Word-Wednesday for December 28, 2022

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for December 28, 2022, the fifty-second Wednesday of the year, the second Wednesday of winter, and the 262nd day of the year, with 3 days remaining.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for December 28, 2022
The snowshoe hare or Lepus americanus, also called the varying hare or snowshoe rabbit, is the most common Wannaskan rabbit — "varying" because in changes color twice a year, and "snowshoe" because of the large size of its hind feet. The animal's feet prevent it from sinking into the snow when it hops and walks. Its feet also have fur on the soles to protect it from freezing temperatures. The snowshoe hare is also distinguishable by the black tufts of fur on the edge of its ears, which are shorter than the ears of most other hares.

Snowshoe hares are most active at night, and they do not hibernate. A major predator of the snowshoe hare is the Canada lynx. Historical records of animals caught by fur hunters over hundreds of years show the lynx and hare numbers rising and falling in a cycle, which has made the hare known to biology students worldwide as a case study of the relationship between numbers of predators and their prey. 

December 28 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


December 28 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily by 11:00am, usually.


Earth/Moon Almanac for December 28, 2022
Sunrise: 8:17am; Sunset: 4:34pm; 39 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 12:01pm; Moonset: 11:26pm, waxing crescent, 38% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for December 28, 2022
                Average            Record              Today
High             15                     37                     28
Low             -4                   -50                     20


December 28 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Short Film Day
• National Card Playing Day
• National Chocolate Candy Day
• Pledge of Allegiance Day
• Holy Innocents Day
• The Fourth of the Twelve Days of Christmas

On the fourth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me
Four calling birds
Three French hens
Two turtledoves
And a partridge in a pear tree

December 28 Word Riddle
What does the Gingerbread Man do when he breaks a leg?*


December 28 Word Pun

December 28 Walking into a Bar Grammar
A figure of speech literally walks into a bar and ends up getting figuratively hammered.


December 28 Etymology Word of the Week

December 28 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1612 First observation of Neptune - Galileo observes and records a "fixed star" without realizing it is a planet.
• 1732 Laying the foundation for Wannaskan Almanac, Benjamin Franklin under the pseudonym Richard Saunders begins publication of Poor Richard's Almanack.
• 1846 Iowa becomes 29th state of the United States of America.
• 1860 Harriet Tubman arrives in Auburn, New York, on her last mission to free slaves, having evaded capture for 8 years on the Underground Railroad.
• 1912 First municipally owned streetcars take to the streets in San Francisco.
• 1961 Tennessee Williams' Night of the Iguana premieres.
• 1973 Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn publishes Gulag Archipelago.
• 1984 Ted Hughes is appointed British Poet Laureate.
• 1997 Sting beats Hollywood Hogan for WCW Championship.

December 28 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1694 Ceslav Vanura, Czech composer.
• 1763 John Molson, Canadian brewer.
• 1840 Thomas Hovenden, Irish painter.
• 1868 Marie van Regteren Altena, Dutch painter.
• 1895 Carol Ryrie Brink, American Newberry Medal-winning novelist for Caddie Woodlawn.
• 1902 Mortimer J. Adler, American philosopher and author of Encyclopedia Brittanica.
• 1915 Roebuck "Pops" Staples, American gospel singer.
• 1922 Stan Lee, comic book artist.
• 1951 Ian Buruma, Anglo-Dutch scholar and writer.
• 1955 Liu Xiaobo, Chinese writer.

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

• arete: /ahr-i-TEY/ n. the aggregate of qualities, as valor and virtue, making up good character.
• bummel: /ˈbə-məl/ v. int., to go or wander around at a leisurely pace.
• doniferous: /dahn-IF-er-us/ adj., bringing or presenting gifts.
• doromania: /doh-roh-MAY-nee-uh/ n. an inordinate preoccupation or obsession with the giving of gifts.
• dunnakin: /ˈdʌn-ə-kɪn/ n., a lavatory or outhouse, also called: dunny.
• gongfermor: /‘ɡôNG-fər-mər/ also, gong farmer, gongfermour, gong-fayer, gong-fower, or gong scourer, n., a term that entered use in Tudor England to describe someone who dug out and removed human excrement from privies and cesspits.
• pother: /ˈpäT͟H-ər/ n., a commotion or fuss.
• quidnunc: /ˈkwid-nəNGk/ n., an inquisitive and gossipy person.
• snowbroth: /SNOH-brawth/ n., a mixture of newly melted snow & water (slush); ice-cold liquid, especially liquor.
• yuleshard: /YOOL-shard/ n., an opprobrious term for someone who leaves work unfinished before Christmas or the New Year.

