Word-Wednesday for April 23, 2025

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for April 23, 2025, the twenty-seventh Wednesday of the year, the fifth Wednesday of spring, the fourth Wednesday of April, and the one-hundred thirteenth day of the year, with two-hundred fifty-two days remaining.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for April 23, 2025
Our State Bird Has Arrived
Gavia immer has returned to Hayes Lake and other Wannaskan bodies of water. The Irish and British call them divers, which comes from the bird's habit of catching fish by swimming calmly along the surface and then abruptly plunging into the water. The North American name loon likely comes from either the Old English word lumme, meaning lummox or awkward person, or the Scandinavian word lum meaning lame or clumsy. Either way, the name refers to the loon's poor ability to walk on land. Definitely more at home in the water than on land, loon legs are set far back on its body, giving it an awkward gait on land. The collective noun for loons is loomery.

The male is slightly larger than the female, but otherwise the two sexes look identical. The common loon has a black bill and a red eye. In summer it is a spotty black and white with a black/iridescent green head. In fall a winter coat that's gray above and white below replaces its summer plumage. Loons don't begin breeding until they are three or four years old. The male chooses a territory and them attempts to attract a mate. Together the male and female build a nest out of reeds and grasses on the shoreline. They take turns incubating the one to two eggs the female lays. After twenty-eight to thirty days, blackish brown chicks emerge from the eggs and are soon ready for a swim. Parents care for their young by carrying them on their backs to keep them safe from fish and turtle predators. Loonlettes don't fly until they are more than two months old.

 

 

April 23 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


April 23 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Smash Burgers with Fries.


Earth/Moon Almanac for April 23, 2025
Sunrise: 6:17am; Sunset: 8:27pm; 3 minutes, 19 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 4:37am; Moonset: 3:12pm, waning gibbous, 23% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for April 23, 2025
                Average            Record              Today
High             52                     86                    47
Low              29                     14                     33


Spring Song
by Edith Wharton

"O primavera! Gioventit dell' anno."

The first warm buds that break their covers,
  The first young twigs that burst in green,
The first blade that the sun discovers,
  Starting the loosened earth between.

The pale soft sky, so clear and tender,
  With little clouds that break and fly;
The crocus, earliest pretender
  To the low breezes passing by;

The chirp and twitter of brown builders,
  A couple in a tree, at least;
The watchful wisdom of the elders
  For callow younglings in the nest;

The flush of branches with fair blossoms,
  The deepening of the faint green boughs,
As leaf by leaf the crown grows fuller
  That binds the young Spring's rosy brows;

New promise every day of sweetness,
  The next bright dawn is sure to bring;
Slow breaking into green completeness,
  Fresh rapture of the early Spring!

April 23 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Administrative Professional Day
• National Lost Dog Awareness Day
• National Cherry Cheesecake Day
• National Take a Chance Day
• National Picnic Day
• National Talk Like Shakespeare Day
• Canada Book Day
• World Book Night
• Feast Day of Ibar of Beggerin (Meath)

April 23 Word Pun
Sven’s fear of moving stairs is escalating.


April 23 Word Riddle
What tastes better than it smells?*


April 23 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
IMMODEST, adj. Having a strong sense of one's own merit, coupled with a feeble conception of worth in others.

    There was once a man in Ispahan
    Ever and ever so long ago,
    And he had a head, the phrenologists said,
    That fitted him for a show.

    For his modesty's bump was so large a lump
    (Nature, they said, had taken a freak)
    That its summit stood far above the wood
    Of his hair, like a mountain peak.

    So modest a man in all Ispahan,
    Over and over again they swore—
    So humble and meek, you would vainly seek;
    None ever was found before.

    Meantime the hump of that awful bump
    Into the heavens contrived to get
    To so great a height that they called the wight
    The man with the minaret.

    There wasn't a man in all Ispahan
    Prouder, or louder in praise of his chump:
    With a tireless tongue and a brazen lung
    He bragged of that beautiful bump

    Till the Shah in a rage sent a trusty page
    Bearing a sack and a bow-string too,
    And that gentle child explained as he smiled:
    "A little present for you."

    The saddest man in all Ispahan,
    Sniffed at the gift, yet accepted the same.
    "If I'd lived," said he, "my humility
    Had given me deathless fame!"
                                        —Sukker Uffro


April 23 Etymology Word of the Week
clue
/klo͞o/ n., a piece of evidence or information used in the detection of a crime or solving of a mystery, from 1590s, a special use of a revised spelling of clew "a ball of thread or yarn" (q.v.). The word, which is native Germanic, in Middle English was clewe, also cleue; some words borrowed from Old French in -ue, -eu also were spelled -ew in Middle English, such as blew, imbew, but these later were reformed to -ue, and this process was extended to native words (hue, true, clue) which had ended in a vowel and -w. The spelling clue is first attested mid-15th century.

