Word-Wednesday for February 21, 2024

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for February 21, 2024, the eighth Wednesday of the year, the ninth Wednesday of winter, and the fifty-second day of the year, with three-hundred fourteen days remaining, brought to you by Bead Gypsy Studio in downtown Roseau, featuring the Frost&Flannel  Celebration, February 24 and 25, with in-store specials, coffee, and treats.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for February 21, 2024
Chipmunks
Thanks to the mild winter, Neotamias minimus are starting to venture out from their burrow larders where they spend most of the winter. The common name originally may have been spelled "chitmunk", from the native Odawa (Ottawa) word jidmoonh, meaning "red squirrel". More locally, the Ojibwe word is ajidamoo. The earliest form cited by the Oxford English Dictionary in 1842 has a religious connotation: "chipmonk". Other early forms include "chipmuck" and "chipminck" depending on how many beers the speaker had consumed, and in the 1830s they were also referred to as "chip squirrels". Etymologists conjecture that many of these English forms all had to do with the sounds the rodents verbalize. In the mid-19th century, John James Audubon and his sons included a lithograph of the chipmunk in their Viviparous Quadrupeds of North America, calling it the "chipping squirrel [or] hackee". Chipmunks have also been referred to as "ground squirrels".

February 21 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


February 21 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily by 11:00am, usually.


Earth/Moon Almanac for February 21, 2024
Sunrise: 7:22am; Sunset: 5:53pm; 3 minutes, 28 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 2:43pm; Moonset: 6:39am, waxing gibbous, 90% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for February 21, 2024
                Average            Record              Today
High             21                     46                     35
Low             -2                    -42                     23


In Memory of a Happy Day in February
by Anne Bronte

Blessed be Thou for all the joy
My soul has felt today!
O let its memory stay with me
And never pass away!
I was alone, for those I loved
Were far away from me,
The sun shone on the withered grass,
The wind blew fresh and free.

Was it the smile of early spring
That made my bosom glow?
'Twas sweet, but neither sun nor wind
Could raise my spirit so.

Was it some feeling of delight,
All vague and undefined?
No, 'twas a rapture deep and strong,
Expanding in the mind!

Was it a sanguine view of life
And all its transient bliss­-
A hope of bright prosperity?
O no, it was not this!

It was a glimpse of truth divine
Unto my spirit given
Illumined by a ray of light
That shone direct from heaven!

I felt there was a God on high
By whom all things were made.
I saw His wisdom and his power
In all his works displayed.

But most throughout the moral world
I saw his glory shine;
I saw His wisdom infinite,
His mercy all divine.

Deep secrets of his providence
In darkness long concealed
Were brought to my delighted eyes
And graciously revealed.

But while I wondered and adored
His wisdom so divine,
I did not tremble at his power,
I felt that God was mine.

I knew that my Redeemer lived,
I did not fear to die;
Full sure that I should rise again
To immortality.

I longed to view that bliss divine
Which eye hath never seen,
To see the glories of his face
Without the veil between.

February 21 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Grain-free Day
• National Sticky Bun Day
• International Mother Language Day

February 21 Word Riddle
If Napoleon had Little Man Complex, what does the skinny person have?*
(Groan Warning: Chairman Joe Original)


February 21 Word Pun
Confucius says Sven who sits on tack gets the point.
Confucius says Sven who shoots off mouth must expect to lose face.
Confucius says Sven who falls into vat of molten glass makes a spectacle of himself.
Confucius says Sven who stands on toilet is high on pot.


February 21 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
FEMALE: n., One of the opposing, or unfair, sex.

The Maker, at Creation's birth,
With living things had stocked the earth.
From elephants to bats and snails,
They all were good, for all were males.
But when the Devil came and saw
He said: "By Thine eternal law
Of growth, maturity, decay,
These all must quickly pass away
And leave untenanted the earth
Unless Thou dost establish birth"—
Then tucked his head beneath his wing
To laugh—he had no sleeve—the thing
With deviltry did so accord,
That he'd suggested to the Lord.
The Master pondered this advice,
Then shook and threw the fateful dice
Wherewith all matters here below
Are ordered, and observed the throw;
Then bent His head in awful state,
Confirming the decree of Fate.
From every part of earth anew
The conscious dust consenting flew,
While rivers from their courses rolled
To make it plastic for the mould.
Enough collected (but no more,
For niggard Nature hoards her store)
He kneaded it to flexile clay,
While Nick unseen threw some away.
And then the various forms He cast,
Gross organs first and finer last;
No one at once evolved, but all
By even touches grew and small
Degrees advanced, till, shade by shade,
To match all living things He'd made
Females, complete in all their parts
Except (His clay gave out) the hearts.
"No matter," Satan cried; "with speed
I'll fetch the very hearts they need"—
So flew away and soon brought back
The number needed, in a sack.
That night earth rang with sounds of strife—
Ten million males each had a wife;
That night sweet Peace her pinions spread
O'er Hell—ten million devils dead!
                                                        —G.J.

