Word-Wednesday for February 25, 2026

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for February 25, 2026, the eighth Wednesday of the year, the tenth Wednesday of winter, the fourth Wednesday of February, and the fifty-sixth day of the year, with three-hundred nine days remaining.

Wannaska Phenology Update for February 25, 2026
Snow Fleas
As a sure sign of the approaching spring in Wannaska, Palmville's own official bug, Hypogastrura nivicola, manidoosh in Anishinaabe, has started to sprinkle snow surfaces on warmer, sunnier afternoons. These tiny, harmless, dark-blue, or black hexapods are not true insects or fleas. Commonly seen jumping on melting snow in late winter, they're classified as a springtail, using their forked, tail-like appendage called a furcula to leap about in the hopes of getting close to one another. They have been endowed with a unique protein that acts as antifreeze, allowing them to survive sub-zero temperatures.

February 25 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


February 25 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily, occasionally.


Earth/Moon Almanac for February 25, 2026
Sunrise: 7:14am; Sunset: 6:00pm; 3minutes, 31 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 10:56pm; Moonset: 3:39am, waxing gibbous, 57% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for February 25, 2026
                Average            Record              Today
High             24                     54                     11
Low               3                    -40                      6

Winter
by Megan Fernandes

One winter, I became very quiet
and saw my life. It was February

and outside in the city streets,
snow fell but would not collect.

I bought snapdragons and thistle,
got some discount peach roses

that smelled off. I split them
between vases and moved

the bouquets from room to room
while a violin solo rang out.

My throat hurt. My tonsils grew
blubbery like two fat snails,

kissing in a slow arc.
A detective show played.

I wanted a cigarette
and Jimmy Stewart in my bed.

Nightly, I dreamt of epileptic
Dostoevsky in Siberia with only

the New Testament to read
and thought of that mock execution

from which he never recovered.
Four years he spent there

in the dead cold. I have
two cats in New York

and not so much loneliness.
Still, I prepare for their deaths,

but who knows, I may go first.
Sorry, but I’m like this in winter.

My composure an evergreen with
the settled world that keeps settling.

I trek the season.
I arrange the dance of blooms,

room to room, and keep
my small perimeter fed and alive.

We tread to March
like soldiers, like sailors tossed

into navy tides, into
wave white, and who,

spotting land, at last,
grow gills at its sight.

February 25 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Clam Chowder Day
• National Chocolate Covered Nut Day
• Carpe Diem Day
• National Chili Day
• National Toast Day
• National Small Dog Day

February 25 Word Pun
Mr. Hot Coco was prescribed some anti-gloating cream this week.
He just couldn’t wait to rub it in.


February 25 Word Riddle
What do you call a man who has finished digging?*


February 25 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
ZEAL, n., A certain nervous disorder afflicting the young and inexperienced. A passion that goeth before a sprawl.
    When Zeal sought Gratitude for his reward
    He went away exclaiming: "O my Lord!"
    "What do you want?" the Lord asked, bending down.
    "An ointment for my cracked and bleeding crown."
                                                            —Jum Coople


February 25 Etymology Word of the Week
school
/sko͞ol/ n., an institution for educating children, from Middle English scole, from Old English scol, "institution for instruction," from Latin schola "meeting place for teachers and students, place of instruction;" also "learned conversation, debate; lecture; disciples of a teacher, body of followers, sect," also in the older Greek sense of "intermission of work, leisure for learning." This is from Greek skholē "spare time, leisure, rest, ease; idleness; that in which leisure is employed; learned discussion;" also "a place for lectures, school;" originally "a holding back, a keeping clear," from skhein "to get" (from Proto-Indo-European root segh- "to hold") + -olē by analogy with bolē "a throw," stolē "outfit," etc.

The basic sense of the Greek word is "leisure," which passed to "otiose discussion" (in Athens or Rome, the favorite or proper use of free time), then it came to be used for the place for such discussion. The Latin word was widely borrowed (in addition to Old French escole, French école, Spanish escuela, Italian scuola; Old High German scuola, German Schule, Swedish skola, Gaelic sgiol, Welsh ysgol, Russian shkola).

The meaning "students attending a school" in English is attested from circa 1300; the sense of "school building" is by 1590s. Sense of "people united by a general similarity of principles and methods" is from 1610s; hence school of thought (by 1848). As an adjective by mid-18th century, "pertaining to or relating to a school or to education." School of hard knocks "rough experience in life" is by 1870; to tell tales out of school "betray damaging secrets" is from 1540s. School-bus is from 1908. School days is from 1590s. School board "local committee of education" is by 1836; school district "division of a town or city for the management of schools" is by 1809.


