Wannaskan Almanac

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for June 18, 2025, the eighteenth Wednesday of the year, the thirteenth and final Wednesday of spring, the third Wednesday of June, and the one-hundred sixty-ninth day of the year, with one-hundred ninety-six days remaining.    Wannaska Phenology Update for June 18, 2025 Columbines Are Blooming Aquilegia canadensis , known by the Anishinaabe as misudidjiibik , has a complex etymology from across the pond  to here. In the 12th century, the abbess and polymath Hildegard of Bingen referred to the plants as agleya – from which the genus's name in German, Akelei , derives. According to Wikipedia , several scientific and common names for the genus Aquilegia derive from its appearance. The genus name Aquilegia may come from the Latin word for "eagle", aquila , in reference to the petals' resemblance to eagle talons. Another possible etymology for Aquilegia is a derivation from the Latin aquam legere ("to collec...

And back, by popular demand...thank you Arkham Assylum...Fractured History!   1091 Floris II de Vette becomes Count of Holland.  He got his start on Sesame Street counting cookies and look at him now with those windmill shaped Voortmans!   Not good for eating...just for counting!  1119 Charles the Good becomes Count of Flanders.  He got his start on Sesame...I mean can anyone named Charles really be that good?  Look at Charles Ingalls.  He was always running around punching someone with his shirt off.  Made so many ladies get the vapors! Hello ladies...grab yer smelling salts! 1527 Pánfilo de Narváez departs Spain to explore Florida with 5 ships and 600 men, by 1536 only 4 are still alive.  This is strange because up until then zero ships had been alive.  Sounds like someone found the fountain of sloop! Living ships sink lips 1583 Brabant: Duke of Parma beats French mercenaries.  Dukes Mayonaise goes well with parmesan and...

  Secrets, silent, stony, sit in the dark palaces of both our hearts: secrets weary of their tyranny: tyrants willing to be dethroned.  If you recognize the above quotation, you will undoubtedly celebrate Bloomsday today as a James Joyce fan of Ulysses , his landmark stream-of-consciousness novel.  I know some of Joyce's work, have read Portrait, and even taught The Dubliners. I understand the importance of his recurring themes of self-discovery and the struggle to break away from familial, religious, and national constraints. Once, I tried to listen to Ulysses but found myself zoning out. I'm a former English teacher, and it's no secret that I'm embarrassed to admit my limitations. I really look up to those of you who have accomplished the feat. So, Happy Bloomsday to you hardcore fans out there in Wannaskaland. I know you are out there and hold you in admiration. Poetry has always been a go-to over the years as I explore the depths of the human experience. Ever since...

  The Palmville Globe Volume 1 Number 20 Man Restores Seep Joe McDonnell 78, residing in Palmville Twp, Minnesota, recently restored a galvanized watering can to its previous seepage level. "A two gallon galvanized watering can is expensive," McDonnell tells the press. “I bought our can on sale in the local hardware store over twenty years ago. A few years later it started seeping slowly.    You had to remember to leave it on the grass and not on the steps or porch. This spring the seep had increased to an unacceptable leak. I held the can up to a strong leak and put a sealant where I saw daylight. Twenty four  hours later  I added water and it still leaked. I ran sealant around the entire bottom rim. Next day it was leaking in only one spot. I put more sealant on that one spot. The next morning the can was seeping like it had been for the previous 15 years. Good enough." Man Receives Windfall Joe McDonnell, 78 and always looking to save a buck, recently receive...

Hello and welcome to today’s Wannaskan Almanac. Today is June 14th and this is part 2 of a trilogy titled: “50 laps around the Sun”.   It’s been a fews days since “Kim's BIG Birthday Bash” and there’s always things to do after a party:  cleaning, putting away leftovers and returning borrowed items but UGH!  There’s the next blog to write.  Again…UGH!  What can I do to make this chore easier and even pleasurable? I know…I’ll call Antonin. (Paul Calling):  Ring…. (Paul Calling):  Ring…. (Answering): “Hello…” (Paul):  Antonin…I need your help again.  Another blog has to be written about your mom’s party.  People want to know how the party turned out”. (Antonin):  “Sure…what’s it worth to ya’?” (Paul) “It’s worth the Sun and the Moon”. And with that, we bring you the next installment of Kim’s BIG Birthday Bash: “50 Lap Around the Sun”:  The Party. Saturday was one of those days that goes on forever.  It started with Kim a...

     On this day in 313 A.D., Constantine the Great signed the Edict of Milan granting religious freedom throughout the Roman Empire. The Catholic or Christian Church had been growing since the first Pentecost on May 25, 33 A.D. The new church took advantage of safe Roman roads to spread the Word.    Before Constantine's edict, Christians were subject to persecution. The problem with Christians was that they only worshiped one god. The loyal Roman citizen worshipped several gods to make sure of victory in war. Whenever things went wrong, the pagans blamed the Christians for making the gods angry. It was a life or death matter. Several thousand Christians were martyred before Constantine came to believe that Jesus helped him defeat his rivals.     With the fear of persecution out of the way, the Christians could settle scores among themselves. Right from the beginning, Christians had been trying to determine what Jesus' relation to God the Father w...

   ... by Loretta Lynn, I was thinkin.'   I had the radio on.      Dark threatening storm fronts began to heave themselves over me mile after mile faster than wet woven rugs slapped on fleeing mice during a summer cottage opener. Gale-force w inds slammed into me from the northwest and pummeled the towering oceans of green-leafed trees into huge rolling waves of tumultuous frenzy accompanied by horizontal & vertical rain so strong that it peeled the paint off the car, stripped the doors of weather-stripping, and flooded the floorboards right down to the frame, all aflexin' as it was; good thing thars holes in 'er, otherwise my feet'd git wet.       I wisely set the wipers to ' Fookin' Fast' just as it blasted the windshield so loud that those to whom I was talking on my cellphone heard it and worriedly queried, "WHAT'S THAT NOISE? ARE YOU DRIVING THROUGH SAND??"      The wipers cleared my view a zillion times a ...

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for June 11, 2025, the seventeenth Wednesday of the year, the twelfth Wednesday of spring, the second Wednesday of June, and the one-hundred sixty-second day of the year, with two-hundred three days remaining.    Wannaska Phenology Update for June 11, 2025 Wild Sarsaparilla Aralia nudicaulis is now appearing in its spectacular blossoming bursts throughout Wannaska. Also known as false sarsaparilla, shot bush, small spikenard, wild liquorice, and rabbit root, Wild Sarsaparilla is a species of flowering plant in the ivy family Araliaceae , native to northern and eastern North America. The flowers eventually become a ¼-inch green berry that ripens to dark purple. The Anishinaabemowin word for Wild Sarsaparilla is waaboozojiibik , which literally translates to "rabbit root", used in reference to one of the legends regarding this plant, where its root is said to run far into the ground. The roots are used for making root beer...