Word-Wednesday for February 1, 2023

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for February 1, 2023, the fifth Wednesday of the year, the seventh Wednesday of winter — just two days shy of midwinter, and the 32nd day of the year, with 333 days remaining.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for February 1, 2023
Giant Dirty Snowball
Taking a wide-angled view of phenology here at Word-Wednesday headquarters, Comet C/2022 E3 (ZTF) is now visible all night long from northern latitudes, such as Wannaska. Comet ZTF has a distinctive shape, showing not only a common dust tail, ion tail, and green gas coma, but also an uncommonly distinctive antitail. No, the antitail does not actually lead the comet.The head of the comet is seen superposed on part of the fanned-out and trailing dust tail. 

Get out your binoculars for best views, and click here to find the best times and sky locations to see Comet ZTF for each day in February.

February 1 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


February 1 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily by 11:00am, usually.


Earth/Moon Almanac for February 1, 2023
Sunrise: 7:54am; Sunset: 5:20pm; 3 minutes, 0 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 1:10pm; Moonset: 5:40am, waxing gibbous, 82% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for February 1, 2023
                Average            Record              Today
High             15                     45                     9
Low             -9                    -42                  -17


February 1 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Freedom Day
• National Texas Day
• National Girls and Women in Sports Day
• National Get Up Day
• National Baked Alaska Day
• National Serpent Day
• Abolition of Slavery Day (Mauritius)
• National Dark Chocolate Day
• Robinson Crusoe Day
• Imbolc/Saint Brigid's Day

February 1 Word Riddle
What do you call the police officer who makes sketches of suspects based on witness descriptions?*


February 1 Word Pun
Vhile processing his deer, Sven accidentally backed into his meat grinder and got a little behind in is vork.


February 1 Walking into a Bar Grammar
The subjunctive would have walked into a bar, had it only known.


February 1 Etymology Word of the Week

February 1 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1709 Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk was rescued from the uninhabited island of Juan Fernández, where he'd been put ashore at his own request following a fight with his captain. The story was the basis for Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe.
• 1790 U.S. Supreme Court convenes for first time.
• 1814 Lord Byron's Corsair sells 10,000 copies on day of publication.
• 1846 Theophile Gautier publishes Hashish Club about his initiation.
• 1862 Julia Howe publishes Battle Hymn of Republic.
• 1862 Ralph Waldo Emerson and Charles Sumner meet with President Abraham Lincoln at The White House,.
• 1865 Abraham Lincoln signs 13th Amendment of US Constitution, abolishing slavery in US; celebrated as National Freedom Day.
• 1880 The first edition of theatrical newspaper The Stage is published.
• 1884 First volume of the Oxford English Dictionary, A-Ant, published.
• 1892 Mrs William Astor invites 400 guests to a grand ball at her mansion thus beginning use of "400" to describe socially elite.
• 1948 South African anti-apartheid novel Cry the Beloved Country by Alan Paton is published in the U.S.
• 1954 First TV soap opera Secret Storm premieres.

February 1 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1796 Abraham Emanuel Fröhlich, Swiss poet.
• 1859 Victor Herbert, Irish-American cellist, composer, and conductor.
• 1859 Karel Halíř, Czech violinist.
• 1872 Paul Fort, French poet/founder of Vers et Prose.
• 1884 Yevgeny Zamyatin, Russian novelist/playwright.
• 1902 Langston Hughes, American poet.
• 1904 S.j. Perelman, American author, humorist, and screenwriter.
• 1917 Mary Jane DeZurik, American country singer and hillbilly yodeler from Royalton, Minnesota.
• 1918 Muriel Spark, Scottish author of The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
• 1924 H. Richard Hornberger, American writer.
• 1927 Galway Kinnell, American author.
• 1941 Jerry Spinelli, children's author.
• 1942 Terry Jones, Welsh comedian and member of Monty Python's Flying Circus.

