Word-Wednesday for March 11, 2026

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for March 11, 2026, the tenth Wednesday of the year, the twelfth Wednesday of winter, the second Wednesday of March, and the seventieth day of the year, with two-hundred ninety-five days remaining.

Wannaska Phenology Update for March 11, 2026
Scurries On Their Way
Tamiasciurus hudsonicus — ajidamoo, in Anishinaabe — is one of three tree squirrels species classified in the genus Tamiasciurus, known as the pine squirrels, the others being the Douglas squirrel, T. douglasii, and the southwestern red squirrel, T. fremonti. Also known as the pine squirrel, piney squirrel, North American red squirrel, chickaree, or boomer, ajidamoo defends its territory all year round, feeding primarily on pine cone seeds, and this time of year bearing kits. The collective noun for red squirrels is scurry.

March 11 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


March 11 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily, occasionally.


Earth/Moon Almanac for March 11, 2026
Sunrise: 7:46am; Sunset: 7:22pm; 3minutes, 36 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 3:57am; Moonset: 11:05am, last quarter, 49% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for March 11, 2026
                Average            Record              Today
High             30                     53                     27
Low               11                    -24                      7

The Shepherds Calendar - March
by John Clare

March month of 'many weathers' wildly comes
In hail and snow and rain and threatning hums
And floods: while often at his cottage door
The shepherd stands to hear the distant roar
Loosd from the rushing mills and river locks
Wi thundering sound and over powering shocks
And headlong hurry thro the meadow brigs
Brushing the leaning sallows fingering twigs
In feathery foam and eddy hissing chase
Rolling a storm oertaken travellers pace
From bank to bank along the meadow leas
Spreading and shining like to little seas
While in the pale sunlight a watery brood
Of swopping white birds flock about the flood
Yet winter seems half weary of its toil
And round the ploughman on the elting soil
Will thread a minutes sunshine wild and warm
Thro the raggd places of the swimming storm
And oft the shepherd in his path will spye
The little daisey in the wet grass lye
That to the peeping sun enlivens gay
Like Labour smiling on an holiday
And where the stunt bank fronts the southern sky
By lanes or brooks where sunbeams love to lye
A cowslip peep will open faintly coy
Soon seen and gatherd by a wandering boy
A tale of spring around the distant haze
Seems muttering pleasures wi the lengthening days
Morn wakens mottld oft wi may day stains
And shower drops hang the grassy sprouting plains
And on the naked thorns of brassy hue
Drip glistning like a summer dream of dew
While from the hill side freshing forest drops
As one might walk upon their thickening tops
And buds wi young hopes promise seemly swells
Where woodman that in wild seclusion dwells
Wi chopping toil the coming spring decieves
Of many dancing shadows flowers and leaves
And in his pathway down the mossy wood
Crushes wi hasty feet full many a bud
Of early primrose yet if timely spied
Shelterd some old half rotten stump beside
The sight will cheer his solitery hour
And urge his feet to stride and save the flower
Muffld in baffles leathern coat and gloves
The hedger toils oft scaring rustling doves
From out the hedgrows who in hunger browze
The chockolate berrys on the ivy boughs
And flocking field fares speckld like the thrush
Picking the red awe from the sweeing bush
That come and go on winters chilling wing
And seem to share no sympathy wi spring
The stooping ditcher in the water stands
Letting the furrowd lakes from off the lands
Or splashing cleans the pasture brooks of mud
Where many a wild weed freshens into bud
And sprouting from the bottom purply green
The water cresses neath the wave is seen
Which the old woman gladly drags to land
Wi reaching long rake in her tottering hand
The ploughman mawls along the doughy sloughs
And often stop their songs to clean their ploughs
From teazing twitch that in the spongy soil
Clings round the colter terryfying toil
The sower striding oer his dirty way
Sinks anckle deep in pudgy sloughs and clay
And oer his heavy hopper stoutly leans
Strewing wi swinging arms the pattering beans
Which soon as aprils milder weather gleams
Will shoot up green between the furroed seams
The driving boy glad when his steps can trace
The swelling edding as a resting place
Slings from his clotted shoes the dirt around
And feign woud rest him on the solid ground
And sings when he can meet the parting green
Of rushy balks that bend the lands between
While close behind em struts the nauntling crow
And daws whose heads seem powderd oer wi snow
To seek the worms-and rooks a noisey guest
That on the wind rockd elms prepares her nest
On the fresh furrow often drops to pull
The twitching roots and gathering sticks and wool
Neath trees whose dead twigs litter to the wind
And gaps where stray sheep left their coats behind
While ground larks on a sweeing clump of rushes
Or on the top twigs of the oddling bushes
Chirp their 'cree creeing' note that sounds of spring
And sky larks meet the sun wi flittering wing
Soon as the morning opes its brightning eye
Large clouds of sturnels blacken thro the sky
From oizer holts about the rushy fen
And reedshaw borders by the river Nen
And wild geese regiments now agen repair
To the wet bosom of broad marshes there
In marching coloms and attention all
