Word-Wednesday for December 4, 2024

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for December 4, 2024, the forty-ninth Wednesday of the year, the eleventh Wednesday of fall, the first Wednesday of December, and the three-hundred-thirty-ninth day of the year, with twenty-seven days remaining, brought to you by Bead Gypsy Studio, 101 Main Avenue North in Roseau, where you can get $5 off all rings and a Christmas bag with each purchase, while supplies last…

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for December 4, 2024
Squeaking By
The bane of Ula's winter existence, the House mouse, Mus musculus, move into houses and other buildings and farm fields throughout Wannaska. You can tell them apart from native mice by their almost furless ears and scaly tails. House mice eat seeds, crops, insects, and even such things as soap and glue. They are good climbers, swimmers, and jumpers. They can run as fast as eight miles per hour. Even so, they seldom travel farther than 50 feet from their homes. Other Minnesota mice include northern grasshopper mice, Onychomys leucogaster; deer mice, Peromyscus leucopus; western harvest mice, Reithrodontomys megalotis; meadow jumping mouse, Zapus hudsonius; woodland jumping mouse, Napaeozapus insignis; and the plains pocket mice, Perognathus flavescens.

Rodents are the most widespread and numerous mammals on earth. Why? Supply and demand - many rodents are small, they need less food and tinier shelters than big species need. As a rule, small creatures can find more places to live than big ones can. That’s why the world has about ten times as many species the size of a mouse as it has species the size of a deer.

December Evenings

December 4 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


December 4 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily, occasionally.


Earth/Moon Almanac for December 4, 2024
Sunrise: 8:00am; Sunset: 4:29pm; 1 minutes, 30 seconds less daylight today
Moonrise: 11:31am; Moonset: 7:22pm, waxing crescent, 12% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for December 4, 2024
                Average            Record              Today
High             23                     44                     11
Low               6                    -26                      1

Love and Friendship
by Emily Brontë

Love is like the wild rose-briar,
Friendship like the holly-tree --
The holly is dark when the rose-briar blooms
But which will bloom most constantly?
The wild-rose briar is sweet in the spring,
Its summer blossoms scent the air;
Yet wait till winter comes again
And who will call the wild-briar fair?
Then scorn the silly rose-wreath now
And deck thee with the holly's sheen,
That when December blights thy brow
He may still leave thy garland green.

December 4 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• Santa’s List Day
• Cabermet Franc Day
• Wildlife Conservation Day
• National Sock Day
• National Dice Day
• National Cookie Day
• National Package Protection Day

December 4 Word Pun
Sven’s house is haunted by a chicken.
    A poultrygeist, and a very fowl spirit.
        Monique has already called an eggsorcist;
                this to help it cross to the other side.


December 4 Word Riddle
Sven wanted to prepare gifts, and he saw a box of papers. Printed on each piece were words like: "Doo wap, biddy bop." What kind of paper was it?*


December 4 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
SUCCESS, n. The one unpardonable sin against one's fellows. In literature, and particularly in poetry, the elements of success are exceedingly simple, and are admirably set forth in the following lines by the reverend Father Gassalasca Jape, entitled, for some mysterious reason, "John A. Joyce."

    The bard who would prosper must carry a book,
    Do his thinking in prose and wear
    A crimson cravat, a far-away look
    And a head of hexameter hair.
    Be thin in your thought and your body'll be fat;
    If you wear your hair long you needn't your hat.


December 4 Etymology Word of the Week

December 4 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1644 First European peace congress opens in Munster.
• 1665 Jean Racine's tragedy Alexandre le Grand premieres.
• 1680 Hen in Rome lays a uniquely patterned egg, later believed to have predicted the arrival of the Kirch/Newton "Great Comet of 1680".
• 1791 Britain's The Observer is first published, the oldest Sunday newspaper in the world.
• 1812 Peter Gaillard of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, patents a horse-drawn mower.
• 1833 American Anti-Slavery Society formed by Arthur Tappan in Philadelphia.
• 1843 Manila paper (made from sails, canvas and rope) patented in Massachusetts.
• 1843 Robert Schumann's oratorio Das Paradies und die Peri premieres.
• 1867 Former Minnesota farmer Oliver Hudson Kelley founds the Order of the Patrons of Husbandry (better known today as the Grange).
• 1881 The first edition of the Los Angeles Times newspaper is published.
• 1901 Anne Russell's play Girl and the Judge premieres.
• 1906 Alpha Phi Alpha, first Black Greek Letter Fraternity, forms.
• 1909 Oldest still-operating NHL franchise is officially established as J. Ambrose O’Brien and Jack Laviolette create the “Club de Hockey Canadien,” known today as the Montreal Canadiens.
• 1933 Jack Kirkland's play Tobacco Road premieres.
• 1943 MLB Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis announces any baseball club may sign Negroes.
• 1951 Aaron Copland's and Jerome Robbins' ballet The Pied Piper premieres.
• 1961 New York Museum of Modern Art hangs Henri Matisse's picture Le Bateau the right side up, after stock-broker Genevieve Habert notices it is displayed upside down, the first of 116,000 people in 47 days to notice.

