Word-Wednesday for December 22, 2021

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday, December 22, 2021, the 51st Wednesday of the year, the first Wednesday of winter, and the 356th day of the year, with nine days remaining.


Wannaska Nature Update for December 22, 2021
With an eye on yesterday's solstice:

White-Eyes by Mary Oliver

In winter
all the singing is in
         the tops of the trees
          where the wind-bird
with its white eyes
shoves and pushes
         among the branches.
          Like any of us
he wants to go to sleep,
but he’s restless—
         he has an idea,
          and slowly it unfolds
from under his beating wings
as long as he stays awake.
         But his big, round music, after all,
          is too breathy to last.

So, it’s over.
In the pine-crown
         he makes his nest,
          he’s done all he can.
I don’t know the name of this bird,
I only imagine his glittering beak
         tucked in a white wing
          while the clouds—
which he has summoned
from the north—
         which he has taught
          to be mild, and silent—
thicken, and begin to fall
into the world below
         like stars, or the feathers
               of some unimaginable bird
that loves us,
that is asleep now, and silent—
         that has turned itself
          into snow.


Nordhem Lunch:
Real Swedish Meatballs w/ Potatoes, Peas, & Lingonberry Jam.
Reuben Sandwich & Fruit Salad
Sausage & Potato Soup w/ Choice of Sandwich


Earth/Moon Almanac for December 22, 2021
Sunrise: 8:15am; Sunset: 4:30pm; 7 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 7:43pm; Moonset: 11:03am, waning gibbous, 90% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for December 22, 2021
                Average            Record              Today
High             16                     42                     17
Low              -1                    -33                     11


December 22 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Date Nut Bread Day
• Forefathers Day

 

December 22 Christmas Party Word Advice

Don't use a big word when a singularly unloquacious and diminutive linguistic expression can just as succinctly convey the intent of your utterance.

December 22 Word Riddle
How does Good King Wenceslas like his pizza?*


December 22 Christmas Musician Word Pun
I hate Christmas Chopin.
Endless gift Liszt,
Puccini the cart in the aisles,
long minuets in cashier
queues, waiting, going Bach
home in the traffic, Haydn
the gifts from the kids…All
this Fauré night! Then I
realize, in the Beethoven eye,
I’m baroque for
months to come.
To be Franck, I can’t Händel
this anymore!


December 22 Etymology Word of the Week

December 22 Notable Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1596 Ferryboat Meuniers crashes in Paris, 150 die. [More on this Sunday]
• 1666 The French Academy of Sciences founded.
• 1849 The execution of Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky by firing squad is called off at the last second.
• 1882 First string of Christmas tree lights created by Thomas Edison.
• 1883 August Strindberg's Lycko-Pers Reja premieres.
• 1885 Itō Hirobumi, a samurai, becomes the first Prime Minister of Japan.
• 1910 US postal savings stamps first issued.
• 1964 American comedian Lenny Bruce is convicted of obscenity.

December 22 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1639 Jean Racine, French dramatist.
• 1702 Jean-Étienne Liotard, Swiss-French painter,.
• 1807 Johann Sebastian Welhaven, Norwegian poet.
• 1830 Justin M'Carthy, Irish novelist.
• 1846 Andreas Hallén, Swedish composer,.
• 1858 Giacomo Puccini, Italian opera composer.
• 1867 František Xaver Šalda, Czechoslovakian literary critic.
• 1869 Edwin Arlington Robinson, American poet.
• 1889 Mikha`il Na'imah, Lebanese playwright.
• 1919 Lillian "Lil" Green, American blues singer and songwriter.
• 1951 Charles de Lint, Canadian sci-fi author.

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

• belsnickel: /BELZ-nik-uhl/ n., a menacing and disheveled figure, dressed in furs and typically carrying a switch, who visits children before Christmas to reward the good ones with gifts and punish the naughty ones; also: a person dressed as and pretending to be this figure.
• chirology: /kī- ˈräl- ə- jē/ n., the study of the hand.
• diapason: /dī-ə-ˈpā-zən/ n., an organ stop sounding a main register of flue pipes, typically of eight-foot pitch; a grand swelling burst of harmony.
• eisegesis: /ahy-si-'jee-sis/ n., a faulty interpretation of a text.
• freedumb: /'frē-dəm/ n., the belief that one’s personal freedom outweighs the wellbeing of others.
• gravamen: /ɡrə-ˈvā-mən/ n., the essence or most serious part of a complaint or accusation.
• lunt: /LUHNt/ v., to walk about whilst smoking a pipe.
• sunstay: /‘sən-stā/ n., either of the two times in the year when the sun is furthest north or south from the equator, after which it appears to move back towards the equator.
• tyro: /ˈtī-rō/ n., a beginner or novice.
• wesley-bob: /WEHZ-lee-bob/ n., any kind of Christmas decoration or bauble.

December 22, 2021 Word-Wednesday Feature
Name a snowplow; it’s not just for Minnesotan’s anymore. MnDOT is no longer receiving submissions for this year's snowplow naming contest, so while we anxiously await the winners to be announced in January 2022, here are past winners from Minnesota and elsewhere:

Chatham-Kent, Ontario

• Anita Shovel
• Gordie Plow
• Blizzard of Oz
• Darth Blader
• Pillsbury Plowboy
• Sled Zepplin
• Buzz Ice-Clear
• Flurrious George
• Snobi one Kenobi
• Sleetwood Mac

Vermont Agency of Transportation

• Blizzard Wizard
• Captain Snowmerica
• Edgar Allan Snow
• Ice Ice Baby
• Plower Power
• Snowbegone Kenobi
• Snow Big Deal
• Snow Bob Plowpants
• Snowminator
• William Scrape-speare

MNDot

• Plow Bunyan
• Babe the Orange Plow
• F. Salt Fitzgerald
• Flake Superior
• For Your Ice Only
• Ičamna [Dakota word for “blizzard”]
• L’Plow du Nord
• Mary Tyler Moore Snow
• Plowabunga!
• Purple Snow
• Raspburry Brrrr-et

and from Scotland

• Buzz Ice Clear
• Creedence Clear-Road Revival
• Grittin’ On Wa’it
• Gritty Conzales
• Licence to Chill
• Lord Coldemort
• Mary Queen of Salt
• Megageltasaurus
• Salt Disney
• Sled Zepplin
• Sweet Child O’Brine
• William Wall-ice

From A Year with Rilke, December 22 Entry
On The Eligies and The Sonnets, from Letter to Witold Hulewicz
November 13, 1925

The Elegies and The Sonnets support each other reciprocally, and I see it as an endless blessing that I, with the same breath, was able to fill both sails: the small, rust-colored sail of the sonnets and the great white canvas of the Elegies.




Be better than yesterday,
name your own snow shovel today,
try to stay out of trouble - at least until tomorrow,
and write when you have the time.



*deep pan, crisp and even.