February 21 Etymology Word of the Week

February 21 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1764 English House of Commons tries John Wilkes in absentia and finds him guilty of publishing a seditious libel for his Essay on Women, an obscene parody of Alexander Pope’s Essay on Man.
• 1828 First American Indian newspaper in U.S., Cherokee Phoenix, published.
• 1846 First U.S. woman telegrapher is Sarah G. Bagley of Lowell, Massachusetts.
• 1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels publish The Communist Manifesto in London.
• 1878 World's first telephone directory published with 50 subscribers in New Harbor, Connecticut.
• 1925 First issue of The New Yorker magazine published.

February 21 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1684 Justus van Effen, Dutch writer.
• 1730 Charles L Fournier, Flemish writer.
• 1795 Francisco Manuel da Silva, Brazilian composer.
• 1801 Johann Wenzel Kalliwoda [Jan Kalivoda], Czech violinist.
• 1815 Ernest Meissonier, French painter and sculptor.
• 1817 Jose Zorrilla, Spanish poet.
• 1860 Karel Matěj Čapek-Chod, Czech writer.
• 1877 Totius [Jacob D. du Toit], South African poet.
• 1888 Clemence Dane [Winifred Ashton], British novelist and playwright.
• 1903 Anaïs Nin, French-Cuban writer.
• 1907 W. H. Auden [Wystan Hugh Auden}, British-American poet.
• 1917 Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, Irish writer.
• 1927 Erma Bombeck, American humorist.
• 1933 Nina Simone, American pianist, singer, songwriter.
• 1961 Mike Nielsen, Irish musician.
• 1962 David Foster Wallace, American writer.

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

• boffin: /ˈbäf-ən/ n., a person engaged in scientific or technical research; a person with knowledge or a skill considered to be complex, arcane, and difficult.
• bougie: /ˈbü-ˌzhē/ adj., marked by a concern for wealth, possessions, and respectability.
• capharnaum: /kə-ˈfär-nəm/ n., a confused jumble; a place marked by a disorderly accumulation of objects.
• concetto: /kuhn-CHED-oh/ n., a fanciful, ingenious, or witty expression, metaphor, turn of thought, etc.; a conceit.
• dupatta: /də-ˈpəd-ə/ n., a length of material worn as a scarf or head covering, typically with a salwar, by women from South Asia.
• efter: /ˈef-tər/ n., a thief who frequents theaters.
• foison: /ˈfȯi-zᵊn/ n., Scottish, physical energy or strength.
• mohel: /ˈmȯi(-ə)l/ n., a person who performs ritual Jewish circumcisions.
• snirtle: /ˈsnər-tᵊl/ v., to laugh with snorts.
• yatri: /यात्री/ n., a Hindu pilgrim or traveler; one taking part in a yatra.

February 21, 2023 Word-Wednesday Feature
Glossary of Snow and Ice
We're seeing some interesting snow and ice conditions this year, so what better time to expand our vocabularies. The Dartmouth College Library features the Encyclopedia Arctica, a fifteen-volume unpublished reference work compiled from 1947 through 1951. The Word-Wednesday staff has diligently screened the Glossary of Snow, Ice, and Permafrost Terms from Encyclopedia Arctica, Volume 1: Geology and Allied Subjects for some choice words about snow or snow conditions. After all, we still have March awaiting.

