Word-Wednesday for March 22, 2023

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for March 22, 2023, the twelfth Wednesday of the year, the first Wednesday of spring, and the eighty-first day of the year, with two-hundred eighty-four days remaining, brought to you by Bead Gypsy Studio in beautiful downtown Roseau. Purchase any bracelet or necklace at full price, and get a pair of earrings 50% off for the rest of March. Mention Wannaskan Almanac, and see what else you get.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for March 22, 2023
Astrology aside, and broadening the definition of phenology to include our solar system, the heavens demonstrate some interesting developments in these final days of March. Yesterday was a New Moon. Tomorrow and Friday evenings, Venus appears just next to the crescent moon.

March 22 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


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


Earth/Moon Almanac for March 22, 2023
Sunrise: 7:23am; Sunset: 7:39pm; 3 minutes, 36 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 7:59am; Moonset: 9:10pm, waxing crescent, 1% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for March 22, 2023
                Average            Record              Today
High             36                     63                     29
Low              13                    -25                      5

The Presence
by Maxine Kumin

Something went crabwise
across the snow this morning.
Something went hard and slow
over our hayfield.
It could have been a raccoon
lugging a knapsack,
it could have been a porcupine
carrying a tennis racket,
it could have been something
supple as a red fox
dragging the squawk and spatter
of a crippled woodcock.
Ten knuckles underground
those bones are seeds now
pure as baby teeth
lined up in the burrow.

I cross on snowshoes
cunningly woven from
the skin and sinews of
something else that went before.


March 22 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National West Virginia Day
• National Bavarian Crepes Day
• National Goof Off Day
• Feast Day of Darerca of Ireland
• Emancipation Day or Día de la Abolición de la Esclavitud in Puerto Rico
• World Water Day

March 22 Word Riddle
How do you pronounce the name, Hijkm?*


March 22 Word Pun
Irony is the opposite of wrinkly.


March 22 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram

WALL STREET, n. A symbol for sin for every devil to rebuke. That Wall Street is a den of thieves is a belief that serves every unsuccessful thief in place of a hope in Heaven. Even the great and good Andrew Carnegie has made his profession of faith in the matter.
Carnegie the dauntless has uttered his call
To battle: “The brokers are parasites all!”
Carnegie, Carnegie, you’ll never prevail;
Keep the wind of your slogan to belly your sail,
Go back to your isle of perpetual brume,
Silence your pibroch, doff tartan and plume:
Ben Lomond is calling his son from the fray—
Fly, fly from the region of Wall Street away!
While still you’re possessed of a single baubee
(I wish it were pledged to endowment of me)
‘Twere wise to retreat from the wars of finance
Lest its value decline ere your credit advance.
For a man ‘twixt a king of finance and the sea,
Carnegie, Carnegie, your tongue is too free!

                                                    Anonymus Bink


March 22 Etymology Word of the Week
forest
/ˈfôr-əst/ n., a large area covered chiefly with trees and undergrowth, from late 13th century, "extensive tree-covered district," especially one set aside for royal hunting and under the protection of the king, from Old French forest "forest, wood, woodland" (Modern French forêt), probably ultimately from Late Latin/Medieval Latin forestem silvam "the outside woods," a term from the Capitularies of Charlemagne denoting "the royal forest." This word comes to Medieval Latin, perhaps via a Germanic source akin to Old High German forst, from Latin foris "outside" (see foreign). If so, the sense is "beyond the park," the park (Latin parcus; see park (n.)) being the main or central fenced woodland.

Another theory traces it through Medieval Latin forestis, originally "forest preserve, game preserve," from Latin forum in legal sense "court, judgment;" in other words "land subject to a ban" [Buck]. Replaced Old English wudu (see wood (n.)). Spanish and Portuguese floresta have been influenced by flor "flower."

In her book, Enchantment: Awakening Wonder in an Anxious Age, Katherine May sees a forest as:

a deep terrain, a place of unending variance and subtle meaning. It is a complete sensory environment. It is different each time you meet it, changing with the seasons, the weather, the life cycles of its inhabitants. Dig beneath its soil, and you will uncover layers of life: the frail networks of mycelia, the burrows of animals, the roots of trees.

Bring questions into this space and you will receive a reply, though not an answer. Deep terrain offers up multiplicity, forked paths, symbolic meaning. It schools you in compromise, in shifting interpretation. It will mute your rationality and make you believe in magic. It removes time from the clock face and reveals the greater truth of its operation, its circularity and its vastness. It will show you rocks of unfathomable age and bursts of life so ephemeral that they are barely there. It will show you the crawl of geological ages, the gradual change of the seasons, and the countless micro-seasons that happen across the year. It will demand your knowledge: the kind of knowledge that’s experiential, the kind of knowledge that comes with study. Know it — name it — and it will reward you only with more layers of detail, more frustrating revelations of your own ignorance. A deep terrain is a life’s work. It will beguile, nourish, and sustain you through decades, only to finally prove that you, too, are ephemeral compared to the rocks and the trees.

