Word-Wednesday for April 1, 2026

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for April 1, 2026, the thirteenth Wednesday of the year, the second Wednesday of spring, the first Wednesday of April, and the ninety-first day of the year, with two-hundred seventy-four days remaining.

Wannaska Phenology Update for April 1, 2026
Eastern Meadowlark
Sturnella magna is a medium-sized icterid bird, very similar in appearance to its sister species, the western meadowlark, inhabiting from eastern North America to northern South America, including Wannaska, to which they now return. Mayaagi bineshiinh, in Anishinaabe, translates to "strange bird" or "migrant bird". Adults have yellow underparts with a black "V" on the breast and white flanks with black streaks. The upperparts are mainly brown with black streaks. They have a long pointed bill; the head is striped with light brown and black.  The song of this bird is of pure, melancholy whistles, and thus simpler than the jumbled and flutey song of the western meadowlark, where the song differences are the easiest way to distinguish the two species in the wild. Their breeding habitat is grasslands and prairie, also pastures and hay fields. Eastern meadowlark is a permanent resident throughout much of its range, except for though most northern birds here in Wannaska, who migrate south in winter.

April 1 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


April 1 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily, occasionally.


Earth/Moon Almanac for April 1, 2026
Sunrise: 7:01am; Sunset: 7:54pm; 3 minutes, 34 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 7:54m; Moonset: 6:38am, Fool Moon, 99% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for April 1, 2026
                Average            Record              Today
High             43                     65                     38
Low              23                    -16                     25

Pink Moon The Pond
by Mary Oliver
​

You think it will never happen again.
Then, one night in April,
the tribes wake trilling.
You walk down to the shore.
Your coming stills them,
but little by little the silence lifts
until song is everywhere
and your soul rises from your bones
and strides out over the water.
It is a crazy thing to do –
for no one can live like that,
floating around in the darkness
over the gauzy water.
Left on the shore your bones
keep shouting come back!
But your soul won’t listen;
in the distance it is sparkling
like hot wires. So,
like a good friend,
you decide to follow.
You step off the shore
and plummet to your knees –
you slog forward to your thighs
and sink to your cheekbones –
and now you are caught
by the cold chains of the water –
you are vanishing while around you
the frogs continue to sing, driving
their music upward through your own throat,
not even noticing
you are someone else.
And that’s when it happens –
you see everything
through their eyes,
their joy, their necessity;
you wear their webbed fingers;
your throat swells.
And that’s when you know
you will live whether you will or not,
one way or another,
because everything is everything else,
one long muscle.
It’s no more mysterious than that.
So you relax, you don’t fight it anymore,
the darkness coming down
called water,
called spring,
called the green leaf, called
a woman’s body
as it turns into mud and leaves,
as it betas in its cage of water,
as it turns like a lonely spindle
in the moonlight, as it says
yes.

April 1 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Tom Foolery Day
• Childhelp National Day of Hope
• Take Down Tobacco National Day of Action
• National Walking Day
• National Sourdough Bread Day
• National One Cent Day
• Edible Book Day
• Fossil Fools Day

April 1 Word Pun

April 1 Word Riddle
What animal hangs around the rink?*

a Chairman Joe Original

April 1 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
FERULE, n.

    A wooden implement designed
    To open up the infant mind
    And make the pupil understand
    The bearings of the thing in hand.


April 1 Etymology Word of the Week
April Fool
/Ā-prəl fo͞ol/ n., a person who is the victim of a trick or hoax on April 1. Although many theories have been proposed throughout the years, the origin of April Fools' Day is not exactly known.

A disputed association between April One and foolishness is in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales (1392). In the "Nun's Priest's Tale", a vain cock, Chauntecleer, is tricked by a fox "Since March began, full thirty days and two," i.e. the 32nd day from March One, which is April One. However, it is not clear that Chaucer was referencing April One, since the text of the "Nun's Priest's Tale" also states that the story takes place on the day when the sun is "in the sign of Taurus had y-rune Twenty degrees and one," which would not be April One. Modern scholars believe this to be a copying error in the extant manuscripts and that Chaucer actually wrote, "Syn March was gon". If so, the passage would have originally meant 32 days after March ended, i.e., May Two.

