Word-Wednesday for January 5, 2022

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday, January 5, 2022, the twelfth night of Christmas, the first Wednesday of the year, the third Wednesday of winter, and the 5th day of the year, with 360 days remaining.


Wannaska Nature Update for January 5, 2021
Wind Chill
How do we explain the compulsive, reckless snow removal behaviors of the male Homo Sapiens Wannaskanamidae? What compels him to utilize a variety of expensive implements for even the slightest amount of snow accumulation, even in life-threatening conditions. Madness? Y-chromosome mutation? Traumatic brain injury from falling out of the deer stand once too often? Too much Guinness?

Women of Wannaska, please review the wind-chill chart with your snowmen. The National Weather Service forecasts windchills of 30-45 below zero today. Plan accordingly.

January 5 Nordhem Lunch: 

Beef Stew with fresh baking powder biscuits;
Monte Cristo* Sandwich with coleslaw & fresh fruit;
Old Fashioned Sausage & potato, soup, and choice of sandwich:
    Grilled cheese, Egg salad, or Burger
*batter-dipped & fried ham & cheese sandwich


Earth/Moon Almanac for January 5, 2021
Sunrise: 8:17am; Sunset: 4:42pm; 1 minutes, 24 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 10:48am; Moonset: 8:24pm, waxing crescent, 12% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for January 5, 2021
                Average            Record              Today
High             13                     47                       3
Low             -6                    -44                    -16


January 5 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Bird Day
• National Keto Day
• National Screenwriters Day
• National Whipped Cream Day

January 5 Word Riddle
What’s brown and sticky?*


January 5 Word Pun
1/5  2/5  1/5  1/5


December 5 Roseau Times-Region Headline:
Visiting Zen Monk Sees Face of Jesus in Tub of Margarine: “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Buddha!”


January 5 Etymology Word of the Week
decide: /də-ˈsīd/ v., late 14c., "to settle a dispute, determine a controversy," from Old French decider, from Latin decidere "to decide, determine," literally "to cut off," from de "off" (see de-) + caedere "to cut" (from Proto-Indo-European root *kae-id- "to strike").


January 5 Notable Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1438 Pope Eugenius IV deallocated council of Basel to Ferrara [see this].
• 1463 French poet Francois Villon banished from Paris.
• 1709 The Great Frost begins during the night, a sudden cold snap that remains Europe's coldest ever winter.
• 1886 Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson published.
• 1925 Nellie Taylor Ross became governor of Wyoming, the first woman governor in USA.
• 1945 Pepe LePew debuts in Warner Brother's cartoon "Odor-able Kitty".
• 1953 Samuel Beckett's En Attendant Godot premieres in Paris.
• 1969 Bollingen prize for poetry presented to John Berryman & Karl Shapiro.

January 5 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1596 Henry Lawes, English composer.
• 1661 Jacob Balthasar Schutz, German composer.
• 1679 Pietro Filippo Scarlotti, Italian composer.
• 1696 Giuseppe Galli-Bibiena, Italian architect & painter.
• 1762 Constanze Mozart, wife of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
• 1806 André Henri Constant van Hasselt, Belgian poet.
• 1837 Algernon Charles Swinburne, English poet & writer.
• 1848 Khristo Botev, Bulgarian poet.
• 1858 Gustaf af Geijerstam, Swedish author of Boken om Lillebror.
• 1872 Otakar Mařák, Czech opera singer.
• 1895 Elizabeth Cotten, American folk and blues guitarist and songwriter.
• 1926 William De Witt Snodgrass, American poet under the pseudonym S. S. Gardons.
• 1922 James "Shem" Downey, Irish Hurler.
  
• 1932 Umberto Eco, Italian philosopher & author.
• 1938 Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Kenyan writer.