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

• 1621 Dutch jurist Hugo de Groot (Hugo Grotius) escapes in book chest from Loevestein Castle in the Netherlands.
• 1638 Religious dissident Anne Hutchinson expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony.
• 1873 Slavery is abolished in Puerto Rico, celebrated as Emancipation Day.
• 1895 Auguste and Louis Lumiere show their first movie to an invited audience.
• 1903 Niagara Falls runs out of water due to a drought.
• 1927 Federico Garcia Lorca's first play El Maleficio (The Butterfly's Evil Spell) premieres.
• 1928 Noël Coward's musical This Year of Grace premieres.
• 1975 Netherlands' Ding-a-dong performed by Tech-In wins Eurovision Song Contest in Stockholm, Sweden.
• 1978 Dedication of Robert Frost Plaza, at California, Drumm & Market, San Francisco.

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

• 1503 Antonio Francesco Grazzini, Italian writer.
• 1599 Anthony Van Dyck, Flemish painter.
• 1712 Edward Moore, English dramatist.
• 1771 Heinrich D. Zschokke, German Swiss author.
• 1814 Thomas Crawford, American sculptor.
• 1842 Mykola Lysenko, Ukrainian composer.
• 1852 Otakar Ševčík, Czech violinist.
• 1868 Hamish MacCunn, Scottish composer.
• 1874 Ellen Glasgow, American novelist and winner of Nobel Prize for Literature 1942.
• 1885 Jēkabs Mediņš, Latvian composer.
• 1887 Chico Marx [Leonard Marx], American comedian.
• 1899 Ruth Page, American ballet dancer and choreographer.
• 1901 Greta Kempton, Austrian born American artist.
• 1908 Louis D L'Amour, American author.
• 1909 Gabrielle Roy, French Canadian author.
• 1909 Jack Popplewell, British composer and playwright.
• 1910 Nicholas Monsarrat, English novelist.
• 1912 Agnes Martin, Canadian-American abstract painter.
• 1912 Wilfrid Brambell, Irish actor and performer.
• 1915 Forest 'Bud' Sagendorf, American cartoonist of Popeye.
• 1918 Tauno Pylkkanen, Finnish opera composer.
• 1923 Marcel Marceau, French mime artist and actor.
• 1930 Stephen Sondheim, composer and lyricist.
• 1931 Igor Hajek, Czech translator and writer.
• 1931 Leslie Thomas, Welsh writer.
• 1931, William Shatner, Captain James T. Kirk.
• 1941 Billy Collins, American poet, Poet Laureate of the United States 2001-2003.
• 1946 Rudy Rucker, American science fiction author.
• 1947 James Patterson, American author.
• 1948 Andrew Lloyd Webber, British theatrical composer.
• 1953 Sean Boru, Irish actor and author.

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

• adipocere: /ˌad-ə-pō-ˈsir/ n., a grayish waxy substance formed by the decomposition of soft tissue in dead bodies subjected to moisture.; corpse wax.
• collocate: /ˈkä-lə-ˌkāt/ v., (of a word) be habitually juxtaposed with another with a frequency greater than chance;
• “maiden” collocates with “voyage.”
• démodé: /ˌdā-mō-ˈdā/ adj., out of fashion.
• forfend: /fôr-ˈfend/ v., avert, keep away, or prevent (something evil or unpleasant); protect (something) by precautionary measures.
• halatinous: /ha-LAT-in-uhs/ adj., having the character of salt or saline; salty.
• jibbitz: /'jib-bits/ n., decorative accessories that snap into the holes of foam shoes such as Crocs.
• nainsook: /ˈnān-ˌso͝ok/ n., a fine, soft-finished cotton fabric, usually white, used for lingerie and infants’ wear, from from Hindi nainsukh, literally meaning “eye’s pleasure.”
• pyknic: /ˈpik-ˌnik/ adj., relating to or denoting a stocky physique with a rounded body and head, thickset trunk, and a tendency to be fat.
• sciamachy: /sī-ˈam-ə-kē/ n., sham fighting for exercise or practice; argument or conflict with an imaginary opponent.
• thaumaturge: /ˈTHôm-ə-ˌtərj/ n., a worker of wonders and performer of miracles; a magician.

March 22, 2023 Word-Wednesday Feature
textspeak
/ˈteks(t)-ˌspēk/ n., language regarded as characteristic of text messages, consisting of abbreviations, acronyms, initials, emoticons, etc. Extending previous efforts to improve Best Generation and Boomer fluency, this week Word-Wednesday provides a sample of the many terms that pass as words in Short Message Service (SMS) applications. A form of jargon, textspeak often contains phonetic symbols substituted for whole sounds (e.g., u for you or 8 for ate), and textspeak may elide vowels from the represented word unless the vowels function as initials. English teachers beware, punctuation marks are omitted almost entirely, but / is used to signify there are two parts to the word (e.g., w/o means without). Some examples of textspeak are entirely numerical.

