Word-Wednesday for February 2, 2022

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday, February 2, 2022, the fifth Wednesday of the year, the seventh Wednesday and the midpoint of winter, a double hump day, smack dab in the middle of winter, the 33rd day of the year, with 332 days remaining.


Wannaska Nature Update for February 2, 2022
Squirrel is the Word
Groundhogs, Marmota monax – also known as marmots, whistle pigs and, most commonly in Wannaska, woodchucks – are the largest member of the squirrel family in Minnesota. A type of ground squirrel more closely related to the 13-lined ground squirrel (striped gopher) or hedgehog than to the gray squirrel, groundhogs grow up to 24 inches long, including their short tail, and they can weigh up to 4 pounds.

In Minnesota, groundhogs very rarely, if ever, see their shadows on February 2 because they are still in deep hibernation underground. Groundhogs hibernate in their tunnels from October to late February or mid-March. The date they emerge varies from year to year depending on weather. No surprise, males are the first to come out quopping in the spring to begin searching for a mate, often only to find other male groundhogs snuffling around for booty.

Sadly, groundhogs generally fail to predict winter just about any place that measures their success, but Punxsutawney Phil appears to have gotten it right, this year.


The Snow Man
Wallace Stevens

One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.


February 2 Nordhem Lunch:
Julie's Homemade Roast Beef Stew with bread
Monte Christo Sandwich & French Fries
Battered and Grilled Ham & Swiss Cheese Sandwich
French Onion Soup with Choice of Au Gratin or Sandwich
    Ham-Egg Salad- Grilled Cheese


Earth/Moon Almanac for February 2, 2021
Sunrise: 7:53am; Sunset: 5:28pm; 3 minutes, 3 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 9:11am; Moonset: 7:16am, waxing crescent, 3% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for February 2, 2021
                Average            Record              Today
High             15                     42                     -3
Low              -9                   -52                    -31

February 2 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Heavenly Hash Day
• National Tater Tot Day
• National Girls and Women in Sports Day
• National Groundhog Day

February 2 Word Riddle
Is there a word that uses all the vowels, including y?*


February 2 Word Pun
Word-Wednesday staff is willing to bet that you’ve never seen a well-written, witty bingo pun B4.

February 2 Etymology Word of the Week
smack dab: /smak dab/, adv., exactly; precisely, from "make a sharp noise with the lips," 1550s, probably of imitative origin (see smack (v.2)). With adverbial force, "suddenly, directly," from 1782; extended form smack-dab is attested from 1892, American English colloquial (slap-dab is from 1886).

smack (v.2)
"to slap a flat surface with the hand," 1835, from smack (n.) in this sense; perhaps influenced by Low German smacken "to strike, throw," which is likely of imitative origin (compare Swedish smak "slap," Middle Low German smacken, Frisian smakke, Dutch smakken "to fling down," Lithuanian smogti "to strike, knock down, whip").


February 2 Notable Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1709 British sailor Alexander Selkirk is rescued by William Dampier after being marooned on a desert island for five years, his story inspires Robinson Crusoe.
• 1795 Joseph Haydn's 102nd Symphony in B premieres.
• 1852 First British public men's toilet opens in Fleet St, London.
• 1852 Alexandre Dumas Jr.'s La Dame aux Camélias premieres.
• 1887 In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the first Groundhog Day is observed.
• 1913 American poet Joyce Kilmer writes his famous poem Trees.
• 1922 James Joyce's Ulysses published in Paris.

February 2 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1583 Anna Roemers Visscher, Dutch poetess.
• 1649 Benedict XIII [Pierfrancesco Orsini], Italian 245th pope.
• 1773 Vincenc Tomas Vaclav Tucek, Czech composer.
• 1882 James Joyce, Irish novelist and poet.
• 1916 Xuân Diệu, Vietnamese poet.
• 1923 James Dickey, American poet.
• 1931 Judith Viorst, American author.