December 4 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1555 Heinrich Meibom, German historian and poet.
• 1595 Jean Chapelain, French poet.
• 1667 Michel Pignolet de Monteclair, French composer.
• 1708 Marianus Königsperger, German composer.
• 1720 Jean-Jacques Robson, Flemish composer.
• 1791 Johann Gottlob Topfer, German composer.
• 1795 Thomas Carlyle, Scottish essayist and historian.
• 1800 Emil Aarestrup, Danish poet.
• 1810 Matthew James Higgins, Irish writer.
• 1822 Frances Power Cobbe, Irish writer.
• 1825 Hynek Vojáček, Czech composer.
• 1835 Samuel Butler, English author.
• 1838 Melesio Morales, Mexican composer.
• 1866 Wassily Kandinsky, Russian-French abstract painter.
• 1868 Richard Nicolaas Roland Holst, Dutch artist and painter.
• 1875 Rainer Maria Rilke, Bohemian-Austrian poet.
• 1876 Dimitur Poljanov [Popov], Bulgarian poet.
• 1879 Hamilton Harty, Irish composer and conductor called "the prince of accompanists".
• 1883 Katharine Susannah Prichard, Australian novelist.
• 1895 Fritiof Nilsson Piraten, Swedish writer.
• 1896 Nikolai Tichonov, Russian writer.
• 1897 Mari Andriessen, Dutch sculptor.
• 1899 Douwe Hermans Kiestra, Frisian farmer and writer.
• 1903 A. L. Rowse, British author.
• 1903 Cornell Woolrich, American writer.
• 1903 Siro Cisilino, Italian composer.
• 1907 Jo Boer, Dutch painter and author.
• 1910 Alex North [Isadore Soifer], American composer.
• 1912 Ian Wallace [John Wallace Pritchard], American science fiction author.
• 1914 Rudolf Hausner, Austrian artist.
• 1915 Eddie Heywood, American jazz pianist and composer.
• 1916 Ely Jacques Kahn, Jr., American writer.
• 1920 Nadir Afonso, Portuguese geometric abstractionist painter.
• 1924 John C. Portman Jr., American architect.
• 1927 John Jeffreys, Welsh-English composer.
• 1930 Paul-Heinz Dittrich, German composer.
• 1932 Édgar Valcárcel, Peruvian pianist and composer.
• 1938 Yvonne Minton, Australian-British soprano.
• 1941 Humberto Solás, Cuban writer.
• 1942 The Dude, from The Big Lebowski.
• 1947 Terry Woods, Irish musician.
• 1947 Ursula Krechel, German writer.
• 1948 Lin Onus, Australian Aboriginal artist.
• 1964 Sean O'Dwyer, Irish artist.
• 1966 Fereydun "Fred" Armisen, American comedian.
• 1981 Andreas Polyzogopoulo, Greek jazz trumpet player.

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

• annuent: /AN-yuh-wuhnt/ adj., performing or involved in the action of nodding (bending the head forward and downward); spec. (Anatomy) designating the anterior rectus muscles of the head. Also: designating this action.
• burgher: /BəR-ɡər/ n., a citizen of a town or city, typically a member of the wealthy bourgeoisie.
• detent: /də-TENT/ n., a catch in a machine which prevents motion until released; (in a clock) a catch that regulates striking.
• entrechat: /än-trə-SHÄ/n., a vertical jump during which the dancer repeatedly crosses the feet and beats them together.
• majolica: /mə-JÄL-ə-kə/ n., a kind of earthenware made in imitation of Italian maiolica, especially in England during the 19th century.
• pantophagous: /pan-TAH-fuh-guhss/ adj., eating all kinds or a great variety of food; omnivorous.
• polisson: / PAH-luh-suhn/ n., an urchin, a rascal; a dishonest or rude person.
• quartan: /KWÔR-tn/ n., adj., denoting a mild form of malaria causing a fever that recurs every third day.
• rhinotillexis: /rye-noh-tih-LEK-sis/ v., nose picking.
• zymurgy: /ZĪ-mər-jē/ n., the study or practice of fermentation in brewing, winemaking, or distilling.

