Word-Wednesday for March 26, 2025

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for March 26, 2025, the twenty-third Wednesday of the year, the first Wednesday of spring, the fourth Wednesday of March, and the eighty-fifth day of the year, with two-hundred eighty days remaining.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for March 26, 2025
Horned Lark
The horned lark, Eremophila alpestris, a species of lark in the family Alaudidae found across the northern hemisphere — collective noun: exultation — calls Wannaska home when it comes to breeding activities and is the only lark species native to North America, and they're moving in to position. A common very early spring migrant throughout the cultivated regions of Minnesota from February through late March, the horned lark also is an early nester — a risky business for the eggs and chicks when it comes to March and April snow storms. Horned lark vocalizations are high-pitched, lisping, tinkling, and weak. The song, given in flight as is common among larks, consists of a few chips followed by a warbling, ascending trill.

Spot the Space Station over Wannaska: Wednesday, March 26 at 8:26 PM; Visible for seven minutes; Max Height: 80°, Appears: 10° above WNW; Disappears: 11° above ESE.

March 26 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


March 26 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily, occasionally.


Earth/Moon Almanac for March 26, 2025
Sunrise: 7:14am; Sunset: 7:45pm; 3 minutes, 36 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 6:16am; Moonset: 4:17pm, waning crescent, 10% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for March 26, 2025
                Average            Record              Today
High             38                     72                     48
Low              15                    -25                     20

here's to opening and upward
by e.e. cummings

here's to opening and upward, to leaf and to sap
and to your(in my arms flowering so new)
self whose eyes smell of the sound of rain

and here's to silent certainly mountains;and to
a disappearing poet of always,snow
and to morning;and to morning's beautiful friend
twilight(and a first dream called ocean)and

let must or if be damned with whomever's afraid
down with ought with because with every brain
which thinks it thinks,nor dares to feel(but up
with joy;and up with laughing and drunkenness)

here's to one undiscoverable guess
of whose mad skill each world of blood is made
(whose fatal songs are moving in the moon

March 26 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Little Red Wagon Day
• Epilepsy Awareness (Purple) Day
• National Nougat Day
• National Spinach Day
• Manatee Appreciation Day

March 26 Word Pun
In a democracy it's your vote that counts. In feudalism it's your count that votes.


March 26 Word Riddle
What was the name of Bruce Lee’s much faster brother?*


March 26 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
DEAD, adj.

    Done with the work of breathing; done
    With all the world; the mad race run
    Through to the end; the golden goal
    Attained and found to be a hole!
                —Squatol Johnes


March 26 Etymology Word of the Week
cybernetics
/ˌsī-bər-NED-iks/ n., the science of communications and automatic control systems in both machines and living things, from "theory or study of communication and control," coined 1948 by U.S. mathematician Norbert Wiener (1894-1964), with -ics + Latinized form of Greek kybernētēs "steersman" (metaphorically "guide, governor"), from kybernan "to steer or pilot a ship, direct as a pilot," figuratively "to guide, govern", which is of uncertain origin. Beekes agrees that "the word has no cognates" and concludes "Foreign origin is probable." The construction is perhaps based on 1830s French cybernétique "the art of governing". The future offers very little hope for those who expect that our new mechanical slaves will offer us a world in which we may rest from thinking. Help us they may, but at the cost of supreme demands upon our honesty and our intelligence. [Norbert Wiener, God and Golem, Inc., 1964]


March 26 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1800 First performance of Ludwig van Beethoven's 1st Symphony in C.
• 1819 First successful agricultural journal American Farmer first published.
• 1827 US inventor Joseph Dixon of Salem, Massachusetts, begins manufacturing lead pencils.
• 1845 H L Fizeau & Leon Foucault take first photo of the Sun.
• 1877 First human cannonball act performed by 14-year-old Rossa Matilda Richter known as Zazel at the Royal Aquarium in London.
• 1881 Sixth Impressionist Exhibition opens in Paris organized by Edgar Degas and showing his famous Little Dancer of Fourteen Years, the only sculpture shown in his lifetime.
• 1884 London prison for debtors closed.
• 1902 "Electric Theatre", the first full-time movie theater in the United States, opens in Los Angeles, California.
• 1917 Jeannette Rankin (Rep-R-Montana) begins her term as first woman member of US House of Representatives.
• 1931 17-year old girl Jackie Mitchell strikes out New York Yankees stars Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig in an exhibition baseball game at Engel Stadium in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
• 1956 Peter Ustinovs' play Romanoff & Juliet premieres.
• 1972 Tennessee Williams' Small Craft Warnings premieres.

March 26 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 742 Charlemagne, first Holy Roman emperor (800-14), born in Liège, Frankish Kingdom.
• 1628 Constantin Christian Dedekind, German composer and poet.
• 1711 Jan Punt, Dutch engraver, painter, illustrator.
• 1725 Giacomo Casanova, Italian writer, adventurer and famous lover.
• 1728 Franz Asplmayr, Austrian composer.
• 1733 Giacomo Tritto, Italian composer.
• 1735 Christian Gotthilf Tag, German composer.
• 1763 Giacomo Gotifredo Ferrari, Italian composer.
• 1788 Francisco Balagtas, Filipino poet.
• 1798 August Heinrich Hoffmann, German writer.
• 1805 Hans Christian Anderson, Danish author.
• 1817 Teodulo Mabellini, Italian composer.
• 1827 William Holman Hunt, English painter.
• 1834 Frédéric-Auguste Bartholdi, French sculptor (designed the Statue of Liberty), and painter.
• 1840 Émile Zola, French novelist.
• 1854 Harry Furniss, Irish artist and illustrator.
• 1874 Oskar Nedbal, Czech composer.
• 1874 Robert Frost, American poet.
  