Listning and following their ringleaders call
The shepherd boy that hastens now and then
From hail and snow beneath his sheltering den
Of flags or file leavd sedges tyd in sheaves
Or stubble shocks oft as his eye percieves
Sun threads struck out wi momentery smiles
Wi fancy thoughts his lonliness beguiles
Thinking the struggling winter hourly bye
As down the edges of the distant sky
The hailstorm sweeps-and while he stops to strip
The stooping hedgbriar of its lingering hip
He hears the wild geese gabble oer his head
And pleasd wi fancys in his musings bred
He marks the figurd forms in which they flye
And pausing follows wi a wandering eye
Likening their curious march in curves or rows
To every letter which his memory knows
While far above the solitary crane
Swings lonly to unfrozen dykes again
Cranking a jarring mellancholy cry
Thro the wild journey of the cheerless sky
Full oft at early seasons mild and fair
March bids farewell wi garlands in her hair
Of hazzel tassles woodbines hairy sprout
And sloe and wild plumb blossoms peeping out
In thickset knotts of flowers preparing gay
For aprils reign a mockery of may
That soon will glisten on the earnest eye
Like snow white cloaths hung in the sun to drye
The old dame often stills her burring wheel
When the bright sun will thro the window steal
And gleam upon her face and dancing fall
In diamond shadows on the picturd wall
While the white butterflye as in amaze
Will settle on the glossy glass to gaze
And oddling bee oft patting passing bye
As if they care to tell her spring was nigh
And smiling glad to see such things once more
Up she will get and potter to the door
And look upon the trees beneath the eves
Sweet briar and ladslove swelling into leaves
And damsin trees thick notting into bloom
And goosberry blossoms on the bushes come
And stooping down oft views her garden beds
To see the spring flowers pricking out their heads
And from her apron strings she'll often pull
Her sissars out an early bunch to cull
For flower pots on the window board to stand
Where the old hour glass spins its thread of sand
And maids will often mark wi laughing eye
In elder where they hang their cloaths to drye
The sharp eyd robin hop from grain to grain
Singing its little summer notes again
As a sweet pledge of Spring the little lambs
Bleat in the varied weather round their dams
Or hugh molehill or roman mound behind
Like spots of snow lye shelterd from the wind
While the old yoes bold wi paternal cares
Looses their fears and every danger dares
Who if the shepherds dog but turns his eye
And stops behind a moment passing bye
Will stamp draw back and then their threats repeat
Urging defiance wi their stamping feet
And stung wi cares hopes cannot recconsile
They stamp and follow till he leaps a stile
Or skulking from their threats betakes to flight
And wi the master lessens out of sight
Clowns mark the threatning rage of march pass bye
And clouds wear thin and ragged in the sky
While wi less sudden and more lasting smiles
The growing sun their hopes of spring beguiles
Who often at its end remark wi pride
Days lengthen in their visits a 'cocks stride'
Dames clean their candlesticks and set them bye
Glad of the makeshift light that eves supply
The boy returning home at night from toil
Down lane and close oer footbrig gate and style1
Oft trembles into fear and stands to hark
The waking fox renew his short gruff bark
While badgers eccho their dread evening shrieks
And to his thrilling thoughts in terror speaks
And shepherds that wi in their hulks remain
Night after night upon the chilly plain
To watch the dropping lambs that at all hours
Come in the quaking blast like early flowers
Demanding all the shepherds care who find
Warm hedge side spots and take them from the wind
And round their necks in wary caution tyes
Long shreds of rags in red or purple dyes
Thats meant in danger as a safty spell
Like the old yoe that wears a tinkling bell
The sneaking foxes from his thefts to fright
That often seizes the young lambs at night
These when they in their nightly watchings hear
The badgers shrieks can hardly stifle fear
They list the noise from woodlands dark recess
Like helpless shrieking woman in distress
And oft as such fears fancying mystery
Believes the dismal yelling sounds to be
For superstition hath its thousand tales
To people all his midnight woods and vales
And the dread spot from whence the dismal noise
Mars the night musings of their dark employs
Owns its sad tale to realize their fear
At which their hearts in boyhood achd to hear
A maid at night by treacherous love decoyd
Was in that shrieking wood years past destroyd
She went twas said to meet the waiting swain
And home and friends ne'er saw her face again
Mid brakes and thorns that crowded round the dell
And matting weeds that had no tongues to tell
He murderd her alone at dead midnight
While the pale moon threw round her sickly light
And loud shrieks left the thickets slumbers deep
That only scard the little birds from sleep
When the pale murderers terror frowning eye
Told its dread errand that the maid shoud dye
Mid thick black thorns her secret grave was made
And there ere night the murderd girl was laid
When no one saw the deed but god and he
And moonlight sparkling thro the sleeping tree
Around-the red breast might at morning steel
There for the worm to meet his morning meal
In fresh turnd moulds that first beheld the sun
Nor knew the deed that dismal night had done
Such is the tale that superstition gives
And in her midnight memory ever lives
That makes the boy run by wi wild affright
And shepherds startle on their rounds at night

