Word-Wednesday for February 22, 2023

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for February 22, 2023, the eighth Wednesday of the year, the tenth Wednesday of winter, the last Wednesday of February, and the 53rd day of the year, with 312 days remaining. Brought to you this week by Bead Gypsy, celebrating Flannel & Frost Winter Fest with fika this Friday and Saturday, February 24 & 25, at 101 Main Avenue, North, in downtown Roseau.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for February 22, 2023
Coyote Breeding Season

 

by Mia McPherson

 

Canis latrans is Minnesota’s most abundant large predator after homo sapiens, usually preying on small mammals, but sometime large mammals, including livestock. Coyotes begin to mate at age two, and may pair for life. The mating season in Wannaska begins in January and lasts through February (pant, pant…). After breeding, females search for dens, either digging one in loose soil or enlarging the den of another animal, birthing five to seven pups in April. Born blind, it’s not long before the pups can see, and when they’re eight to 12 weeks old, the mother teaches them to hunt.


February 22 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


February 22 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily by 11:00am, usually.


Earth/Moon Almanac for February 22 2023
Sunrise: 7:20am; Sunset: 5:55pm; 3 minutes, 29 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 8:40am; Moonset: 9:18pm, waxing crescent, 9% illuminated.

Mark your calendars: The next solar eclipse viewable from Wannaska will be Monday, April 8, 2024, with the eclipse mid-point at 14:02:28. It won’t be a total eclipse in Wannaska, so obtain appropriate eye protection if you want to look directly at the sun.


Temperature Almanac for February 22, 2023
                Average            Record              Today
High             22                     40                     2
Low              -2                    -38                 -10
Warmer next week.

The Same Cold
by Stephen Dunn

In Minnesota the serious cold arrived
like no cold I'd previously experienced,
an in-your-face honesty to it, a clarity
that always took me by surprise.
On blizzard nights with wires down
or in the dead-battery dawn
the cold made good neighbors of us all,
made us moral because we might need
something moral in return, no hitchhiker
left on the road, not even some frozen
strange-looking stranger turned away
from our door. After a spell of it,
I remember, zero would feel warm—
people out for walks, jackets open,
ice fishermen in the glory
of their shacks moved to Nordic song.
The cold took over our lives,
lived in every conversation, as compelling
as local dirt or local sport.
If bitten by it, stranded somewhere,
a person would want
to lie right down in it and sleep.
Come February, some of us needed
to scream, hurt ourselves, divorce.
Once, on Route 23, thirty below,
my Maverick seized up, and a man
with a blanket and a candy bar, a man
for all weather, stopped and drove me home.
It was no big thing to him, the savior.
Just two men, he said, in the same cold.

February 22 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Supermarket Employee Day
• National California Day
• National Cook A Sweet Potato Day
• National Margarita Day
• World Sword Swallowers Day
• World Thinking Day
• Ash Wednesday

February 22 Word Riddle
What do you call a pudgy psychic?*


February 22 Word Pun

February 22 Walking into a Bar Grammar
A dangling participle walks into a bar. Enjoying a cocktail and chatting with the bartender, the evening passes pleasantly.


February 22 Etymology Word of the Week
condescension
/ˌkän-də-ˈsen-(t)SH(ə)n/ n., an attitude of patronizing superiority; disdain, from 1640s, "the act of condescending, a voluntary inclining to equality with inferiors," from Late Latin condescensionem, noun of action from past-participle stem of condescendere "to let oneself down".

condescend (v.)
mid-14th century, of God, a king., etc., "make gracious allowance" for human frailty, etc.; late 14th century, "yield deferentially," from Old French condescendere (14th century) "to agree, consent, give in, yield, come down from one's rights or claims," and directly from Late Latin condescendere "to let oneself down, stoop," in Medieval Latin "be complaisant or compliant," from assimilated form of Latin com "with, together" (see con-) + descendere "to descend," literally "climb down," from de "down" (see de-) + scandere "to climb," from Proto-Indo-European root skand- "jump" (see scan (v.)).

Sense of "voluntarily waive ceremony or dignity proper to one's superior position or rank and willingly assume equality with inferiors" is from early 15th century. Generally a positive word in Middle English; the modern, negative sense is from the notion of a mere show or assumed air of condescending (compare sense evolution in patronize). Also in Middle English "give one's consent; come to mutual agreement; make a concession."

In his Verses for A Fordham Commencement, Seamus Heaney includes the following words:

On your way up, show consideration
To the ones you meet on their way down.
The Latin root of condescension
Means we all sink.

February 22 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1632 Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems is published.
• 1865 Tennessee adopts a new constitution abolishing slavery.
• 1892 Lady Windermere's Fan by Oscar Wilde premieres.
• 1980 "Miracle on Ice": US ice hockey team beats heavily favoured Soviet Union, 4-3 at Lake Placid in one of the biggest upsets in Olympic history; Americans go on to win gold medal.
• 1989 Bobby McFerrin wins Grammy Award for Don't Worry Be Happy.

February 22 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1732 George Washington.
• 1778 Rembrandt Peale, American portrait and historical painter.
• 1788 Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher.
• 1819 James Russell Lowell, poet.
• 1864 Jules Renard, French writer
• 1876 Zitkála-Šá, [aka Gertrude Bonnin] Native American Dakota writer.
• 1892 Edna St Vincent Millay, American poet.
• 1896 Nacio Herb Brown, American composer (Singin' In The Rain).
• 1896 Paul Van Ostaijen, Flemish poet/.
• 1900 Giorgos Seferis [Georgios Seferiades], Greek poet and 1963 Nobel Prize winner.
• 1900 Seán Ó Faoláin [John Whelan], Irish short story writer.
• 1903 Morley Callaghan, Canadian author.
• 1917 Jane Bowles, American writer.
• 1919 Jiří Pauer, Czech composer.
• 1925 Edward Gorey, American author & artist.
• 1925 Gerald Stern, American poet.
• 1937 Joanna Russ, American science-fiction author.
• 1963 Pebbles Flintstone.

