Word-Wednesday for January 19, 2022

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday, January 19, 2022, the third Wednesday of the year, the fifth Wednesday of winter, and the 19th day of the year, with 346 days remaining.


Wannaska Nature Update for January 19, 2022
Today is the thirtieth day of winter in Wannaska.

THE COLD
by Wendell Berry
How exactly good it is
to know myself
in the solitude of winter,
my body containing its own
warmth, divided from all
by the cold; and to go
separate and sure
among the trees cleanly
divided, thinking of you
perfect too in your solitude,
your life withdrawn into
your own keeping
—to be clear, poised
in perfect self-suspension
toward you, as though frozen.
And having known fully the
goodness of that, it will be
good also to melt.


January 19 Nordhem Lunch:
Enchilada Casserole
Hot Pork Sandwich with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy
Hamburger Dumpling Soup, choice of sandwich: Roast Beef, Ham, Burger


Earth/Moon Almanac for January 19, 2021
Sunrise: 8:09am; Sunset: 5:00pm; 2 minutes, 24 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 6:44pm; Moonset: 9:34am, waning gibbous, 98% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for January 19, 2021
                Average            Record              Today
High             14                     40                     -1
Low             -6                    -44                    -25


January 19 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• World Quark Day
• National Popcorn Day

January 19 Word Riddle
How many Wannaskans does it take to change light bulb ?*


January 19 Word Pun
If you have to wear both a mask and glasses, you may be entitled to some condensation.


January 19 Thief River Falls Times & Northern Watch Headline:
St. Hilaire Cosmetology Student Misses Exam: Forced to Make Up Makeup Test


January 19 Etymology Word of the Week
originality: /əˌ-rij-əˈ-nal-ə-dē/ n., 1742, "quality or state of being primary or first-hand," from original (adj.) + -ity. Probably after French originalité (1690s). Meaning "quality of being novel, freshness of style or character" is from 1787.


January 19 Notable Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day
973 Pope Benedictus VI elected.
1746 "Bonnie Prince Charlie", Prince Charles Edward Stuart's troops occupy Stirling, Scotland.
1785 First manned balloon flight in Ireland.
1829 Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's Faust, Part 1 premieres.
1893 Henrik Ibsen's play The Master Builder premieres in Berlin.
1955 Scrabble debuts on board game market.


January 19 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day
(probable date of conception: April 19)

• 1200 Dōgen, Japanese Buddhist priest and founder of the Sōtō school of Zen, born in Kyoto, Japan.
• 1790 Per Daniel Amadeus Atterbom, Swedish romantic poet.
• 1798 Auguste Comte, French philosopher & writer.
• 1809 Edgar Allan Poe.
• 1831 Ferdinand Laub, Czech violinist and composer.
• 1839 Paul Cézanne.
• 1860 Patrick Cotter O'Brien, Irish showman, first known eight-foot-tall person.
• 1887 Alexander Woollcott, American critic and short story writer.
• 1906 Ish Kabbible.
• 1928 Dainin Katagiri, Zen teacher.
• 1939 Phil Everly.
• 1943 Janis Joplin.
• 1946 Julian Barnes, English writer.
• 1954 Cindy Sherman, American photographer & director.
• 1969 Edwidge Danticat, Haitian-American author.

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

• apatheia: /ap-ə-ˈthī-ə/ n., freedom or release from emotion or excitement.
• Ballyhack: /ˈbæ-liˌ-hæk/ n., Hell.
• cludgie: /ˈkləj-ē/ n., a toilet or bathroom.
• footling: /ˈfo͞od(ə)liNG/ adj., trivial and irritating.
• gaum: /ˈgȯm/ tr.v., smudge, smear.
• halation: /hāˈ-lā-SHən/ n., the spreading of light beyond its proper boundaries to form a fog around the edges of a bright image in a photograph or on a television screen.
• nemophilist: /NEM-oh-fil-ist/ n., one who is fond of the forest and who spends much time therein; from New Latin, from Greek “nemos” (a grove) + “philein” (to love).
• psuchê: (/ψυχη/ Greek, psyche, soul, breath of life, life stuff.
• sprezzatura: /ˌsprets-ə-ˈt(y)o͝o-rə/ n., studied carelessness, especially as a characteristic quality or style of art or literature.
• terpsichorean: /turp-si-KOHR-ee-uhn/ adj., of or relating to dancing; n., a dancer.
• wold: /wōld/ n., a piece of high, open, uncultivated land or moor.

