Word-Wednesday for June 25, 2025

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for June 25, 2025, the nineteenth Wednesday of the year, the first Wednesday of summer, the fourth Wednesday of June, and the one-hundred seventy-sixth day of the year, with one-hundred eighty-nine days remaining. 

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for June 25, 2025
Lady’s Slipper
(Cypripedium reginae), also known as the showy lady’s slipper or queen’s lady slipper, and the Anishinaabe call it ma-ki-sin waa-big-waan, or moccasin flower. Lady's slipper was adopted as the Minnesota state flower in 1902. This being lives in open fens, bogs, swamps, and damp woods where there is plenty of light. They grow slowly, taking up to sixteen years before producing their first flowers. Lady's slipper blooms in late June or early July, and you can see them now if you know where to look. But don't pick. Since 1925 this rare wildflower has been protected by state law — it is illegal to pick the flowers or to uproot or unearth these animate plants. If you're lucky, you may find yellow lady's slipper (Cypripedium parviflorum) also growing nearby.

June 25 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


June 25 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily, occasionally.


Earth/Moon Almanac for June 25, 2025
Sunrise: 5:21am; Sunset: 9:31pm; 24 seconds less daylight today
Moonrise: 4:54am; Moonset: 10:33pm, New Moon, 0% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for June 25, 2025
                Average            Record              Today
High             76                     91                     72
Low              55                     37                    54

Over hill, over dale, 
Thorough bush, thorough brier, 
Over park, over pale, 
Thorough flood, thorough fire
I do wander every where, 
Swifter than the moon’s sphere; 
And I serve the fairy queen, 
To dew her orbs upon the green: 
The cowslips tall her pensioners be; 
In their gold coats spots you see; 
Those be rubies, fairy favours, 
In those freckles live their savours: 
I must go seek some dew-drops here 
And hang a pearl in every cowslip’s ear. 
Farewell, thou lob of spirits: I’ll be gone; 
Our queen and all her elves come here anon.

from A Midsummer Night's Dream, by William Shakespeare

June 25 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Parchment Day
• National Strawberry Parfait Day
• National Leon Day
• National Catfish Day

June 25 Word Pun
Sven returned the box of animal crackers that he just bought. The seal was broken.


June 25 Word Riddle
What do you call the cheapskate of shorebirds?*


June 25 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
EGOTIST, n., A person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me.

    Megaceph, chosen to serve the State
    In the halls of legislative debate,
    One day with all his credentials came
    To the capitol's door and announced his name.
    The doorkeeper looked, with a comical twist
    Of the face, at the eminent egotist,
    And said: "Go away, for we settle here
    All manner of questions, knotty and queer,
    And we cannot have, when the speaker demands
    To be told how every member stands,
    A man who to all things under the sky
    Assents by eternally voting 'I'."


June 25 Etymology Word of the Week
woke
/wōk/ v., past of wake; alert to concern about social injustice and discrimination, from wake: v., "become awake," a Middle English merger of Old English wacan "become awake, arise, be born, originate," and Old English wacian "be or remain awake," from Proto-Germanic wakojanan (source also of Old Saxon wakon, Old Norse vaka, Danish vaage, Old Frisian, Fozzie the Bear waka, Dutch waken, Old High German wahhen, German wachen "to be awake," Gothic wakan "to watch"), from Proto-Indo-European root weg- "to be strong, be lively." In its modern sense of being aware of social injustice, originated in African American Vernacular English (AAVE), derived from the W'okh tribe of coastal Kenya. This tribe was the first to see the morning sun and communicated the news of the sunrise via drum to the rest of Africa, which became a common morning greeting in Africa to ask, "Are you W'okh?" Its use as a term for political consciousness and awareness dates back to the early 20th century, with notable early examples in the writings of Marcus Garvey and the song Scottsboro Boys by Lead Belly.


