And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for January 1, 2025, the first Wednesday of the year, the second Wednesday of winter, the first Wednesday of January, and the first day of the year, with three-hundred sixty-four days remaining.
Wannaska Phenology Update for January 1, 2025
Rime Ice
With all the excess fog moisture and freezing temperatures lately, Wannaska has become a winter wonderland. The dazzling display of long, crystalline spikes on ground plants, tree branches, pine needles, and automobile antennae is called soft rime ice: supercooled droplets from fog frozen and attached onto an exposed surface. On days with stronger winds, the crystalline formations grow more globular and appear as flocking. With recent gentle winds from the northwest, our recent rime ice grew on the southeast side of exposed surfaces.
January 1 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling
January 1 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily, occasionally.
Earth/Moon Almanac for January 1, 2025
Sunrise: 8:17am; Sunset: 4:38pm; 1 minute, 4 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 10:03am; Moonset: 6:28pm, waxing crescent, 3% illuminated.
Temperature Almanac for January 1, 2025
Average Record Today
High 14 38 11
Low -5 -38 1
Winter Trees
by William Carlos Williams
All the complicated details
of the attiring and
the disattiring are completed!
A liquid moon
moves gently among
the long branches.
Thus having prepared their buds
against a sure winter
the wise trees
stand sleeping in the cold.
January 1 Celebrations from National Day Calendar
- National Bloody Mary Day
- National Hangover Day
- Emancipation Day
- Global Family Day
- Polar Bear Swim Day
- The Eighth Day of Christmas when
my true love gave to me
Eight maids a-milking,
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.
January 1 Word Pun
Deck the Halls with Boston Charlie
January 1 Word Riddle
Where do Dutch rodents go for root canals?*
A Chairman Joe original
January 1 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
BABE or BABY, n. A misshapen creature of no particular age, sex or condition, chiefly remarkable for the violence of the sympathies and antipathies it excites in others, itself without sentiment or emotion. There have been famous babes; for example, little Moses, from whose adventure in the bulrushes the Egyptian hierophants of seven centuries before doubtless derived their idle tale of the child Osiris being preserved on a floating lotus leaf.
Ere babes were invented
The girls were contented.
Now man is tormented
Until to buy babes he has squandered
His money. And so I have pondered
This thing, and thought maybe
'Twere better that Baby
The First had been eagled or condored.
—Ro Amil
January 1 Etymology Word of the Week
January 1 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day
- 45 BC Julian calendar takes effect for the first time by edict of Roman dictator Julius Caesar.
- 1 Origin of the Christian Era.
- 990 Russia adopts Julian calendar.
- 1600 Scotland begins its numbered year on January 1 instead of March 25.
- 1660 Academia de Bellas Artes is founded in Seville with painter Bartolomé Esteban Murillo its first president.
- 1672 Jean Racine's five-act tragedy play Bajazet premieres .
- 1673 Regular mail delivery begins between New York and Boston.
- 1700 Protestant Western Europe (except England) begins using the Gregorian calendar.
- 1724 Glassblower Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit proposes system for making thermometers and the Fahrenheit temperature scale in a paper to the Royal Society of London.
- 1770 Date of action in the opera Madeleine.
- 1775 English potter Josiah Wedgwood writes that he has developed his famous wedgwood blue color.
- 1785 John Walter publishes the first issue of his newspaper The Daily Universal Register, renamed The Times of London in 1788.
- 1788 Quakers in Pennsylvania emancipate their slaves.
- 1801 The dwarf planet Ceres is discovered by Italian monk Giuseppe Piazzi.
- 1808 Congress prohibits importation of slaves.
- 1818 Mary Shelley's Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is published anonymously.
- 1831 William Lloyd Garrison publishes 1st issue of abolitionist newspaper The Liberator in Boston.
- 1852 First US public bath opens in New York City.
- 1863 Emancipation Proclamation is issued by Abraham Lincoln to free slaves in Confederate states .
- 1879 Johannes Brahms' Violin Concerto in D Major premieres.
- 1881 Ambrose Bierce is appointed editor of The Wasp magazine.