Now love teazd maidens from their droning wheel
At the red hour of sunset sliving steals
From scolding dames to meet their swains agen
Tho water checks their visits oer the plain
They slive where no one sees some wall behind
Or orchard apple trees that stops the wind
To talk about springs pleasures hoveing nigh
And happy rambles when the roads get dry
The insect world now sunbeams higher climb
Oft dream of spring and wake before their time
Blue flyes from straw stacks crawling scarce alive
And bees peep out on slabs before the hive
Stroaking their little legs across their wings
And venturing short flight where the snow drop hings
Its silver bell-and winter aconite
Wi buttercup like flowers that shut at night
And green leaf frilling round their cups of gold
Like tender maiden muffld from the cold
They sip and find their honey dreams are vain
And feebly hasten to their hives again
And butterflys by eager hopes undone
Glad as a child come out to greet the sun
Lost neath the shadow of a sudden shower
Nor left to see tomorrows april flower

March 11 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National 311 Day
• National Funeral Director and Mortician Recognition Day
• National Promposal Day
• National Registered Dietitian Nutritionist Day
• National Oatmeal Nut Waffles Day
• National Worship of Tools Day
• National Johnny Appleseed Day
• Middle Name Pride Day
• Feast Day of Óengus of Tallaght

March 11 Word Pun

March 11 Word Riddle
How did Roseau Police catch the SuperOne produce bandit?*


March 11 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
EMBALM, v.i., To cheat vegetation by locking up the gases upon which it feeds. By embalming their dead and thereby deranging the natural balance between animal and vegetable life, the Egyptians made their once fertile and populous country barren and incapable of supporting more than a meagre crew. The modern metallic burial casket is a step in the same direction, and many a dead man who ought now to be ornamenting his neighbor's lawn as a tree, or enriching his table as a bunch of radishes, is doomed to a long inutility. We shall get him after awhile if we are spared, but in the meantime the violet and rose are languishing for a nibble at his glutæus maximus.
    To cure the human bacon. The processes of embalming have been essentially the same in all ages and countries. The following recipe from an ancient papyrus, discovered in the pocket of a mummy in a museum, gives a good general notion of the business:

        Remove the decedent's refractory tripes
        And glut him with various kinds of swipes
        Till the pickle pervades all his tissues and drips
        In a delicate odorous dew from the tips
        Of his fingers and toes. Then carefully stitch
        In a league of linen bedaubed with pitch.
        Sign him and seal him and pot him away
        To await the dawn of the Judgment Day,
        A source—as he tranquilly presses his shelf—
        Of joy to his widow and pride to himself.


