Word-Wednesday for February 18, 2026

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for February 18, 2026, the seventh Wednesday of the year, the ninth Wednesday of winter, the third Wednesday of February, and the forty-ninth day of the year, with three-hundred sixteen days remaining.

Wannaska Phenology Update for February 18, 2026
Bobcat
Lynx rufus, gidagaa-bizhiw in Anishinaabe, also known as the wildcat, bay lynx, or red lynx, is one of four species within the medium-sized wild cat genus Lynx. Native to Wannaska and other parts of North America, it ranges from southern Canada through most of the contiguous United States to Oaxaca in Mexico. An adaptable species, fer sure. It prefers woodlands—deciduous, coniferous, or mixed—but does not depend exclusively on the deep forest. It has distinctive black bars on its forelegs and a black-tipped, stubby (or "bobbed") tail, from which it derives its name. It is an adaptable predator inhabiting wooded areas, semidesert, urban edge, forest edge, and swampland environments. They remain in some of their original range, but populations are vulnerable to extirpation by coyotes. Like Sven, the bobcat is crepuscular, and is active mostly during twilight, on the move from three hours before sunset until about midnight, and then again from before dawn until three hours after sunrise. Although the bobcat prefers rabbits and hares, it hunts insects, chickens, geese and other birds, small rodents, and deer. Like most cats, the bobcat is territorial and largely solitary, although with some overlap in home ranges. The bobcat breeds from winter into spring and has a gestation period of about two months.

Stories featuring the bobcat, in many variations, are found in Indigenous cultures throughout North America, with parallels in South America. A story from the Nez Perce features the bobcat and coyote as opposed, antithetical beings. In a Shawnee tale, the bobcat is outwitted by a rabbit. After trapping the rabbit in a tree, the bobcat is persuaded to build a fire, only to have the embers scattered on its fur, leaving it singed with dark brown spots. The Mohave people believed dreaming habitually of beings or objects would afford them their characteristics as supernatural powers. Dreaming of two deities, cougar and lynx, they thought, would grant them the superior hunting skills of other tribes. Palmville needs a good bobcat tale or pram of its own…

February 18 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


February 18 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily, occasionally.


Earth/Moon Almanac for February 18, 2026
Sunrise: 7:27am; Sunset: 5:49pm; 3minutes, 16 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 7:56am; Moonset: 7:33pm, waxing crescent, 1% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for February 18, 2026
                Average            Record              Today
High             21                     45                     28
Low              -1                    -44                     19

Late February
by Ted Kooser

The first warm day,
and by mid-afternoon
the snow is no more
than a washing
strewn over the yards,
the bedding rolled in knots
and leaking water,
the white shirts lying
under the evergreens.
Through the heaviest drifts
rise autumn’s fallen
bicycles, small carnivals
of paint and chrome,
the Octopus
and Tilt-A-Whirl
beginning to turn
in the sun. Now children,
stiffened by winter
and dressed, somehow,
like old men, mutter
and bend to the work
of building dams.
But such a spring is brief;
by five o’clock
the chill of sundown,
darkness, the blue TVs
flashing like storms
in the picture windows,
the yards gone gray,
the wet dogs barking
at nothing. Far off
across the cornfields
staked for streets and sewers,
the body of a farmer
missing since fall
will show up
in his garden tomorrow,
as unexpected
as a tulip.

February 18 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Battery Day
• National Drink Wine Day
• National Crab Stuffed Flounder Day
• Ash Wednesday
• Cow Milked While Flying in an Airplane Day

February 18 Word Pun
Sven tried reading the dictionary in bed last night, but he couldn’t finish it. He got up to P.


February 18 Word Riddle
What do you get when a microscope crashes into a telescope?*


February 18 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
HUMORIST, n., A plague that would have softened down the hoar austerity of Pharaoh's heart and persuaded him to dismiss Israel with his best wishes, cat-quick.
    Lo! the poor humorist, whose tortured mind
    Sees jokes in crowds, though still to gloom inclined—
    Whose simple appetite, untaught to stray,
    His brains, renewed by night, consumes by day.
    He thinks, admitted to an equal sty,
    A graceful hog would bear his company.
                                            —Alexander Poke


February 18 Etymology Word of the Week
hockey
/HÄ-kē/ n., a fast contact sport played on an ice rink between two teams of six skaters, who attempt to drive a small rubber disk (the puck) into the opposing goal with hooked or angled sticks, from 1527, implied in a document from Ireland ("The horlinge of the litill balle with hockie stickes or staves ..."), of unknown origin. Perhaps related to French hoquet "shepherd's staff, crook," diminutive of Old French hoc "hook." The hooked clubs with which the game is played resemble shepherds' staves. In North America, ice hockey is distinguished from field hockey, but hockey alone can mean either.