December 28, 2022 Word-Wednesday Feature
winter
/ˈwin-(t)ər/ n., the coldest season of the year, in the northern hemisphere from December to February and in the southern hemisphere from June to August, from Old English winter (plural wintru), "the fourth and coldest season of the year, winter," from Proto-Germanic wintruz "winter" (source also of Old Frisian, Dutch winter, Old Saxon, Old High German wintar, German winter, Danish and Swedish vinter, Gothic wintrus, Old Norse vetr "winter"), probably literally "the wet season," from Proto-Indo-European wend-, nasalized form of root wed- (1) "water; wet"). On another old guess, cognate with Gaulish vindo-, Old Irish find "white."

With the winter solstice behind us, and with our coastal U.S. and Canadian neighbors still struggling with one of the worst winter storms in decades, many look forward to winter's end on only the second Wednesday of the season. Despite the challenges, Wannaskans appreciate winter for the dramatic departures from the three other wimpier seasons. With the holidays behind us, life slows down, and with the shortened days, there's more time for life's solitary pursuits — like writing and reading and thinking about what winter means for you.

For your reflection, here are some words about the meaning of winter:

It seems like everything sleeps in winter, but it's really a time of renewal and reflection.

Elizabeth Camden

In a way winter is the real spring, the time when the inner thing happens, the resurge of nature.

Edna O'Brien

What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness? You only truly, deeply appreciate and are grateful for something
when you compare and contrast it to something worse.

John Steinbeck

One wastes so much time, one is so prodigal of life, at twenty! Our days of winter count for double. That is the compensation of the old.

George Sand

Perhaps I am a bear, or some hibernating animal, underneath, for the instinct to be half asleep all winter is so strong in me.

Anne Morrow Lindberg

If we had no winter the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.

Anne Bradstreet

Many human beings say that they enjoy the winter, but what they really enjoy is feeling proof against it.

Richard Adams

No one thinks of winter when the grass is green.

Rudyard Kipling

The summer lasted a long long time, like verse after verse of a ballad, but when it ended, it ended like a man falling dead in the street of heart trouble. One night, all in one night, severe winter came, a white horse of snow rolling over Bountiful, snorting and rolling in its meadows, its fields.

Ardyth Kenne

Winter is begun here, now, I suppose. It blew part of the hair off the dog yesterday & got the rest this morning.

Mark Twain

Winter is nature's way of saying, "Up yours."

Robert Byre

The English winter—ending in July,
To recommence in August.

Lord Byron

In our part of the world winter is the normal state of affairs and seems to last about five years. This is fine for the skiers, but by the end of March all gardeners and mothers of small children have begun to go mad.

Janet Gillespie

There seems to be so much more winter than we need this year.

Kathleen Thompson Norris

A cardinal in a slant of winter sunlight goes straight to the bloodstream like brandy, and the heart leaps up like a startled stag.

Barbara Holland

Do not hurry too fast in these early winter days—a quiet hour is worth more to you than anything you can do in it.

Sarah Orne Jewett

I prefer winter and fall, when you feel the bone structure in the landscape—the loneliness of it—the dead feeling of winter. Something waits beneath it—the whole story doesn’t show.

Andrew Wyeth

Such a winter eve. Now for a mellow fire, some old poet's page, or else serene philosophy.

Henry David Thoreau

There is a wilder solitude in winter
When every sense is pricked alive and keen.

May Sarton

Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for talk beside the fire; it is the time for home."

Edith Sitwell

From A Year with Rilke, December 28 Entry
Wheel of God, from Book of Hours I, 45

You are a wheel at which I stand,
whose dark spokes sometimes catch me up,
revolve me nearer to the center.
Then all the work I put my hand to
widens from turn to turn.

Water Wheels of Mill at Gennep
by Vincent van Gogh

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.




*He gets a candy cane.