Word-Wednesday for December 18, 2024

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for December 18, 2024, the fifty-first Wednesday of the year, the thirteenth Wednesday of fall, the third Wednesday of December, and the three-hundred fifty-third day of the year, with thirteen days remaining.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for December 18, 2024
Snow Bunting
Plectrophenax nivalis sports winter plumage with shades of white, brown and black against dull golden brown grasses makes them difficult to spot until it snows. For bird-word fans, their call is a distinctive rippling whistle, per,r,r,rit, and the song is a brief but loud warble hudidi feet feet feew hudidi.

The snow bunting is an Arctic bird that signals the end of the southern songbird migration for another year, but these birds winter in our Temperate Zone. While we will still have northern raptors which will migrate into and through northern Minnesota, snow buntings represent the song bird end of the year. The snow bunting is the most northerly recorded passerine in the world.

December 18 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


December 18 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily, occasionally.


Earth/Moon Almanac for December 18, 2024
Sunrise: 8:13am; Sunset: 4:28pm; 14 seconds less daylight today
Moonrise: 8:05pm; Moonset: 11:12am, waning gibbous, 88% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for December 18, 2024
                Average            Record              Today
High             18                     42                      0
Low               0                    -37                    -9

Winter Solstice: December 21, 3:19am

At the Solstice
by Shaun O'Brien

We say Next time we’ll go away,


But then the winter happens, like a secret
We’ve to keep yet never understand


As daylight turns to cinema once more:
A lustrous darkness deep in ice-age cold,


And the print in need of restoration
Starting to consume itself


With snowfall where no snow is falling now.
Or could it be a cloud of sparrows, dancing


In the bare hedge that this gale of light
Is seeking to uproot? Let it be sparrows, then,


Still dancing in the blazing hedge,
Their tender fury and their fall,
 

Because it snows, because it burns.

December 18 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Twin Day
• National Roast Suckling Pig Day
• Answer the Telephone Like Buddy the Elf Day
• Humbug Day
• International Migrants Day
• Feast Day of Flannán mac Toirrdelbaig

December 18 Word Pun
Falls well that ends well.


December 18 Word Riddle
What kind of flour do the use in the Sea World bakery?*

a Chairman Joe original

December 18 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
BATH, n. A kind of mystic ceremony substituted for religious worship, with what spiritual efficacy has not been determined.

    The man who taketh a steam bath
    He loseth all the skin he hath,
    And, for he's boiled a brilliant red,
    Thinketh to cleanliness he's wed,
    Forgetting that his lungs he's soiling
    With dirty vapors of the boiling.
                    —Richard Gwow


December 18 Etymology Word of the Week
mercy
/MəR-sē/ n., compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm, from late 12th century, "God's forgiveness of his creatures' offenses," from Old French mercit, merci (9th century) "reward, gift; kindness, grace, pity," from Latin mercedem (nominative merces) "reward, wages, pay, hire" (in Vulgar Latin "favor, pity;" in Medieval Latin "thanks; grace"), from merx (genitive mercis) "wares, merchandise" (see market (n.)). In Church Latin (6th century) it was given a specific application to the heavenly reward earned by those who show kindness to the helpless and those from whom no requital can be expected.

Meaning "disposition to forgive or show compassion" is attested from early 13th century. Sense of "an act or exercise of forbearance or good will" is from circa 1300. As an interjection, attested from mid-13th century (short for may God have mercy, have mercy on me, etc.).  Many of the English senses are found earlier in French, but in French the word largely has been superseded by miséricorde except as a word of thanks. Sense of "discretionary action" (as in at (one's) mercy) is from mid-14th century. Seat of mercy "golden covering of the Ark of the Covenant" (1530), hence "the throne of God," is Tyndale's loan-translation of Luther's gnadenstuhl, an inexact translation of Latin propitiatorium, ultimately a rendering of Hebrew kapporeth, literally "propitiatory."


December 18 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1719 Thomas Fleet publishes Mother Goose's Melodies For Children in Boston.
• 1796 First US newspaper to appear on Sunday (Baltimore Monitor).
• 1892 Anton Bruckner's 8th Symphony premieres.
• 1892 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky's ballet The Nutcracker premieres.
• 1917 The Soviet government issues a decree recognizing Finland's newly-declared independence.

December 18 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1562 Philipp Dulichius, German composer.
• 1610 Charles du Fresne du Cange, French philologist.
• 1633 Adriaen Millaert [Melar], Flemish engraver.
• 1633 Willem van de Velde the Younger, Dutch seascape painte.
• 1667 Wenzel Ludwig von Radolt, Austrian composer and lutenist.
• 1734 Jean-Baptiste Rey, French composer.
• 1778 Joseph Grimaldi, English pantomimist.
• 1788 Camille Pleyel, Austrian pianist.
• 1812 Wiktor Kazynski, Polish composer.
• 1819 Yakov Petrovich Polonsky, Russian Romantic poet.
• 1826 Alexandre Chatrian [wrote as Erckmann-Chatrian jointly with Émile Erckmann], French writer.
• 1835 Lyman Abbott, American author.
• 1848 Karl Schröder II, German composer
• 1852 Gaetano Coronaro, Italian composer.
• 1860 Edward Alexander MacDowell, American composer.
• 1861 Lionel Monckton, British composer.
• 1867 Antoon van Welie, Dutch painter.
• 1870 Saki [Hector Hugo Munro], British writer.
• 1871 Jan Kotěra, Czech architect.
• 1879 Paul Klee, Swiss-German abstract painter.
• 1905 Richard Sturzenegger, Swiss composer and cellist.
• 1907 Christopher Fry, English playwright.
• 1911 Peg Leg Sam [Arthur Jackson], American country blues harmonica player.
• 1913 Alfred Bester, American science fiction author.
• 1913 Saburo Takata, Japanese composer.
• 1914 Connie "Pee Wee" Crayton, American R&B and blues guitarist and singer.
• 1917 Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson, American blues, jazz, and R&B alto saxophonist.
• 1917 Raiford "Ossie" Davis, American author.
• 1920 Rita Streich, Russian-German soprano.
• 1921 Jaime León, Colombian pianist, composer, and conductor.
• 1923 Lotti van der Gaag, Dutch sculptor and painter.
• 1927 Sterling Lanier, American writer.
• 1931 Jaroslav Velinský, Czech composer.
• 1935 Jacques Pépin, French chef and writer.
• 1939 Michael J. Moorcock, English science fiction author.
• 1939 Wiesje Backer, Dutch ballet dancer, actress. and playwright.
• 1941 Wadada Leo Smith, American trumpeter and composer.
• 1943 Keith Richards, English guitarist and songwriter.
• 1948 Laurent Voulzy, French singer and composer.
• 1953 David Chipperfield, English architect.
• 1953 Khas-Magomed Hadjimuradov, Chechen bard.
• 1958 Julia Wolfe, American composer.
• 1968 Craig "muMS" Grant, American poet.
• 1970 Miles Marshall Lewis, American author.
• 1978 Lindsay Armaou, Irish singer.