March 11 Etymology Word of the Week
begin
/bə-GIN/ v., start; perform or undergo the first part of (an action or activity), from Old English beginnan "to attempt, undertake," a rare word beside the more usual form onginnan (class III strong verb; past tense ongann, past participle ongunnen); from be- + West Germanic ginnan, which is of obscure etymology and found only in compounds, perhaps "to open, open up" (compare Old High German in-ginnan "to cut open, open up," also "begin, undertake"), with sense evolution from "open" to "begin." Cognates elsewhere in Germanic include Old Frisian biginna "to begin," Middle Dutch beghinnen, Old High German beginnan, German beginnen, Old Frisian bijenna "to begin," Gothic duginnan. From late 12th century as "originate, be the originator of;" from circa 1200 as "take the first step in, start to deal with." Intransitive sense "come into existence" is from mid-13th century.


March 11 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1702 First English daily newspaper Daily Courant is published.
• 1851 Giuseppe Verdi's opera Rigoletto premieres.
• 1867 Giuseppe Verdi's opera Don Carlos premieres.
• 1895 Boston opens its "palace for the people" Boston Public Library’s McKim Building in Copley Square designed by Charles Follen McKim - the first major Beaux Arts building in the US.
• 1914 Rupert Brooke's poems The Dead and The Soldier are published.
• 1924 Eden Phillpotts' Farmer's Wife premieres.
• 1964 Gene Roddenberry brings together a 16-page pitch for the original Star Trek series.

March 11 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1544 Torquato Tasso, Italian Renaissance poet.
• 1549 Henric Laurenszoon Spieghel, Dutch Renaissance writer and poet.
• 1654 Heinrich Georg Neuss, German composer.
• 1683 Giovanni Veneziano, Italian composer.
• 1781 Anthony Heinrichm, Czech composer.
• 1793 Jan Frans Willems, Flemish writer.
• 1812 William Vincent Wallace, Irish violinist.
• 1817 Josef Niklas, Czech architect.
• 1819 Marius Petipa, French ballet dancer and choreographer.
• 1846 Antonio Cândido Gonçalves Crespo, Brazilian-born Portuguese poet.
• 1860 Thomas Hastings, American architect.
• 1862 Josef Konstantin Beer, Czech painter.
• 1863 Wobbe de Vries, Dutch writer.
• 1863  May Guinness, Irish painter.
• 1876 Carl Ruggles, American composer.
• 1879 Justus Hermann Wetzel, German composer.
• 1884 Jan Lemaire, Dutch writer.
• 1897 Henry Cowell, American pianist, composer.
• 1902 Josef Martin Bauer, German writer.
• 1903 Lawrence Welk, American accordionist.
• 1905 Gilroy Roberts, American sculptor.
• 1906 Hasan Ferit Alnar, Turkish composer.
• 1912 Xavier Montsalvatge, Spanish composer.
• 1913 John Jacob Weinzweig, Canadian composer.
• 1916 Ezra Jack Keats, American children's author.
• 1919 Mercer Ellington, American composer.
• 1920 D. J. Enright, English poet and novelist.
• 1921 Astor Piazzolla, Argentinian bandoneon player, and composer.
• 1921 Phyllis Lee Levin, American author.
• 1922 Vinnette Carroll, American first African-American woman to direct on Broadway.
• 1923 Ad den Besten, Dutch poet.
• 1923 Alexander Xaver Gwerder, Swiss writer.
• 1926 Malcolm Wells, American architect.
• 1926 Patricia Tindale, British architect.
• 1927 Raymond Jackson, British illustrator and political cartoonist.
• 1929 Erskine Childers, Irish writer.
• 1930 David Gentleman, British visual artist, illustrator, and muralist.
• 1932 Leroy Jenkins, American jazz violinist, avant-garde jazz and contemporary classical composer.
• 1934 Joep Straesser, Dutch composer.
• 1936 Hollis Frampton, American photographer.
• 1936 Nathan Silver, American architect, writer.
• 1947 Tristan Murail, French composer.
• 1952 Douglas Adams, English author.
• 1958 James Pinkerton, American author.
• 1961 Ken [Kenneth Sean Carson], American model & boyfriend of Barbie.
• 1962 Neo, from The Matrix.
• 1964 Julia Gomelskaya, Ukrainian composer.
• 1978 Christopher Rice, American author.

