Word-Wednesday for February 12, 2025

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for February 12, 2025, the seventh Wednesday of the year, the eighth Wednesday of winter, the second Wednesday of February, and the forty-third day of the year, with three-hundred twenty-two remaining. The next Earth perihelion that falls on a Wednesday is January 5, 2028. Brought to you by Bead Gypsy Studio’s Happy Valentine’s Day contest; register to WIN A GIFT BASKET with each purchase in February.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for February 12, 2025
Wintering Chickadees
Poecile atricapillus, the Black-capped Chickadee, lives year-round in Wannaska. It is also one of the few birds we hear out here in the forest this time of year - besides ravens, crows, and woodpeckers. There are interesting facts aplenty about this tiny, highly social avian. For example:

• the collective noun for a group of chickadees is a banditry, not a flock;
• there is a dominance hierarchy within banditries, where some birds are “winter floaters” who don’t belong to a single banditry;
• as previously discussed, chickadee calls are complex and language-like, communicating information on identity and recognition of other flocks as well as predator alarms and contact calls;
• other bird species that associate with chickadee banditries respond to chickadee alarm calls, even when their own species doesn’t have a similar alarm call;
• even when temperatures are far below zero, chickadees virtually always sleep in their own individual cavities, typically in rotten wood where they can excavate nesting and roosting holes entirely on their own.

February 12 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


February 12 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily, occasionally.


Earth/Moon Almanac for February 12, 2025
Sunrise: 7:37am; Sunset: 5:39pm; 3 minutes, 20 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 5:54pm; Moonset: 7:58am, Full Moon, 99% illuminated.
Snow Moon

Temperature Almanac for February 12, 2025
                Average            Record              Today
High             18                     48                      -1
Low             -6                    -41                    -25

Full Snow Moon
by George Elliott Clarke

The moon is full again. A latticed frost
clings to my window, while the crystal crust
of Lake Saint Louis glows as if embossed
with pearls this February night. It must
be twenty-five below. I search for words
of warmth the Guaraní alone must know
to trace their land of butterflies and birds
I made my own a mere four weeks ago.

She waxes and she wanes. She's counted on,
through human inconsistency and pride,
to reverence the rising sun each dawn
and keep her promise to the ocean tide.
But Luna’s is a distant, lurid face,
her silent O no answer as to how
on earth I’ll ever find the grit and grace
to muddle through to spring, one moon from now.

February 12 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Plum Pudding Day
• Darwin Day
• Georgia Day
• Lincoln’s Birthday
• Red Hand Day

February 12 Word Pun
Worried about climate change, Monique asked Sven to build an underground storm shelter. Sven politely declined her request, citing no recent increase of underground storms in Roseau County.


February 12 Word Riddle
How did Sven refer to his new dentures?*


February 12 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
TARIFF, n. A scale of taxes on imports, designed to protect the domestic producer against the greed of his consumer.

    The Enemy of Human Souls
    Sat grieving at the cost of coals;
    For Hell had been annexed of late,
    And was a sovereign Southern State.

    "It were no more than right," said he,
    "That I should get my fuel free.
    The duty, neither just nor wise,
    Compels me to economize—
    Whereby my broilers, every one,
    Are execrably underdone.
    What would they have?—although I yearn
    To do them nicely to a turn,
    I can't afford an honest heat.
    This tariff makes even devils cheat!
    I'm ruined, and my humble trade
    All rascals may at will invade:
    Beneath my nose the public press
    Outdoes me in sulphureousness;
    The bar ingeniously applies
    To my undoing my own lies;
    My medicines the doctors use
    (Albeit vainly) to refuse
    To me my fair and rightful prey
    And keep their own in shape to pay;
    The preachers by example teach
    What, scorning to perform, I preach;
    And statesmen, aping me, all make
    More promises than they can break.
    Against such competition I
    Lift up a disregarded cry.
    Since all ignore my just complaint,
    By Hokey-Pokey! I'll turn saint!"
    Now, the Republicans, who all
    Are saints, began at once to bawl
    Against his competition; so
    There was a devil of a go!
    They locked horns with him, tête-à-tête
    In acrimonious debate,
    Till Democrats, forlorn and lone,
    Had hopes of coming by their own.
    That evil to avert, in haste
    The two belligerents embraced;
    But since 'twere wicked to relax
    A tittle of the Sacred Tax,
    'Twas finally agreed to grant
    The bold Insurgent-protestant
    A bounty on each soul that fell
    Into his ineffectual Hell.
                                    —Edam Smith