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

• aglu: /ˈæ-ɡluː/ n., a breathing hole made in the ice by a seal.
• bombogenesis: /ˌbäm-bōˈ-jen-ə-sis/ n., a phenomenon or process in which there is rapid and sustained falling of barometric pressure in the center of a low-pressure system, indicative of its strengthening into a powerful storm.
• corf: /ˈkȯrf/ n., a basket, tub, or truck used in a mine.
• erinaceous: /er-uh-NAY-shuhs/ adj., of, like, resembling, or related to hedgehogs.
• gubbertushed: /ˈgu̇b-ə(r)-ˌtu̇sht/ adj., having large projecting teeth; buck-toothed.
• howk: /ˈhōk/ v., to hollow out.
• juustoleipä: /HOO-stah-LEE-pah/ n., a Finnish, traditional farmhouse fresh cheese made from cow’s or reindeer’s milk; also known as leipäjuusto.
• moonth: /mo͞onTH/ n., period of  28 days  or the mark of the end of a 28-day  lunar cycle.
• quop: /kwɒp/ v., to pulsate, to throb (like a woke male groundhog).
• refoulement: /rə-ˈfo͞ol-mäN/ n., the forcible return of refugees or asylum seekers to a country where they are liable to be subjected to persecution.

February 2, 2021 Word-Wednesday Feature
Groundhog Day
"...it was the second of February, that ancient Candlemas-day whose treacherous sun, the precursor of six weeks of cold, inspired Matthew Laensberg with the two lines, which have deservedly become classic: 'Qu'il luise ou qu'il luiserne, L'ours rentre en sa caverne.'[In Wannaskan vernacular: "Let it gleam or let it glimmer, The bear goes back into his cave."]
Victor Hugo, Les Misérables.

As any Wannaskan knows in her bones, February winter is an embodied experience of Friedrich Nietzsche’s notion of eternal recurrence, where from the assumption that the probability of a world coming into existence exactly like our own is nonzero; then, if time is infinite, our existence must recur an infinite number of times. This same them is featured in the movie, Groundhog Day, which Roger Ebert includes on his list of great movies. If you haven’t seen this movie, the story follows the life events of a schmuck named Phil [see 1887 entry in the February 2 Notable Historic Events above], played by Bill Murray, who finds himself living the same day over and over and over again, starting out as a jerk, but becoming a good person.

Careful viewer will find a snippet of The Lay of the Last Minstrel, a poem by Sir Walter Scott, recited by Phil’s co-worker, Rita, played by Andie McDowell:

High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonored , and unsung.

Happy Groundhogs Day!


From A Year with Rilke, February 2 Entry
Experiencing God, from Letter to Rudolph Zimmerman, March 10, 1922
 

In the last analysis, I have a completely indescribable passion for experiencing God, and this God is unquestionably closer to that of the Old Testament than He is to the Messiah’s Gospels. I must admit that what I have most wanted in this life has been to discover within myself a temple to earth, and to dwell therein.

Be better than tomorrow,
learn a new word yesterday,
try to stay out of trouble - at least until next Groundhogs Day,
and write when you have the time.




*unquestionably.

 

 

And here again is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday, February 2, 2022, the fifth Wednesday of the year, the seventh Wednesday and the midpoint of winter, a double hump day, smack dab in the middle of winter, the 33rd day of the year, with 332 days remaining.


Wannaska Nature Update for February 2, 2022
Squirrel is the Word
Groundhogs, Marmota monax – also known as marmots, whistle pigs and, most commonly in Wannaska, woodchucks – are the largest member of the squirrel family in Minnesota. A type of ground squirrel more closely related to the 13-lined ground squirrel (striped gopher) or hedgehog than to the gray squirrel, groundhogs grow up to 24 inches long, including their short tail, and they can weigh up to 4 pounds.

In Minnesota, groundhogs very rarely, if ever, see their shadows on February 2 because they are still in deep hibernation underground. Groundhogs hibernate in their tunnels from October to late February or mid-March. The date they emerge varies from year to year depending on weather. No surprise, males are the first to come out quopping in the spring to begin searching for a mate, often only to find other male groundhogs snuffling around for booty. 

Sadly, groundhogs generally fail to predict winter just about any place that measures their success, but Punxsutawney Phil appears to have gotten it right, this year. 