In 1508, French poet Eloy d'Amerval referred to a poisson d'avril (April fool, literally "April's fish"), possibly the first reference to the celebration in France. Some historians suggest that April Fools' originated because, in the Middle Ages, New Year's Day was celebrated on March Twenty-five in most European towns, with a holiday that in some areas of France, specifically, ended on April One, and those who celebrated New Year's Day on January One made fun of those who celebrated on other dates by the invention of April Fools' Day. The use of January One as New Year's Day became common in France only in the mid-16th century, and that date was not adopted officially until 1564, by the Edict of Roussillon, as called for during the Council of Trent in 1563. However, there are issues with this theory because there is an unambiguous reference to April Fools' Day in a 1561 poem by Flemish poet Eduard de Dene of a nobleman who sent his servant on foolish errands on April One, predating the change. April Fools' Day was also an established tradition in Great Britain before January One was established as the start of the calendar year. An 1857 ticket to "Washing the Lions" at the Tower of London. No such event ever took place.

Although no biblical scholar or historian is known to have mentioned a relationship, some have expressed the belief that the origins of April Fools' Day may go back to the Genesis flood narrative. In The Complete Compendium of Universal Knowledge of 1895, writer William Ralston Balch wrote:

All Fools' Day is traced through every country of Europe to the Hindoos. The "Public Advertiser" for 13 April 1789, contains the following paragraph:
        "Humorous Jewish Origin of the Custom of Making Fools on the First of April.—This is said to have begun from the mistake of Noah in sending the Dove out of the Ark before the water had abated, on the first day of the month among the Hebrews, which answers to the 1st of April; and to perpetuate the memory of this deliverance it was thought proper, who ever forgot so remarkable a circumstance, to punish them by sending them upon some sleeveless errand similar to that ineffectual message upon which the bird was sent by the Patriarch. The custom appears to be of great antiquity, and to have been derived by the Romans from some of the Eastern nations."

In Ireland, it was traditional to entrust the victim with an "important letter" to be given to a named person. That person would read the letter, then ask the victim to take it to someone else, and so on. The letter when opened contained the words "send the fool further".


April 1 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1724 Jonathan Swift publishes Drapier's Letters, a series of seven pamphlets against a privately minted copper coinage Swift saw as inferior and corrupt.
• 1776 Friedrich von Klinger's Sturm und Drang premieres.
• 1778 New Orleans businessman Oliver Pollock creates the "$" symbol.
• 1816 Jane Austen declines writing advice from royal librarian Rev. James Stanier Clarke, suggesting that she write a historical romance of the house of Cobourg.
• 1854 Hard Times begins serialization in Charles Dickens magazine, Household Words.
• 1857 Herman Melville publishes the novel The Confidence-Man: His Masquerade on April Fool's Day in New York.
• 1867 First African Americans vote in municipal election in Tuscumbia, Alabama.
• 1872 The Standard newspaper issues its first edition.
• 1873 Namık Kemal's play Vatan premieres.
• 1891 French painter Paul Gauguin leaves Marseille for Tahiti.
• 1919 The influential Bauhaus School opens in Weimar, Germany, headed by architect Walter Gropius teaching painting, sculpture, architecture, and design.
• 1941 Lillian Hellman's play Watch on the Rhine premieres.
• 1953 First television station in North Dakota, KXMC TV channel 13 in Minot.
• 1957 BBC airs a three-minute April Fools' Day hoax featuring spaghetti-growing trees in Switzerland.
• 1970 John Lennon and Yoko Ono release hoax they are having dual sex change operations.