February 12 Etymology Word of the Week
darn
/därn/ adj., exclam., used to emphasize something, especially to express anger or frustration, from tame curse word, 1781, American English euphemism, a minced form of damn said to have originated in New England when swearing was a punishable offense; if so, its spread probably was influenced by 'tarnal, short for Eternal, as in By the Eternal (God), favorite exclamation of Andrew Jackson, among others (see tarnation). Mark Twain (who spells it dern) writes “this imprecation is a favorite one out in the ranching districts, and is generally used in the society of ladies, where a mild firm of expressionomy may be indulged in” (San Francisco, 1865). Related: darned (as a past-participle adjective, 1806); darndest (superlative, 1844), darnation (noun of action, 1798).


February 12 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1821 Mercantile Library of City of New York opens.
• 1848 Choreographer Jules Perrot's ballet Faust to music by Giacomo Panizza and Michael Andrew Costa, premieres.
• 1855 Michigan State University established.
• 1877 First news dispatch by telephone, between Boston & Salem, Massachusetts.
• 1879 First artificial ice rink in North America at Madison Square Garden.
• 1889 Caesar Franck's Symphony in D premieres.
• 1889 Henrik Ibsen's play Fruen fra havet (The Lady from the Sea) premieres.
• 1912 China adopts the Gregorian calendar.
• 1924 George Gershwin's Rhapsody In Blue premieres.
• 1941 First injection of penicillin into a patient by British physician Charles Fletcher at Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, England.
• 1994 The Scream by Norwegian painter Edvard Munch (1893 pastel version) is stolen in Oslo.

February 12 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1567 Thomas Campion, English composer, poet.
• 1584 Casparus Barleaus, Dutch poet.
• 1704 Charles Pinot Duclos, French writer.
• 1706 Josef Christian, German Baroque sculptor.
• 1728 Étienne-Louis Boullée, French Neoclassical architect.
• 1740 Matěj Sojka, Bohemian composer.
• 1752 Josef Reicha, Czech cellist and composer.
• 1753 Lambert-Francois Godecharle, Belgian composer.
• 1758 Christian Ignatius Latrobe, English composer.
• 1760 Jan Ladislav Dussek [Jan Václav Dusík], Czech composer.
• 1777 Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué, German poet.
• 1778 Franz Joseph Volkert, Austrian composer.
• 1791 Jan David Zocher Jr., Dutch garden architect.
• 1792 Ferdinand de Braekeleer the Elder, Belgian painter.
• 1794 Alexander Petrov, Russian writer.
• 1809 Abraham Lincoln.
• 1809 Charles Darwin.
• 1828 George Meredith, English poet and novelist.
• 1841 Windham Wyndham-Quin, Irish author.
• 1853 Bertram Luard-Selby, British composer.
• 1861 Lou Andreas-Salomé, Russian-German author.
• 1865 Kazimierz Tetmajer, Polish writer and poet.
• 1876 Thubten Gyatso, 13th Dalai Lama.
• 1881 Anna Pavlova, Russian prima ballerina and choreographer.
• 1882 Walter Vaes, Belgian painter and etcher.
• 1884 Marie Vassilieff, Russian artist.
• 1884 Max Beckmann, German painter and graphic artist.
• 1886 Gustaf Lazarus Nordqvist, Swedish organist and composer.
• 1886 Michel Brusselmans, Belgian composer.
• 1891 Maurice Yvain, French operetta composer.
• 1898 Roy Harris, American composer.
• 1899 Albert Huybrechts, Belgian composer.
• 1908 Jean Effel, French painter.
• 1911 Frank Hercules, Trinidadian-American novelist.
• 1912 R. F. Delderfield, English author.
• 1922 Elisabeth Carron, American soprano.
• 1923 Mel Powell, American composer.
• 1924 Hans Berghuis, Dutch author and poet.
• 1925 Joan Mitchell, American painter.
• 1931 Janwillem van de Wetering, Dutch author.
• 1932 Axel Jensen, Norwegian author.
• 1933 Juanita [Ruth] Coulson, science fiction author.
• 1936 Arnost Parsch, Czech composer.
• 1938 Judy Blume, American author.
• 1961 Jim Harris, Canadian author.
• 1970 Judd Winick, American writer and artist.
• 1981 Lisa Hannigan, Irish singer.