The Snow Man
Wallace Stevens

One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.


February 2 Nordhem Lunch:
Julie's Homemade Roast Beef Stew with bread
Monte Christo Sandwich & French Fries
Battered and Grilled Ham & Swiss Cheese Sandwich
French Onion Soup with Choice of Au Gratin or Sandwich
    Ham-Egg Salad- Grilled Cheese


Earth/Moon Almanac for February 2, 2021
Sunrise: 7:53am; Sunset: 5:28pm; 3 minutes, 3 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 9:11am; Moonset: 7:16am, waxing crescent, 3% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for February 2, 2021
                Average            Record              Today
High             15                     42                     -3
Low              -9                   -52                    -31

February 2 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Heavenly Hash Day
• National Tater Tot Day
• National Girls and Women in Sports Day
• National Groundhog Day

February 2 Word Riddle
Is there a word that uses all the vowels, including y?*


February 2 Word Pun
Word-Wednesday staff is willing to bet that you’ve never seen a well-written, witty bingo pun B4.

February 2 Etymology Word of the Week
smack dab: /smak dab/, adv., exactly; precisely, from "make a sharp noise with the lips," 1550s, probably of imitative origin (see smack (v.2)). With adverbial force, "suddenly, directly," from 1782; extended form smack-dab is attested from 1892, American English colloquial (slap-dab is from 1886).

smack (v.2)
"to slap a flat surface with the hand," 1835, from smack (n.) in this sense; perhaps influenced by Low German smacken "to strike, throw," which is likely of imitative origin (compare Swedish smak "slap," Middle Low German smacken, Frisian smakke, Dutch smakken "to fling down," Lithuanian smogti "to strike, knock down, whip").


February 2 Notable Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1709 British sailor Alexander Selkirk is rescued by William Dampier after being marooned on a desert island for five years, his story inspires Robinson Crusoe.
• 1795 Joseph Haydn's 102nd Symphony in B premieres.
• 1852 First British public men's toilet opens in Fleet St, London.
• 1852 Alexandre Dumas Jr.'s La Dame aux Camélias premieres.
• 1887 In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the first Groundhog Day is observed.
• 1913 American poet Joyce Kilmer writes his famous poem Trees.
• 1922 James Joyce's Ulysses published in Paris.

February 2 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1583 Anna Roemers Visscher, Dutch poetess.
• 1649 Benedict XIII [Pierfrancesco Orsini], Italian 245th pope.
• 1773 Vincenc Tomas Vaclav Tucek, Czech composer.
• 1882 James Joyce, Irish novelist and poet.
• 1916 Xuân Diệu, Vietnamese poet.
• 1923 James Dickey, American poet.
• 1931 Judith Viorst, American author.

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

• aglu: /ˈæ-ɡluː/ n., a breathing hole made in the ice by a seal.
• bombogenesis: /ˌbäm-bōˈ-jen-ə-sis/ n., a phenomenon or process in which there is rapid and sustained falling of barometric pressure in the center of a low-pressure system, indicative of its strengthening into a powerful storm.
• corf: /ˈkȯrf/ n., a basket, tub, or truck used in a mine.
• erinaceous: /er-uh-NAY-shuhs/ adj., of, like, resembling, or related to hedgehogs.
• gubbertushed: /ˈgu̇b-ə(r)-ˌtu̇sht/ adj., having large projecting teeth; buck-toothed.
• howk: /ˈhōk/ v., to hollow out.
• juustoleipä: /HOO-stah-LEE-pah/ n., a Finnish, traditional farmhouse fresh cheese made from cow’s or reindeer’s milk; also known as leipäjuusto.
• moonth: /mo͞onTH/ n., period of  28 days  or the mark of the end of a 28-day  lunar cycle.
• quop: /kwɒp/ v., to pulsate, to throb (like a woke male groundhog).
• refoulement: /rə-ˈfo͞ol-mäN/ n., the forcible return of refugees or asylum seekers to a country where they are liable to be subjected to persecution.