- 1881 Dr John Watson is first introduced to Sherlock Holmes in story written by Arthur Conan Doyle.
- 1892 Ellis Island opens as a US immigration inspection station, becomes the gateway to the US for more than 12 million people.
- 1893 Japan adopts the Gregorian calendar.
- 1894 First public performance of Czech composer Antonín Dvořák's String Quartet No. 12, The American, in Boston.
- 1896 German physicist Wilhelm Röntgen announces his discovery of x-rays.
- 1898 Italian poet and playwright Gabriele D'Annunzio's dramatic work Sogno d'un mattino di primavera, (Dream of a Spring Morning) premieres.
- 1900 First date in John Dos Passos' USA trilogy, The 42nd Parallel.
- 1906 First permanent movie theater in Canada, The Ouimetoscope, is opened by Léo Ouimet in Montreal, Quebec.
- 1927 Turkey adopts the Gregorian calendar.
- 1954 NBC broadcasts first live color US coast-to-coast telecast.
- 1957 Benjamin Britten's only full-length ballet Prince of the Pagodas premieres.
- 1960 Johnny Cash plays the first of many free concerts behind bars at San Quentin Prison.
- 1972 International Book Year begins.
- 1980 Comic strip The Far Side by Gary Larson debuts.
- 1981 Peruvian novelist Mario Vargas Llosa publishes his historical novel The War of the End of the World.
- 1988 Year of the Reader begins.
- 1995 Last The Far Side by cartoonist Gary Larson.
- 1996 After 27 years, Betty Rubble debuts as a Flintstone vitamin.
January 1 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day
- 1618 Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Spanish Baroque artist.
- 1628 Christoph Bernhard, German baroque composer.
- 1638 Antoinette du Ligier de la Guard Deshoulieres, French poet.
- 1648 Elkanah Settle, English writer.
- 1697 Johann Pfeiffer, German violinist, composer, and concert master.
- 1704 Soame Jenyns, English writer.
- 1710 Charles O'Conor, Irish writer
- 1714 Kristijonas Donelaitis, Lithuanian poet.
- 1729 Edmund Burke, British statesman, philosopher and author.
- 1748 Giovanni Furno, Italian composer.
- 1764 Johannes Kinker, Dutch linguist, philosopher and poet.
- 1767 Maria Edgeworth, Irish novelist.
- 1777 Micah Hawkins, American poet, playwright and composer.
- 1784 William Beale, English composer.
- 1790 George Petrie, Irish artist.
- 1790 James Wills, Irish poet.
- 1792 Henrik Anker Bjerregaard, Norwegian writer and poet.
- 1800 Václav Emanuel Horák, Czech composer.
- 1809 John Pieter Heije, Dutch physician, writer and poet.
- 1819 Arthur Hugh Clough, English poet.
- 1823 Sándor Petőfi, Hungarian poet.
- 1833 Robert Lawson, New Zealand architect.
- 1834 Ludovic Halévy, French playwright.
- 1853 Hans Koessler, German composer.
- 1863 Aleko Konstantinov, Bulgarian writer.
- 1864 Alfred Stieglitz, American photographer.
- 1864 Qi Baishi, Chinese painter.
- 1865 Giuseppe Ferrata, Italian composer.
- 1867 Charles Edward Montague, English author.
- 1873 Mariano Azuela, Mexican novelist.
- 1876 Johan Coenraad Altorf, Dutch sculptor.
- 1879 E. M. Forster, American author.
- 1880 Gretta Bowen, Irish painter.
- 1881 Carry van Bruggen [de Haan], Dutch author.
- 1883 Federigo Tozzi, Italian writer.
- 1885 Roland Diggle, English-American composer.
- 1889 Tadeusz Jarecki, Polish composer.
- 1892 Artur Rodzinski, Polish conductor.
- 1892 Miklós Radnai, Hungarian composer.
- 1895 Nathaniel Shilkret, American conductor.
- 1896 Yitzhak Edel, Israeli composer.
- 1899 Juozas Tallat-Kelpsa, Lithuanian composer.
- 1899 Raymond Loucheur, French composer.
- 1907 Erich Schmid, Swiss composer.