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

• amaranthine: /am-uh-RAN-thin/ adj., unfading, everlasting, or immortal.
• banger: /BANG-ər/ n., an excellent or memorable song, especially one with an energetic beat that is good for dancing to.
• craxis: /KRAK-sis./ n., the unease of knowing how quickly one's circumstances could change.
• friscalating: /FRIS-kuh-lay-ting/ adj., of dusklight, shimmering on the horizon at sunset.
• girlcott: /GURRL-kaht/ v., of a woman or group of women: to boycott.
• haint: /heynt/ n., a Southern American and Gullah Geechee cultural term for a restless ghost, malevolent spirit, or supernatural entity believed to cause harm or misfortune.
• periapt: /PAIR-ee-apt/ n., a charm or amulet worn as protection against mischief, misfortune, and disease.
• querinous: /KWEH-ruh-nuhs./ adj., longing for certainty in a relationship, specifically wishing to know if a partner is "the one" for the long term.
• runagado: /rən-ə-GA-dō/ /n., a person who deserts, betrays, or is disloyal to an organization, country, or set of principles.
• wildred: /WIL-drid/ adj., feeling the haunting solitude of extremely remote places.

March 11, 2026 Word-Wednesday Feature
Chleuasmos
/kloo-az-MOSS/ n., a sarcastic reply that mocks an opponent, leaving him or her without an answer, from  the Greek chleuazein - to jeer, sneer, or mock. Chleuasmos is a rhetorical method used by almost all Wannaskan Almanac contributors, though seldom by Mr. Hot Coco. Other more famous writers have used chleuasmos with three basic understandings of the differences between irony and sarcasm: (a) situations may be ironic, but only people can be sarcastic; (b) people may be unintentionally ironic, but sarcasm requires intention; (c) sarcasm is overt irony intentionally used by the writer/speaker as a form of verbal aggression. According to John Haiman, Talk Is Cheap: Sarcasm, Alienation, and the Evolution of Language, Oxford University Press, 1998, sarcasm often depends upon the tone of voice, of which there are seven types:

1. Self-Deprecating Sarcasm – This category of sarcasm expresses an overstated sense of inferiority and worthlessness.
2. Brooding Sarcasm – In this criticism, the speaker utters something polite. However, the tone of his speech has a marked bitterness to it.
3. Deadpan Sarcasm – It is expressed without emotion or laughter, making it difficult for the listener to judge whether the speaker is joking or mocking.
4. Polite Sarcasm – A speaker is said to have delivered a polite sarcasm when his listeners only get to realize that his kind remark was a sarcastic one after they had given it some thought.
5. Obnoxious Sarcasm – This kind of sarcasm makes people feel like punching the speaker in the face. It is not very funny, and it gets under your skin.
6. Manic Sarcasm – This type of sarcasm is delivered in an unnatural happy mood, which makes the speaker look like he has gone crazy.
7. Raging Sarcasm – This kind of sarcasm relies mainly on exaggeration and violent threats.

Here are some examples of chleuasmos from literature:

A FRERE ther was, a wantown and a merye,
A limitour, a ful solempne man,
So muche of daliaunce and fair langage.
He hadde maad ful many a mariage
Of yonge wommen, at his owne cost.
Ful wel biloved and famulier was he
With frankeleyns over-al in his contree,
He wiste that a man was repentaunt.
For many a man so hard is of his herte…

from Canterbury Tales, by Geoffrey Chaucer

I didn’t attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it.

Mark Twain

The advantages of natural folly in a beautiful girl have been already set forth by the capital pen of a sister author; and to her treatment of the subject I will only add, in justice to men, that though to the larger and more trifling part of the sex, imbecility in females is a great enhancement of their personal charms, there is a portion of them too reasonable and too well informed themselves to desire anything more in woman than ignorance....

from Northhanger Abbey, by Jane Austen

Lady Astor approaches Churchill at a social function saying, “Sir Winston, if you were my husband, I’d poison your coffee.” To which he replies, “Madam, if you were my wife, I’d drink it.”


From A Year with Rilke, March 11 Entry
Loneliness, from Book of Images

Loneliness is like the rain.
It rises from the sea toward evening
and from distant plains moves into sky
where it ever belongs.
And from the sky it falls upon us in the city.

It rains here below in the twilight hours
when alleyways wind toward morning
and when lovers, finding nothing,
leave the failure of each other's arms,
and when two who loathe each other
must share the same bed:

Then loneliness flows with the rivers...

The Brothel
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.






*The bandit stopped to take a leek.