My candle burns at both ends;
It will not last the night
But ah, my foes, and oh, my friends —
It gives a lovely light!

Edna St. Vincent Millay

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

• apocaloptimist: /ə-pä-kə-ˈäp-tə-məst/ n., someone who knows it all going to heck in a handbasket, but thinks it will turn out okay, anyway.
• baetyl: /ˈbē-təl/ n., a meteorite or stone held sacred or believed to be of divine origin.
• cucurbit: /kyo͞o-ˈkər-bət/ n., a plant of the gourd family (Cucurbitaceae), which includes melon, pumpkin, squash, and cucumber.
• fika: /ˈfēkə/ n., (in Swedish custom) a break from activity during which people drink coffee, eat cakes or other light snacks, and relax with others.
• latigo: /ˈla-ti-ˌgō/ n., a long strap on a saddletree of a western saddle to adjust the cinch.
• opprobrium: /əˈ-prō-brē-əm/ n., harsh criticism or censure.
• pishogue: /pə̇-ˈshōg/ n., Irish, a wise saw or aphorism; a charm, incantation, spell; sorcery, witchcraft.
• rowel: /ˈrou-(ə)l/ n., a spiked revolving disk at the end of a spur.
• sholt: /shạlt/ n., a shaggy dog; a low-bred dog or cur; a sheltie.
• tomorning: /tə-ˈmȯ(ə)rn-iNG/ adv., in the morning.

February 22, 2023 Word-Wednesday Feature
More Scrabble Words
Continuing another annual Word-Wednesday tradition, today we add to reader Scrabble word vocabularies. Imagine Sven and Monique locked in a three-hour Scrabble battle. As the players have but a few tiles each in their letter trays, Sven holds a razor-thin lead in points, with only the simplest letters remaining on his tray. Monique, on the other hand, has been keeping the Q and the Z for a come-from-behind, last-play victory. But it’s Sven’s turn, and he knows he must use up all the letters on his tray in his final play to win the game. Sven is horrified that he has more than one of the same letter based on sloppy play in his earlier word plays.

Here are some options for Sven’s end-game plays with mostly simple Scrabble letter combinations.

• anesis: /an-NEE-sis/ n., a figure of addition that occurs when a concluding sentence, clause, or phrase is added to a previous statement which intentionally (or unintentionally) diminishes the effect (positively or negatively) of what has been previously stated, e.g., "Now Naaman, captain of the host of the king of Syria, was a great man with his master, and honorable, because by him the LORD had given deliverance unto Syria: he was also a mighty man in valor, but he was a leper.” II Kings 5:1
• ara: /'a-ra/ n., rhetorical device, cursing or expressing contempt towards a person or thing for the evils it brings, or for inherent evil.
• cleek: /ˈklēk/ n., a large hook (as for a pot over a fire).
• coenotes: /'cee-no-tees/ v., repetition of two different phrases, one at the beginning, and the other at the end of successive paragraphs.
• deckled: /ˈde-kəld/ adj., having a rough edge; used of handmade paper or paper resembling handmade.
• deesis: /dē-ˈē-sə̇s/ n., an adjuration (solemn oath) or calling to witness; or, the vehement expression of desire put in terms of “for someone’s sake” or “for God’s sake.”
• diacope: /dahy-AK-uh-pee/ n., a repetition of a word with one or more between, usually to express deep feeling.
• erf: /ˈe(ə)rf/ n., a plot of land usually about half an acre in size, usually urban, marked off for building purposes.
• euche: /'yū-kā/ n., a vow to keep a promise.
• medela: /me-ˈdeː.-la/ n., cure, remedial treatment.
• orcos: /or-cōs/ v., swearing that a statement is true.
• pysma: /piz-ma/ n., the asking of multiple questions successively (which would together require a complex reply). A rhetorical use of the question.
• repotia: /re-PŌ-ti-a/ n., the repetition of a phrase with slight differences in style, diction, tone; a discourse celebrating a wedding feast.
• shalloon: /shə-ˈlün/ n., a lightweight twilled fabric of wool or worsted.
• skirl: /skərl/ n., a shrill, wailing sound, especially that of bagpipes.
• smaze: /smāz/ n., a mixture of smoke and haze.
• smicker: / ˈsmik-ə(r)/ v., to ogle and smile amorously — used with at or after
• spim: /spɪm/ n., unsolicited commercial communications received on a computer via an instant-messaging system.
• tasis: /'tæ-sɪs/ n., sustaining the pronunciation of a word or phrase because of its pleasant sound.
• tmesis: /tə-ˈmē-səs/ n., the separation of parts of a compound word by an intervening word or words, heard mainly in informal speech (e.g., a whole nother story ; shove it back any-old-where in the pile).
• waesuck /ˈwā-ˌsək/ interjection, Scottish, used to express grief or pity.

From A Year with Rilke, February 22 Entry
Knots of Our Own Making, from Book of Hours II, 16

How surely gravity’s law,
strong as an ocean current,
takes hold of even the smallest thing
and pulls it toward the heart of the world.

Each thing—
each stone, blossom, child—
is held in place.
Only we, in our arrogance,
push out beyond what we each belong to
for some empty freedom.

If we surrendered
to earth’s intelligence
we could rise up rooted, like trees.

Instead we entangle ourselves
in knots of our own making
and struggle, lonely and confused.

So, like children, we begin again
to learn from the things,
because they are in God’s heart;
they have never left him.

Girl in White in the Woods
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.






*A four-chin teller.