Word-Wednesday for November 15, 2023

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for November 15, 2023, the forty-sixth Wednesday of the year, the eighth Wednesday of fall, and the three-hundred nineteenth day of the year, with forty-six days remaining.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for November 15, 2023
In-betweenness
November is an in-between month — half fall, half winter, between the equinox and the solstice — when many of us are in a state of transition, including our friends, Lepus americanus, the snowshoe hare.

Looking up this evening:

November 15 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


November 15 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily by 11:00am, usually.


Earth/Moon Almanac for November 15, 2023
Sunrise: 7:33am; Sunset: 4:45pm; 2 minutes, 44 seconds less daylight today
Moonrise: 10:33am; Moonset: 5:53pm, waxing crescent, 6% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for November 15, 2023
                Average            Record              Today
High            34                     62                     49
Low             17                    -20                     33

November for Beginners
By Rita Dove

Snow would be the easy
way out—that softening
sky like a sigh of relief
at finally being allowed
to yield. No dice.
We stack twigs for burning
in glistening patches
but the rain won’t give.

So we wait, breeding
mood, making music
of decline. We sit down
in the smell of the past
and rise in a light
that is already leaving.
We ache in secret,
memorizing

a gloomy line
or two of German.
When spring comes
we promise to act
the fool. Pour,
rain! Sail, wind,
with your cargo of zithers!

November 15 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Education Support Professionals Day
• National Raisin Bran Cereal Day
• National Spicy Hermit Cookie Day
• National Bundt Day
• National Clean Out Your Refrigerator Day
• National Philanthropy Day
• America Recycles Day
• International Day of the Imprisoned Writer

November 15 Word Riddle and Pun
What’s the best way to identify a dogwood tree?*


November 15 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
EAVESDROP, v.i., Secretly to overhear a catalogue of the crimes and vices of another or yourself.

A lady with one of her ears applied
To an open keyhole heard, inside,
Two female gossips in converse free—
The subject engaging them was she.
"I think," said one, "and my husband thinks
That she's a prying, inquisitive minx!"
As soon as no more of it she could hear
The lady, indignant, removed her ear.
"I will not stay," she said, with a pout,
"To hear my character lied about!"
                                —Gopete Sherany

November 15 Etymology Word of the Week

November 15 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1777 Articles of Confederation, the first constitution of the United States, is approved by the Continental Congress.
• 1806 First US college magazine, Yale Literary Government, publishes its first issue.
• 1832 Felix Mendelssohn's Symphony No. 5 (Reformation) premieres.
• 1837 Isaac Pitman introduces his shorthand system of writing.
• 1899 Morning Post reporter Winston Churchill captured by Boers in Natal.
• 1932 Walt Disney Art School created.
• 1945 Chilean poet Gabriela Mistral becomes the first Latin American to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature.
• 1978 Harold Pinter's play Betrayal premieres in London.
• 2016 American singer-songwriter Smokey Robinson receives Library of Congress Gershwin Prize.

November 15 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1604 Davis Mell, British violinist, composer, and clockmaker.
• 1607 Madeleine de Scudéry, French novelist.
• 1640 Nicolaus Adam Strungk, German composer.
• 1741 Johann Kaspar Lavater, Swiss writer.
• 1746 Joseph Quesnel, French Canadian composer and playwright.
• 1792 Leopold Eustachius Czapek, Czech composer.
• 1840 Aleksey Apukhtin, Russian poet.
• 1862 Adolf Bartels, German journalist and poet.
• 1872 Robert de Flers, French author and playwright.
• 1887 Georgia O'Keeffe, American artist.
• 1887 Marianne Moore, American poet
• 1887 René Maran, French author.
• 1895 Antoni Słonimski, Polish writer.
• 1897 Sacheverell Sitwell, English author.
• 1920 Daphne Pochin Mould, Irish photographer and journalist.
• 1925 Pavel Vondruška, Czech conductor.
• 1930 J.G. Ballard, British novelist.
• 1944 Mick Moloney, Irish musician.

