Word-Wednesday for November 20, 2024

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for November 20, 2024, the forty-seventh Wednesday of the year, the ninth Wednesday of fall, the third Wednesday of November, and the three-hundred-twenty-fourth day of the year, with forty-one days remaining.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for November 20, 2024
Wild turkey
Meleagris gallopavo is a Minnesota DNR success story, with rising populations over the last 25 years, and now a common sight along Thompson and other forest roads of Beltrami Island State Forest. The males, gobblers, are black or gray with tiny head, red neck, and wattle [/WÄ-tᵊl/ n., a fleshy pendulous process usually about the head or neck (as of a bird)], and the females, hens, are brownish-gray. Turkeys eat almost anything they can catch, including ferns, grasses, grain, buds, berries, insects, acorns, and even frogs and snakes. Wild turkeys form flocks of six to forty birds that roost in trees each evening. In 1782, the turkey lost by a single vote to the bald eagle to become the national bird.

November 20 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


November 20 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily, occasionally.


Earth/Moon Almanac for November 20, 2024
Sunrise: 7:46am; Sunset: 4:38pm; 2 minutes, 29 seconds less daylight today
Moonrise: 9:11pm; Moonset: 12:48pm, waning gibbous, 74% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for November 20, 2024
                Average            Record              Today
High             30                     49                     35
Low              14                     -18                     29

When the Frost is on the Punkin
by James Whitcomb Riley

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock,
And you hear the kyouck and gobble of the struttin’ turkey-cock,
And the clackin’ of the guineys, and the cluckin’ of the hens,
And the rooster’s hallylooyer as he tiptoes on the fence;
O, it’s then’s the times a feller is a-feelin’ at his best,
With the risin’ sun to greet him from a night of peaceful rest,
As he leaves the house, bareheaded, and goes out to feed the stock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.

They’s something kindo’ harty-like about the atmusfere
When the heat of summer’s over and the coolin’ fall is here—
Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossums on the trees,
And the mumble of the hummin’-birds and buzzin’ of the bees;
But the air’s so appetizin’; and the landscape through the haze
Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days
Is a pictur’ that no painter has the colorin’ to mock—
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock.

The husky, rusty russel of the tossels of the corn,
And the raspin’ of the tangled leaves, as golden as the morn;
The stubble in the furries—kindo’ lonesome-like, but still
A-preachin’ sermuns to us of the barns they growed to fill;
The strawstack in the medder, and the reaper in the shed;
The hosses in theyr stalls below—the clover over-head!—
O, it sets my hart a-clickin’ like the tickin’ of a clock,
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock!

Then your apples all is gethered, and the ones a feller keeps
Is poured around the celler-floor in red and yeller heaps;
And your cider-makin’ ’s over, and your wimmern-folks is through
With their mince and apple-butter, and theyr souse and saussage, too! ...
I don’t know how to tell it—but ef sich a thing could be
As the Angels wantin’ boardin’, and they’d call around on me—
I’d want to ’commodate ’em—all the whole-indurin’ flock—
When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock!

November 20 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• Geographic Information System (GIS) Day
• National Absurdity Day
• National Peanut Butter Fudge Day
• National Child’s Day
• National EducationSupport Professionals Day
• Alascattalo Day
• Name Your PC Day

November 20 Word Pun

November 20 Word Riddle
What’s the plural of octopus?*


November 20 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
LEXICOGRAPHER, n., A pestilent fellow who, under the pretense of recording some particular stage in the development of a language, does what he can to arrest its growth, stiffen its flexibility and mechanize its methods. For your lexicographer, having written his dictionary, comes to be considered "as one having authority," whereas his function is only to make a record, not to give a law. The natural servility of the human understanding having invested him with judicial power, surrenders its right of reason and submits itself to a chronicle as if it were a statute. Let the dictionary (for example) mark a good word as "obsolete" or "obsolescent" and few men thereafter venture to use it, whatever their need of it and however desirable its restoration to favor—whereby the process of impoverishment is accelerated and speech decays. On the contrary, the bold and discerning writer who, recognizing the truth that language must grow by innovation if it grow at all, makes new words and uses the old in an unfamiliar sense, has no following and is tartly reminded that "it isn't in the dictionary"—although down to the time of the first lexicographer (Heaven forgive him!) no author ever had used a word that was in the dictionary. In the golden prime and high noon of English speech; when from the lips of the great Elizabethans fell words that made their own meaning and carried it in their very sound; when a Shakspeare and a Bacon were possible, and the language now rapidly perishing at one end and slowly renewed at the other was in vigorous growth and hardy preservation—sweeter than honey and stronger than a lion—the lexicographer was a person unknown, the dictionary a creation which his Creator had not created him to create.

