Word-Wednesday for April 6, 2022

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday, April 6, 2022, the fourteenth Wednesday of the year, the third Wednesday of spring, and the 96th day of the year, with 269 days remaining.


Wannaska Nature Update for April 6, 2022
Playgrounds are open!

April 6 Nordhem Lunch: Updated daily.



Earth/Moon Almanac for April 6, 2022
Sunrise: 6:51am; Sunset: 8:01pm; 3 minutes, 32 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 9:21am; Moonset: 1:16am, waxing crescent, 21% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for April 6, 2022
                Average            Record              Today
High             43                     78                     37
Low              21                     -11                     30


April 6 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Caramel Popcorn Day (Go Marion!)
• National Sorry Charlie Day
• National Student-Athlete Day
• National Tartan Day
• National Teflon Day
• New Beer’s Eve
• National Bookmobile Day
• National Walking Day
• Childhelp National Day of Hope
• Plan your Epitaph Day

April 6 Word Riddle
Why did the chicken cross the playground?*


April 6 Word Pun

April 6 Etymology Word of the Week
play
/plā/ n., activity engaged in for enjoyment and recreation, especially by children, from Middle English pleie, from Old English plega (West Saxon), plæga (Anglian) "quick motion; recreation, exercise, any brisk activity" (the latter sense preserved in swordplay -- Old English sweordplegan -- etc.), from or related to Old English plegan (see play (v.)).

By early Middle English it could mean variously, "a game, a martial sport, activity of children, joke or jesting, revelry, sexual indulgence." Of physical things, "rapid, brisk, or light movement," by 1620s.

Meaning "dramatic performance" is attested by early 14c., perhaps late Old English. Meaning "free or unimpeded movement, liberty and room for action," of mechanisms, etc., is from 1650s. The meaning "activity, operation" (1590s) is behind expressions such as in full play, come into play. The sporting sense of "the playing of a game" is attested from mid-15c.; that of "specific maneuver or attempt" is from 1868.

The U.S. slang meaning "attention, publicity" is by 1929. To be in play (of a hit ball, etc.) is from 1788. Play-by-play in reference to running commentary on a game is attested from 1927. Play on words "pun" is from 1798. Play-money is attested from 1705 as "money won in gambling," by 1920 as "pretend money."


April 6 Notable Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1327 Italian poet Petrarch first sets eyes on his beloved Laura.
• 1772 Catherine the Great Empress of Russia, ends tax on men with beards, enacted by Tsar Peter the Great in 1698.
• 1843 William Wordsworth is appointed British Poet Laureate by Queen Victoria.
• 1947 First Tony Awards: Arthur Miller, David Wayne & Patricia Neal win for theatrical achievements.

April 6 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1483 Raphael Sanzio, Italian painter and master builder.
• 1613 Stjepan Gradić, Croatian philosopher and scientist.
• 1671 Jean-Baptiste Rousseau, French playwright/poet.
• 1773 James Mill, Scottish philosopher and historian.
• 1818 Aasmund Olavsson Vinje, Norwegian poet.
• 1826 Gustave Moreau, French painter.
• 1883 Mien Labberton, Dutch poetress.
• 1888 Daniel Andersson, Swedish poet/writer.
• 1921 Franta Belsky, Czech sculptor.
• 1922 Dorothy Donegan, American boogie-woogie, swing jazz, and classical pianist, and vocalist.
• 1929 Li Yuan-chia, Chinese artist.
• 1940 Homero Aridjis, Mexican poet.
• 1946 Rocky Balboa.
• 1969 Jack Canfora, American playwright.