Words-I-Looked-Up-This-Week Writer's Challenge
Write a story or pram from the following words:

• brocard: /ˈbro—kärd/ n., an elementary principle or maxim; a short proverbial rule.
• coomb: /ko͞om/ n., a short valley or hollow on a hillside or coastline.
• damask: /ˈdam-əsk/ n., a figured woven fabric with a pattern visible on both sides, typically used for table linen and upholstery; v., decorate with or as if with a variegated pattern.
• gnädige: /gnä́-dig/ adj., gracious, n., madam.
• heresiarch: /hə-ˈrē-zē-ärk/ n., the founder of a heresy or the leader of an heretical sect.
• marmorealize: /mar-MOR-ee-uh-lighz/ v., to commemorate (figurative, as if with a statue or inscription in marble); to immortalize; to render fixed or permanent.
• ogival: /ō-ˈjī-vəl/ adj., of, relating to, or having the form of an ogive or an ogee.
• pelorus: /pə-ˈlô-rəs/ n., a sighting device on a ship for taking the relative bearings of a distant object.
• subdeb: /ˈsəb-ˌdeb/ n., a girl in the years just preceding her debut into society.
• tarlatan: /ˈtär-lə-tn/ n., a thin, starched, open-weave muslin fabric, used for stiffening evening gowns.

November 15, 2023 Word-Wednesday Feature
exclamations
/ˌeks-klə-ˈmā-SH(ə)n/ n., a sudden cry or remark, especially expressing surprise, anger, or pain, from late 14th century, exclamacioun, "a calling or crying aloud; that which is uttered with emphasis or passion, a vehement speech or saying," from Latin exclamationem (nominative exclamatio) "an exclamation" (in rhetoric), "a loud calling or crying out," noun of action from past-participle stem of exclamare "cry out loud" (see exclaim). The punctuation symbol known as the exclamation point (1824) or exclamation mark (1926) was earliest called an exclamation note or note of exclamation (1650s); Shakespeare has note of admiration (1611). Another name for it was shriek-mark (1864). The mark itself is said to date to circa 1400 among writers in Italy and to represent the Latin io!, an exclamation of delight or triumph, written with the -i- above the -o-.

Continuing our November exploration of emotion words, today Word-Wednesday catalogues some family-friendly, emotive, vocal expressions — Ah to Zowie. Exclamations differ from the interjection: /ˌin-(t)ər-ˈjek-SH(ə)n/, n., an abrupt remark, made especially as an aside or interruption — words used to manage communication by indicating reactions (uh-huh, oh, I see), attitudes (hm, well), or parenthetical asides (I mean, you know).

Common exclamations include eww, opps, ouch, oh-oh, shoo, where authors can use creative spellings and multiple shriek-marks for emphasis. Exclamations of disgust portray a variety of degrees of ickiness, from bleh to yuck, intermediated by ack, bah, gak, and ugh. Event exclamations include achoo, ha-ha, hardy-har-har, ho-hum, poof, skrreeeeek, and various fight sounds from Batman cartoons. Exclamations of surprise include eep, golly, uff-da, whoa, wow, and yikes. Everyone seems to enjoy exclamations of enthusiasm and celebration: aha, boo-yah, hurrah, ta-da, whee, whoopee, woo-hoo, yee-haw, yippee, and yowza.

Enjoy your self in this between time of the year and come up with your own exclamations that suit your mood.

From A Year with Rilke, November 15 Entry
Onto a Vast Plain, from Book of Hours II, 1

Summer was like your house: you know
where each thing stood.
Now you must go out into your heart
as onto a vast plain. Now
the immense loneliness begins.

The days go numb, the wind
sucks the world from your senses like withered leaves.

Through the empty branches the sky remains.
It is what you have.
Be earth now, and evensong.
Be the ground lying under that sky.
Be modest now, like a thing
ripened until it is real,
so that he who began it all
can feel you when he reaches for you.

Winter Garden
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.





*By the bark.