February 2, 2021 Word-Wednesday Feature
Groundhog Day
"...it was the second of February, that ancient Candlemas-day whose treacherous sun, the precursor of six weeks of cold, inspired Matthew Laensberg with the two lines, which have deservedly become classic: 'Qu'il luise ou qu'il luiserne, L'ours rentre en sa caverne.'[In Wannaskan vernacular: "Let it gleam or let it glimmer, The bear goes back into his cave."]
Victor Hugo, Les Misérables.

As any Wannaskan knows in her bones, February winter is an embodied experience of Friedrich Nietzsche’s notion of eternal recurrence, where from the assumption that the probability of a world coming into existence exactly like our own is nonzero; then, if time is infinite, our existence must recur an infinite number of times. This same them is featured in the movie, Groundhog Day, which Roger Ebert includes on his list of great movies. If you haven’t seen this movie, the story follows the life events of a schmuck named Phil [see 1887 entry in the February 2 Notable Historic Events above], played by Bill Murray, who finds himself living the same day over and over and over again, starting out as a jerk, but becoming a good person.

Careful viewer will find a snippet of The Lay of the Last Minstrel, a poem by Sir Walter Scott, recited by Phil’s co-worker, Rita, played by Andie McDowell:

High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonored , and unsung.

Happy Groundhogs Day!


From A Year with Rilke, February 2 Entry
Experiencing God, from Letter to Rudolph Zimmerman, March 10, 1922
 

In the last analysis, I have a completely indescribable passion for experiencing God, and this God is unquestionably closer to that of the Old Testament than He is to the Messiah’s Gospels. I must admit that what I have most wanted in this life has been to discover within myself a temple to earth, and to dwell therein.

Be better than tomorrow,
learn a new word yesterday,
try to stay out of trouble - at least until next Groundhogs Day,
and write when you have the time.




*unquestionably.

 

 

And yet again, here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday, February 2, 2022, the fifth Wednesday of the year, the seventh Wednesday and the midpoint of winter, a double hump day, smack dab in the middle of winter, the 33rd day of the year, with 332 days remaining.


Wannaska Nature Update for February 2, 2022
Squirrel is the Word
Groundhogs, Marmota monax – also known as marmots, whistle pigs and, most commonly in Wannaska, woodchucks – are the largest member of the squirrel family in Minnesota. A type of ground squirrel more closely related to the 13-lined ground squirrel (striped gopher) or hedgehog than to the gray squirrel, groundhogs grow up to 24 inches long, including their short tail, and they can weigh up to 4 pounds.

In Minnesota, groundhogs very rarely, if ever, see their shadows on February 2 because they are still in deep hibernation underground. Groundhogs hibernate in their tunnels from October to late February or mid-March. The date they emerge varies from year to year depending on weather. No surprise, males are the first to come out quopping in the spring to begin searching for a mate, often only to find other male groundhogs snuffling around for booty. 

Sadly, groundhogs generally fail to predict winter just about any place that measures their success, but Punxsutawney Phil appears to have gotten it right, this year.


The Snow Man
Wallace Stevens

One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.


February 2 Nordhem Lunch:
Julie's Homemade Roast Beef Stew with bread
Monte Christo Sandwich & French Fries
Battered and Grilled Ham & Swiss Cheese Sandwich
French Onion Soup with Choice of Au Gratin or Sandwich
    Ham-Egg Salad- Grilled Cheese


Earth/Moon Almanac for February 2, 2021
Sunrise: 7:53am; Sunset: 5:28pm; 3 minutes, 3 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 9:11am; Moonset: 7:16am, waxing crescent, 3% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for February 2, 2021
                Average            Record              Today
High             15                     42                     -3
Low              -9                   -52                    -31

February 2 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Heavenly Hash Day
• National Tater Tot Day
• National Girls and Women in Sports Day
• National Groundhog Day

February 2 Word Riddle
Is there a word that uses all the vowels, including y?*


February 2 Word Pun
Word-Wednesday staff is willing to bet that you’ve never seen a well-written, witty bingo pun B4.

