Word-Wednesday for March 19, 2025

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for March 19, 2025, the twenty-second Wednesday of the year, the thirteenth Wednesday of winter, the third Wednesday of March, and the seventy-ninth day of the year, with two-hundred eighty-seven days remaining.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for March 19, 2025
Spring III 2025
Meteorological, Psychological, soon Astronomical spring will arrive at 4:01am tomorrow with the spring equinox. This means that the Canada geese we're seeing now will soon be joined by Robins, Red-winged blackbirds, Loon, and Sandhill cranes.

Spot the Space Station: Wednesday, Mar 19 at 9:13pm, Visible: 5 minutes, Maximum Height: 50°, Appears: 10° above WNW, Disappears: 31° above ENE.

March 19 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


March 19 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily, occasionally.


Earth/Moon Almanac for March 19, 2025
Sunrise: 7:28am; Sunset: 7:35pm; 3 minutes, 37 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 12:47am; Moonset: 9:50am, waning gibbous, 78% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for March 19, 2025
                Average            Record              Today
High             35                     77                     33
Low              12                    -23                     19

Spring Equinox
by Agnes Krampe

The balance tips toward the light.
Now is the time to start
A journey or a garden bed;
Plant with a happy heart

The seeds of dreams. Wake, senses, wake!
Smell the moist soil that brings
Forth juicy green from its dark depth.
Hear how the river sings;

The waters nourish and renew.
Feel gentle balmy breeze
Caress your skin. See sun’s bright light
Awaken grass and trees.

Now taste the joy. And like the earth
You are refreshed and new
And full of energy to plant,
Begin, create, and do.

March 19 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National 3-D Day
• National Backyard Day
• National Small Business Development Centers Day
• National Certified Nurses Day
• National Let’s Laugh Day
• National Chocolate Caramel Day
• National Poultry Day
• National Play the Recorder Day
• Feast Day of St. Joseph

March 19 Word Pun
Plateaus are the highest form of flattery.


March 19 Word Riddle
What do you call the happiness one feels when one’s neighbor’s umbrella blows away?*

a Chairman Joe original

March 19 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
JESTER, n. An officer formerly attached to a king's household, whose business it was to amuse the court by ludicrous actions and utterances, the absurdity being attested by his motley costume. The king himself being attired with dignity, it took the world some centuries to discover that his own conduct and decrees were sufficiently ridiculous for the amusement not only of his court but of all mankind. The jester was commonly called a fool, but the poets and romancers have ever delighted to represent him as a singularly wise and witty person. In the circus of to-day the melancholy ghost of the court fool effects the dejection of humbler audiences with the same jests wherewith in life he gloomed the marble hall, panged the patrician sense of humor and tapped the tank of royal tears.

    The widow-queen of Portugal
    Had an audacious jester
    Who entered the confessional
    Disguised, and there confessed her.

    "Father," she said, "thine ear bend down—
    My sins are more than scarlet:
    I love my fool—blaspheming clown,
    And common, base-born varlet."

    "Daughter," the mimic priest replied,
    "That sin, indeed, is awful:
    The church's pardon is denied
    To love that is unlawful.

    "But since thy stubborn heart will be
    For him forever pleading,
    Thou'dst better make him, by decree,
    A man of birth and breeding."

    She made the fool a duke, in hope
    With Heaven's taboo to palter;
    Then told a priest, who told the Pope,
    Who damned her from the altar!
                    —Barel Dort


March 19 Etymology Word of the Week
voucher
/VOUCH-ər/ n., a small printed piece of paper that entitles the holder to a discount, or that may be exchanged for goods or services; a receipt, from 1520s, originally "summoning of a person into court to warrant the title to a property, a calling to vouch;" see vouch (v.). The meaning "receipt from a business transaction" is attested by 1690s; the sense of "document which can be exchanged for goods or services" (also "expense account") is attested from 1947.

vouch: v., /vouCH/ assert or confirm as a result of one's own experience that something is true or accurately so described, from early 14th century, vouchen, "summon" someone or a group, especially into court to prove a title, from Anglo-French voucher, Old French vocher "to call, summon, invoke, claim," probably from Gallo-Roman voticare, metathesis of Latin vocitare "to call to, summon insistently," frequentative of Latin vocare "to call, call upon, summon," which is related to vox (genitive vocis) "voice" (from Proto-Indo-European root wekw- "to speak"). By the late 14th century as "declare, assert," a sense now obsolete. The meaning "support with proofs or evidence" is from 1570s; that of "assert or affirm to be true or accurate, be surety for" is by 1590s.


March 19 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1799 Joseph Haydn's oratorio The Creation (Die Schöpfung) premieres.
• 1803 Friedrich Schiller's Die Braut von Messina premieres.
• 1859 Charles Gounod's opera Faust premieres.
• 1864 Charles Gounod's opera Mireille premieres.
• 1870 Antônio Carlos Gomes' opera Il Guarany premieres.
• 1896 Antonín Dvořák's Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104, premieres.
• 1906 Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari's comic opera Quattro Rusteghi (The Four Ruffians) premieres.
• 1911 First International Women's Day sees over 1 million men and women attend rallies in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. Issues discussed included women's right to vote and to hold public office, the right to work, to vocational training and an end to discrimination on the job.
• 1918 US adopts Standard Time Act of 1918, also known as the Calder Act, a federal law implementing standard time (and daylight saving time) and defining five time zones for the United States.
• 1919 Literary Magazine Littérature, edited by André Breton, Philippe Soupault, and Louis Aragon publishes its first issue.
• 1937 Astronomer Fritz Zwicky publishes his research on stellar explosion in which he coins the term "supernova" and hypothesizes that they were the origin of cosmic rays.
• 1951 Herman Wouk's novel The Caine Mutiny published.
• 1953 Tennessee Williams' Camino Real premieres.

