Word-Wednesday for December 3, 2025

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for December 3, 2025, the twenty-fifth Wednesday of the year, the eleventh Wednesday of fall, the first Wednesday of December, and the three-hundred thirty-seventh day of the year, with twenty-eight days remaining.

 
Wannaska Phenology Update for December 3, 2025
Ice Ice, Maybe
Ice covers form after a lake or pond reaches 39°F throughout the body of water. The Minnesota DNR says that it takes at least four inches of new solid ice over stationary water for safe walking, skating, and ice fishing, where new ice supports more weight than old ice. Some other DNR facts about new ice include the following:

• Ice seldom freezes uniformly. It may be a foot thick in one location and only an inch or two just a few feet away.
• Ice formed over flowing water and currents is often dangerous. This is especially true near streams, bridges and culverts. Also, the ice on outside river bends is usually weaker due to the undermining effects of the faster current.
• The insulating effect of snow slows down the freezing process. The extra weight also reduces how much weight the ice sheet can support.
• Ice near shore can be weaker than ice that is farther out.
• Booming and cracking ice isn't necessarily dangerous. It only means that the ice is expanding and contracting as the temperature changes.
• You don’t want to fall through the ice as cold water saps body heat 25 times faster than air of the same temperature. In 32°F water, a person will last about 15 minutes before losing consciousness.

December 3 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


December 3 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily, occasionally.


Earth/Moon Almanac for December 3, 2025
Sunrise: 7:59am; Sunset: 4:29pm; 1 minutes, 36 seconds less daylight today
Moonrise: 3:01pm; Moonset: 6:33am, waxing gibbous, 95% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for December 3, 2025
                Average            Record              Today
High             22                     49                      7
Low               6                    -24                     -9

Snowball
by Shel Silverstein

I made myself a snowball
As perfect as could be.
I thought I'd keep it as a pet
And let it sleep with me.
I made it some pajamas
And a pillow for its head.
Then last night it ran away,
But first it wet the bed.

December 3 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Roof Over Your Head Day
• National Package Protection Day
• Bathtub Party Day
• International Day of Persons with Disabilities

December 3 Word Pun

Pre- means before, and post- means after.
Using both at the same time would be preposterous.

December 3 Word Riddle
How are Moses’ mother and an injured athlete alike?*

A Chairman Joe original

December 3 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
SCARABEE, n., The same as scarabæus.
    He fell by his own hand
    Beneath the great oak tree.
    He'd traveled in a foreign land.
    He tried to make her understand
    The dance that's called the Saraband,
    But he called it Scarabee.
    He had called it so through an afternoon,
    And she, the light of his harem if so might be,
    Had smiled and said naught. O the body was fair to see,
    All frosted there in the shine o' the moon—
    Dead for a Scarabee
    And a recollection that came too late.
    O Fate!
    They buried him where he lay,
    He sleeps awaiting the Day,
    In state,
    And two Possible Puns, moon-eyed and wan,
    Gloom over the grave and then move on.
    Dead for a Scarabee!
                    —Fernando Tapple



December 3 Etymology Word of the Week
siren
/ˈsīrən/ n., a device that makes a loud prolonged sound as a signal or warning; each of a number of women or winged creatures whose singing lured unwary sailors on to rocks, from mid-14th century, in classical mythology, "sea nymph who by her singing lures sailors to their destruction," from Old French sereine (12th century, Modern French sirène) and directly from Latin Siren (Late Latin Sirena), from Greek Seiren ["Odyssey," xii.39 ff.], one of the Seirēnes, the mythical sisters who enticed sailors to their deaths with their songs, also in Greek "a deceitful woman," perhaps literally "binder, entangler," from seira "cord, rope." The figurative sense of "one who sings sweetly and charms and allures" is recorded from 1580s. The classical descriptions of them were mangled in medieval translations and glosses, resulting in odd notions of their appearance. In English they generally were portrayed as harpies, but "In early use frequently confused with the mermaid" [OED]. Also in Middle English the name of a imaginary species of flying serpents, based on glossary explanations of Latin sirenes in Vulgate (Isaiah xiii.22). For adjectives the Elizabethans tried sirenean, sirenian, sirenic, sirenical, sireny. Ruskin used sirenic, so it might be called the survivor.

The meaning "mechanical device that makes a warning sound" is recorded by 1879, in reference to steamboats, perhaps from similar use of the French word. It later was extended to such devices for air raids, factory shifts, police cars, etc. In the 20th century this use was sometimes spelled sireen.


December 3 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1639 First annulment by court decree passes.
• 1730 Colley Cibber is appointed British Poet Laureate.
• 1736 Astronomer Anders Celsius takes measurements that confirm Newton's theory that the earth was an ellipsoid rather than the previously accepted sphere.
• 1833 Oberlin College in Ohio, the first truly coeducational college, opens.
• 1847 Frederick Douglass publishes first issue of his newspaper North Star.
• 1907 George M. Cohan's musical Talk of the Town premieres.
• 1908 Edward Elgar's First Symphony in A performed by the Hallé Orchestra conducted by Hans Richter, premieres.
• 1910 Neon lights are first publicly displayed at the Paris Auto Show.
• 1926 Detective novelist Agatha Christie mysteriously disappears for 11 days.
• 1930 Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's musical Evergreen premieres.
• 2017 First pizza party in space held by astronauts of the International Space Station.