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

• ajvar: /ˈaɪ-vɑːr/ n., a condiment made principally from sweet bell peppers and eggplants, a popular side dish throughout Yugoslavia after World War II and is popular in Southeast Europe.
• busby: /ˈbəz-bē/ n., a tall fur hat with a colored cloth flap hanging down on the right-hand side and often a plume on the top, worn by soldiers of certain regiments of hussars and artillerymen; popular term for bearskin (the cap).
• crocket: /ˈkrä-kət/ n., an ornament usually in the form of curved and bent foliage used on the edge of a gable or spire.
• din: /din/ v., make (someone) learn or remember something by constant repetition.
• lawfare: /ˈlɔːˌfɛə/ n., the strategic use of legal proceedings to intimidate or hinder an opponent.
• oojah: /ˈu:dʒa:/ n., a thing you cannot recollect the name of; a what's-it or thingummy.
• perfervid: /ˌpər-ˈfər-vid/ adj., intense and impassioned.
• ramfeezled: /ˌræm-ˈfiz(ə)ld/ adj., worn out, exhausted; confused, muddled.
• shockle: /ˈʃɑ-k(ə)l/ n., a lump of ice; an icicle.
• trachle: /ˈtra-ḵəl/ trans. v., dishevel, bedraggle, soil; to tire by overwork or overexertion; to put (as oneself) to inconvenience, bother, trouble.

February 1, 2023 Word-Wednesday Feature
Creative Naming
What do the following have in common?

• Betty Whiteout
• Ctrl Salt Delete
• The Big Leplowski
• Plowasaurus Rex
• Scoop Dogg
• Blizzard of Oz
• No More Mr. Ice Guy
• Edward Blizzardhands

They’re the winners of the 2021-2022 Minnesota Department of Transportation Name a Snowplow Contest. The 2022-2023 contest is already in its final stages, where Minnesotans can vote for eight names from the following list of finalists, with a Friday, February 3 deadline:

Aaron Brrrr, Sir
Ace of Blades
Ain't My First Snowdeo
Alice Scooper
As the Snow Flies
Best in Snow
Better Call Salt
Beyonsleigh
Blader Tot Hotdish
Blades of Flurry
Bladezilla
Blizzo
Bobsled Dylan
Bohemian Rhapsnowdy
Buzz Iceclear
Camp Scoopy
Clark Blizzwald
Clearopathtra
For Cold Times' Sake
Freeze Louise
Goonodaabaan (Ojibwe word for “snow vehicle”)
Han Snowlo
Harmon Chillebrew
Here we Snow Again
Hippoplowtamus
I Came, I Thaw, I Conquered
Ičamna (Dakota word for “blizzard”)
It's a Squall World After All
Just Scraping By
Kim KarDashing Thru the Snow
L’etoile du Nordy
Lollaplowlooza
Mary Tyler More Snow
Melton John
Mighty Morphin Plower Ranger
Miracle on Ice
One Plow Two Plow Red Plow Blue Plow
Optimus Brine
Orange You Glad to See Me
Paisley Plow
Plow Patrol
Plowabunga!
Plower to the People
Plowie Anderson
Point of Snow Return
Queen El-ice-abeth II
Say it Ain't Snow
Scoop! There it is
Sir Plows-a-Lot
SKOL Plow
Sleetwood Mac
Snow and Tell
Snow Force One
Spirit of '91
Taylor Drift
Ted Las-snow
The Name's Plow, Snowplow
Waipahiƞte (Dakota word for “snow plow”)
Wolfgang Amadeus Snowzart
Yer a Blizzard, Harry

You’ve missed your chance to enter this year’s contest, but you can start warming up for next year, or if you’re an author, use this opportunity to practice creatively naming your next character or story title in the Wannaskan Writing Contest — The Blizzard of Oz…Flurrious George…Brine and Plowishment…The Sound and the Flurry…The Scrapes of Wrath…I, Plowdius…Lord of the Flice…The Snow Also Rises…A Plowwork Orange…A Farewell To Drifts…The Prime of Miss Jean Snowdie…Plownnegan’s Wake…A Room Without A View…The Adventures of Plowgie March…The Plowman Always Swings Twice…


From A Year with Rilke, February 1 Entry
Go the Limits of Your Longing, from Book of Hours, I 59

God speaks to each of us as he makes us,
then walks with us silently out of the night.

These are the words we dimly hear:

You, sent out beyond your recall,
go to the limits of your longing.
Embody me.

The Inner Voice
by Auguste Rodin

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.






*a con artist.