January 19, 2021 Word-Wednesday Feature
Write and Speak Originally This Year
Wannaskan Almanac traces its roots to THE RAVEN, Northwest Minnesota's original art, history, and humor journal. Today, Word-Wednesday encourages readers to think, write, and speak with originality in the coming year, to “uphold, protect, and support excellence in language”. So does Lake Superior State University (LSSU) in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Each year, LSSU publishes a list of “banished words” - words that have been overused in the previous year. The following list contains those words featured on the LSSU 2022 Banished Words List, along with some played-out local Wannaskan words contributed by JackPineSavage. Please add your own suggestions as a comment.

• at the end of the day
• awesome
• boat a yuz
• circle back
• come again
• deep dive
• do me a solid
• epic
• fake news
• fer cute
• gonna eat that?
• have a look in the mirror
• interesting
• just asking for a friend
  
• new normal
• no worries
• okay, boomer
• perfect storm
• so last year
• that being said
• Wait, what?
• you don’t say
• you go, girl
• you’re on mute

From A Year with Rilke, January 19 Entry
Your Singing Continues, from Sonnets to Orpheus, I, 19
 

As swiftly as the world is changing,
like racing clouds,
all that is finished
falls home to the ancient source.

Above the change and the loss,
farther and freer,
your singing continues,
god of the lyre.

How can we embrace our sorrows
or learn how to love,
or see what we lose

when we die? Only your song
over the earth
honors our life and makes it holy.

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.



*

1 mom to change the light bulb and to post that the light bulb has been changed.
14 neighbors to share similar experiences of changing light bulbs and how the light bulb could have been changed differently.
7 Women of Wannaska to caution about the dangers of changing light bulbs.
6 Wannaska Almanac contributors to argue over whether it's "lightbulb" or "light bulb".
6 regulars at Crusty’s Riverside Station to condemn the WA 6 as stupid.
22 farmers to tell the Crusty's 6 to stop being drawn into idiot conversations.
5 electricians to inform the group that the proper term is "lamp".
15 know-it-all retired farmers who claim they were born before light bulbs, and that "light bulb" is perfectly correct, this deflating the arguments of half the Wannaskan Almanac contributors.
49 teenagers to post memes and gifs (several are of Michael Jackson eating popcorn with the words added, “I’m just here for the comments.”)
19 Palmville Township council members to post that this page is not about light bulbs and to please take this discussion to a light bulb page.
11 single moms to defend the posting to this page saying that we all use light bulbs and therefore the posts are relevant here.
24 liberals to discuss the merits of LED/swirly fluorescent light bulbs.
44 conservatives to claim LED and fluorescent bulbs will kill you.
12  teenage boys to post F.
8 dads to ask what F means.
7 jokesters from Kansas to post ‘Following’ but there’s 3 dots at the top right that means you don’t have to.
15 7th Day Adventists to say “can’t share”.
2 Amish to reply “can’t share from a closed group”.
36 single adult males to post pics of their own light bulbs.
4 elementary school teachers to say, “Didn’t we go through this already a short time ago?”.
13 high school teachers to say, “Do a search on light bulbs before posting questions about light bulbs”.
5 blog administrators to ban the light bulb posters who took it all too seriously.
1 late arrival from Pencer to comment on the original post 6 months later and start it all over again.
20 dog-moms to give up on Facebook and take their dogs for a walk instead.
And then somebody announces they are leaving the group over the light bulb post, and someone replies back that this isn’t an airport so you don’t need to announce your departure.