December 3 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1509 Kanaka Dasa, Indian musician and composer.
• 1576 Marsilio Casentini, Italian composer.
• 1616 John Wallis, English mathematician and cryptographer who introduced ∞ as a symbol for infinity.
• 1668 Casimir Schweizelsperg, German composer.
• 1668 Casimir Schweizelsperg, German composer.
• 1722 Hryhorii Skovoroda, Ukrainian poet.
• 1729 Antonio Soler, Spanish Catalan composer.
• 1752 Georg Friederich Fuchs, German composer.
• 1755 Gilbert Stuart, American portrait painter.
• 1758 Joseph Gelinek, Czech pianist and composer.
• 1764 Mary Lamb, British author.
• 1800 France Prešeren, Slovenian poet.
• 1857 Joseph Conrad, Polish-English novelist.
• 1864 Herman Heijermans, Dutch writer.
• 1875 Max Meldrum, Scottish-Australian painter.
• 1886 Marjorie Organ, Irish painter.
• 1888 Ion Nonna Otescu, Romanian composer.
• 1893 Julius Bissier, German painter.
• 1896 Bolesław Szabelski, Polish organist and composer.
• 1896 John Urzidil, Austrian-American writer.
• 1897 Kate O'Brien, Irish novelist.
• 1897 Kate O'Brien, Irish writer.
• 1898 Lev Knipper, Russian-Soviet composer.
• 1902  Olga Scheinpflugová, Czech poet.
• 1908 Halsey Stevens, American composer.
• 1908 Nigel Balchin, English author.
• 1914 Irving Fine, American composer.
• 1916 Seán Ó Ríordáin, Irish poet.
• 1919 Charles Craig, English operatic tenor.
• 1921 Hans G. Kresse, Dutch cartoonist.
• 1921 Phyllis Curtin, American soprano.
• 1924 F. Sionil José, Filipino novelist.
• 1929 Paul Turok, American composer.
• 1931 Franz Josef Degenhardt, German poet.
• 1932 Bob Cranshaw, American jazz bassist.
• 1938 José Serebrier, Uruguayan composer.
• 1945 Laura Dean, American choreographer.
• 1954 Grace Andreacchi, American author.

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

• codology: /kah-DAH-luh-jee/ n., Chiefly Irish English, nonsense, rubbish; fooling, hoaxing, humbugging.
• ditzy: /DIT-sē/ adj., silly or scatterbrained; (especially of a fabric or print) having a pattern of small, randomly scattered motifs, typically flowers; n., a fabric or print having a pattern of small, randomly scattered motifs, typically flowers.
• fuke: /fook/ n., false profession or outward show; superficial pretence; dissimulation, deceit.
• hastate: /HASS-tayt/ adj., f a leaf: triangular with the basal corners laterally projecting.
• ignotion: ig-NOH-shuhn/ n., an ignorant or mistaken notion.
• monepic: /mohn-EP-ik/ adj., composed of a single word or of sentences consisting of a single word.
• swot: /swot/ v., to study diligently or work hard at school, college, etc.; to revise intensively in preparation for something, esp. an exam.
• toneme: /TOH-neem/ n., a distinctive and contrastive unit of pitch within a tonal language; a tone or group of tones functioning as a distinctive unit.
• vacist: /VAH-kuhst/ n., a student who has completed a level of education and is on holiday from school while waiting to receive the results of the national examinations and advance to a higher level.
• wifty: /WIF-tē/ adj., eccentrically silly or scatterbrained; ditzy.

December 3, 2025 Word-Wednesday Feature
Oxymoron, Revisited
/äk-sə-MÔR-än/ n., a figure of speech in which apparently contradictory terms appear in conjunction, from rhetoric, "a figure conjoining words or terms apparently contradictory so as to give point to the statement or expression," 1650s, from Greek oxymōron, noun use of neuter of oxymōros (adj.) "pointedly foolish," from oxys "sharp, pointed" (from Proto-Indo-European root ak- "be sharp, rise (out) to a point, pierce") + mōros "stupid" (see moron). The word itself is an illustration of the thing. Now often used loosely to mean "contradiction in terms." Common examples include pretty ugly, jumbo shrimp, long shorts, plastic silverware, boneless ribs, dry ice, freezer burn, fresh frozen, first annual, and United Methodist. With the season upon us, what better time to take another look at some choicely worded oxymorons from some famous writers:

Parting is such sweet sorrow.

William Shakespeare

The more things change, the more they remain the same.

Alphonse Karr

Less is more.

Robert Browning

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's own ignorance.

Confucius

I am deeply superficial.

Ava Garnder

You'd be surprised how much it costs to look this cheap.

Dolly Parton

Not surprisingly, the juxtaposition of strength and weakness is a common oxymoron:

What amazes me the most is to see that everyone is not amazed at his own weakness.

Baise Pascal

All men that are ruined, are ruined on the side of their natural propensities.

Edmund Burke

There's nothing so absolute as the tyranny of weakness.

Dinah Mulock Craig

Weakness is a great bully without knowing it.

Margaret Deland

There is nothing more startling in human relations than the strong emotion of weak people.

Mrs. Humphrey Ward

Like all weak men he laid an exaggerated stress on not changing one’s mind.

W. Somerset Maugham

Such is the weakness of our nature, that when men are a little exalted in their condition they immediately conceive they have additional senses, and their capacities enlarged not only above other men, but above human comprehension itself.

Richard Steele

Our greatest weaknesses are always the flip side of our greatest strengths.

Judith Sills

The weak can be terrible because they try furiously to be strong.

Rabindranath Tagore

Only the weak blame parents, their race, their times, lack of good fortune, or the quirks of fate.

Louis L’Amour

Giants are not what we think they are. The same qualities that appear to give them strength are often the sources of great weakness.

Malcolm Gladwell

From A Year with Rilke, December 3 Entry
For the Animals, from the Eighth Duino Elegy

For the animals their death
is, as it were, completed.

What's ahead is God.
And when they move,

they move in timelessness,
as fountains do.

Old Nag 
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.






*Both are Jocabeds.