December 4, 2024 Word-Wednesday Feature
German Compound Words
To celebrate my daughter's new German citizenship — while retaining her U.S. citizenship — today Word-Wednesday revisits the amazing capacity for the German language to create compound words — specifically the closed compound word — no spaces; no hyphens. Yes, English has compound words: airport, any-, every-, no-, somebody, barefoot, cowboy, desktop, fingerprint, grasshopper, headquarters, inside, keyboard, lipstick, mailbox, notebook, outside, payday, raincoat, snowball, toothbrush, undercover, waterfall. Humdrum.

The creative magic of German compound words lies in the distinctions between the compounded words and the experiential nature of the meanings these words evoke.

• abgrundanziehung: /AHB-groont-ahn-tsee-oong/ n., abyss-attraction, the pull of the edge of the cliff.
• bildungsroman: /BIL-doongz-roh-mahn/ n., education-novel, a literary genre meaning "novel of education" or "coming-of-age novel".
• drachenfutter: /DRAH-chn-foo-tuh/ n., dragon-fodder, a humorous term for a peace offering to an angry spouse, often a gift.
• erkenntnisspaziergang: /EHR-kent-nis-shpah-tsee-er-gahng/ v., cognition-stroll, going out, in order to gain deeper insights while walking.
• flughafenbegrussungsfreude: /FLOO-khah-fn-beh-GRYU-soongs-FROY-duh/ n., airport-greeting-joy, the happiness experienced when greeting someone at the airpot.
• frühjahrsmüdigkeit: /FROO-yahrs-MYOO-dish-kite/ n., spring-tiredness, the dispiriting feeling about the return of life and hopes – which we may well not be able to honor. The word gracefully acknowledges how hard an optimistic time of year may prove.
• futterneid: /FOOT-er-nite/ n., food-envy, the feeling when you’re eating with other people and realise that they’ve ordered something better off the menu that you’d be dying to eat yourself.
• kopfkino: /KOPF-kee-no/ n., head-cinema, the little movies we direct and shoot in our minds, in which we say exactly what we mean and seize the advantage whenever possible, acknowledging that few of us ever know how to demonstrate such efficiency and skills outside heads.
• luftschloss: /LUFT-shloss/ n., air-castle, literally, a castle in the air; a dream that’s unattainable.
• ringrichterscham: /RING-reekh-ter-shahm/ n., boxing-referee-shame, the embarrassment one feels, when one is next to a couple having a fight.
• ruinenlust: /ROO-ee-nen-loost/ n., ruin-excitement, the delight one can feel at seeing ruins. Collapsed palaces and the rubble of temples put anxieties about the present into perspective and induces a pleasing melancholy at the passage of all things.
• sitzfleisch: /ZITS-fly-sh/ n., sitting-meat, a character trait of endurance; literally a capacity to sit and put up with what is boring, arduous or painful over long periods.
• soglücklichwieSvenwährendderhirschjagdsaison: /zoh-GLUEK-lish-vee-Sfen-VAIR-ent-dair-HIRSH-yahkt-sigh-ZOHN/ adj., as happy as Sven during deerhunting season.
• sontagsleere: /ZON-tahks-LEH-reh/ n., Sunday-emptiness, the melancholy emptiness of Sundays.
• traumneustartversuch: /TROWM-noy-shtahrt-fair-ZOOKH/ v., dream-restart-experience, desperately trying to continue the dream one was having just before waking.
• treppenwitz: /TREH-pen-vits/ n., stair-joke, the experience where our best lines always come to us, not in the heat of a witty discussion,  but as we descend the stairs on our way home.
• verschlimmbesserung: /FUR-shlim-BESS-er-ung/ v., worsening-improvement, attempting to improve something that only makes it worse.
• witzbeharrsamkeit: /VITS-beh-HARZ-am-kite/ v., joke-insistence, telling the same joke over and over again until there is no one left in the world who haven’t heard it from you.

From A Year with Rilke, December 4 Entry
Two Solitudes Protecting Each Other, from Rome, May 14, 1904, Letters to a Young Poet

The experience of loving, that now disappoints so many, can actually change and be transformed from the ground up into the building of a relationship between two human beings, not just a man and a woman. And this more authentic love will be evident in the utterly considerate, gentle, and clear manner of its binding and releasing. It will resemble what we now struggle to prepare: the love that consists of two solitudes which border, protect, and greet each other.

Rilke
by Leonid Osipovich Pasternak

(the birthday boy)

Be better than yesterday,
lerneheuteeinneueszusammengesetztesWort,
try to stay out of trouble - at least until tomorrow,
and write when you have the time.







*rapping paper.