• agdlissartoq: /ahg-DLEES-sar-toq/ n., Eskimo, an upwarp of ground produced by various forces acting individually or in combination. These causative forces are usually due to freezing, groundwater pressure, and crystallization.
• banshee: /ˈban-SHē// n., a An unearthly, doleful, long-drawn-out screech head in winter on large northern lakes when a crack, tens of miles long, forms through ice contraction caused by a drop in temperature. Presumably the sound would be like a gunshot if all of it reached the ear simultaneously; but the sound from the nearest part of the crack arrives first, and from more remote parts later and later, producing the effect of a banshee scream.
• congeliturbation: /kun-jel-it-er-BEY-shun/ n., frost action including frost heaving and differential and mass movements; includes solifluction and sludging.
• depergelation: /dee-per-juh-LEY-shun/ n., the act or process of thawing permanently frozen ground.
• eiskristallen: /ĪS-kris-tal-len/ n., German, ice crystals.
• firn: /firn/ n., granular snow, especially on the upper part of a glacier, where it has not yet been compressed into ice; snow, compacted by thermal variations, in transition from soft snow to glacier ice; it is said to be befirned when its density reaches about 0.4 mm.
• glitter: /ˈɡlid-ər/ n., such icing over a frozen land that it prevents animals like cattle
• and reindeer from feeding because the vegetation is caked in ice. A glitter is produced when just enough rain falls on snow to convert it into slush, which then freezes. If there is too much rain, the snow is converted to water that flows away; if it rains too little, a crust instead of a glitter is formed on the snow. The word is said to be from the north of Scotland or from the Orkneys.
• haycock: /ˈhā-käk/ n., isolated ice blocks in the form of a haycock, thrown up above the surface of land ice or shelf ice resulting from pressure or ice movement - after a conical heap of hay in a field. Radiating crevasses are always present.
• island of talik: /ˈī-lənd əv ˈtälik/ n., unfrozen ground beneath the seasonally frozen ground (active layer), surrounded on its sides by the permafrost, and extending vertically to the bottom of the permafrost.
• jökulhlaup: /YOH-kul-hloyp/ Icelandic, the word means glacier-leap, implying a sudden uplift and fracturing of a glacier, therefore perhaps to be translated, glacier-burst; it describes an excessively rapid large-scale glacial ablation, due to subglacial volcanic activity coupled with the resultant torrential runoff, which carries huge blocks of ice as well as glacially derived rock debris over an outwash plain. These cataclysms of destruction occur chiefly in Iceland, particularly on its south coast, when a wall of water and broken ice, described as tens and even scores of feet high, rushes down a valley, sweeping away not merely all bridges, roads and other man-made things but also the soil, to make the valley in effect a desert.
• kannik: /kah-NEEK/ n., Eskimo, falling snow — applied to snow only while it is on its way from the sky to the ground.
• lolly ice: /ˈlä-lē īs/ n., fine particles of ice in water which, when they are first formed, are colloidal and are not visible in the water in which they are floating.
• mollition: /moh-LISH-un/ v., the act or process of thawing the mollisol or active layer.
• natirvik: /NAH-teer-vik/n., Eskimo, snow drifting along the ground, high enough so the horizon is hidden but not high enough to obscure the sky as you look up, for then it would be a birktok [blizzard].
• omelettes de glace: /OH-muh-let duh glahs/ n., French, pancake ice.
• penitent snow or ice: /ˈpen-ə-tnt snō ôr īs/ n., snow or ice which has been ablated until curious pillars or columns of snow remain standing out from the lowered snow level. The term is a translation from Spanish, nieve penitente; the formation is rarely observed in the polar regions.
• quor: /kwor/ n., the ice that results when water oozes from the ground in winter and freezes. Usually this ice is partly made up from the slush first produced when the upcoming water wets snow that is already on the ground.
• regelation: /ree-juh-LEY-shun/v., the process involving partial thawing of ice crystals at points of contact where pressure is most intense, followed by prompt refreezing when the pressure is relieved.
• sallying: /SAL-ee-ing/ v., rolling vessel by means of crew running from side to side in order to loosen ice round the ship and allow her to make headway.
• triple point: /ˈtrip-(ə)l point/ n., the conditions of temperature and pressure under which certain substances, including water, may exist simultaneously as a vapor, liquid, and solid; in the case of water at atmospheric pressure, this point has a temperature of 0.01°F.
• unconformity iceberg: /ˌən-kən-ˈfôr-mə-dē ˈīsˌbərɡ/ n., an iceberg in transition, having part blue water-formed ice and part firn. Often contains many crevasses and silt bands.
• vechnaia merzlota: /VYEHCH-nah-yah meerz-LOH-tah/ n., Russian, permafrost.
• wild snow: n., a name for snow which has fallen at say −15°C. and which, in perfectly windless conditions, will lie in unbelievably loose fashion with just here and there the ends of the plumes of the flakes touching. Such snow is of great lightness, amounting to an almost impalpable fluffiness, and flows off a shovel like water; it is called neige sauvage or Wildschnee by the Swiss.
• young ice: /yəNG īs/ n., newly frozen level ice approximately 2 to 8 inches thick. At 2 inches sea ice is wet with brine, and snow falling on it dissolves even in below zero Fahrenheit temperatures; at 8 inches it is slightly damp with saturation-point brine. Up to 3 or 4 inches young ice is neither hard nor tough. A slab of 2-inch freshwater ice will splinter like glass if dropped on a rock but 2-inch or even 3-inch sea ice will splash like ice cream. When seen in contrast with snowy older ice the young ice looks black and is sometimes called black ice.
• zero curtain: /ˈzērō ˈkər-tn/ n., a layer of ground between active layer and permafrost where zero temperature ( 0 °C.) lasts a considerable period of time (as long as 115 days a year) during the freezing and thawing of overlying ground.

This is your big chance, word-lovers: come up with a word beginning with the letter x for a snow- or ice-related phenomenon.


From A Year with Rilke, February 21 Entry
To Trust Our Sadness, from Borbeby gärd, Sweden, August 12, 1904, Letters to a Young Poet

Consider whether great changes have not happened deep inside your being in times when you were sad. The only sadnesses that are unhealthy and dangerous are those we carry around in public in order to drown them out. Like illnesses that are treated superficially, they only recede for a while and then break out more severely. Untreated they gather strength inside us and become the rejected, lost, and unloved life that we may die of. If only we could see a little farther than our knowledge reaches and a little beyond the borders of our intuition, we might perhaps bear our sorrows more trustingly than we do our joys. For they are the moments when something new enters us, something unknown. Our feelings grow mute in shy embarrassment, they take a step back, a stillness arises, and the new thing, which no one knows, stands in the midst of it all and says nothing.

Orpheus & Eurydice
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.




*Light Man Thindrome.