The sense shift is originally in reference to the clew of thread given by Ariadne to Theseus to use as a guide out of the Labyrinth in Greek mythology. The purely figurative sense of "that which points the way," without regard to labyrinths, is from 1620s. As something which a bewildered person does not have, by 1948.

    Thus hardy Theseus, with intrepid Feet,
    Travers'd the dang'rous Labyrinth of Crete;
    But still the wandring Passes forc'd his Stay,
    Till Ariadne's Clue unwinds the Way

from Trivia, by John Gay

The board game (originally Cluedo) was launched in 1949 in Britain.


April 23 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1014 King Brian Boru of Ireland defeats Viking forces at the Battle of Clontarf, freeing Ireland from foreign control.
• 1516 Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria endorses "The German Beer Purity Law" (Reinheitsgebot) and adds to it standards for the sale of beer in Bavaria, ensuring beer is only brewed from three ingredients – water, barley, and hops.
• 1597 William Shakespeare's The Merry Wives of Windsor is first performed.
• 1635 Oldest US public institution, Boston Latin School founded.
• 1705 Richard Steele's play Tender Husband premieres.
• 1775 Opera Il Ré Pastore (The Shepherd King) by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart is first produced.
• 1849 Russian writer Fyodor Dostoyevsky and members of the Petrashevsky Circle are arrested in St. Petersburg.
• 1851 Canada issues its first postage stamp, a Three-Pence Beaver.
• 1881 W. S. Gilbert and Arthur Sullivan's comic opera Patience premieres.
• 1900 First known occurrence of the word "hillbilly" in NY Journal.
• 1904 American Academy of Arts & Letters forms.
• 1932 Shakespeare Memorial Theatre opens at Stratford-on-Avon.
• 1975 Harold Pinter's play No Man's Land premieres.
• 2022 American Simone Leigh is the first Black woman artist to win the main prize at Venice Biennale for her sculpture Brick House.

April 23 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1464 Robert Fayrfax, English Renaissance composer.
• 1516 Georg Fabricius, German poet.
• 1564 William Shakespeare, English poet and playwright.
• 1623 Jan Adam Reincken, Dutch-German composer.
• 1649 Andreas Kneller, German composer.
• 1708 Friedrich von Hagedorn, German poet.
• 1715 Johann Friedrich Doles, German composer.
• 1735 Ildephons Haas, German composer.
• 1747 Abbé Alexandre-Auguste Robineau, French composer and painter.
• 1775 J.M.W. Turner, English landscape painter.
• 1791 Friedrich von Olivier, German landscape painter.
• 1792 John Romney Robinson, Irish astronomer.
• 1809 Eugene-Prosper Prevost, French composer.
• 1810 Thomas Wright, English antiquarian and writer.
• 1818 James Anthony Froude, English historian and novelist.
• 1821 Pierre Dupont, French songwriter.
• 1838 Alfred Verwee, Flemish painter.
• 1852 Edwin Markham, American poet.
• 1857 Ruggero Leoncavallo, Italian composer.
• 1867 Simon Abramsz, Dutch teacher and writer.
• 1877 Arthur Farwell, American composer, born in St Paul, Minnesota.
• 1882 Albert Coates, English conductor and composer.
• 1889 Charles Warrell, English schoolteacher and creator of the I-Spy books.
• 1890 Donald Tweedy, American composer.
• 1891 Sergei Prokofiev, Russian composer.
• 1892 Minus van Looi [Benjamin van der Voort], Flemish writer.
• 1892 Richard Huelsenbeck, German Dada writer.
• 1895 Ngaio Marsh, New Zealand detective writer.
• 1896 Margaret Kennedy, English novelist.
• 1898 Edwin Erich Dwinger, German writer.
• 1900 Ary Verhaar, Dutch composer.
• 1900 Henry Barraud, French composer.
• 1902 Halldór Laxness, Icelandic writer.
• 1908 Egon Hostovský, Czech writer.
• 1909 (Frederick) "Erick" Hawkins, American modern ballet dancer, and choreographer.
• 1913 Jan Meyerowitz, German-American composer.
• 1914 Mitsu Suzuki, Japanese-American poet.
• 1919 Tālivaldis Ķeniņš, Latvian-Canadian composer.
• 1923 Avram Davidson, American science fiction author.
• 1923 James Kirkup, English poet and novelist.
• 1924 Arthur Frackenpohl, American composer.
• 1926 J. P. Donleavy, American novelist and playwright.
• 1928 Okke Jager, Dutch theologist, writer and poet.
• 1933 Roger Wittevrongel, Flemish painter.
• 1937 Victoria Glendinning, British author.
• 1939 Donough O'Brien, Irish author.
• 1940 Richard Monaco, American science fiction author.
• 1943 Hugh Davies, English composer.
• 1948 Pascal Quignard, French author.
• 1950 Steve McCurry, American photographer.
• 1957 Patrik Ouředník, Czech poet.
• 1958 Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, Icelandic music composer.
• 1972 Pierre Labrie, Canadian poet.
• 1979 Yana Gupta, Czech author.