June 25 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1580 Book of Concord, standards of Lutheran Church, first published.
• 1630 Fork introduced to American dining by Governor Winthrop.
• 1638 Lunar eclipse is the first astronomical event recorded in the American Colonies.
• 1678 Venetian Elena Cornaro Piscopia is awarded a doctorate of philosophy from the University of Padua, the first woman to receive a university doctoral degree or PhD.
• 1821 Carl Maria von Weber's Konzertstück in F, for Piano and Orchestra premieres.
• 1900 Dunhuang manuscripts, including the Diamond Sutra, world's oldest surviving dated book, discovered by Daoist monk Wang Yuanlu in the Mogao Caves, China.
• 1910 Igor Stravinsky's ballet The Firebird for the Ballets Russes premieres.
• 1947 First version of Anne Frank's diary Het Achterhuis published.

June 25 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1709 Francesco Araja, Italian composer.
• 1735 Benvenuto Robbio San Raffaele, Italian composer.
• 1796 Ferdinando Giorgetti, Italian composer.
• 1852 Antoni Gaudi, Catalan-Spanish architect.
• 1858 Georges Courteline [Moineau], French playwright.
• 1860 Gustave Charpentier, French opera composer.
• 1862 Vasily Georgiyevich Wrangell, Russian composer.
• 1874 Rose O'Neill, American cartoonist, illustrator, artist, and writer
• 1878 Jean Gallon, French composer.
• 1887 Frigyes Karinthy, Hungarian author, poet.
• 1889 Ethel Glenn Hier, American composer.
• 1890 Hans Marchwitza, German writer.
• 1897 Hans Barth, German-born American composer.
• 1898 Kay [Katherine Linn] Sage, American painter and poet.
• 1901 Adolf Brunner, Swiss composer.
• 1903 George Orwell, British author.
• 1912 Virginia Lacy Jones, American librarian.
• 1916 Philip Toynbee, British writer.
• 1921 Celia Franca [Franks], British-Canadian ballet dancer, choreographer.
• 1922 Věra Janoušková, Czeh painter, sculptor, and artist.
• 1921 Peter Wishart, English composer.
• 1923 Dorothy Gilman, American mystery writer.
• 1923 Nicholas Mosley, British novelist.
• 1923 Sam Francis, American painter.
• 1925 Robert Venturi, American architect.
• 1926 Ingeborg Bachmann, Austrian author and poet.
• 1928 Jacob Druckman, American Pulitzer Prize-winning composer.
• 1928 Peyo [Pierre Culliford], Belgian cartoonist.
• 1929 Eric Carle, American illustrator and writer.
• 1933 Álvaro Siza Vieira, Portuguese architect.
• 1933 Michelangelo Pistoletto, Italian artist.
• 1935 Larry Kramer, American playwright.
• 1936 Paul Nowee, Dutch writer of children's and youth books.
• 1937 Marabel Morgan, American author.
• 1940 A. J. Quinnell [Philip Nicholson], English writer.
• 1940 Mary Beth Peil, American operatic soprano.
• 1942 Michel Tremblay, Canadian novelist and playwright.
• 1943 Gerrit "Ger" Zijlstra, Dutch sculptor.
• 1945 Labi Siffre, British singer-songwriter and poet.
• 1954 Dana Vavřačová, Czech stepper.
• 1956 Bongiwe (Bongi) Dhlomo-Mautloa, South African artist.
• 1960 Frances Black, Irish singer.
• 1963 Yann Martel, Spanish-Canadian author.
• 1970 Ariel Gore, American author.
• 1971 Santiago de Tezanos, Uruguayan architect.

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

• arrack: /ER-ək/ n., an alcoholic liquor typically distilled from the sap of the coconut palm or from rice.
• chaplet: /CHAP-lət/ n., a garland or wreath for a person's head; a string of 55 beads (one third of the rosary number) for counting prayers, or as a necklace.
• dichaeologia: /DEE-kahy-oh-loh-JEE-uh/ n., a defense of failure or disgrace, as by blaming extenuating circumstances, inadequate help, or betrayal by friends.
• faunch: /fawnch/ v., to worry; to be eager; to show impatience or restlessness; to complain; to champ the bit; to rant and rave.
• eremition: /air-uh-MISH-uhn/ n., the act of withdrawing or retreating, often into solitude, and is closely related to the concept of a hermit or eremite. 
• hippopotamic: /hi-pō-pə-TA-mik/ adj., unwieldy.
• hythe: /hīt͟h/ n., a haven; landing-place in a river; a harbor or small port.
• ishpeming: /ISH-puh-ming/ prep. or adv., ANISHINAABE, above, in the air, on high.
• quetzal: /ket-SÄL/ n., a bird of the trogon family, with iridescent green plumage and typically red underparts, found in the forests of tropical America; the basic monetary unit of Guatemala, equal to 100 centavos.
• shroff: /SHräf/ n., INDIAN, a banker or money changer; a cashier.