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

• autonoeic: /ˌȯ-tə-nə-ˈwe-tik/ adj., relating to or characterized by the capacity to be aware of one’s own existence as an entity in time.
• baragnosis: /bar-ag—NOH-sis/ n., loss of the ability to estimate or perceive the weight of an object.
• greensward: /ˈɡrēnˌs-wôrd,ˈɡrēnˌs-wärd/ n., grass-covered ground.
• hoghenhine: /HAWG-en-hahyn/ n., a person who has stayed in a household for three nights, and so becomes the legal responsibility of the host; a member of a household; a dependent.
• kakapo: /ˈkä-kəˌ-pō/ n., a large flightless New Zealand parrot with greenish plumage. Now endangered, it is nocturnal and ground-dwelling.
• mille-feuille: /mēl ˈfəē,fəˌwē/ n., a rich dessert consisting of many very thin layers of puff pastry and such fillings as whipped cream, custard, fruit, etc.
• nizzertit: /NIHZ-uhr-tit/ adj., to be stunted in growth; withered, dried up; v., to contract, to become withered or stunted in growth.
• qualtagh: /KWAL-tahk/ n., the first person to enter a house on New Year’s Day; known as the “first foot”; the first person one meets after leaving home, especially on a special occasion.
• sarcastrophe: /sär-'ka-trə-fē/  n., a punctuation mark denoting sarcastic intent or meaning; an event which turns out to be awkward, disastrous, or embarrassing as a result of a failed attempt to be amusingly sarcastic.
• weekling: /ˈwēk-liNG/ n., a person who schedules activities and structures personal time in terms of weeks.

January 5, 2021 Word-Wednesday Feature
paraprosdokian
/pær-ə-prɒs-ˈdoʊ-ki-ən/ n., a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence, phrase, or larger discourse is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe or reinterpret the first part. It is frequently used for humorous or dramatic effect, sometimes producing an anticlimax. For this reason, it is extremely popular among comedians and satirists - particularly by those writers who have mastered the saracastrophe as a punctuation mark. A favorite of Winston Churchill, Groucho Marx, Mr. Hot Coco, and Homer Simpson, here are a few short, but classic examples:

The difference between stupidity and genius is that genius has its limits.

Albert Einstein

The company accountant is shy and retiring. He's shy a quarter of a million dollars. That's why he's retiring.

Milton Berle

If all the girls who attended the Yale prom were laid end to end, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised.

Dorothy Parker

He taught me housekeeping; when I divorce I keep the house.

Zsa Zsa Gábor

Take my wife—please!

Henny Youngman

Death is caused by swallowing small amounts of saliva over a long period of time.

George Carlin

There but for the grace of God—goes God."

Winston Churchill

If I could just say a few words … I'd be a better public speaker.

Homer Simpson

If I am reading this graph correctly—I'd be very surprised.

Stephen Colbert

On his feet he wore … blisters.

Aristotle

I've had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn't it.

Groucho Marx

My uncle's dying wish was to have me sit in his lap; he was in the electric chair.

Rodney Dangerfield

When I was a kid my parents moved a lot, but I always found them.

Rodney Dangerfield

My husband can't stand to see trash and garbage lying around the house – he can't stand the competition.

Phyllis Diller

Half of all marriages end in divorce—and then there are the really unhappy ones.

Joan Rivers

I like going to the park and watching the children run around because they don't know I'm using blanks.

Emo Philips

Some cause happiness wherever they go; others whenever they go.

Oscar Wilde

In the morning I shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got into my pajamas, I don't know.

Groucho Marx

I’m a very tolerant man, except when it comes to holding a grudge.

Robin Williams

I haven't slept for ten days, because that would be too long.

Mitch Hedberg

I sleep eight hours a day and at least ten at night.

Bill Hicks

I saw a bank that said “24 Hour Banking”, but I don't have that much time.

Stephen Wright

Wannaska, wonderful town. I spent a week there one night.

W.C. Fields

I don't belong to an organized political party. I'm a Democrat.

Will Rogers

War does not determine who is right—only who is left.

Bertrand Russell

You can always count on the Americans to do the right thing—after they have tried everything else.

Winston Churchill

He was at his best when the going was good.

Alistair Cooke

Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.

 Jim Brewer, sometimes attributed to Groucho Marx

There are three kinds of people in the world – those who can count, and those who can’t.

Unknown

Here's looking forward to some paraprosdokian squibs in the coming year!

Multi-talking is a foolish game. Break twice as much, get paid the same.

Chairman Joe

From A Year with Rilke, January 5 Entry
The Impermanence We Are, from Second Duino Elegy

 
It seems
our own impermanence is concealed from us.
The trees stand firm, the houses we live in
are still there. We alone
flow past it all, an exchange of air.

Everything conspires to silence us,
partly with shame,
partly with unspeakable hope.




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.




*a stick.