April 1 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1582 Thomas Simpson, English composer.
• 1619 Bedřich Bridel, Czech poet.
• 1643 Christian Demelius, German composer and kapellmeister.
• 1647 John Wilmot, 2nd Earl of Rochester, English poet.
• 1697 Abbé Prévost, French author and novelist.
• 1725 François Bainville, French organist and composer.
• 1737 David Martin, Scottish painter and engraver.
• 1765 Luigi Schiavonetti, Italian reproductive engraver and illustrator.
• 1772 Ignaz Franz von Mosel, Austrian composer.
• 1785 Ferdinand Olivier, German painter.
• 1802 Hubert Reis, German composer and violinist.
• 1807 Fredrik Cygnaeus, Finnish poet.
• 1834 Isidore Legouix, French composer.
• 1852 Edward Austin Abbey, American painter.
• 1854 Bill Traylor, African-American artist of folk and modern art.
• 1864 Marie Jungius, Dutch fairy tale writer.
• 1866 Ferruccio Busoni, Italian piano prodigy, composer.
• 1868 Edmond Rostand, French poet and playwright.
• 1869 Peter Egge, Norwegian writer.
• 1871 F. Melius Christiansen, Norwegian-American violinist, and choral conductor.
• 1872 Tadeusz Joteyko, Polish conductor, composer.
• 1873 Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian composer.
• 1875 Edgar Wallace, English novelist and playwright.
• 1786 William Mulready, Irish painter.
• 1878 Carl Sternheim, German playwright.
• 1883 Alexander Vasilyevich Alexandrov, Russian composer.
• 1886 Casimir von Pászthory, Austrian composer.
• 1895 Alberta Hunter, American blues singer, and composer.
• 1897 Lucille Bogan, American blues singer and songwriter.
• 1899 Lida Durdikova, Czech children's author.
• 1901 Boris Koutzen, Russian violinist, composer.
• 1901 Whittaker Chambers, American writer.
• 1902 Maria Polydouri, Greek poet.
• 1904 Juan Gil-Albert, Spanish poet and writer.
• 1905 Winfried Zillig, German opera composer.
• 1912 Breandán Breathnach, Irish uillean piper.
• 1921 Steve Race, British composer.
• 1921 William Bergsma, American composer.
• 1925 Kathy Stobart, British jazz tenor saxophonist, bandleader.
• 1926 Anne McCaffrey, American science-fiction author.
• 1928 Dimitri Frenkel Frank, Dutch writer.
• 1929 Milan Kundera, Czech-French poet and novelist.
• 1931 Rolf Hochhuth, German playwright.
• 1932 Jiří Smutný, Czech composer.
• 1933 Pecker Dunne, Irish musician.
• 1933 Dan Flavin, American minimalist sculptor.
• 1940 Wangari Maathai, Kenyan environmentalist and political activist, founder of the Green Belt Movement, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize (2004) and Indira Gandhi Peace Prize (2006).
• 1941 David Childs, American architect.
• 1942 Samuel R. Delany Jr, American sci-fi author.
• 1949 Gill Scott-Heron, American poet.
• 1960 Orna Ross, Irish author.
• 1965 Peter O'Toole, Irish pop bassist.
• 1965 Robert Steadman, English composer.
• 1974 Marcos Balter, Brazilian contemporary classical music composer.
• 1979 Bart Simpson.
• 1981 Aimee Chan, children's author.

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

• athetosis: /a-thuh-TŌ-suhs/ n., a neurological symptom characterized by slow, continuous, involuntary writhing or squirming movements, primarily affecting the hands, feet, and distal extremities.
• badaud: /BA-doh/ n., an idle onlooker, gawker, or rubbernecker. A half-witted gossip; a person given to idle observation of everything, with wonder or astonishment; a credulous or gossipy idler.
• crabbit: /CRAB-it/ adj., ill-tempered, grumpy, or irritable.
• dewlap: DŪ-lap/ n., a fold of loose skin hanging from the neck or throat of an animal, especially that present in many cattle.
• embusque: /ahm-boo-SKAY/ n., a person, traditionally a man, who avoids dangerous frontline military service by obtaining a safe, often administrative, government job, particularly during wartime.
• haar: /här/ n., a cold sea fog.
• hoyden: /HOI-dn/ n., a boisterous girl.
• lambence: /LAM-buhns/n., the quality of being softly bright, radiant, or having a gentle, flickering glow.
• miragy: /muh-RAH-jee/ adj., something that resembles, is characteristic of, or possesses the illusory qualities of a mirage.
• sporran: /SPOR-un/ n., a leather pouch.