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

• barycenter: /BAR-ə̇-sen-tə(r)/ n., the center of mass, or centroid, of a system of two or more objects, especially in astronomy.
• burl: /bərl/ n., a slub or lump in wool or cloth; a rounded knotty growth on a tree, giving an attractive figure when polished and used especially for handcrafted objects and veneers.
• dit: /dit/ n., (in Morse code) another term for dot.
• marcescent: /mär-SES-ənt/ adj., (of leaves or fronds) withering but remaining attached to the stem.
• nugacious: /noo-GAY-shuhss/ adj., trivial, trifling; of no significance or importance.
• rillet: /RI-lət/ n., a tiny rill; brooklet.
• sinter: /SIN-(t)ər/ n., GEOLOGY, a hard siliceous or calcareous deposit precipitated from mineral springs; solid material which has been sintered, especially a mixture of iron ore and other materials prepared for smelting.
• synestia: /si-NEST-ee-uh/ n., a hypothesized rapidly spinning doughnut-shaped mass of vaporized rock. The term was coined in 2017 by Sarah T. Stewart-Mukhopadhyay, taken from Hestia, goddess of the hearth, combined with syn- meaning together.
• tombola: /TAM-bə-lə/ n., a raffle in which usually numbered tickets are drawn at random from a revolving drum with prizes awarded to those drawing tickets that match numbers preassigned to a prize.
• worsification: /wur-sih-fih-KAY-shun/ n., the composition of bad verses; poor versification.

April 23, 2025 Word-Wednesday Feature
Definitions Matter
/def-ə-NI-SHən/ n., a statement of the exact meaning of a word, especially in a dictionary; the degree of distinctness in outline of an object, image, or sound, especially of an image in a photograph or on a screen, from late 14th century, diffinicioun, definicion, "decision, setting of boundaries, determination and stating of the limits and distinctive nature of a thing," also "limitations," also "a statement of the meaning of a word or phrase," from Old French definicion, from Latin definitionem (nominative definitio) "a bounding, a boundary; a limiting, prescribing; a definition, explanation," the last sense most often in Cicero, noun of action from past-participle stem of definire "to limit, determine, explain," from de "completely" (see de-) + finire "to bound, limit," from finis "boundary, end" (see finish).

Yes, even dictionaries get things wrong (see dord), but they endeavor to be definite. Even so, word definitions vary from place to place; where bird, biscuit, boot, chips, fag, and fanny (to name a few) have very different meanings in Wannaska than across the pond. With all our many pockets of culture in this country alone, imagine the variations in how virtue-words might be differently defined and understood; /VəR-CHo͞o/ n., behavior showing high moral standards. Take a familiar virtue, such as humility. The OED defines humility like this: /hyo͞o-MIL-ə-dē/ n., a modest or low view of one's own importance; humbleness. Kanye West finds that definition problematic and demeaning, preferring instead: "a conscious awareness of one's own gifts and the responsibility to use them for good." The Tao Te Ching defines humility more poetically: "Nothing in the world is as soft and yielding as water. Yet for dissolving the hard and inflexible, nothing can surpass it."

Since virtues must be both taught and practiced, the core definitions of our virtues seem important to our relationships with our selves and with others. So Word-Wednesday has started a project to develop definitions for virtues that capture the essence of the virtue-in-action. Here are a few of our trial balloons - a work in progress:

• forgiveness: the process of unburdening one's self from pain inflicted by another for the wellbeing of both (see generosity).
• generosity: the state of understanding that one has everything one really needs, with the intent to share all of it, at any time, without hesitation.
• gratitude: the realization that one has nothing that has not been given.
• honesty: the state of accepting and representing the universe and its inhabitants as they are without embellishment or detraction.
• humility: the intent to help everyone else feel bigger and better than they usually feel about themselves.
• joy: a moral imperative that results from living one's virtues.
• patience: the capacity to listen and see another with complete attention and inner silence until the other becomes entirely ready to receive honest generosity.
• love: see all of the above, all at once.

From A Year with Rilke, April 23 Entry
It Will Reveal Itself, from Viareggio, April 5, 1903, Letters to a Young Poet

Seek the inner depth of things, and when they lead you to the edge of a great discovery, discern whether it arises from a necessity of your being. Either this discovery will strike you as superficial and you will shed it, or it will reveal itself as intrinsic to you and grow into a strong and honest tool of your art.

Woman Walking in a Garden
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.







*A tongue.