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

• aegis: /EE-jis/ n., the protection, backing, or support of a particular person or organization; a shield symbolizing protection or patronage.
• cloy: /kloi/ v., disgust or sicken (someone) with an excess of sweetness, richness, or sentiment.
• discalced: /də-ˈskalst/ adj., denoting or belonging to one of several strict orders of Catholic friars or nuns who go barefoot or wear only sandals.
• embusqué: /AHM-byoos-KAY/ n., someone who avoids military conscription by obtaining a government office job.
• filigree: /ˈfil-ə-ˌɡrē/ n., ornamental work of fine (typically gold or silver) wire formed into delicate tracery.
• hypsometer: /hip-ˈsäm-ə-dər/ n., a device for calibrating thermometers at the boiling point of water at a known height above sea level or for estimating height above sea level by finding the temperature at which water boils.
• mammock: /MAHM-uhk/ n., a broken fragment, a scrap; v., to break or tear into bits; to mangle.
• ondageist: /ˈəndə-ˌɡīst/ n., opposite twin of a poltergeist, a ghost or other supernatural being responsible for tidying things up and putting them back where they belong.
• voile: /voil/ n., a thin, semitransparent fabric of cotton, wool, or silk.
• wamblecropt: /WAHM-buhl-krahpt/ adj., having a rumbling stomach; sickly; overcome with indigestion.

April 6, 2021 Word-Wednesday Feature
epitaph
/ˈep-ə-ˌtaf/ n., a phrase or form of words written in memory of a person who has died, especially as an inscription on a tombstone, from Old French epitaphe (12c.) and directly from Medieval Latin epitaphium "funeral oration, eulogy," from Greek epitaphion "a funeral oration".

If you don’t write your own, someone will do it for you - maybe Sven. Many famous writers chose to use their own words rather than rely on the words (and opinions) of others. Here are some of the best:

Good Friend, for Jesus' sake forbear
To dig the dust enclosed here:
Blessed be the man that spares these stones,
And curst be he that moves my bones.

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Reader, I am to let thee know,
Donne's body only lies below;
For could the grave his soul comprise,
Earth would be richer than the skies.

JOHN DONNE

Nothing of him that doth fade
But doth suffer a sea-change
Into something rich and strange.

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY, from The Tempest by Shakespeare

This grave contains all that was Mortal of a Young English Poet Who on his Death Bed, in the Bitterness of his Heart at the Malicious Power of his Enemies Desired these Words to be engraven on his Tomb Stone: Here lies One Whose Name was writ in Water.

JOHN KEATS

The Body of B. Franklin, Printer; like the Cover of an old Book, Its Contents torn out, And stript of its Lettering and Gilding, Lies here, Food for Worms. But the Work shall not be wholly lost; For it will, as he believ'd, appear once more, In a new & more perfect Edition, Corrected and amended By the Author.

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

And alien tears will fill for him
Pity's long broken urn,
For his mourners will be outcast men,
And outcasts always mourn.

OSCAR WILDE

Cast a cold eye
On life, on death.
Horseman, pass by!

WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

Oh God of dust and rainbows, help us see
that without dust the rainbow would not be.

LANGSTON HUGHES

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past.

F. SCOTT FITZGERALD, from the The Great Gatsby

I had a lover's quarrel with the world.

ROBERT FROST

Excuse my dust.

DOROTHY PARKER

I am ready to meet my Maker. Whether my Maker is prepared for the great ordeal of meeting me is another matter.

WINSTON CHURCHILL

She did it the hard way.

BETTE DAVIS

Duirt mé leat go raibh mé breoite" (Irish), which translates to "I told you I was ill.

SPIKE MULLIGAN

I'm a writer, but then, nobody's perfect.

BILLY WILDER    

There goes the neighborhood.

RODNEY DANGERFIELD

From A Year with Rilke, April 6 Entry
A New Place, from Letter to a friend, February 3, 1923
 

How delicious it is to wake up in a place where no one, no one in the world, guesses where you are. Sometimes I have stopped spontaneously in towns along my way only to taste the delight that no living being can imagine me there. How much that added to the lightness of my soul!

I remember certain days in Cordova where I lived as if transparent, because I was completely unknown. The sweetness of staying in a little Spanish town, if only to relate to certain dogs and a blind beggar—more dangerous, that blind man, because he can read you. But three days later, if he hears you come back toward his church at the same hour, he counts you now as someone who henceforth exists, and he incorporates you into his world of sound.

And there you are, destined to new birth, mystical and nocturnal.



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.



*to get to the other slide.