 24 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1304 Muhammad ibn Battutah, Arab travel writer.
• 1597 Vincent Voiture, French poet.
• 1684 Matthias Braun, Czech sculptor.
• 1786 Wilhelm Grimm.
• 1836 Winslow Homer.
• 1846 Luigi Denza, Italian composer of Funiculì, Funiculà.

February 24 Word Fact
Just as a soliloquy is a solo speech, the proper term for speaking through clenched teeth is dentiloquy.


February 24, 2021 Song of Myself
Verse 17 of 52
These are really the thoughts of all men in all ages and lands, they are not original with me,
If they are not yours as much as mine they are nothing, or next to nothing,
If they are not the riddle and the untying of the riddle they are nothing,
If they are not just as close as they are distant they are nothing.

This is the grass that grows wherever the land is and the water is,
This the common air that bathes the globe.


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

• armiger: a person entitled to use a heraldic achievement either by hereditary right, grant, matriculation, or assumption of arms.
• blackamoor: a black African or a very dark-skinned person.
• caryatid: an architectural stone column carved into a likeness of a robed female figure.
• empleomania: a mania for holding public office. From Spanish emplear, to employ, use.
• fasces: a bundle of rods with a projecting axe blade, carried by a lictor in ancient Rome as a symbol of a magistrate’s power.
• gothamite: an imbecile, simpleton, fool, idiot; a native or resident of New York City.
• honeyfuggle: [HUHN-ee-FUHG-uhl] to flatter or sweet-talk to get what you want; to wheedle, blandish or cajole; to ballyhoo.
• mesonoxian: [mez-oh-NOX-ee-uhn] adj., pertaining to or occurring at the hour of midnight.
• persiflage: (PUR-sih-flahzh) n., light, bantering talk or writing; a frivolous or flippant style of treating a subject.
• samizdat: the clandestine copying and distribution of literature banned by the state.

February 24, 2021 Word-Wednesday Feature
Contronyms
ˈkäntrəˌnim, noun, a word with two opposite meanings. An amazing and confounding language, imagine learning English as an adult. As if,

there, their, they're
me/I
its/it's
who/whom
color/colour
dangling participles
irregular plurals (deer)
well/good
apostrophe use at the end of word ending with S
Oxford commas
that/which
inconsistent pronunciations (cough, dough, tough)
silent letter words (know)

weren't difficult enough, English has identical looking and sounding words that have opposite meanings. Here are just a few:

apology:
statement of contrition.
a defense of a statement.

aught:
all.
nothing.

bolt:
secure.
flee.

bound:
to move towards something with determination.
to be limited or restricted by something.

buckle:
to bend.
to secure.

cleave:
to cling or adhere.
to split or sever.

consult:
to seek advice.
to give advice.

custom:
a common practice or tradition shared by many people.
a unique item; made for one person.

dust:
to clean a surface.
to sprinkle fine powder on a surface.

enjoin:
to impose.
to prohibit.

execute:
to start or begin.
to bring to an end.

fast:
moving quickly.
firmly fixed or attached to one place.

fine:
excellent.
good enough.

finished:
completed.
destroyed.

fix:
repair.
castrate.

garnish:
to add, e.g., food preparations.
to take away, e.g., wages.

help:
to assist.
to prevent, e.g., I can't help myself from taking that last piece of candy.

left:
something or someone that/who is remaining.
something or someone that/who has departed.

literally:
actually.
virtually.

mean:
average.
stingy.

model:
an exemplar.
a copy.

off:
not functioning, e.g., the radio is off.
functioning, e.g., the whether siren just went off.

out:
visible; e.g., the stars are out.
not working; e.g. the lights are out.

overlook:
monitor or supervise.
neglect or fail to notice.

oversight:
supervision.
to ignore or fail to notice.

put out:
extinguish, e.g., fire.
generate, e.g., be generous.

refrain:
a repetition.
to desist from doing something.

sanction:
to give formal permission.
to impose a ban.

screen:
to hide.
to show, e.g., a movie.

seed:
to add seeds to the grass.
to remove seeds from a fruit, like in seeding a cantelope.

stone:
to throw stones.
to remove seeds from a fruit.

strike:
to hit or deliver a blow, or to knock down all the pins in bowling.
to miss while trying to make a hit in baseball.

toss out:
to dispose of something.
to suggest something.

transparent:
obvious.
invisible.

trim:
to remove branches from a tree.
to add decorations to a Christmas tree.

variety:
a particular type.
many types.

whether:
to withstand or endure.
worn down.

with:
alongside.
against.

At the same time, these same paradoxes and complexities give English its metaphorical depth. I recently heard Bryan Stevenson, founder and executive director of the Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, make a new metaphor out of John 8:7, "Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." Mr. Stevenson developed the term "stone catcher", referring to a person who stands up for justice rather than merely standing by to witness ongoing injustice.


From A Year with Rilke, February 24 Entry
Let Life Happen to You, from Furnborg, Jonsered, Sweden, November 4, 1904, Letters to a Young Poet

What should I say about your tendency to doubt your struggle or to harmonize your inner and outer life? My wish is ever strong that you find enough patience within you and enough simplicity to have faith. May you gain more and more trust in what is challenging, and confidence in the solitude you bear. Let life happen to you. Believe me: life is in the right in any case.



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




*aware wolf.