- 1911 Audrey Wurdemann, American poet.
- 1915 Francois Bondy, Swiss writer.
- 1919 J. D. Salinger, American writer.
- 1920 Osvaldo Cavandoli, Italian cartoonist.
- 1920 Roger Peacock, English writer.
- 1921 César Baldaccini, French sculptor.
- 1924 Roberts Blossom, American poet.
- 1927 Juliusz Łuciuk, Polish composer.
- 1927 Maurice Béjart, French-Swiss dancer and choreographer.
- 1928 Ernest Tidyman, American author.
- 1935 Delores "Lolita" Haze from Lolita.
- 1937 Adam Wiśniewski-Snerg, Polish author.
- 1945 Glen Loates, Canadian artist.
- 1951 Ashfaq Hussain, Urdu poet.
- 1953 Alpha Blondy [Seydou Koné], Ivorian reggae singer-songwriter.
- 1956 John O'Donohue, Irish poet.
- 1960 Rody Gorman, Irish poet.
- 1964 Khaled Khalifa, Syrian poet.
- 1964 David Butler, Irish writer.
- 1973 Anwar Mansoor Mangrio, Sindhi poet.
Words-I-Looked-Up-This-Week Writer's Challenge
Write a story or pram from the following words:
- adjure: /ə-Jo͝oR/ v., urge or request (someone) solemnly or earnestly to do something.
- baffy: /BA-fē/ n., a short wooden golf club with a deeply lofted face.
- defile: /dē-FĪL/ n., a steep-sided narrow gorge or passage.
- educe: /ē-Do͞oS/ v., bring out or develop (something latent or potential); infer (something) from data.
- fullock: /FUUL-uhk/ v., o push, nudge, shove; esp. to jerk the hand and arm unlawfully when shooting a marble.
- hooptie: /HOOP-tee/ n., a car, spec. an old or dilapidated one.
- jabot: /ZHa-BŌ/ n., an ornamental frill or ruffle on the front of a shirt or blouse, typically made of lace.
- kelpie: /KEL-pē/ n., a water spirit of Scottish folklore, typically taking the form of a horse and reputed to delight in the drowning of travelers.
- moither: /MOY-thur or MOY-thuh if one is from Boston/ v., to throw into disorder or an unsettled state.
- quatorzain: /kə-TÔR-zān/ n., a poem of fourteen lines.
January 1, 2025 Word-Wednesday Feature
Resolution
/rez-ə-Lo͞oSH-(ə)n/ n., a firm decision to do or not to do something, from late 14th century, resolucioun, "a breaking or reducing into parts; process of breaking up, dissolution," from Old French resolution (14th century) and directly from Latin resolutionem (nominative resolutio) "process of reducing things into simpler forms," noun of action from past-participle stem of resolvere "to loosen" (see resolve (v.)).
From the notion of "process of resolving or reducing a non-material thing into simpler forms" (late 14th century) as a method of problem-solving comes the sense of "a solving" (as of mathematical problems), which is recorded by 1540s, as is that of "power of holding firmly, character of acting with a fixed purpose".
In the mid-15th century it also meant "frame of mind," often implying a pious or moral determination. By 1580s as "a statement upon some matter;" hence "formal decision or expression of a meeting or assembly," circa 1600. The New Year's resolution in reference to a specific intention to better oneself is from at least the 1780s, and through the 19th century they generally were of a pious nature.
So here we are again: an annual day of self-reckoning, where we either marshal an intent to change for the better, or not. Many writers believe that this is a daily activity, and they keep diaries or journals to practice not only their craft, but their resolve. Here are the words of a few writers that span the spectrum of resolve as it applies to the new year;
RESOLUTE, adj. Obstinate in a course that we approve.
Ambrose Bierce, from The Devil's Dictionary
Here then we are — arrived at another spin of the wheel.
Rose Macaulay
Keep young. Many men talk about being born again. Every man should be born again on the first day of January. Start with a fresh page.
Henry Ward Beecher
A new year is a clean slate, a chance to suck in your breath, decide all is not lost and give yourself another chance.
Sarah Overstreet
I made no resolutions for the New Year. The habit of making plans, of criticizing, sanctioning and molding my life, is too much of a daily event for me.
