Word-Wednesday for November 27, 2024

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for November 27, 2024, the forty-eighth Wednesday of the year, the tenth Wednesday of fall, the fourth Wednesday of November, and the three-hundred-thirty-second day of the year, with thirty-four days remaining.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for November 27, 2024
Somebody’s Grateful for the Snow
Until just two days ago, it was tough going in snowless Wannaska Lepus americanus, otherwise known as the snowshoe hare, because Mother Nature just wasn’t providing the necessary background for their winter coats.

November 27 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


November 27 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily, occasionally.


Earth/Moon Almanac for November 27, 2024
Sunrise: 7:51am; Sunset: 4:32pm; 2 minutes, 3 seconds less daylight today
Moonrise: 4:08am; Moonset: 235pm, waning crescent, 12% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for November 27, 2024
                Average            Record              Today
High             27                     57                     23
Low              10                   -29                     11

First Thanksgiving
by Sharon Olds

When she comes back, from college, I will see
the skin of her upper arms, cool,
matte, glossy. She will hug me, my old
soupy chest against her breasts,
I will smell her hair! She will sleep in this apartment,
her sleep like an untamed, good object,
like a soul in a body. She came into my life the
second great arrival, after him, fresh
from the other world—which lay, from within him,
within me, Those nights, I fed her to sleep,
week after week, the moon rising,
and setting, and waxing—whirling, over the months,
in a slow blur, around our planet.
Now she doesn't need love like that, she has
had it. She will walk in glowing, we will talk,
and then, when she's fast asleep, I'll exult
to have her in that room again,
behind that door! As a child, I caught
bees, by the wings, and held them, some seconds,
looked into their wild faces,
listened to them sing, then tossed them back
into the air—I remember the moment the
arc of my toss swerved, and they entered
the corrected curve of their departure.

November 27 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Craft Jerky Day
• National Bavarian Cream Pie Day
• National Tie One on Day
• National Jukebox Day

November 27 Word Pun
The invention of the spoon was seen as a sensational event at the time.
It caused quite a stir.


November 27 Word Riddle
What do you call a hen who can count her own eggs?*


November 27 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
CLOCK, n. A machine of great moral value to man, allaying his concern for the future by reminding him what a lot of time remains to him.

    A busy man complained one day:
    "I get no time!" "What's that you say?"
    Cried out his friend, a lazy quiz;
    "You have, sir, all the time there is.
    There's plenty, too, and don't you doubt it—
    We're never for an hour without it."
    —Purzil Crofe


November 27 Etymology Word of the Week
thank
/THaNGk/ v., express gratitude to (someone), especially by saying “Thank you”, from Middle English thanken, from Old English þancian, þoncian "give thanks; to recompense, to reward," from Proto-Germanic thankōjanan (source also of Old Saxon thancon, Old Norse þakka, Danish takke, Old Frisian thankia, Old High German danchon, Middle Dutch, Dutch, German danken "to thank"), from thankoz "thought; gratitude" (from Proto-Indo-European root tong- "to think, feel").

It is related phonetically to think as song is to sing; for sense evolution, compare Old High German minna "loving memory," originally "memory." Also compare related Old English noun þanc, þonc, originally "thought," but also "good thoughts, gratitude." By circa 1200 as "express gratitude to." In ironical use, "to blame," from 1550s. To thank (someone) for nothing is recorded from 1703. Related: Thanked; thanking.


November 27 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1574 Selimiye Mosque, a masterpiece of Ottoman architecture, designed by imperial architect Mimar Sinan, officially opens in Edirne, Turkey.
• 1826 John Walker invents friction match in England.
• 1885 First photograph of a meteor taken by Austro-Hungarian photographer Ladislaus Weinek in Prague.
• 1901 Gerhart Hauptmann's play Der rote Hahn premieres.
• 1911 Audience throws vegetables at actors for first recorded time in US.
• 1924 In New York City, the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is held.
• 1926 Béla Bartók's ballet Miraculous Mandarin premieres.
• 1939 Maxwell Anderson's play Key Largo premieres.
• 1962 Sumner Arthur Long's play Never Too Late premieres.
• 1973 Neil Simon's play Good Doctor premieres.

November 27 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1544 Ascanio Trombeti, Italian composer.
• 1668 Pantaleon Hebenstreit, German composer.
• 1691 Josef Antonín Plánický, Czech composer.
• 1732 Johann Joseph Emmert, German composer.
• 1741 Jean-Pierre Duport, French composer.
• 1750 Anton Thadaus Johann Nepomuk Two-Sheds Stamitz, German composer.
• 1759 Franz Krommer, Czech composer.
• 1801 Alexander Egorovich Varlamov, Russian composer.
• 1830 Harrison Millard, American composer.
• 1840 Aleksey Apukhtin, Russian poet.
• 1865 Jose Asunción Silva, Colombian poet.
• 1867 Margaret Ruthven Lang, American composer.
• 1875 Władysław Orkan [Franciszek Ksawery Smaciarz], Polish author.
• 1878 Jatindramohan Bagchi, Indian (Bengali) poet.
• 1878 Mabel Wheeler Daniels, American composer.
• 1878 William Orpen, Irish artist.
• 1879 Adam Tadeusz Wieniawski, Polish composer.
• 1885 Rudolph Reti, Serbian composer.
• 1886 Tsugouharu Foujita, Japanese-French painter.
• 1891 Pedro Salinas, Spanish writer.
• 1893 Stanisław Wiechowicz, Polish composer.
• 1896 Giovanni Battista Angioletti, Italian author.
• 1898 Nelly Wagenaar, Dutch pianist.
• 1907 L. Sprague de Camp, American science fiction author.
• 1909 James Agee, American author.
• 1910 Rodolfo Holzmann, Peruvian composer.
• 1914 Evangeline Bruce, American writer.
• 1918 Ze'ev Wolfgang Steinberg, Israeli composer.
• 1921 Ole Sarvig, Danish writer.
• 1924 Theresia van der Pant, Dutch sculptor.
• 1930 Vladimir Maksimov, Russian writer.
• 1931 Juan Guinjoan, Catalan composer.
• 1935 Johnny Byrne, Irish writer and poet.
• 1937 Gail Sheehy, American author.
• 1940 Maciej Małecki, Polish concert composer.
• 1943 Nicole Brossard, French Canadian poet.
• 1960 Kevin Henkes, American children's book writer/illustrator.
• 1960 Maria Schneider, American composer.
• 1965 Fiachna O'Braonáin, Irish musician.