March 19 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1601 Alonzo Cano, Spanish painter and sculptor.
• 1668 Francesco Gasparini, Italian baroque composer.
• 1673 Pedro Vaz Rego, Portuguese composer and poet.
• 1715 Charles-Joseph van Helmont, South Netherlands organist and composer.
• 1728 Pieter-Jozef Verhaghen, Flemish court painter.
• 1740 Johann Georg Roser, Austrian composer.
• 1785 Pierre-Joseph-Guillaume Zimmermann, French pianist, music teacher, and composer.
• 1809 Fredrik Pacius, German-Finnish composer.
• 1816 Johannes Verhulst, Dutch composer.
• 1824 William Allingham, Irish poet.
• 1844 Minna Canth, Finnish playwright.
• 1847 Constantin Dimitrescu, Romanian composer.
• 1864 Charles Marion Russell, American artist.
• 1873 Max Reger, German concert pianist, organist, composer.
• 1879 Joseph Haas, German late romantic opera composer.
• 1882 Gaston Lachaise, American sculptor.
• 1883 Josef Matthias Hauer, Austrian composer.
• 1888 Josef Albers, German-American artist, writer.
• 1894  Jiří Langerm Czech poet.
• 1904 Tadeusz Zygfryd Kassern, Polish composer.
• 1906 Normand Lockwood, American composer.
• 1907 Elizabeth Maconchy, Irish composer.
• 1907 Marc Vaubourgoin, French composer.
• 1914 James "Buster" Bennett, American blues saxophonist.
• 1916 Irving Wallace, American author.
• 1917 Constantin "Dinu" Lipatti, Romanian composer.
• 1920 Kjell Aukrust, Norwegian author.
• 1921 Harry Babasin, American jazz bassist and cellist.
• 1921 Robert McFerrin, Sr., American operatic baritone.
• 1923 Janine Dacosta, French classical pianist.
• 1929 Robert Muczynski, American composer.
• 1933 Philip Roth, American novelist.

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

• anfractuous: /an-FRAK-(t)SH(əw)-əs/ adj., sinuous or circuitous.
• biddable: /BID-ə-b(ə)l/ adj., meekly ready to accept and follow instructions.
• bogie: /BŌ-ɡē/ n., an undercarriage with four or six wheels pivoted beneath the end of a railroad car.
• gig: /gig/ n., a light two-wheeled carriage pulled by one horse; a light, fast, narrow boat adapted for rowing or sailing; v., travel in a gig.
• jejune: /jə-Jo͞oN/ adj., naive, simplistic, and superficial; (of ideas or writings) dry and uninteresting.
• mavourneen: /mə-VÜR-nēn/ n., IRISH, my darling.
• ragout: /ra-GÜ/ n., well-seasoned meat and vegetables cooked in a thick sauce.
• sapor: /SĀ-pə(r)/ n., a property (as bitterness) affecting the sense of taste; savor; flavor.
• thallasic: /THə-LA-sik/ adj., relating to the sea.
• wether: /WET͟H-ər/ n., a male sheep castrated before sexual maturity.

March 19, 2025 Word-Wednesday Feature
Hockey Hair
With the Minnesota High School Hockey season behind us, and the Stanley Cup just thirty days away, today we look at terms used by hockey players, announcers, and fans to describe one of the single most important elements of the game: hairdos. Hockey aficionados flock to the Minnesota State High School All Hockey Hair Team show for the annual review of Minnesota, the Land of Ten Thousand Locks. Viewing this show is worth it for the poetic alliteration of the report, not to mention the puns.

The deadpan narrator of the video — Duke Cannon, men and boys hair product magnate — has introduced new terms to the world of hair criticism, like "dual exhaust" and "Flow-bio". Big hair is part of a hockey player's reputation — a calling card with curls; the uglier, the better. But the mullet is the foundation for almost all stylizations. Just ask Spencer Kramer, who's been cutting hair at Dick's Sports Barber in Edina for more than 20 years. Kramer fields all kinds of hockey-related hair requests at his family's business, where he does everything from shave stripes in the sides of boys' hair to carve their high school hockey team logos on the back of their heads. Here are a few of the terms any player, fan, or announcer needs to know to be in-the-know about hockey hair:

• bucket: hockey helmet.
• cabbage: one of many leafy synonyms for hair.
• chop: one of many leafy synonyms for hair.
• dual exhaust: hairdo featuring two puffs of hair coming off the back of the head - the muscle car of hairdos.
• flow: hair is long enough in back to be swept up from the players face and back, flowing down the player's head and out the bucket.
• free flow: flow so long it streams past the player's shoulders.
• lettuce: one of many leafy synonyms for hair.
• leaf: one of many leafy synonyms for hair.
• lip sweater: a mustache.
• mullet: business in the front; party in the back. The ideal hairdo for helmet sports.
• Osc-hairs: the Oscar-like award handed out to the best hairdos at the members of the Minnesota State High School All Hockey Hair Team each year.
• old school dirty: compliment about a player's classic mullet hairdo.
• pirate: the player is pulling off the bizarre hair look, and it's not even Halloween.
• salad: one of many leafy synonyms for hair.
• samurai: a newer hair look in tournaments of recent year featuring the Man Bun up top, which can be problematic for the bucket.
• skullet: the hairdo of a player who continues to rock the mullet as the player begins to go bald.

Please add additional terms with which you are familiar in the comment section.

From A Year with Rilke, March 19 Entry
Like a Web, from Book of Hours I, 3

When I lean over the chasm of myself—
it seems
my God is dark
and like a web: a hundred roots
silently drinking.

This is the ferment I grow out of.

Landscape with Snow (Paysage enneigé)
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.







*Schadenfreude.