Anaïs Nin
New Year’s Resolution: To tolerate fools more gladly, provided this does not encourage them to take up more of my time.
James Agate
New Year’s Day. Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual.
Mark Twain
No one ever regarded the First of January with indifference. It is that from which all date their time, and count upon what is left.
Charles Lamb
Some people have a regular practice of making New Year resolutions—generally shattering them before January has hidden its cold head out of sight.
Will Carleton
May all your troubles last as long as your New Year’s resolutions!
Joey Adams
We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.
Edith Lovejoy Pierce
Tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365 page book. Write a good one.
Brad Paisley
My new year’s resolution: Never be afraid to be kicked in the teeth. Let the blood and the bruises define your legacy.
Lady Gaga
The object of a New Year is not that we should have a new year, it is that we should have a new soul.
G. K. Chesterton
There is no chance, no destiny, no fate,
Can circumvent or hinder or control
The firm resolve of a determined soul.
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
Last year's words belong to last year's language
An next year's words await another voice.
T.S. Eliot, from Four Quartets
From A Year with Rilke, January 1 Entry
The One Who Is Coming, from Rome, December 23, 1903, Letters to a Young Poet
Why not think of God as the one who is coming, who is moving toward us from all eternity, the Future One, culminating fruit of the tree whose leaves we are? What stops you from projecting his birth on times to come and living your life as a painful and beautiful day in the history of an immense pregnancy? Do you not see how all that is happening is ever again a new beginning? And could it not be His Beginning, for to commence is ever in itself a beautiful thing. If he is to be fulfillment, then all that is lesser must precede him, so that he can fashion himself from out of the greatest abundance. Must he not be last, in order to include everything within himself? And what meaning would be ours, if he, for whom we yearn, had already existed?
Fruit Garden in Pontoise
by Paul Cézanne
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.
*Hamsterdam.
ReplyDeleteI must be insane
To write a quatorzain
As I dig and I delve
I can only find twelve
Dear sainted mother
I'm all of a moither
I feel like Duck Daffy
When struck by a baffy
I swear and adjure
Writing's no cure
Though it's not looking spruce
From garage I educe
With a haw and a wooptie
My broken down hooptie
Once had hundreds of kelpies
Now pretty decreptie
So I tie on a bullock
And urge him with fullocks
And curses most vile
To pull rig down defile
I'll buy yarn in the city
Make me jabots so pretty
* adjure: /ə-Jo͝oR/ v., urge or request (someone) solemnly or earnestly to do something.
* baffy: /BA-fē/ n., a short wooden golf club with a deeply lofted face.
* defile: /dē-FĪL/ n., a steep-sided narrow gorge or passage.
* educe: /ē-Do͞oS/ v., bring out or develop (something latent or potential); infer (something) from data.
* fullock: /FUUL-uhk/ v., o push, nudge, shove; esp. to jerk the hand and arm unlawfully when shooting a marble.
* hooptie: /HOOP-tee/ n., a car, spec. an old or dilapidated one.
* jabot: /ZHa-BŌ/ n., an ornamental frill or ruffle on the front of a shirt or blouse, typically made of lace.
* kelpie: /KEL-pē/ n., a water spirit of Scottish folklore, typically taking the form of a horse and reputed to delight in the drowning of travelers.
* moither: /MOY-thur or MOY-thuh if one is from Boston/ v., to throw into disorder or an unsettled state.
* quatorzain: /kə-TÔR-zān/ n., a poem of fourteen lines.
Quatorzain for Commitment
ReplyDeleteOne cranky old baffy met a cheerful jabot.
Each had walked in their own particular way
along life’s narrow defiles,
braved the jagged rocks, the drops, alone.
They needed no furlock nudge, it started quietly.
Each leaned towards, whispered requests solemn and sure.
Old coals burn slow and one adjured the other
to walk this certain road together.
Old cars now, hooptie’s who’ve traveled far,
they’ve known the moither, the cut ups
and refuse to let the kelpies have their day,
be swayed towards certain ruin.
Clear evidence educed?
Coals still aglow beneath the ashes.