Word-Wednesday for February 14, 2024

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for February 14, 2024, the seventh Wednesday of the year, the eighth Wednesday of winter, and the forty-fifty day of the year, with three-hundred twenty-one days remaining.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for February 14, 2024
Corvus corax nunc nidificant
Ravens pair up between two and four years of age and mate for life, as do some Wannaskans. They (ravens) build their nests of sticks in February, which may be as big as five feet across and two feet high. The hen lays 3-7 eggs and incubates them for 20-25 days. Nestlings remain in the nest 28-50 days.

February 14 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


February 14 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily by 11:00am, usually.


Earth/Moon Almanac for February 14, 2024
Sunrise: 7:35am; Sunset: 5:42pm; 3 minutes, 22 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 9:39m; Moonset: doesn't set today; waxing crescent, 22% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for February 14, 2024
                Average            Record              Today
High             19                     43                    27
Low              -5                   -49                    11

Sparrows
by Bill Holm

Morning after first snow—
outside my kitchen window,
 gray sparrows flap up
and down on a sagging clothesline.
It is a corn dance
in honor of sunshine on snow.
What joy in a sparrow's body
as he jumps and eats—
a world of red barns,
snow, old clotheslines
and corn kernels is enough.
No brooding on hunger and death,
no suspicion among the sparrows.
I return from seeing a woman,
full of joy and dancing in my body—
lie awake all night
putting away old dreams like a man
packing for a long trip.
Now it is clear: her face
come to me, and I sink 
into sleep like childhood,
rising hours later to bright sun,
sparrows dancing on the clothesline.
In a world of grief, no one 
has any right to such gifts
as I am given; I take them,
put on my feathers, and go
dance in the snow.

February 14 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• Valentine’s Day
• National Cream-filled Chocolate Day
• National Ferris Wheel Day
• National Organ Donor Day
• Arizona Statehood Day
• Oregon Statehood Day
• Ash Wednesday
• Feast Day of Manchán of Mohill

February 14 Word Riddle
Who determined the spelling of February?*


February 14 Word Pun
A backwards poet writes inverse.


February 14 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
TABLE D'HÔTE, n., A caterer's thrifty concession to the universal passion for irresponsibility.

    Old Paunchinello, freshly wed,
    Took Madam P. to table,
    And there deliriously fed
    As fast as he was able.

    "I dote upon good grub," he cried,
    Intent upon its throatage.
    "Ah, yes," said the neglected bride,
    "You're in your table d'hôtage."
    —Associated Poets


February 14 Etymology Word of the Week
plenary
/ˈple-nə-rē/ adj., (of a meeting) to be attended by all participants at a conference or assembly, who otherwise meet in smaller groups; unqualified, absolute, from early 15th century, plenarie, "full, complete," earlier plenar (mid-13th century), from Old French plenier and directly from Medieval Latin plenarius "entire, complete," from Latin plenus "full, filled, greatly crowded; stout, pregnant; abundant, abounding; complete," from Proto-Indo-European root pele- "to fill." Of an assembly, "fully attended," 1530s. Meaning "having full power" is from 1861.


February 14 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1747 Astronomer James Bradley presents his discovery of the wobbling motion of the Earth on its axis to the Royal Society, London.
• 1870 Esther Morris appointed US' first female in Justice of the Peace in South Pass City, Wyoming, after previous justice, R.S. Barr, resigned to protest passage of Wyoming Territory's women's suffrage amendment in 1869.
• 1870 Seraph Young becomes the first woman to legally vote in the modern United States, two days after the Utah legislature passed a law allowing women the vote.
• 1894 Venus is both a morning star & evening star.
• 1895 Oscar Wilde's play Importance of Being Earnest premieres.
• 1920 League of Women Voters forms in Chicago.
• 1921 Little Review faces obscenity charges for publishing Ulysses, in New York.
• 1967 Aretha Franklin records her single Respect.
• 1989 Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini issues a fatwa calling for the death of Salman Rushdie and his publishers due to his novel Satanic Verses.

February 14 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1621 Sybilla Schwarz, German baroque poet.
• 1692 Pierre-Claude Nivelle de La Chaussée, French writer.
• 1817 Frederick Douglass.
• 1830 Frances Cashel Hoey, Irish writer.
• 1838 Margaret E. Knight, American inventor of the flat-bottomed paper bag.
• 1847 Anna Howard Shaw, American suffragette.
• 1856 Frank Harris, Irish-American writer.
• 1878 Daniel Corkery, Irish writer.
• 1879 Albin Polasek, Czech sculptor.
• 1881 William John Gruffydd, Welsh poet.
• 1884 Kostas Varnalis, Greek poet.
• 1890 Nina Hamnett, Welsh artist and writer.
• 1905 Jerrard Tickell, Irish writer.
• 1912 Edmund G. Love, American author.
• 1913 Ab Visser, Dutch poet.
• 1916 Joseph O'Conor, Irish playwright.
• 1916 Wawrzyniec Żuławski, Polish composer.
• 1918 Valentin Iremonger, Irish poet.
• 1921 Skeezix, of Gasoline Alley comic strip discovered on Wallets' doorstep.
• 1925 Val Mulkerns, Irish writer.
• 1928 Juan Garcia Hortelano, Spanish author.
• 1933 Míla Myslíková, Czech writer.
• 1936 John Kingerlee, Irish artist.
• 1945 George O'Brien, Irish writer.