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

• assibilate: /ə-SIB-ə-lāt/ v., PHONETICS, pronounce (a sound) as a sibilant or affricate ending in a sibilant (e.g. sound t as ts).
• chigoe: /ˈCHĒ-ɡō/ n., a tropical flea, the female of which burrows and lays eggs beneath the host's skin, causing painful sores.
• daggy: /DAG-ē/ adj., untidy, disheveled; eccentric.
• lusk: /ləsk/ adj., lazy, lethargic, or idle.
• mutin: /MYOO-tin/ adj., mischievous, impish; MILITARY NAUTICAL, n., a mutineer
• patruity: /puh-TROO-ih-tee/ n., the condition of being an uncle; the position or relationship of an uncle.
• piscary: /PIS-kə-rē/ n., a fishing place.
• slatternly: /SLA-dərn-lē/ adj., dirty and untidy (typically used of a woman or her appearance, the male equivalent being, slovenly).
• stercorary: /STUR-kuh-rair-ee/ n., a place (such as a covered pit) for the storage of manure secure from the weather.
• usageaster: / YOO-sij-ass-tuhr/ n., a self-appointed expert on language usage, esp. one regarded as having ill-informed, conservative, or pedantic views.

February 12, 2025 Word-Wednesday Feature
Valentine’s Day in Anishinaabemowin
So maybe you've been married for dozens of years, or maybe you're about to have your first Valentine's Day with your first true love. Maybe you are looking for a way to make this coming Valentine's Day just a bit special and a bit different. You're in luck! The Waking Up Ojibwe Anishinaabemodaa web site is featuring a Wiinimoshenhwi-Giizhigad (His/Her Sweetheart Day) Kit, with unique Valentine's Day vocabulary, phrases, and cards to make your day lovingly different:

gaa-ozaawizigwaag mashkikiins(an): chocolate(s)
Gigichiinendaagoz: You are special.
Gigikendaas: You are smart.
Gigizhewaadiz: You are kind.
giinimoshenh: your sweetheart
Gimiikawaadiz: You are beautiful/handsome.
Gimino-wiijiw: You are a good friend.
Giminwenim: I like you.
Giwawiyadendaagoz: You are funny.
Gizhawenimin: I love you.
Kakininjiinishin! Hug me!
Miijiidaa ziizibaakwadoonsan! Let’s eat candy!
niinimoshenh: my sweetheart
Ode’e-aazheniinhs: Cupid
ode’e: heart
Ojiimishin! Kiss me!
ziinzibaakwadoons(an): candy(s)
waabigwan(an): flower(s)
wiinimoshenh: his/her sweetheart
Zaagi’idizon! Love yourself!
Zazaginikenidaa! Let’s hold hands!


From A Year with Rilke, February 12 Entry
In the Asylum Garden, from New Prams

The abandoned cloister still encloses the courtyard
as if it were holy.
It remains a retreat from the world
For those who live there now.

Whatever could happen has already happened.
Now they are glad to walk the trusted paths
that draw them apart and bring them back together,
so simple and willing.

Some, on their knees beside the planted beds,
are absorbed by what they are tending.
When no one can see, there is
a secret little gesture they make.

To touch the tender early grass,
shyly to caress it.
The green is friendly and needs protection
from the rose whose red can be too fierce

and can overpower once again
what they know in their hearts to be true.
Still the inner knowledge is always there:
how good the grass is and how soft.

The Courtyard of the Hospital at Arles
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.







*As substitooths.