February 18 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 3102 BC Epoch (origin) of the Kali Yuga.
• 1678 John Bunyan's Christian novel The Pilgrim's Progress is published.
• 1834 US labor newspaper, The Man begins publishing as a daily.
• 1884 Russian police seize all copies of Leo Tolstoy's book What I Believe In.
• 1885 Mark Twain publishes The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.
• 1902 Jules Massenet's opera Le Jongleur de Notre-Dame (The Hunchback of Notre Dame) premieres.
• 1903 In Dahomey, the first African American musical to perform on Broadway opens at the New York Theater, starring George Walker and Bert Williams with music by Will Marion Cook; runs for 53 performances.
• 1905 Frank Wedekind's play Hidalla oder Sein und Haben (Hidalla, or Being and Having) premieres.
• 1913 French modernist painting Nude Descending a Staircase by Marcel Duchamp causes an uproar when shown in New York.
• 1930 Luigi Pirandello's Come Tu Mi Vuoi premieres.
• 1930 Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart's musical Simple Simon premieres.
• 1947 Gian Carlo Menotti's opera Telephone premieres.
• 1964 Muriel Resnik's Any Wednesday premieres.
• 2009 English fantasy author Terry Pratchett receives a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II.

February 18 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1201 Nasir al-Din al-Tusi, Persian philosopher, architect.
• 1632 Giovanni Battista Vitali, Italian composer.
• 1658 Charles-Irénée Castel de Saint-Pierre, French writer.
• 1694 Johann Christoph Handke, Czech painter.
• 1716 Gaspard Fritz, Swiss composer and violinist.
• 1751 Karl Haack, German composer.
• 1770 Johann Christian Heinrich Rinck, German composer.
• 1771 Friedrich Christian Ruppe, German-Dutch composer and violinist.
• 1775 Thomas Girtin, English artist, watercolorist and etcher.
• 1776 John Parry [Bardd Alaw], Welsh composer and harpist.
• 1815 Jan August Hendrik Leys, Belgian Romantic painter.
• 1819 Joseph Philbrick Webster, American composer.
• 1841 Samuel Prowse Warren, Canadian organist and composer.
• 1844 Willem Maris, Dutch painter.
• 1846 Katharine Dooris Sharp, Irish author.
• 1848 Louis Comfort Tiffany, American artist and designer known for his glasswork.
• 1849 Alexander Lange Kielland, Norwegian writer.
• 1850 George Henschel, German-British baritone, pianist, conductor, and composer.
• 1857 Max Klinger, German graphic artist, painter and sculptor.
• 1860 Anders Zorn, Swedish painter, etcher and sculptor.
• 1867 Hedwig Courths-Mahler, German Romantic novelist.
• 1870 William Laurel Harris, American mural painter.
• 1877 Betsy Ranucci-Beckmann [Theodora Elisabeth Beckmann], Dutch author.
• 1880 Eric De Lamarter, American organist, composer.
• 1882 Malva Schalek, Czech painter.
• 1883 Níkos Kazantzákis, prominent Greek writer.
• 1889 Sybold van Ravesteyn, Dutch architect.
• 1890 Lauri Haarla, Finnish writer.
• 1896 André Breton, French writer and poet, founder of Surrealism.
• 1898 Luis Muñoz Marín, Puerto Rican poet.
• 1909 Wallace Stegner, American novelist.
• 1911 Erich Kulka, Czech writer.
• 1915 Marcel Landowski, French composer.
• 1922 Helen Gurley Brown, American author.
• 1922 Juhan Smuul, Estonian author.
• 1925 Marcel Barbeau, Canadian abstract artist.
• 1927 Eunice Golden, American feminist artist known for her paintings of male nudes.
• 1929 Agustín González Acilu, Spanish composer.
• 1929 André Mathieu, Canadian pianist and composer.
• 1929 Len Deighton, British spy novelist.
• 1930 Gahan Wilson, American author and cartoonist.
• 1931 Dieter Schönbach, German composer.
• 1931 Johnny Hart, American cartoonist (B.C., Wizard of Id).
• 1931 Toni Morrison, American writer.
• 1932 Duane Michals, American photographer.
• 1933 Yoko Ono, Japanese artist and poet.
• 1934 Audre Lorde, American writer.
• 1935 George Lee [George Li], Chinese ballet dancer.
• 1935 Ciarán Bourke, Irish singer.
• 1935 Sergei Cortez, Chilean-Belarusian composer.
• 1936 Jean M. Auel, Finnish-American writer.
• 1938 Elke Erb, German writer.
• 1939 Marlos Nobre, Brazilian classical pianist and composer.
• 1939 Maxine Clair, American poet and novelist.