February 2 Etymology Word of the Week
smack dab: /smak dab/, adv., exactly; precisely, from "make a sharp noise with the lips," 1550s, probably of imitative origin (see smack (v.2)). With adverbial force, "suddenly, directly," from 1782; extended form smack-dab is attested from 1892, American English colloquial (slap-dab is from 1886).

smack (v.2)
"to slap a flat surface with the hand," 1835, from smack (n.) in this sense; perhaps influenced by Low German smacken "to strike, throw," which is likely of imitative origin (compare Swedish smak "slap," Middle Low German smacken, Frisian smakke, Dutch smakken "to fling down," Lithuanian smogti "to strike, knock down, whip").


February 2 Notable Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1709 British sailor Alexander Selkirk is rescued by William Dampier after being marooned on a desert island for five years, his story inspires Robinson Crusoe.
• 1795 Joseph Haydn's 102nd Symphony in B premieres.
• 1852 First British public men's toilet opens in Fleet St, London.
• 1852 Alexandre Dumas Jr.'s La Dame aux Camélias premieres.
• 1887 In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the first Groundhog Day is observed.
• 1913 American poet Joyce Kilmer writes his famous poem Trees.
• 1922 James Joyce's Ulysses published in Paris.

February 2 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1583 Anna Roemers Visscher, Dutch poetess.
• 1649 Benedict XIII [Pierfrancesco Orsini], Italian 245th pope.
• 1773 Vincenc Tomas Vaclav Tucek, Czech composer.
• 1882 James Joyce, Irish novelist and poet.
• 1916 Xuân Diệu, Vietnamese poet.
• 1923 James Dickey, American poet.
• 1931 Judith Viorst, American author.

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

• aglu: /ˈæ-ɡluː/ n., a breathing hole made in the ice by a seal.
• bombogenesis: /ˌbäm-bōˈ-jen-ə-sis/ n., a phenomenon or process in which there is rapid and sustained falling of barometric pressure in the center of a low-pressure system, indicative of its strengthening into a powerful storm.
• corf: /ˈkȯrf/ n., a basket, tub, or truck used in a mine.
• erinaceous: /er-uh-NAY-shuhs/ adj., of, like, resembling, or related to hedgehogs.
• gubbertushed: /ˈgu̇b-ə(r)-ˌtu̇sht/ adj., having large projecting teeth; buck-toothed.
• howk: /ˈhōk/ v., to hollow out.
• juustoleipä: /HOO-stah-LEE-pah/ n., a Finnish, traditional farmhouse fresh cheese made from cow’s or reindeer’s milk; also known as leipäjuusto.
• moonth: /mo͞onTH/ n., period of  28 days  or the mark of the end of a 28-day  lunar cycle.
• quop: /kwɒp/ v., to pulsate, to throb (like a woke male groundhog).
• refoulement: /rə-ˈfo͞ol-mäN/ n., the forcible return of refugees or asylum seekers to a country where they are liable to be subjected to persecution.

February 2, 2021 Word-Wednesday Feature
Groundhog Day
"...it was the second of February, that ancient Candlemas-day whose treacherous sun, the precursor of six weeks of cold, inspired Matthew Laensberg with the two lines, which have deservedly become classic: 'Qu'il luise ou qu'il luiserne, L'ours rentre en sa caverne.'[In Wannaskan vernacular: "Let it gleam or let it glimmer, The bear goes back into his cave."]
Victor Hugo, Les Misérables.

As any Wannaskan knows in her bones, February winter is an embodied experience of Friedrich Nietzsche’s notion of eternal recurrence, where from the assumption that the probability of a world coming into existence exactly like our own is nonzero; then, if time is infinite, our existence must recur an infinite number of times. This same them is featured in the movie, Groundhog Day, which Roger Ebert includes on his list of great movies. If you haven’t seen this movie, the story follows the life events of a schmuck named Phil [see 1887 entry in the February 2 Notable Historic Events above], played by Bill Murray, who finds himself living the same day over and over and over again, starting out as a jerk, but becoming a good person.

Careful viewer will find a snippet of The Lay of the Last Minstrel, a poem by Sir Walter Scott, recited by Phil’s co-worker, Rita, played by Andie McDowell:

High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonored , and unsung.

