Word-Wednesday for April 27, 2022

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday, April 27, 2022, the seventeenth Wednesday of the year, the sixth Wednesday of spring, and the 117th day of the year, with 248 days remaining.


Wannaska Nature Update for April 27, 2022
Minnesota snakes typically hibernate earlier and come out later, as our temperatures are a lot cooler than Kansas. Typically, the Wannaska population of snakes will begin to emerge from hibernation between late March or April. We saw one out this past Monday.

April 27 Nordhem Lunch:
Baked Ham
Scalloped Potatoes
Peas & Carrots
Bread w/ butter

Super BLT
Open Face BLT
Smothered in melted Cheddar on a
Toasted Hoagie Bun

Cream of Chicken Dumpling Soup
w/choice of sandwich...
Ham, Egg Salad, or Turkey


Earth/Moon Almanac for April 27, 2022
Sunrise: 6:10am; Sunset: 8:32pm; 3 minutes, 14 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 5:22am; Moonset: 5:06pm, waning crescent, 10% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for April 27, 2022
                Average            Record              Today
High             54                     90                     48
Low              31                      12                      30


April 27 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Gummi Bear Day
• National Babe Ruth Day
• National Devil Dog Day
• National Prime Rib Day
• National Tell a Story Day
• Stop Food Waste Day
• National Administrative Professionals’ Day
• Denim Day
• -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. . / -.. .- -.-- (Morse Code Day)

April 27 Word Riddle
If April showers bring May flowers, what do May flowers bring?*


April 27 Word Pun
A spring chicken walks into a library and up to the front desk.
“Buk!” says the chicken.
So the librarian gives the chicken a book, and the chicken leaves.
Five minutes later, the chicken returns, and guess what the chicken says?
“Buk!”
So the librarian gives the chicken another book.
This happens eight more times, until finally, the librarian follows the chicken outside all the way to the pond at the back of the library. The chicken stands on the edge of the bond and tosses the book to a frog on a lily pad.
The chicken says, “Buk! Buk!”
The frog says,
“Reddit! Reddit!”


April 27 Etymology Word of the Week

 

April 27 Notable Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1667 Blind and impoverished, English poet John Milton sells the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.
• 1749 First performance of George Frideric Handel's Music For The Royal Fireworks.
• 1810 Ludwig van Beethoven composes his famous piano piece Für Elise.
• 1953 Wrestler Freddie Blassie coins term "Pencil neck geek".
• 1964 John Lennon's book of poetry and sketches In His Own Write is published.
• 1989 Beijing students take over Tiananmen Square in China.
• 1990 50th annual barbershop quartet singing convention.

April 27 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1724 Ferdinand Philipp Joseph Lobkowitz, Czech composer.
• 1759 Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, English writer and feminist (A Vindication of the Rights of Woman), mother of Mary Shelley.
• 1791 Samuel Morse, American inventor (telegraph, Morse code) and painter.
• 1904 Cecil Day-Lewis, Irish poet and British Poet Laureate 1968-72.
• 1906 Yórgos Theotokás, Greek novelist.
• 1909 Muriel C. Bradbrook, English writer.
• 1916 Jan Rychlik, Czech composer.
• 1920 Edwin Morgan, Scottish poet.
• 1927 Coretta Scott King.
• 1945 August Wilson, American playwright.
• 1947 Ann Peebles, American soul singer-songwriter.

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

• bodkin: /ˈbäd-kən/ n., a blunt, thick needle with a large eye used especially for drawing tape or cord through a hem.
• crawk: /krawk/ n., a radio actor skilled in the imitation of animal sounds.
• fardel: /ˈfär-dl/ n., a bundle.
• glocalization: /ˌɡloʊ-kəl-ə-ˈzeɪ-ʃən/ n., the action, process, or fact of making something both global and local; /spec./ the adaptation of global influences or business strategies in accordance with local conditions; global localization.
• mouche: /muːʃ/ n., a beauty mark.
• orison: /ˈôr-ə-zən/ n., a prayer.
• perilune: /PER-i-loon/ n. the point in a lunar orbit that is nearest to the moon.
• roué: /ro͞oˈ-ā/ n., a debauched man, especially an elderly one.
• statuecide: /ˈstaCH-o͞o-sīd/ n., the act or an instance of taking down the statue of a previously famous person.
• wynd: /‘wīnd/ n., a very narrow street.