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

• ampliate: / AM-plee-ayt/ adj., increased in size or scope; extended.
• boozeroo: / boo-zuh-ROO/ n., out drinking; engaged in a bout of heavy drinking.
• cacanny: /ka-KA-nē/ n., the policy of deliberately limiting output at work.
• debenture: /də-BEN-CHər/ n., an unsecured loan certificate issued by a company, backed by general credit rather than by specified assets.
• eisteddfod: /ī-STET͟H-väd/ n., a congress of Welsh bards; a competitive festival of music and poetry in Wales.
• kip: /kip/ n., bed; v., sleep.
• nullibicity: /nuh-luh-BISS-uh-dee/ n., the state or condition of existing nowhere.
• philozoic: / fil-uh-ZOH-ik/ adj., loving animals; kind to animals.
• piscinity: / puh-SIN-uh-dee/ n., the quality or condition of being a fish; fishiness.
• refrigerium: /ruh-frij-EER-ee-uhm/ n., a respite granted to the souls of the damned. In early use also: †a hymn or prayer requesting such a respite.

November 27, 2024 Word-Wednesday Feature
Not Always Golden
As Chairman Joe explores Italy, I chose to read one of the best books you've never heard of by an Italian author: The Art of Joy by Goliarda Sapienza. The story describes the life Modesta, who is born on January 1, 1900 from the time she was taken into a Sicilian nunnery after being assaulted as a young girl. With the Wannaskan Almanac's close ties to Sister Eubestrabius, Word-Wednesday staff explored the phenomenon of convents for women as developed by the Catholic Church; convent: /KÄN-vent/ n., a Christian community under monastic vows, especially one of nuns: /nənz/ n., members of a religious community of women, especially a cloistered one, living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Interestingly, convent shares etymological ties to the word coven through the word covent. Research also led to an interesting article in the New York Review of Books: Soundscapes of the Silenced, by Erin Maglaque.

Looking at Florence, Italy alone, the population of nuns exploded from about five hundred in 1427 to nearly four thousand by 1632. Why? The Catholic Reformation occurred during this period through the Council of Trent in response to Martin Luther and his Protestant challengers. Women in this period of history frequently needed housing for any number of reasons, but one reason stood out - sex out of wedlock was a sin, and a pregnant, unmarried female cannot deny her transgression, at that time, even if she was raped. The Catholic Church was deeply committed to taking care of all these women with different needs, so the Church developed an elaborate naming system of residential institutions for nuns.

• Convertite: /kohn-vehr-TEE-teh/ a convent specifically for penitent sex workers.
• Malmaritate: /mal-mah-ree-TAH-teh/ a convent shelter for "badly married" women who had been abused, pimped out, abandoned, or become destitute.
• Ospedale della Carità: /ohs-peh-DAH-leh dehl-lah kah-ree-TAH/ a convent for poor young women.
• Orbatello: /ohr-bah-TEL-loh/ a convent for poor widows.
• Mendicanti: /men-dee-KAHN-tee/ a convent for poor women and their children.
• Santa Caterina: /SAHN-tah kah-teh-REE-nah/ a convent for girls at risk of becoming sex workers.
• Innocenti: /een-noh-CHEN-tee/ a foundling hospital that took in abandoned infant and could keep them until adolescence.

At times, some women entered these convents willingly and eagerly, especially those with no male relatives to help and protect them, or those fleeing from domestic violence. However, many women were compelled to enter these convents for legal charges of adultery or other sexual misbehaviors. Orbatellos, Convertites, and Malmaritates also served as protoindustrial manufactories, especially in the lucrative silk and textile trades. The common rule of all these convents was silence, which lingers in our culture to this day. Happily, Modesta finds her way out of the twentieth century version of her Sicilian convent, and she finds her voice as a writer.


From A Year with Rilke, November 27 Entry
The Care in a Human Gesture, from the Second Duino Elegy

Haven't you been moved, in those early Greek carvings,
by the care you see in human gesture?
Weren't love and loss so gently laid upon the shoulders
that people seemed made of different stuff
than in our day?

Think of the hands, how they touch without pressure,
although there is strength in the torso.
These figures seem to know,
"We have come this far.
This is given to us, to touch
each other in this way.
The gods may lean on us more strongly,
but it is their nature."

The Three Graces
by Canova

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.







*a mathemachicken.