    God said: "Let Spirit perish into Form,"
    And lexicographers arose, a swarm!
    Thought fled and left her clothing, which they took,
    And catalogued each garment in a book.
    Now, from her leafy covert when she cries:
    "Give me my clothes and I'll return," they rise
    And scan the list, and say without compassion:
    "Excuse us—they are mostly out of fashion."
                                                    —Sigismund Smith


November 20 Etymology Word of the Week
energy
/EN-ər-jē/ n., the strength and vitality required for sustained physical or mental activity; power derived from the utilization of physical or chemical resources, especially to provide light and heat or to work machines, from 1590s, "force of expression," from French énergie (16th century), from Late Latin energia, from Greek energeia "activity, action, operation," from energos "active, working," from en "at" (see en-) + -ergos "that works," from ergon "work, that which is wrought; business; action" (from Proto-Indo-European root werg- "to do").

Used by Aristotle with a sense of "actuality, reality, existence" (opposed to "potential") but this was misunderstood in Late Latin and afterward as "force of expression," as the power which calls up realistic mental pictures. Broader meaning of "power" in English is first recorded 1660s. Scientific use is from 1807. Energy crisis first attested 1970.


November 20 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1789 New Jersey is first state to ratify Bill of Rights.
• 1805 Ludwig van Beethoven's Fidelio, his only opera, premieres.
• 1820 Whaling ship Essex attacked and sunk by a sperm whale in the southern Pacific, only eight of the 20 crew men eventually survive (through cannibalism); inspiration for the novel Moby-Dick.
• 1852 Charles Reade and Tom Taylor's historical comedy play Masks & Faces premieres.
• 1886 Sherlock Holmes's first story A Study in Scarlet is accepted by publisher Ward and Lock with payment of £25.
• 1906 George Bernard Shaw's play Doctor's Dilemma premieres.
• 1911 Gustav Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde (Song of the Earth) premieres.
• 1917 Ukrainian Republic declared.
• 1922 Zoe Akins' play Texas Nightingale premieres.
• 1929 Salvador Dali's first one-man show.
• 1934 Lillian Hellman's Children's Hour premieres .
• 1946 Lillian Hellman's play Another Part of the Forest premieres.
• 1958 American puppeteers Jim and Jane Henson establish Muppets, Inc.

November 20 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1621 Avvakum, Russian Orthodox writer.
• 1625 Artus Quellinus II, Flemish sculptor.
• 1625 Paulus Potter, Dutch painter.
• 1652 Romanus Weichlein, Austrian composer.
• 1752 Thomas Chatterton, English poet.
• 1757 Giovanni Battista Gaiani, Italian composer.
• 1759 Nikolaus Paul Zmeskall, Hungarian composer.
• 1765 Friedrich Heinrich Himmel, German composer,.
• 1766 John Wall Calcott, English composer.
• 1827 Edmond Dédé, Creole-American composer.
• 1834 Franjo Ksaver Kuhač, Croatian composer.
• 1839 Christian Wilberg, German painter.
• 1850 Arthur Goring Thomas, English composer.
• 1858 Selma Lagerlöf, Swedish author, first woman to win Nobel Prize for Literature.
• 1873 Daniel Gregory Mason, American composer.
• 1879 Franz Pfemfert, German writer.
• 1881 Arthur Marshall, American ragtime composer.
• 1886 Liam Ó Rinn, Irish wirter
• 1896 Yevgenia Ginzburg, Russian writer.
• 1897 Margaret Sutherland, Australian composer.
• 1899 Juan Vicente Lecuna, Venezuelan composer.
• 1900 Chester Gould, American cartoonist of Dick Tracy.
• 1901 František Michl, Czech painter.
• 1904 Alexandra Danilova, Russian-American ballerina.
• 1910 Pauli Murray, African American poet.
• 1911 Thomas Joseph Walsh (Wexford), Irish writer.
• 1913 Irina Nijinska, Russian-Polish-American ballet dancer.
• 1916 John Elwyn, British painter.
• 1917 Max Georg Baumann, German composer.
• 1919 Dulcie Gray, British author.
• 1920 Armin Schibler, Swiss composer.
• 1920 Pernell Charity, American blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter.
• 1923 Nadine Gordimer, South African author.
• 1924 Serge Golovine, French ballet choreographer.
• 1925 Maya Plisetskaya, Russian prima ballerina.
• 1926 John Gardner, English spy and thriller novelist.
• 1926  Miroslav Tichý, Czech photographer and painter.
• 1932 John Barnes Chance, American composer.
• 1936 Don DeLillo, American author.
• 1937 Viktoriya Tokareva, Russian playwright.
• 1940 Helma Sanders-Brahms, German writer.
• 1941 Haseena Moin, Urdu playwright.
• 1942 Meredith Monk, American choreograph.
• 1945 Rachid Mimouni, Algerian author.
• 1966 Jill Thompson, American comic book writer and artist.
• 1972 Sheema Kalbasi, Iranian born poet.