April 1, 2026 Word-Wednesday Feature
fool
/fo͞ol/ n., a person who acts unwisely or imprudently; a silly person, from early 13th century, "silly, stupid, or ignorant person," from Old French fol "madman, insane person; idiot; rogue; jester," also "blacksmith's bellows," also an adjective meaning "mad, insane" (12th century, Modern French fou), from Medieval Latin follus (adj.) "foolish," from Latin follis "bellows, leather bag," from Proto-Indo-European root bhel- "to blow, swell."

The sense evolution probably is from Vulgar Latin use of follis in a sense of "windbag, empty-headed person." Compare also Sanskrit vatula- "insane," literally "windy, inflated with wind." But some sources suggest evolution from Latin folles "puffed cheeks" (of a buffoon), a secondary sense from plural of follis. One makes the "idiot" sense original, the other the "jester" sense.

Also used in Middle English for "sinner, rascal, impious person" (late 13th century). Meaning "jester, court clown" in English is attested circa 1300, though it is not always possible to tell whether the reference is to a professional entertainer counterfeiting mental weakness or an amusing lunatic, and the notion of the fool sage whose sayings are ironically wise is also in English from circa 1300. The French word probably also got into English via its borrowing in the Scandinavian languages of the vikings (Old Norse fol, Old Danish fool, fol).

The word has in modern English a much stronger sense than it had at an earlier period; it has now an implication of insulting contempt which does not in the same degree belong to any of its synonyms, or to the derivative foolish — especially in modern times. In some contexts, such as democratic regime leaders, the word seems to have lost all meaning.

Shakespeare gave his fools license to speak wisdom — truth to power — in some ways, the antithesis of our human trend to increasingly value the "intelligence" of large language models. Here are a few of his best fools speaking their minds:

The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool.

Touchstone, As You Like It

When a wise man gives thee better counsel, give me mine again. I would have none but knaves follow it, since a Fool gives it. 

The Fool, King Lear

Better a witty fool than a foolish wit.

Feste, Twelfth Night

I marvel what kin thou and thy daughters are. They'll have me whipp'd for speaking true; thou'lt have me whipp'd for lying.

The Fool, King Lear

Lord, what fools these mortals be!

Puck, A Midsummer Night's Dream

Two other more modern authors carried on Shakespeare's fool thinking:

A learned fool is more a fool than an ignorant fool.

Molière

It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.

Mark Twain

FOOL, n., A person who pervades the domain of intellectual speculation and diffuses himself through the channels of moral activity. He is omnific, omniform, omnipercipient, omniscient, omnipotent. He it was who invented letters, printing, the railroad, the steamboat, the telegraph, the platitude and the circle of the sciences. He created patriotism and taught the nations war—founded theology, philosophy, law, medicine and Chicago. He established monarchical and republican government. He is from everlasting to everlasting—such as creation's dawn beheld he fooleth now. In the morning of time he sang upon primitive hills, and in the noonday of existence headed the procession of being. His grandmotherly hand has warmly tucked-in the set sun of civilization, and in the twilight he prepares Man's evening meal of milk-and-morality and turns down the covers of the universal grave. And after the rest of us shall have retired for the night of eternal oblivion he will sit up to write a history of human civilization.

Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary

From A Year with Rilke, April 1 Entry
The Olive Grove (2), from New Prams

They would say no angel came.

Why angel? What came was night,
moving indifferently amidst the trees.
The disciples stirred in in their dreams.
Why an angel? What came was night.

The night that came was like any other,
dogs sleeping, stones lying there—
like any night of grief,
to be survived till morning comes.

Angels do not answer prayers like that,
nor do they let eternity break through.
Nothing protects those who lose themselves.

Olive Grove 
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.






*Puck-game wolf.