Word-Wednesday for April 22, 2026

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for April 22, 2026, the sixteenth Wednesday of the year, the fifth Wednesday of spring, the fourth Wednesday of April, and the one-hundred-twelfth day of the year, with two-hundred fifty-three days remaining.

Wannaska Phenology Update for April 22, 2026
River Otters — Out and About
Lontra canadensis, Minnesota's largest aquatic carnivore can be seen now at Hayes Lake. Nigig, in Anishinaabe, can swim and maneuver better than many fish, and swims with only the top of its head out of the water. Adults are about four to five and one-half feet long, including the 18-inch tail. Nigig prey includes a variety of small aquatic organisms such as fish, clams, muskrats, and turtles. They can also catch terrestrial mammals such as chipmunks, mice, and young rabbits. Members of the family Mustelidae, otters have a long period of "delayed implantation". Shortly after adult females have a litter of one to five young, they are bred and become "pregnant" for nearly a full year. The embryos do not begin development until about eight months later, and 50 days after that, the young are born. The cubs will remain with the parents through the first winter, but separate the next spring. Bye, Mom!

April 22 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


April 22 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Updated daily, occasionally.


Earth/Moon Almanac for April 22, 2026
Sunrise: 6:19am; Sunset: 8:25pm; 3 minutes, 20 seconds more daylight today
Moonrise: 9:58am; Moonset: 2:25am, waxing crescent, 27% illuminated.


Temperature Almanac for April 22, 2026
                Average            Record              Today
High             56                     87                     78
Low              32                       7                     61

April Prayer
by Stuart Kestenbaum

Just before the green begins there is the hint of green
a blush of color, and the red buds thicken
the ends of the maple’s branches and everything
is poised before the start of a new world,
which is really the same world
just moving forward from bud
to flower to blossom to fruit
to harvest to sweet sleep, and the roots
await the next signal, every signal
every call a miracle and the switchboard
is lighting up and the operators are
standing by in the pledge drive we’ve
all been listening to: Go make the call.

April 22 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Girl Scout Leader’s Day
• National Jelly Bean Day
• International Earth Day
• National School Bus Driver Appreciation Day

April 22 Word Pun
Writing his name in cursive is Sven’s signature move.


April 22 Word Riddle
What do you get when you cross a polar bear with a seal?*


April 22 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
APRON, n., a piece of cloth worn in front to keep the clothes from soiling the hands.

    She wore an apron ('tis a thing I loathe),
    A dress beneath—a corset á la mode.
    No further seek her merits to disclothe,
    Nor draw her frailties from their dread abode.
                                                                —Gray


April 22 Etymology Word of the Week
no
/nō/ det., not any; exclam., used to give a negative response; adv., not at all; to no extent, from Middle English, from Old English na, from ne "not, no" + a "ever." The first element is from Proto-Germanic ne (source also of Old Norse, Old Frisian, Old High German ne, Gothic ni "not"), from Proto-Indo-European root ne- "not." Second element is from Proto-Germanic aiwi-, extended form of Proto-Indo-European root aiw- "vital force, life, long life, eternity." Ultimately identical to nay, and the differences of use are accidental.

As an adjective, "not any, not one, none" (circa 1200) it is reduced from Old English nan (see none), the final -n omitted first before consonants and then altogether. As an interjection making a negative reply to a statement or question, "not so," early 13th century, from the adverb. As a noun, 1580s as "a denial; a negative vote," 1650s as "person who casts a negative vote."

Construction no X, no Y is attested from 1530s (in no peny no pardon). No problem as an interjection of assurance is attested by 1963. No way as a colloquial expression meaning "it can't be done" is attested by 1968 (noway (adv.) "not at all, in no respect, by no means" is from circa 1300). No-knock (adj.) in reference to police raids without permission or warning is by 1970, American English. Phrase no can do "it is not possible" is attested from 1827, a locution of English-speaking Chinese noted 19th century in China, Australia, and the West Coast of the United States.

We repeated our advice again and again, but got no answer but a loud horse-laugh, and their national maxim of No can do: Europe fashion no do in China. ["Reminiscences of a Voyage to and from China," in Paxton's Horticultural Register, London, 1836]

April 22 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1056 Supernova Crab nebula last seen by the naked eye.
• 1145 19th recorded perihelion passage of Halley's Comet.
• 1526 First slave revolt in North America occurs at San Miguel de Gualdape, a Spanish settlement now part of South Carolina.
• 1804 Gioachino Rossini performs as a singer in Imola, Italy, aged only 12 years old.
• 1817 Curaçao prohibits the use of white paint due to intense sunlight.
• 1864 US mints 2-cent coin, first appearance of "In God We Trust".
• 1876 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky completes his ballet Swan Lake.
• 1897 NYC Jewish newspaper Forward begins publishing.
• 1952 Eugene Ionesco's Les Chaises premieres.