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

• carrel: /KER-əl/ n., a small cubicle with a desk for the use of a reader or student in a library; a small enclosure or study in a cloister.
• eyey: /IGH-ee/ adj., of cheese: full of eye; of a potato: covered with eyes.
• foulard: /fo͞o-LÄRD/ n., a thin, soft material of silk or silk and cotton, typically having a printed pattern.
• gaby: /GĀ-bē/ n., simpleton.
• hansel: /HAN(t)-səl/ n., a gift given for good luck at the beginning of the year or to mark an acquisition or the start of an enterprise.
• kobo: /KŌ-bō/ n., a monetary unit of Nigeria, equal to one hundredth of a naira.
• parang: /PE-ranɡ/ n., a Malayan machete.
• skinch: /skinch/ v., to be frugal, to economize.
• snaffle: /SNAF-(ə)l/ v., take (something) for oneself, typically quickly or without permission;, n., (on a bridle) a simple bit, typically a jointed one, used with a single set of reins.
• theriac: /THE-rē-ak/ n., an ointment or other medicinal compound used as an antidote to snake venom or other poison.

spang parang

December 18, 2024 Word-Wednesday Feature
enthymeme
/EN-THə-mēm/ n., an argument in which one premise is not explicitly stated, from "a syllogism in which one premise is omitted," in Aristotle, "an inference from likelihoods and signs," 1580s, from Latin enthymema, from Greek enthymema "thought, argument, piece of reasoning," from enthymesthai "to think, consider," literally "to keep in mind, take to heart," from en "in" (see en- (2)) + thymos "spirit, courage, anger, sense" (from Proto-Indo-European root dheu- (1) "dust, vapor, smoke").

A syllogism is a logical deduction from two premises. The classic example goes like this:

A. All Wannaskan Almanac contributors are writers.
B. WannaskaWriter is a Wannaskan Almanac contributor.
C. Therefore, WannaskaWriter is a writer.

A. and B. are the premises; C. is the conclusion. To turn this into an enthymeme, just remove one of the premises (A. or B.). The argument still makes sense, but it’s not logically complete, since one of its essential premises is missing. In practice, nearly all artistic arguments depend on one or more enthymemes – writers assume that the reader already knows that Sven is a Wannaskan Almanac contributor, so it would be a sylly waste of the reader's patience and the writer's art to state it explicitly just to persuade them syllogistically.

Good writers know that they have to assume certain things about their readers to make a persuasive argument: at the most fundamental level, that they speak the same language and have the same basic understandings about the world. The hidden premise implicit in many enthymemes becomes the art of persuasion, making the reader do the work, where the realization is the reader's reward, or the writer's mystery. Here are some examples of enthymemes from literature and public life for you to find the missing premises:

Mark’d ye his words? He would not take the crown. Therefore ‘tis certain he was not ambitious.

William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar

My parents decide to buy my brothers guns. These are not “real” guns. They shoot “BBs,” copper pellets my brothers say will kill birds. Because I am a girl, I do not get a gun.

Alice Walker, Beauty: When the Other Dancer is the Self

I’ve never met my candidate; and for that reason I am more apt to say something good of him than anyone else.

Will Rogers

A law is unjust if it is inflicted on a minority that, as a result of being denied the right to vote, had no part in enacting or devising the law. Who can say that the legislature of Alabama, which set up the state’s segregation laws, was democratically elected? Throughout Alabama all sorts of devious methods are used to prevent Negroes from becoming registered voters, and there are some counties in which, even though Negroes constitute a majority of the population, not a single Negro is registered. Can any law enacted under such circumstances be considered democratically structured?

Martin Luther King, Jr., Letter from the Birmingham Jail

I am verily a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the law of our fathers.

Paul, Acts 22:3

There’s a saying in England. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire.

James Bond, From Russia with Love

With a name like Smucker's, it has to be good.

Smucker's commercial

It's the winter solstice, so if you’re cold, you must not have enough holiday cookies insulating you.

My mom

If you don't get this joke, it must be missing something.

yours, truly

From A Year with Rilke, December 18 Entry
Autumns End, from Book of Images

I have seen for some time
how everything changes.
There is that which arises and acts,
kills and causes grief.

Each time I look at them
the gardens are different—
a slow decay
from gold to brown.
How long for me the way has been.

Now it is empty where I stand
and look down the avenues.
Almost as far as the farthest ocean
I can see the heavy
forbidding sky.

Autumn Landscape at Dusk
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.







*all porpoise.