Word-Wednesday for December 6, 2023

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for December 6, 2023, the forty-ninth Wednesday of the year, the eleventh Wednesday of fall, and the three-hundred fortieth day of the year, with twenty-five days remaining.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for December 6, 2023
Great Horned Hooting
More Wannaskans are hearing the duet hooting of Great Horned Owls, Bubo virginianus, lately. Also known as the tiger owl (originally derived from early naturalists' description as the "winged tiger" or "tiger of the air"), and hoot owl, the GHO hoot not only to keep in touch; they’re establishing nesting territories. Great Horned Owls are the first of the Upper Midwest birds to nest each year, where egg-laying begins in late January.

Looking up in the morning:

December 6 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


December 6 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily by 11:00am, usually.


Earth/Moon Almanac for December 6, 2023
Sunrise: 8:02am; Sunset: 4:28pm; 1 minutes, 23 seconds less daylight today
Moonrise: 12:52am; Moonset: 1:35pm, waning crescent, 37% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for December 6, 2023
                Average            Record              Today
High            22                     46                     45
Low               5                    -34                    30


Winter Trees
by William Carlos Williams

All the complicated details
of the attiring and
the disattiring are completed!
A liquid moon
moves gently among
the long branches.
Thus having prepared their buds
against a sure winter
the wise trees
stand sleeping in the cold.

December 6 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• Mitten Tree Day
• National Day of Remembrance and Action On Violence Against Women
• National Gazpacho Day
• Saint Nicholas Day
• National Miners Day
• National Pawnbrokers Day

December 6 Word Riddle
Where does Friday come before Wednesday?*


December 6 Word Pun
This duck walks into a bar. The bartender looks at him and says, "Hey, buddy, your pants are down..."


December 6 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
BERENICE'S HAIR, n., A constellation (Coma Berenices) named in honor of one who sacrificed her hair to save her husband.

    Her locks an ancient lady gave
    Her loving husband's life to save;
    And men—they honored so the dame—
    Upon some stars bestowed her name.

    But to our modern married fair,
    Who'd give their lords to save their hair,
    No stellar recognition's given.
    There are not stars enough in heaven.
                                —G.J.


December 6 Etymology Word of the Week

December 6 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1732 First play in American colonies acted by professional players.
• 1841 Robert Schumann's 4th Symphony in D minor premieres.
• 1849 Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery in Maryland for the second and final time.
• 1865 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution is ratified, abolishing slavery.
• 1877 Washington Post publishes first edition.
• 1933 Ban on James Joyce's Ulysses in U.S. of A. lifted.

December 6 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1478 Baldassare Castiglione, Italian author.
• 1642 Johann Christoph Bach, German harpsichordist and composer.
• 1731 Sophie von Laroche, German writer.
• 1808 Johan Michiel Dautzenberg, Flemish author.
• 1841 Frédéric Bazille, French painter.
• 1875 Evelyn Underhill, British Anglo-Catholic poet.
• 1885 Elizabeth Crotty, Irish musician.
• 1886 Joyce Kilmer, American poet.
• 1888 Emiliana de Zubeldía, Spanish-Mexican concert pianist, composer.
• 1890 Rudolf Schlichter, German artist and writer.
• 1892 Osbert Sitwell, English poet, writer.
• 1896 Ira Gershwin, American lyricist.
• 1928 Hagrid, of Harry Potter.
• 1939 Tomés Svoboda, Czech composer.
• 1947 Miroslav Vitouš, Czech jazz bassist.
• 1968 Karl Ove Knausgård, Norwegian author.

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

• agrize: /ə-ˈɡraɪz/ v., to fear or shudder at something frightful.
• boschveldt: /ˈbäs(h)-felt/ n., bush country, wilderness of the intellectual imagination with acatalepsy challenged.
• cacodoxy: /ˈka-kə-däk-sē/ n., perverse teachings; heterodoxy.
• démarche: /dā-ˈmärSH/ n., a political step or initiative; decisive measure taken in diplomacy.
• enceinte: /än-ˈsant/ n., an enclosure or the enclosing wall of a fortified place.
• facetiae: /fə-ˈsē-SH-ē-ī/ n., humorous or witty sayings.
• gossoon: /ɡɒ-ˈsuːn/ n., a servant boy.
• kurgan: /ko͝or-ˈɡän/ n., a prehistoric burial mound or barrow.
• leveret: /ˈlev-(ə)-rət/ n., a young hare it its first year.
• malison: /ˈmal-i-sən/ n., a curse.

December 6, 2023 Word-Wednesday Feature
DEAR MISS WORD MANNERS:
I've heard that COVID-19 and Whooping Cough are back in Wannaska, and I certainly don't want to infect others if I'm not wearing a mask before I have symptoms. Please advise.

GENTLE READER:
Your prosocial locutive thoughtfulness is indeed most admirable. If only every reader had your concern about the importance of word manners! The most infectious words one might express during a pandemic involving any respiratory contagion are certainly those containing plosive /ˈplō-ziv/ consonants. Here, Miss Word Manners refers to a word, as described in the science of PHONETICS, denoting a consonant that is produced by stopping the airflow using the lips, teeth, or palate, followed by a sudden release of air. The basic plosives in English are t, k, and p — which are unvoiced, and d, g, and b — which are voiced, where the word plosive is derived from 1660s, "tending to explode," from Latin explos-, past participle stem of explodere "drive out, reject" (see explosion) + -ive. As a noun, from 1874. Related: Explosives (n.); explosively; explosiveness.

Explosive, INDEED! After the breath is released from its pent up, plosive stop, one's precious oral and/or any intermingled nasal fluid(s) are eruptively sprayed, spewed, emitted, discharged, aerosolized, ejected, expelled, scattered, gushed, gobbed, and/or spritzed into the general convivial atmosphere and/or directly upon the visage and/or personage of any nearby interlocutor within the gravity's rainbow range of your liquid projectile.

Miss Word Manners advises masks for those infectious Norwegians and other dialecticians that are unable to avoid the use of words containing plosives. Alternatively, the mannerly speaker might choose to turn one's head away from the interlocutor during the pronunciation of words containing plosives. A mannerly speaker of the female gendered or preferred persuasion may choose to unsheathe, open, and raise a hand fan to cover one's gentle mouth just prior to uttering a plosive consonant. The use of one's inner elbow or one's hand would be Miss Word Manners' options of last resort.

From A Year with Rilke, December 6 Entry
Parting, from New Prams

I have felt what it is to part.
I know it still: a dark, invincible
cruel something, which reveals again
the depth of our bond, and tears it in two.

How unguarded I was as I faced it.
I felt you pulling me and letting me go,
while staying behind, merging with all women,
becoming nothing more than this:

a waving hand, no longer intended for me alone;
a waving that continues and grows indistinct.
Perhaps a blossoming plum tree
from which a bird has just taken flight.

Orchard in Blossom (Plum Trees)
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.





*In the dictionary.