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

• bhurta: /भुर्ता/ n., a lightly fried mixture of mashed vegetables (chakata) in the cuisine of the Indian subcontinent.
• contumely: /ˈkän-tyo͝m-lē/ n., insolent or insulting language or treatment.
• entelechy: /ənˈ-‘tel-ə-kē/ n., the realization of potential; the supposed vital principle that guides the development and functioning of an organism or other system or organization.
• gricer: /ˈgraɪ-sə(r)/ n., a railway enthusiast, esp. one who assiduously seeks out and photographs unusual trains; loosely, a train-spotter.
• hambo: /ˈhäm-bü/ n., Swedish folk dance in three-four time.
• ibidem: /ˈi-bə-ˌdem/ adv., in the same place.
• obolary: /ˈɒ-bəl-ə-rɪ/ adj.,  poor or having only coins of low value in one's possession.
• pellitory: /ˈpel-ə-tô-rē/ n., a European plant of the nettle family with greenish flowers, which grows on or at the foot of walls or in stony places; a plant of the daisy family, Anacyclus pyrethrum, with a pungent root once used as a remedy for toothache.
• rikka: /RICK-uh/ n., a style of traditional Japanese flower arranging, typified by large arrangements intended to evoke landscape or the splendor of nature.
• sannyasi: /sən-ˈyäs-ē/ n., a Hindu religious mendicant.

February 14, 2023 Word-Wednesday Feature
Yogiisms
Enough with football for another season. Anticipating the conclusion of the Stanley Cup ceremonies in summer, we can also look forward to the least exciting of the world’s professional sports: baseball. If there was ever a sport invented for the participation of writers, it’s baseball. In terms of total action to total down time—even including debatable action such as pitches, trots and pickoff throws—the total action time in an average 2-hour, 58-second game of professional baseball averages 17 minutes and 58 seconds. This equals 10%, giving the player-author a lot of time to compose. Yogi Berra took advantage of this opportunity.

In honor of malaprops, malaphors, and squibs, Word-Wednesday today presents some of Yogi’s best:

If you ask me anything I don’t know, I’m not going to answer.

You can observe a lot by just watching.

Take it with a grin of salt.

A nick isn't worth a dime these days.

I usually take a two-hour nap from one to four.

This is like deja vu all over again.

Do you mean now?
(when asked for the time)

The towels were so thick there I could hardly close my suitcase.

If the fans won't come to the park, you can't stop them.

I always thought that record would stand until it was broken.

Little League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets.

Never answer an anonymous letter.

Thanks. You don't look so hot yourself.
(after being told he looks cool)

You should always go to other people's funerals; otherwise they won't come to yours.

It gets late early out there.
(referring to shaded portions of left field in the stadium)

If you come to a fork in the road, take it.

Nobody goes there any more; it's too crowded.

He hits from both sides of the plate; he's amphibious.

You wouldn't have won if we'd beaten you.

We have deep depth.

You’ve got to be very careful if you don’t know where you are going, because you might not get there.

The future ain't what it used to be.

Even Napoleon had his Watergate.

I never blame myself when I’m not hitting. I just blame the bat and if it keeps up, I change bats. After all, if I know it isn’t my fault that I’m not hitting, how can I get mad at myself?

Slump? I ain't in no slump. I just ain't hitting.

He must have made it before he died.
(referring to a Steve McQueen movie)

I knew I was going to take the wrong train, so I left early.

If you can't imitate him, don't copy him.
(talking to a young player trying to emulate Frank Robinson's swing)

All pitchers are liars or crybabies.

I can't hit and think at the same time.

Pair up in threes.

If the world were perfect, it wouldn't be.

Baseball is 90% mental — the other half is physical.

I'm not going to buy my kids an encyclopedia. Let them walk to school, like I did.

You'd better cut the pizza in four pieces, because I'm not hungry enough to eat six.

It was impossible to get a conversation going; everybody was talking too much.

I wish I had an answer to that, because I'm tired of answering that question.

I made a wrong mistake.

So I'm ugly. I never saw anyone hit with his face.

Why buy good luggage? You only use it when you travel.

We were the overwhelming underdogs.

I want to thank you for making this day necessary.
(in reference to Yogi Berra Appreciation Day)

It ain't the heat; it's the humility.

In baseball, you don't know nothing.

I didn't really say everything I said.

From A Year with Rilke, February 14 Entry
Love Song, from New Prams

How shall I hold my soul
to not intrude upon yours? How shall I
lift it beyond you to other things?
I would gladly lodge it
with lost objects in the dark,
in some far still place
that does not tremble when you tremble.

But all that touches us, you and me,
plays us together, like the bow of a violin
that from two strings draws forth one voice.
On what instrument are we strung?
What musician is playing us?
Oh sweet song.

The Kiss
 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.





*The same person who decided how Wednesday should be spelled.