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

• feracious: /fə-RAY-shəs/ adj., fruitful; fecund.
• gambo: /GAM-bō/ n., a farm cart.
• jacent: /JAY-sent/ adj., lying at length, stretched out, or positioned horizontally.
• lixiviate: /lick-SIV-ee-ayt/ v., to subject to a purifying or transforming influence.
• mabble: /MAB-uhl/ v., to wrap up, muffle, or cover.
• nanity: /NAN-ih-tee/ n., condition of deficiency in some respect.
• obreption: /ah-BREP-shuhn/ n., the seeking to obtain a gift by false premises.
• quab: /kwob/ n., something unfinished or immature.
• sonder: /SAN-dər/n., the profound, sudden realization that every random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own—populated with their own ambitions, friends, routines, and worries.
• uberous: YOO-buhr-uhs/ adj., fruitful, abundant, copious, or plentiful.

February 18, 2026 Word-Wednesday Feature
antonomasia
/an-tän-ə-MĀZH-ə/ n., the substitution of an epithet or title for a proper name, from Greek antonomasia, from antonomazein "to name instead; call by a new name," from anti "instead" (see anti-) + onomazein "to name," from onoma "name" (from Proto-Indo-European root no-men- "name"). There is this difference between antonomasia and an epithet, that antonomasia is used in place of a name, while an epithet is never used without the name. [Isidore of Seville, The Etymologies, c. 630, Barney et al. transl.]

EPITHETS
The Bard for Shakespeare
The Philosopher for Aristotle
The Little Corporal for Napoleon
The Iron Lady for Margaret Thatcher
The Greatest for Muhammad Ali
The First Lady of Song for Ella Fitzgerald
The Great Emancipator for Abraham Lincoln
The Chairman for Joe McDonnell
Old Blue Eyes for Frank Sinatra

FICTIONAL CHARACTERS
The Boy Who Lived for Harry Potter
The Banshee Queen for Sylvanas Windrunner
The Dark Knight or The Caped Crusader for Batman (also referred as The Dynamic Duo when paired with fictional sidekick, Robin)
The Man of Steel or the Man of Tomorrow for Superman
The Mother of Dragons for Daenerys Targaryen
The Ring Bearer for Frodo Baggins
The Mad Titan for Thanos
The Betrayer for Illidan Stormrage

PLACES
The Athens of America for Boston
La La Land for Los Angeles
The Windy City for Chicago
The Middle of Nowhere for Wannaska

PROPER NAME AS ARCHETYPE
Adonis for a handsome man
Casanova or Don Juan or Lothario or Ula for a womanizer
Don Quixote for an idealist
Einstein or da Vinci or Edison for a genius
Hercules for a strong man
Igor for a hapless servant
Judas or Benedict Arnold or Brutus for a traitor
Karen for a demanding white woman
Methuselah for a very old person
Paddy for an Irishman
Poindexter for a nerd
Scrooge for a miser
Shylock for a loan shark
Solomon for a wise person
Svengali for a manipulator
Tex for a cowboy


From A Year with Rilke, February 18 Entry
Live the Question, from Worpswede, July 16, 1903, Letters to a Young Poet

I want to ask you, as clearly as I can, to bear with patience all that is unresolved in your heart, and try to love the questions themselves, as if they were rooms yet to enter or books written in a foreign language. Don't dig for answers that can't be given you yet: you live them now. For everything must be lived. Live the questions now, perhaps then, someday, you will gradually, without noticing, live into the answer.

The Thinker
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.






*A kaleidoscope.