Word-Wednesday for March 23, 2022

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday, March 23, 2022, the twelfth Wednesday of the year, the first Wednesday of spring, and the 82nd day of the year, with 283 days remaining.


Wannaska Nature Update for March 23, 2022
WHOOO Me?

 

(another fabulous nature photograph by our neighbor in the forest, Pam Shaw)

March 23 Nordhem Lunch:
Chicken Bacon Alfredo
W/SALAD AND GARLIC TOAST

Hot Hamburger Sandwich

Minestrone Soup
W/ CHOICE OF MEATLOAF SANDWICH,
HAM SANDWICH, OR HAMBURGER

Earth/Moon Almanac for March 23, 2022
Sunrise: 7:20am; Sunset: 7:40pm; 3 minutes, 36 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 1:34am; Moonset: 9:57am, waning gibbous, 70% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for March 23, 2022
                Average            Record              Today
High             36                     81                     40
Low              13                    -27                     24


March 23 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Chia Day
• National Chip and Dip Day
• National Near Miss Day
• National Melba Toast Day
• National Puppy Day
• National Tamale Day
• World Meteorological Day

March 23 Word Riddle
What is the difference between a vegan and a computer technician?*


March 23 Word Pun
Anything that is unrelated to elephants is irrelephant.


March 23 Etymology Word of the Week
conjure: /ˈkän-jər/ v.,  call upon (a spirit or ghost) to appear, by means of a magic ritual, from the late 13c., "command on oath;" c. 1300, "summon by a sacred name, invoke by incantation or magic," from Old French conjurer "invoke, conjure" (12c.) and directly from Latin coniurare "to swear together; conspire," from assimilated form of com "with, together" (see con-) + iurare "to swear," from ius (genitive iuris) "law, an oath" (see jurist).


March 23 Notable Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1066 18th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.
• 1490 First dated edition of Maimonides Mishneh Torah, a code of Jewish religious law is published
• 1839 First recorded use of "OK" [oll korrect] in Boston's Morning Post.
• 1901 Dame Nellie Melba reveals secret of her now famous toast.

March 23 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1857 Fannie Farmer, American culinary pioneer who revolutionized modern cooking through the introduction of precise measurements.
• 1881 Roger Martin du Guard, French novelist, Nobel Prize winner in 1937.
• 1900 Erich Fromm, psychologist.
• 1910 Akira Kurosawa, Japanese director and screenwriter.
• 1933 Dave Frishberg, American jazz pianist, vocalist, composer, and lyricist from Minnesota.
• 1943 Nils-Aslak Valkeapää, Finnish Sami writer.
• 1965 Gary Whitehead, American poet.
• 2014 Jaroslav Šerých, Czech painter and illustrator.

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

• agitprop: /ˈaj-ət-ˌpräp/ n., political (originally communist) propaganda, especially in art or literature.
• ballhooter: /BAWL-hoo-ter/ n., a lumberjack who rolls logs down a hill; one who drives recklessly on the dangerous mountain roads.
• calkin: /KAW-kin/ n., the metal cleat protruding from the bottom of a horseshoe.
• flaithulach: /flə-ˈhu-ləx/ n., Irish English, 1. of a person: stout, robust; (euphemistic) fat, also occasionally of a thing: large, sturdy; 2. generous, lavish, extravagant; esp. munificent; willing to spend money on others, often in ironic use.
• glossolalia: /ˌɡläs-ə-ˈlā-lē-ə/ n., the phenomenon of (apparently) speaking in an unknown language, especially in religious worship. It is practiced especially by Pentecostal and charismatic Christians.
• paronomasia: /ˌper-ə-nō-ˈmā-ZH(ē)-ə/ n., a play on words; a pun.
• procrastinator: /prə-ˈkras-tə-ˌnā-dər/ n., tomorrow’s leader.
• stocious:  /ˈstəʊ-ʃəs/ adj., mainly Irish dialect, drunk; inebriated.
• titular: /ˈtiCH-ə-lər/ adj., holding or constituting a purely formal position or title without any real authority; denoting a person or thing from whom or which the name of an artistic work or similar is taken.
• utopiate: /ju-ˈtoʊ-pi-ət/ n., an hallucinogen which induces fantasies or visions of a perfect existence; a drug whose effects are viewed as an escape from or improvement upon reality.