Happy Groundhogs Day!


From A Year with Rilke, February 2 Entry
Experiencing God, from Letter to Rudolph Zimmerman, March 10, 1922
 

In the last analysis, I have a completely indescribable passion for experiencing God, and this God is unquestionably closer to that of the Old Testament than He is to the Messiah’s Gospels. I must admit that what I have most wanted in this life has been to discover within myself a temple to earth, and to dwell therein.

Be better than tomorrow,
learn a new word yesterday,
try to stay out of trouble - at least until next Groundhogs Day,
and write when you have the time.




*unquestionably.

 

 

 

And here we go again with the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday, February 2, 2022, the fifth Wednesday of the year, the seventh Wednesday and the midpoint of winter, a double hump day, smack dab in the middle of winter, the 33rd day of the year, with 332 days remaining.


Wannaska Nature Update for February 2, 2022
Squirrel is the Word
Groundhogs, Marmota monax – also known as marmots, whistle pigs and, most commonly in Wannaska, woodchucks – are the largest member of the squirrel family in Minnesota. A type of ground squirrel more closely related to the 13-lined ground squirrel (striped gopher) or hedgehog than to the gray squirrel, groundhogs grow up to 24 inches long, including their short tail, and they can weigh up to 4 pounds.

In Minnesota, groundhogs very rarely, if ever, see their shadows on February 2 because they are still in deep hibernation underground. Groundhogs hibernate in their tunnels from October to late February or mid-March. The date they emerge varies from year to year depending on weather. No surprise, males are the first to come out quopping in the spring to begin searching for a mate, often only to find other male groundhogs snuffling around for booty. 

Sadly, groundhogs generally fail to predict winter just about any place that measures their success, but Punxsutawney Phil appears to have gotten it right, this year. 


The Snow Man
Wallace Stevens

One must have a mind of winter
To regard the frost and the boughs
Of the pine-trees crusted with snow;

And have been cold a long time
To behold the junipers shagged with ice,
The spruces rough in the distant glitter

Of the January sun; and not to think
Of any misery in the sound of the wind,
In the sound of a few leaves,

Which is the sound of the land
Full of the same wind
That is blowing in the same bare place

For the listener, who listens in the snow,
And, nothing himself, beholds
Nothing that is not there and the nothing that is.


February 2 Nordhem Lunch:
Julie's Homemade Roast Beef Stew with bread
Monte Christo Sandwich & French Fries
Battered and Grilled Ham & Swiss Cheese Sandwich
French Onion Soup with Choice of Au Gratin or Sandwich
    Ham-Egg Salad- Grilled Cheese


Earth/Moon Almanac for February 2, 2021
Sunrise: 7:53am; Sunset: 5:28pm; 3 minutes, 3 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 9:11am; Moonset: 7:16am, waxing crescent, 3% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for February 2, 2021
                Average            Record              Today
High             15                     42                     -3
Low              -9                   -52                    -31

February 2 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Heavenly Hash Day
• National Tater Tot Day
• National Girls and Women in Sports Day
• National Groundhog Day

February 2 Word Riddle
Is there a word that uses all the vowels, including y?*


February 2 Word Pun
Word-Wednesday staff is willing to bet that you’ve never seen a well-written, witty bingo pun B4.

February 2 Etymology Word of the Week
smack dab: /smak dab/, adv., exactly; precisely, from "make a sharp noise with the lips," 1550s, probably of imitative origin (see smack (v.2)). With adverbial force, "suddenly, directly," from 1782; extended form smack-dab is attested from 1892, American English colloquial (slap-dab is from 1886).

smack (v.2)
"to slap a flat surface with the hand," 1835, from smack (n.) in this sense; perhaps influenced by Low German smacken "to strike, throw," which is likely of imitative origin (compare Swedish smak "slap," Middle Low German smacken, Frisian smakke, Dutch smakken "to fling down," Lithuanian smogti "to strike, knock down, whip").