April 27, 2022 Word-Wednesday Feature
Contronym
/ˈkän-trə-ˌnim/ n., a word with two opposite meanings. An appropriate study for students of our current political discourse, the humble contronym lets you decide if you wish to cleave or cleave, whether your squib is custom or custom, whether Word-Wednesday is fine or fine, whether your dangling participle needs fixing or fixing, whether your writing indicates you need a handicap or have a handicap, if you have any writing skills left in your old age or if they’ve left you, if Sven’s punctuation is mean or mean, if Mr. Hot Coco’s puns should be sanctioned or sanctioned, if we should discuss Beowulf literally or literally, if the reader can weather these examples or if the examples have weathered the reader, and many others. Here is a list of contronyms for you to flog or to flog:

Apology: A statement of contrition for an action, or a defense of one

Aught: All, or nothing

Bill: A payment, or an invoice for payment

Bolt: To secure, or to flee

Bound: Heading to a destination, or restrained from movement

Buckle: To connect, or to break or collapse

Cleave: To adhere, or to separate

Clip: To fasten, or detach

Consult: To offer advice, or to obtain it

Continue: To keep doing an action, or to suspend an action

Custom: A common practice, or a special treatment

Dike: A wall to prevent flooding, or a ditch

Discursive: Moving in an orderly fashion among topics, or proceeding aimlessly in a discussion

Dollop: A large amount (British English), or a small amount

Dust: To add fine particles, or to remove them

Enjoin: To impose, or to prohibit

Fast: Quick, or stuck or made stable

Fine: Excellent, or acceptable or good enough

Finished: Completed, or ended or destroyed

First degree: Most severe in the case of a murder charge, or least severe in reference to a burn

Fix: To repair, or to castrate

Flog: To promote persistently, or to criticize or beat

Garnish: To furnish, as with food preparation, or to take away, as with wages

Give out: To provide, or to stop because of a lack of supply

Go: To proceed or succeed, or to weaken or fail

Grade: A degree of slope, or a horizontal line or position

Handicap: An advantage provided to ensure equality, or a disadvantage that prevents equal achievement

Help: To assist, or to prevent or (in negative constructions) restrain

Hold up: To support, or to impede

Lease: To offer property for rent, or to hold such property

Left: Remained, or departed

Let: Allowed, or hindered

Liege: A feudal lord, or a vassal

Literally: Actually, or virtually

Mean: Average or stingy, or excellent

Model: An exemplar, or a copy

Off: Deactivated, or activated, as an alarm

Out: Visible, as with stars showing in the sky, or invisible, in reference to lights

Out of: Outside, or inside, as in working out of a specific office

Overlook: To supervise, or to neglect

Oversight: Monitoring, or failing to oversee

Peer: A person of the nobility, or an equal

Presently: Now, or soon

Put out: Extinguish, or generate

Puzzle: A problem, or to solve one

Quantum: Significantly large, or a minuscule part

Quiddity: Essence, or a trifling point of contention

Quite: Rather (as a qualifying modifier), or completely

Ravel: To entangle, or to disentangle

Refrain: To desist from doing something, or to repeat

Rent: To purchase use of something, or to sell use

Rock: An immobile mass of stone or figuratively similar phenomenon, or a shaking or unsettling movement or action

Sanction: To approve, or to boycott

Sanguine: Confidently cheerful, or bloodthirsty

Scan: To peruse, or to glance

Screen: To present, or to conceal

Seed: To sow seeds, or to shed or remove them

Shop: To patronize a business in order to purchase something, or to sell something

Skin: To cover, or to remove

Skinned: Covered with skin, or with the skin removed

Splice: To join, or to separate

Stakeholder: One who has a stake in an enterprise, or a bystander who holds the stake for those placing a bet

Strike: To hit, or to miss in an attempt to hit

Table: To propose (in British English), or to set aside

Temper: To soften, or to strengthen

Throw out: To dispose of, or to present for consideration

Transparent: Invisible, or obvious

Trim: To decorate, or to remove excess from

Trip: A journey, or a stumble

Unbending: Rigid, or relaxing

Variety: A particular type, or many types

Wear: To endure, or to deteriorate

Weather: To withstand, or to wear away

Wind up: To end, or to start up

With: Alongside, or against


From A Year with Rilke, April 27 Entry
Birdsong, from Uncollected Poems

Birds begin their calls to praise.
And they are right. We stop and listen.
(We, behind masks and in costumes!)
What are they saying? A little report,

a little sorrow and a lot of promise
that chips away at the half-locked future.
And in between we can hear the silence
they break—now healing to our ears.



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.




*pilgrims.