March 23, 2021 Word-Wednesday Feature
expectation
/ˌeks-pekˈtā-SH(ə)n/ n., a strong belief that something will happen or be the case in the future, from 1550s, "wait, defer action," from Latin expectare/exspectare "await, look out for; desire, hope, long for, anticipate; look for with anticipation," from ex- "thoroughly" (see ex-) + spectare "to look," frequentative of specere "to look at" (from Proto-Indo-European root *spek- "to observe").

The figurative sense of "anticipate, look forward to" developed in Latin and is attested in English from c. 1600. Also from c. 1600 as "regard as about to happen." Meaning "count upon (to do something), trust or rely on" is from 1630s. Used since 1817 as a euphemism for "be pregnant." In the sense "suppose, reckon, suspect," it is attested from 1640s but was regarded as a New England provincialism.

Pause you who read this, and think for a moment of the long chain of iron or gold, of thorns or flowers, that would never have bound you, but for the formation of the first link on one memorable day.

Charles Dickens, from Great Expectations

1,536 consecutive days into the publication of Wannaskan Almanac, I want to express my admiration and thanks to my fellow contributors, and to express my apologies for any ways that my own personal expectations have undermined our teamwork. With great (and reasonable) expectations for our future, here are a few words that characterize the opportunities and pitfalls of expectations:

The expectation makes the blessing sweet.

ABIGAIL ADAMS

Expectations are resentments waiting to happen.

ANNE LAMOTT

To expect too much is to have a sentimental view of life and this is a softness that ends in bitterness.

FLANNERY O'CONNOR

Expectations improperly indulged must end in disappointment.

SAMUEL JOHNSON

How tedious is time, when his wings are loaded with expectation!

MARY COLLYER

A life that is burdened with expectations is a heavy life. Its fruit is sorrow and disappointment.

DOUGLAS ADAMS

The thing we look forward to often comes to pass, but never precisely in the way we have imagined to ourselves.

GEORGE ELIOT

Life is so constructed that the event does not, cannot, will not, meet the expectation.

CHARLOTTE BRONTË

For people who live on expectations, to face up to their realization is something of an ordeal. Expectations are the most perilous form of dream, and when dreams do realize themselves it is in the waking world: the difference is subtly but often painfully felt.

ELIZABETH BOWEN

Blessed is he that expecteth nothing, for he shall be gloriously surprised.

G. K. CHESTERTON

There is one illusion that has much to do with most of our happiness, and still more to do with most of our unhappiness. It may be told in a word. We expect too much.
JOSEPH FARRELL

The curse of the romantic is a greed for dreams, an intensity of expectation that, in the end, diminishes the reality.

MARYA MANNES

Expectation . . . quickens desire, while possession deadens it.

HANNAH MORE

Things never come when they are expected.

AGATHA CHRISTIE

Expectation is hope colored by fancy.

LADY MORGAN (Sydney Owenson Morgan)

What makes earth feel like Hell is our expectation that it should feel like Heaven.

CHUCK PALAHNIUK

What is destructive is impatience, haste, expecting too much too fast.

MAY SARTON

Expectations destroy our peace of mind, don’t they? They’re future disappointments, planned out in advance.

ELIZABETH GEORGE

Oft expectation fails and most oft there
Where most it promises.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Unexpected money is a delight. The same sum is a bitterness when you expected more.

MARK TWAIN

So often, happiness is the extent to which we balance our grandiose expectations with reality.

CATHY GUISEWITE

To release others from the expectations we have of them is to really love them.

SHIRLEY MACLAINE

From A Year with Rilke, March 23 Entry
What Will You Do, God?, from The Book of Hours I, 36

What will you do, God, when I die?

I am your pitcher (when I shatter?)
I am your drink (when I go bitter?)
I, your garment; I, your craft.
Without me what reason have you?

Without me what house
where intimate words await you?
I, velvet sandal that falls from your foot.
I, cloak dropping from your shoulder.
What will you do, God? It troubles me.



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.

*One is disgusted by a rack of lamb; the other is disgusted by a lack of RAM.