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

• 1795 French Politician and Educator Joseph Lakanal, defines on behalf of the French Revolution an “educational utopia” aiming to “put an end to inequalities of development that affected a citizen's capacities for judgment."
• 1830 Victor Hugo's play Hernani premieres.
• 1847 State University of Iowa is approved.
• 1870 Hiram R. Revels is sworn in as first African American member of Congress as US Senator from Mississippi.
• 1892 J. M. Barrie's stage play Walker London premieres.
• 1901 George M. Cohan's 1st Broadway musical The Governor's Son opens.
• 1904 J M Synge's Riders to the Sea opens at Irish National Theater Society.
• 1907 George Bernard Shaw's play The Philanderer premieres.
• 1911 Victor Herbert's opera Natoma premieres.
• 1960 John Cage's musical composition Music for Amplified Toy Pianos premieres.
• 1960 Lillian Hellman's play Toys in the Attic premieres.
• 1973 Stephen Sondheim's musical A Little Night Music premieres.

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

• 1555 Alonso Lobo, Spanish composer.
• 1591 Friedrich Spee, German poet.
• 1663 Peter Anthony Motteux, French-born English author, playwright.
• 1680 Philipp Hyacinth von Lobkowitz, Bohemian lutenist, composer.
• 1692 Karl Ludwig Freiherr von Pöllnitz, German adventurer and writer.
• 1707 Carlo Goldoni, Italian playwright.
• 1725 Karl Wilhelm Ramler, German poet.
• 1727 Armand-Louis Couperin, French composer, harpsichordist, and organist.
• 1731 Simon Stijl, Frisian writer.
• 1732 Robert Hudson, British composer.
• 1735 Ernst Wilhelm Wolf, German composer.
• 1788 Mateo Ferrer, Spanish composer.
• 1811 Carl Schuberth, German composer.
• 1814 Taras Shevchenko, Ukrainian national poet and painter.
• 1840 Alexis Hollander, German composer.
• 1841 Pierre-August Renoir, French painter and sculptor.
• 1842 Karl May, German writer.
• 1855 Cesário Verde, Portuguese poet.
• 1860 Menso Kamerlingh Onnes, Dutch painter.
• 1873 Enrico Caruso, Italian operatic tenor.
• 1879 Otakar Ostrčil, Czech composer.
• 1890 Dame Myra Hess, British concert pianist.
• 1895 Henri Martelli, French composer.
• 1900 Hartzell "Tiny" Parham, American jazz pianist.
• 1904 Adelle Davis, American author.
• 1906 Boris Papandopulo, Croatian composer.
• 1906 Mary Chase, American playwright, journalist, and children's novelist.
• 1907 Mary Coyle Chase, American playwright.
• 1907 Sabahattin Ali, Turkish poet, author.
• 1908 Frank G. Slaughter [C.V. Terry], American novelist.
• 1909 Edgar Pangborn, American science fiction author.
• 1909 John Evan "Jasper" Weston-Davies [pen name Berkley Mather], English writer.
• 1917 Anthony Burgess, English novelist.
• 1918 Rena Kyriakou, Greek pianist and composer.
• 1919 Fred Katz, American classical and jazz cellist.
• 1920 Gérard Bessette, Canadian novelist and poet.
• 1922 Matti Rautio, Finnish classical composer.
• 1922 Leland Bardwell, Irish writer.
• 1927 Jacques-Louis Monod, French pianist, conductor, and composer.
• 1927 Ralph Stanley, American bluegrass musician.
• 1928 Richard Stern, American writer.
• 1929 Tommy Newsom, American saxophonist and bandleader.
• 1930 Erica Pedretti (née Schefter), Moravian-Swiss writer.
• 1932 Åke Persson, Swedish bebop jazz trombonist.
• 1937 Joseph Hone, Irish writer.
• 1943 Maryann Amacher, American electronic music composer.
• 1945 Shiva Naipaul, Indo-Trinidadian-British novelist.
• 1946 Franz Xaver Kroetz, German writer and playwright.
• 1948 Lea Vivot, Czech sculptor.
• 1950 Neil Jordan, Irish novelist.
• 1954 John Doe [Duchac], American poet.
• 1957 Jane Ackroyd, British sculptor.
• 1979 Joanna Pascale, American jazz singer.