June 25, 2025 Word-Wednesday Feature
Now
Yesterday we were reminded that here in the northern hemisphere that our our time is fourth-best: June — that most pleasant of months to be outdoors. Many writers (not just Eastern) encourage us to dwell in and make the most of our present moment:

The ability to be in the present moment is a major component of mental wellness.

Abraham Maslow

Let others worship the past: I much prefer the present. Am delighted to be alive today.

Ovid

Everyone’s life lies within the present; for the past is spent and done with, and the future is uncertain.

Marcus Aurelius

All other days have either disappeared into darkness and oblivion or not yet emerged from it. Today is the only day there is.

Frederick Buechner

Love the moment
and the energy
of that moment
will spread
beyond all/boundaries.

Corita Kent

The only valid tense is the present, the Now.

Hannah Arendt

Now thyself is more important than Know thyself.

Mel Brooks

There is only one moment in which you can experience anything, and that is now, yet a great deal of time is thrown away by dwelling on past or future experiences.

Wayne W. Dyer

With the Past, as past, I have nothing to do; nor with the Future as future. I live now.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

There is no such thing as the future. The future is an illusion. What we have is a now, followed by a now, followed by a series of nows.

Mary J. Lore

We are now faced with the fact, my friends, that tomorrow is today. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now.

Martin Luther King Jr.

The word “now” is like a bomb through the window, and it ticks.

Arthur Miller

I’m in the Now a lot more now
And here’s what’s even greater
I never ever can run out
There’s always more Now later.

Greg Tamblyn

No mind is much employed upon the present: recollection and anticipation fill up almost all our moments.

Samuel Johnson

I still lived in the future–a habit which is the death of happiness.

Quentin Crisp

I got the blues thinking of the future, so I left off and made some marmalade. It’s amazing how it cheers one up to shred oranges or scrub the floor.

D. H. Lawrence

Unease, anxiety, tension, stress, worry—all forms of fear—are caused by too much future, and not enough presence. Guilt, regret, resentment, grievances, sadness, bitterness, and all forms of nonforgiveness are caused by too much past, and not enough presence.

Eckhart Tolle

The older one gets, the more one feels that the present moment must be enjoyed, comparable to a state of grace.

Marie Curie

The present was enough, though my work in the cemetery told me every day what happens when you let an unsatisfactory present go on long enough: it becomes your entire history.

Louise Erdrich

Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. There is no why.

Kurt Vonnegut

Each day the world is born anew
For him who takes it rightly.

James Russell Lowell

The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it.

Thích Nhất Hạnh

Hold every moment sacred. Give each clarity and meaning, each the weight of thine awareness, each its true and due fulfillment.

Thomas Mann

The passing moment is all we can be sure of; it is only common sense to extract its utmost value from it.

W. Somerset Maugham

Real generosity toward the future lies in giving all to the present.

Albert Camus

We are here and it is now. Further than that, all human knowledge is moonshine.

H. L. Mencken

Now or never! You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment.

Henry David Thoreau

From A Year with Rilke, June 25 Entry
David Sings Before Saul (III), from New Prams

Oh king, you conceal yourself in darknesses,
and yet I have you in my power.
See, nothing has stopped this song of mine.
The room grows cold around us.
My orphaned heart and your wasted one
are caught together in the blindness of your wrath,
our teeth sunk into each other,
our claws twisted in a single fist.

Can you feel now how we are changing places?
My king, my king, what is heavy turns to spirit.
If we just keep hold of each other,
you grasping the young one and I the old,
we could revolve together like stars.

Saul and David
by Rembrandt van Rijn

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 frugull.