Focusing on the positive, here are some family-friendly examples of textspeak, where some seem overly simplified, where some seem more complex than the basic word replaced, where laughing is clearly important, and where many textspeaks begin with the letter W because so many question words are W words [when/where/who/why/what]:

404 - I don't know (adopted from the HTTP status code "404 Not Found")

a/s/l - age/sex/location; a3 - anytime, anywhere, anyplace aap - always a pleasure;

aisb - as it should be; aml - all my love; ayor - at your own risk;

b4 - before; b4n - bye for now; bak - back at keyboard; bbiam - be back in a minute

bbs - be back soon; bc - because; bcnu - be seeing you; bff - best friends forever;

cas - cracking a smile; cmiiw - correct me if I'm wrong; cob - close of business;

cos - because; coz - because; crbt - crying really big tears; cu or cya - see you (later);


da - the; degt - don't even go there; diku - do I know you?; dno - don't know;

dnt - don't; dqmot - don't quote me on this; dts - don't think so; dv8 - deviate;

ec or ez - easy; eg - example or evil grin; ema - e-mail address; emfbi - excuse me for butting in; 

eoc - end of chat; eod - end of day;

f2f - face to face; f2t - free to talk; fbm - fine by me; fc - fingers crossed;

ficcl - frankly I couldn't care less; fitb - fill in the blank; fyeo - for your eyes only;

g2cu - good to see you; g2g or gtg - got to go; g2p or gtp - got to pee;

gal - get a life; giar - give it a rest; gmta - great minds think alike; ggts - Ginny's got the skinny;

h&k - hugs & kisses; h2cus - hope to see you soon; h8 - hate; hagn- have a good night;

hand - have a nice day; hru - how are you?; hth - hope this helps;

iac - in any case; ianal - I am not a lawyer; ib - I'm back; icbw - it could be worse;

idc - I don't care; idk - I don't know; idunno - I don't know; ig2r - I got to run;

j00r - your; jac - just a sec; jb - just because; jggy - Jim gives good yoga; jic - just in case;

jja - just joking around; jk - just kidding; jmo - just my opinion; jp - just playing;

l33t - elite; l8 - late; l8r - later; lbr - little boys room (bathroom - male);

lqtm - laughing quietly to myself; lsl - laughing so loud; ltm - laugh to myself;

m8 - mate; mfi - mad for it; mmc - mayor mccheese; msg - message; mtf - more to follow;

mtfbwu - may the force be with you; musm - miss you so much; myob - mind your own business;

n1 - nice one; nbd - no big deal; ne - any; ne1 - anyone; nfm - none for me or not for me;

nimby - not in my back yard; nlt - no later than; nm - nothing much; no1 - no one;

oic - oh, I see; omw - on my way; oo - over and out; ooh - out of here;

ootd - one of these days; op - on phone; otb - off to bed; otw - off to work;

pcm - please call me; pebcak - /ˈpɛb-kæk/ acronym, problem exists between chair and keyboard, chiefly used by technical support helpdesk staff: a problem experienced with a user's computer that is due to user error;  

pmfji - pardon me for jumping in; pmsl - pissed myself laughing;

q - question or queue; qik - quick; qt - cutie;

rofl burger - burger made from rofl sauce; rofl cakes - dessert from rofl burger;

rofl - rolling on floor laughing; rotfluts - rolling on the floor laughing unable to speak;

s icnr - sorry, I could not resist; s ig2r - sorry, I got to run; sal - such a laugh;

sbtsbc - same bat-time, same bat-channel; sete - smiling ear-to-ear; sis - snickering in silence;

somy - sick of me yet?; sotmg - short of time, must go; soz or sry - sorry; str8 - straight;

t+ - think positive; tafn - that's all for now; tbh - to be honest; tc - take care;

tlk2ul8r - talk to you later; tmi - too much information; tmot - trust me on this;

toy - thinking of you; tstb - the sooner, the better; ttfn - ta ta for now;

ugtbk - you've got to be kidding; uktr - you know that's right; uv - unpleasant visual;

vf - very funny; vms - very much so; vmsi - very much so indeed;

wam - wait a minute; wan2tlk - want to talk; wat - what; wayf - where are you from?;

wdywtta - what do you want to talk about?; whteva or woteva - what ever; wiifm - what's in it for me?;

wkd - wicked or weekend; wombat - waste of money, brains and time;  

wuciwug or wysiwyg - what you see is what you get; wuf? - where are you from?; wuwh - wish you were here;

x or xxx - kiss(es); xlnt - excellent; xo or xox - hugs and kisses;

ya - your or yeah; ybs - you'll be sorry; ygbkm - you've got to be kidding me; yh - yeah;
ykwycd - you know what you can do; ymmv - your mileage may vary; yr - your; yw - you're welcome;

zzz - bored or sleeping.

From A Year with Rilke, March 22 Entry
Since I’ve Learned to Be Silent, from Early Journals

Since I’ve learned to be silent, everything has come so much closer to me. I am thinking of a summer on the Baltic when I was a child: how talkative I was to sea and forest; how, filled with an unaccustomed exuberance, I tried to leap over all limits with the hasty excitement of my words. And how, as I had to take my leave on a morning in September, I saw that we never give utterance to what is final and most blessed, and that all my rhapsodic Table d’hote conversations did not approach either my inchoate feelings or the ocean’s eternal self-revelation.

L'Estaque
by Paul Cézanne

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.





*/nōˈ-el/