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

• bumpsy: /BUMP-cē/ adj., drunk, intoxicated.
• cocklety: /KAH-kuhl-tee/ adj., unsteady, tottering; rickety, shaky, unstable.
• docht: /dahkht/ n., power, strength.
• ensorcell: /enˈsôrsəl/ v., to enchant; to fascinate.
• glam-ma: /GLAM-mah/ n., a glamorous grandmother, esp. one who is relatively young or fashion-conscious.
• mencolek: /men-CHO-lek/ v., to tease someone by lightly touching them with one finger.
• neap: /nēp/ n., a tide just after the first or third quarters of the moon when there is least difference between high and low water; v., (of a boat) be kept aground or in harbor by a neap tide.
• osnaburg: /ÄZ-nə-bərɡ/ n., a kind of coarse, heavy linen or cotton used for such items as furnishings and sacks.
• polydoggery: /pah-lee-DOG-uh-ree/ n., the keeping of a number of dogs.
• tchotchke: /CHÄCH-kə/ n., a small object that is decorative rather than strictly functional; a trinket; a pretty girl or woman.

February 25, 2026 Word-Wednesday Feature
adolescence 

/adlˈes-(ə)n(t)s/ n., the period following the onset of puberty during which a young person develops from a child into an adult, from "the age following childhood, the age of growing" (roughly the period from the 15th to the 21st year; or age 14 to 25 in males, 12 to 21 in females), early 15th century, from Old French adolescence (13th century), from Latin adolescentia/adulescentia "youth, youthful people collectively," abstract noun from adulescentem "growing, youthful". Adolescency (late 14th century) is slightly earlier. Inspired by Mr. Hot Coco's post about the heady hormonal environment of Middle School yesterday, today Word-Wednesday explores the words of adult writers reflecting on adolescence, the dawn of pubescence.

ADOLESCENT, adj. Recovering from boyhood.

Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

Adolescence is just one big walking pimple.

Carol Burnett

Adolescence is to life what baking powder is to cake. (And it’s better to have too much than too little).

Marcelene Cox

Adolescence is society’s permission slip for combining physical maturity with psychological irresponsibility.

Terri Apter

Adolescence is the time when even the dullest clod knows that he possesses a soul and the genius that he lives in a perpetual adolescence.

Raymond B. Cattell

Adolescence is the period of life when we first become obsessed with trying to prove we are not a child—an obsession that can last a lifetime.

Cullen Hightower

Adolescence is a kind of emotional seasickness. Both are funny, but only in retrospect.

Arthur Koestler

As I vaguely recalled from my own experience, adolescence was a time when you firmly believed that sex hadn’t been invented until the year you started high school, when the very idea that anything interesting might have happened during your parents’ lifetime was unthinkable.

Russell Baker

It is a jesting universe where the longing for first romance couples with acne.

Gwen Davis

Mope—Hope—Grope.

Maxine Davis

When they reach the age of fifteen and their beauty arrives, it’s very exciting—like coming into an inheritance.

Eve Babitz

I was in my own way; I myself was a dark object I could not ignore. I couldn’t remember how to forget myself. I didn’t want to think about myself, to reckon myself in, to deal with myself every livelong minute on top of everything else–but swerve as I might, I couldn’t avoid it. I was a boulder blocking my own path. I was a dog barking between my own ears, a barking dog who wouldn’t hush. So this was adolescence.

Annie Dillard

I have always pondered a tragic law of adolescence. (On second thought, the law probably applies to all ages to some extent). That law: People fall in love at the same time—often at the same stunning moment—but they fall out of love at different times. One is left sadly juggling the pieces of a fractured heart while the other has danced away.

Robert Cormier

Young children grow, but adolescents change—and change is confusing. It confuses the sprouting adolescent to wake up every morning in a new body. It confuses the mother and father to find a new child every day in a familiar body—a child contumelious of the things that yesterday’s child wanted, a child with a different rhythm of living, a child who talks knowingly about things that yesterday’s child never heard of.

Donald Barr

There’s no confidence like adolescent confidence, for a person or a country.

David Brooks

Snow and adolescence are the only problems that disappear if you ignore them long enough.

Author Unknown

We carry adolescence around in our bodies all our lives.

Garrison Keillor

You don’t have to suffer to be a poet. Adolescence is enough suffering for anyone.

John Ciardi

O Adolescence, O Adolescence,
I wince before thine incandescence.
Thy constitution young and hearty
Is too much for this aged party.

Ogden Nash

From A Year with Rilke, February 25 Entry
Parents and Children, from Early Journals

Oh, if only our parents were born at the same moment we were, how much conflict and bitterness we would be spared. But parents and children can only go after each other—not with each other. And so an abyss lies between us, which, now and then, nothing but a little love can span.

Mother and Child
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.






*Doug.