• 1878 Émilie Charmy, French avant-garde artist.
• 1884 Sir J. C. Squire, British poet, writer.
• 1891 Max Ernst, German-French surrealist painter and sculptor.
• 1900 Anis Fuleihan, Lebanese-American classical pianist, composer.
• 1900 Roberto Arlt, Argentine writer.
• 1902 Danilo Svara, Slovenian composer.
• 1905 Kurt Alfred Adler, Austrian therapist and writer.
• 1905 Serge Lifar, Russian-French dancer, choreographer.
• 1909 Jean Kurt Forest, German composer.
• 1911 Tennessee Williams, American author.
  
• 1913 Nora Niland, Irish librarian.
• 1915 Arthur Ballard, English artist.
• 1918 Charles White, American artist.
• 1925 George MacDonald Fraser, British poet and author.
• 1926 Michael Rizzello, English sculptor.
• 1929 Catherine Gaskin, Irish romantic novelist.
• 1930 Girolamo Arriego, Italian composer.
• 1931 Imre Olsvik, Hungarian composer.
• 1938 John Larsson, Swedish writer.
• 1945 Anne Waldman, American poet.
• 1947 Camille Paglia, American author.
• 1948 Joan D. Vinge, American science fiction author.
• 1951 Moriteru Ueshiba, Japanese martial artist.
• 1962 Mark Shulman, American children's author.
• 1970 Martin McDonagh, Irish playwright.

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

• beck: /bek/ n., a mountain stream.
• darkle: /DÄR-kəl/ v., to become clouded or gloomy; to grow dark.
• embrasure: /əm-BRĀZH-ər/ n., a small opening in a parapet of a fortified building, splayed on the inside.
• flaughter: /FLAW-ter/ n., a fluttering; a thin cut or paring of turf; v., to flutter; to cut turf.
• funambulist: / fyoo-NAM-byuh-luhst/ n., a person who walks or performs on a rope stretched between two points at some height above the ground; a tightrope walker.
• groats: /ɡrōts/ n., hulled or crushed grain, especially oats.
• mordant: /MÔR-dnt/ adj., (especially of humor) having or showing a sharp or critical quality; biting.
• primaveral: /prim-uh-VER-uhl/ adj., of or taking place in early spring.
• soum: /soom/ v., to examine (an area of pasture) in order to determine how many grazing animals it can sustain.
• subaltern: /səb-ÔL-tərn/ adj., of lower status; n., an officer in the British army below the rank of captain, especially a second lieutenant.

March 26, 2025 Word-Wednesday Feature
Spring Words
On this second Wednesday after the spring equinox, we celebrate the transition from the brumal apricity to the vernal glow with some words related to spring. Vernal comes from the Latin vernus, ultimately derived from Proto-Indo-European wósr̥ "spring" (also reconstructed alternatively as wésr̥ or wḗsr̥), the root of Latin vēr "spring". Almost all word-forms of vernus appear in the English language, but many are verbs. Greenings and beginnings are common themes for spring words; here are a few to add some spring to your vernal vocabulary:

• effloresce: /ef-lə-RES/ v., each an optimum stage of development; blossom.
• egerminate: /ee-JUR-muh-nayt/ v., to shoot out, put forth, or cause to sprout, specifically referring to the process of a seed starting to grow.
• frondescence: /fron-DES-uhns/ n., he process of leafing out or the period when leaves develop on trees and plants.
• incalescent: /in-KAL-uh-suhnt/ v., increasing in heat or ardor.
• recrudesce: /rē-kro͞o-DES/ v., break out again; recur.
• repullulate: /ri-PUHL-yuh-layt/ v., o sprout or grow again, often referring to regeneration or revival.
• risorgimento: /ri-zawr-juh–MEN-toh/ n., a period or instance of rebirth or renewed activity.
• vernaculous: /ver-NAK-yuh-luhs/ adj., a young or green wit; scoffing; scurrilous.
• vernant: /VəR-nənt/ adj., blooming, flourishing.
• vernate: /VUR-nayt/ v., to grow again, to flourish.

From A Year with Rilke, March 26 Entry
Annunciation (2), from Book of Images

(The angel speaks)

I stretched my wings wide
and became incredibly vast.
Now your narrow dwelling
overflows with my robes.
Yet you are alone as never before,
and barely look at me.
I could be just a breeze in the grove.
You, though, are the tree.

Never was there such longing,
so great and so uncertain.
Maybe something is soon to occur
that has come to you in dreams.
I greet you, for my soul sees now
that you have ripened and are ready.
You are a high and awesome gate
and soon you will open.
You are the ear my song is seeking,
the forest in which my word is lost.

So I came and made real
what you dared so long to dream.
God looked right at me, it was blinding . . .

You, though, are the tree.

Minerva
by Auguste Rodin

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.







*Sudden Lee.