February 2 Notable Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1709 British sailor Alexander Selkirk is rescued by William Dampier after being marooned on a desert island for five years, his story inspires Robinson Crusoe.
• 1795 Joseph Haydn's 102nd Symphony in B premieres.
• 1852 First British public men's toilet opens in Fleet St, London.
• 1852 Alexandre Dumas Jr.'s La Dame aux Camélias premieres.
• 1887 In Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the first Groundhog Day is observed.
• 1913 American poet Joyce Kilmer writes his famous poem Trees.
• 1922 James Joyce's Ulysses published in Paris.

February 2 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1583 Anna Roemers Visscher, Dutch poetess.
• 1649 Benedict XIII [Pierfrancesco Orsini], Italian 245th pope.
• 1773 Vincenc Tomas Vaclav Tucek, Czech composer.
• 1882 James Joyce, Irish novelist and poet.
• 1916 Xuân Diệu, Vietnamese poet.
• 1923 James Dickey, American poet.
• 1931 Judith Viorst, American author.

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

• aglu: /ˈæ-ɡluː/ n., a breathing hole made in the ice by a seal.
• bombogenesis: /ˌbäm-bōˈ-jen-ə-sis/ n., a phenomenon or process in which there is rapid and sustained falling of barometric pressure in the center of a low-pressure system, indicative of its strengthening into a powerful storm.
• corf: /ˈkȯrf/ n., a basket, tub, or truck used in a mine.
• erinaceous: /er-uh-NAY-shuhs/ adj., of, like, resembling, or related to hedgehogs.
• gubbertushed: /ˈgu̇b-ə(r)-ˌtu̇sht/ adj., having large projecting teeth; buck-toothed.
• howk: /ˈhōk/ v., to hollow out.
• juustoleipä: /HOO-stah-LEE-pah/ n., a Finnish, traditional farmhouse fresh cheese made from cow’s or reindeer’s milk; also known as leipäjuusto.
• moonth: /mo͞onTH/ n., period of  28 days  or the mark of the end of a 28-day  lunar cycle.
• quop: /kwɒp/ v., to pulsate, to throb (like a woke male groundhog).
• refoulement: /rə-ˈfo͞ol-mäN/ n., the forcible return of refugees or asylum seekers to a country where they are liable to be subjected to persecution.

February 2, 2021 Word-Wednesday Feature
Groundhog Day
"...it was the second of February, that ancient Candlemas-day whose treacherous sun, the precursor of six weeks of cold, inspired Matthew Laensberg with the two lines, which have deservedly become classic: 'Qu'il luise ou qu'il luiserne, L'ours rentre en sa caverne.'[In Wannaskan vernacular: "Let it gleam or let it glimmer, The bear goes back into his cave."]
Victor Hugo, Les Misérables.

As any Wannaskan knows in her bones, February winter is an embodied experience of Friedrich Nietzsche’s notion of eternal recurrence, where from the assumption that the probability of a world coming into existence exactly like our own is nonzero; then, if time is infinite, our existence must recur an infinite number of times. This same them is featured in the movie, Groundhog Day, which Roger Ebert includes on his list of great movies. If you haven’t seen this movie, the story follows the life events of a schmuck named Phil [see 1887 entry in the February 2 Notable Historic Events above], played by Bill Murray, who finds himself living the same day over and over and over again, starting out as a jerk, but becoming a good person.

Careful viewer will find a snippet of The Lay of the Last Minstrel, a poem by Sir Walter Scott, recited by Phil’s co-worker, Rita, played by Andie McDowell:

High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonored , and unsung.

Happy Groundhogs Day!


From A Year with Rilke, February 2 Entry
Experiencing God, from Letter to Rudolph Zimmerman, March 10, 1922
 

In the last analysis, I have a completely indescribable passion for experiencing God, and this God is unquestionably closer to that of the Old Testament than He is to the Messiah’s Gospels. I must admit that what I have most wanted in this life has been to discover within myself a temple to earth, and to dwell therein.

Be better than tomorrow,
learn a new word yesterday,
try to stay out of trouble - at least until next Groundhogs Day,
and write when you have the time.




*unquestionably.

 

∞