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

• asafetida: /a-sə-FED-i-də/ n., a fetid resinous gum obtained from the roots of a herbaceous plant, used in herbal medicine and Indian cooking.
• biretta: /bə-RE-də/ n., a square cap with three flat projections on top, worn by Roman Catholic clergymen.
• clowder: /KLOU-dər/ n., a group of cats.
• doss: /däs/ n., an instance of sleeping in rough accommodations; v., sleep (in rough or inexpensive accommodations).
• fictile: /FIK-tīl/ adj., made of earth or clay by a potter; relating to pottery or its manufacture; capable of being molded; plastic.
• habiliment: /hə-BIL-ə-mənt/ n., clothing.
• meibomian: /mī-BŌ-mē-ən/ n., of a gland, one of the tubular sebaceous glands along the edge of the eyelids that discharge a fatty secretion which lubricates the surface of the eye, also known as tarsal gland.
• nyayo: /NYIGH-oh/ n., Kenyan English and Tanzanian English, a precedent or example set by a person. Now often in to follow a person's nyayo: to follow in someone's footsteps.
• picklehaube: /PIK-əl-hau̇bə/ n., a spiked helmet worn by German soldiers.
• shtoom: /shtoohm/ adj., BRITISH slang, silent, dumb.

November 20, 2024 Word-Wednesday Feature
haal
/hal/ /حَال/ n., also rendered hal, halal, ahwal, and ahwaal, is Arabic Sufi for a special-purpose, temporary state of consciousness, generally understood to be the product of a Sufi's spiritual practices while on one’s way toward God. It comes up often in White Teeth, by Zadie Smith, as she explores the different notions of past, present, and future in the context of immigrant communities coexisting in London. Related Sufi terms sprinkled throughout White Teeth include waid (ecstasy), istilam (annihilation), bast (happiness), qabd (despondency), sahû (awakening), and  sukr (intoxication). Look for other interesting words from other spiritual traditions in the coming weeks as Word-Wednesday explores the best expressions of humanity's many faiths.

In The Spiritual Life of Children by Robert Coles, the title of Chapter 10 is Islamic Surrender — where Chapter 9 is Christian Salvation, and Chapter 11 is Jewish Righteousness — as his way of distinguishing how each of these three Judeo-Christian traditions emphasize their faith messages when teaching their children. This explains why Sufis and other Muslims have so many words that describe the mental/emotional/physical/spiritual states of their practitioners, where these states are guideposts on the path to complete surrender to God.

To really understand the meaning of haal, Word-Wednesday drew upon the words of Omid Safi, Iranian-American professor of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at Duke University, who wrote the article, The Disease of Being Busy. Safi helps us understand the haal in the following excerpt from that article:

In many Muslim cultures, when you want to ask them how they’re doing, you ask: in Arabic, Kayf haal-ik? or, in Persian, Haal-e shomaa chetoreh? How is your haal?

What is this haal that you inquire about? It is the transient state of one’s heart. In reality, we ask, “How is your heart doing at this very moment, at this breath?” When I ask, “How are you?” that is really what I want to know.

I am not asking how many items are on your to-do list, nor asking how many items are in your inbox. I want to know how your heart is doing, at this very moment. Tell me. Tell me your heart is joyous, tell me your heart is aching, tell me your heart is sad, tell me your heart craves a human touch. Examine your own heart, explore your soul, and then tell me something about your heart and your soul.

Tell me you remember you are still a human being, not just a human doing. Tell me you’re more than just a machine, checking off items from your to-do list. Have that conversation, that glance, that touch. Be a healing conversation, one filled with grace and presence.

Put your hand on my arm, look me in the eye, and connect with me for one second. Tell me something about your heart, and awaken my heart. Help me remember that I too am a full and complete human being, a human being who also craves a human touch.

From A Year with Rilke, November 20 Entry
Paintings, from Letters to Countess Margot Sizzo-Noris-Crouy, April 12, 1922

I am most struck by the small paintings you sent. I experience in them your old form, in miniature, where vast inner space is mirrored, where even winter and snow (and we have our share of both!) bespeak huge distance and wandering, the freshness and joy of pure undiluted youth.

Winter Landscape
by Vasily Kandinsky

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.







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