April 22 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 1658 Giuseppe Torelli, Italian composer.
• 1682 Willem Ignatius Kerricx, Flemish architect, sculptor and painter.
• 1707 Henry Fielding, English novelist.
• 1724 Immanuel Kant, German philosopher.
• 1766 Madame de Staël [Anne Louise Germaine de Staël-Holstein], French-Swiss author.
• 1781 Friedrich Christian Hermann Uber, German composer.
• 1816 Philip James Bailey, English poet.
• 1827 William Hopkins Morris, American author.
• 1828 Guilherme Cossoul, Portuguese composer.
• 1834 Richard Gailey, Irish architect.
• 1858 Ethel Smyth, English composer.
• 1864 Phil May, English cartoonist.
• 1866 Jaro Procházka, Czech painter.
• 1868 José Vianna da Motta, Portuguese composer.
• 1873 Ellen Anderson Glasgow, American novelist.
• 1884 Armas Launis, Finnish composer.
• 1889 Ludwig Renn, German writer.
• 1892 Nikolai Obukhov, Russian composer.
• 1894 Evie Hone, Irish artist.
• 1899 Vladmir Nabokov, Russian writer.
• 1905 Robert Choquette, French Canadian novelist, poet.
• 1906 Eric Fenby, English composer.
• 1907 Ivan Yefremov, Russian paleontologist (originator of the concept of taphonomy) and author.
• 1911 Max Dupain, Australian photographer.
• 1912 Kathleen Ferrier, English contralto singer.
• 1912 Miguel Querol Gavalda, Spanish musicologist and composer.
• 1914 C. H. Sisson, British author.
• 1914 Jan de Hartog, Dutch-English writer.
• 1915 Edward Larrabee Barnes, American architect.
• 1917 Sidney Nolan, Australian painter and illustrator.
• 1917 Yvette Chauviré, French ballerina.
• 1920 Jos de Haes, Flemish philological and poet.
• 1922 Charles Mingus, American jazz bassist.
• 1922 Richard Diebenkorn, American painter.
• 1923 Paula Fox, American writer for children.
• 1923 Vratislav Effenberger, Czech poet.
• 1926 James Stirling, Scottish architect.
• 1927 (Lorenzo) "Laurel" Aitken, Cuban-Jamaican singer.
• 1927 Pascal Bentoiu, Romanian composer.
• 1929 Margaret Pereira, English forensic scientist.
• 1931 Ronald Hynd, British choreographer.
• 1932 Michael Colgrass, American-Canadian composer.
• 1935 Paul Chambers, American jazz bassist.
• 1939 Jason Miller, American actor and writer.
• 1939 Jaroslav Krček, Czech composer.
• 1941 Edward Graczyk, American playwright.
• 1943 Louise Glück, American poet and 12th US Poet Laureate.
• 1943 Janet Evanovich, American author.
• 1947 Barry Guy, English composer and double bass player.
• 1951 Ana María Shua, Argentine poet.
• 1953 Juhani Komulainen, Finnish composer.
• 1963 Daniel Micka, Czech writer.

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

• allatrate: /AL-uh-trayt/ v., to bark out, utter with a bark.
• bulbule: /BUL-byool/ n. a small bulb or bulblet; esp. a clove of garlic.
• gobbet: /GÄ-bət/ n., a piece or lump of flesh, food, or other matter.
• grith: /grith/ n., peace; absence of conflict, unrest, or civil disorder. Also (esp. in early use): cessation or suspension of hostilities; truce. 
• pukka: / PUH-kuh/ adj., genuine; of high quality or properly done, often used to indicate something authentic or first-rate.
• ringgit: /RING-ɡit/ n. the basic monetary unit of Malaysia, equivalent to 100 hundred sen.
• souk: /so͞ok/ n., an Arab market or marketplace; a bazaar.
• taphonomy: /tə-FÄN-ə-mē/ n., the branch of paleontology that deals with the processes of fossilization.
• uitwaaien: /OUT-vah-yen n., Dutch, to step into the wind and let it carry your thoughts away; a gentle act of clearing the mind, where the air feels fresh and everything outside one softens.
• zabernism: /ZAB-ur-niz-im/ n., unjustified or unwarranted use of military authority; military jackbootery; abusive bullying.

April 22, 2026 Word-Wednesday Feature
no
As noted in the Etymology Word of the Week section of today’s post, no is classified as a determiner /dĭ-TÛR′mə-nər/ in grammarian circles: a word belonging to a group of noun modifiers, which includes articles, demonstratives, possessive adjectives, and words such as he, a, an, this, that, these, those, my, your, his, her, its, our, their, some, any, many, few, each, every, any, both, or whose, and, in English, occupying the first position in a noun phrase or following another determiner. It's use as a parental exclamation makes no one of the first words a human learns in any language (with the exception of Dorothy Parker's friend). Use of the word no reflects authenticity, resolve, self-care, and courage, to name but a few virtues of this boundary-setting word. Here are some writer insights into the use of no...

“No” and “Yes” are words quickly said, but they need a great amount of thought before you utter them.

Baltasar Gracián

No is a word that must never be negotiated, because the person who chooses not to hear it is trying to control you.

Gavin de Becker

One must separate from anything that forces one to repeat No again and again.

Friedrich Nietzsche

The inability to say no is, in many cases, a learned behavior rooted in a desire to please others.

Susan Newman

That woman speaks eighteen languages, and can’t say No in any of them.

Dorothy Parker

One says a lot in vain, refusing;
The other mainly hears the “No.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

My unhappiness was the unhappiness of a person who could not say no.

Osamu Dazai

All the mistakes I ever made in my life were when I wanted to say no and said yes.

Moss Hart

Serenity comes from the ability to say “Yes” to existence. Courage comes from the ability to say “No” to the wrong choices made by others.

Ayn Rand

A dishonest yes is a no to yourself.

Byron Katie

The ability to say no to yourself is a gift.

Nedra Glover Tawwab

Self-respect is the root of discipline: The sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.

Abraham Joshua Heschel

One of the most painfully inauthentic ways we show up in our lives sometimes is saying “yes” when we mean “no,” and saying “no” when we mean “hell yes.”

Brené Brown

I understand by “freedom of spirit” something quite definite…the unconditional will to say No where it is dangerous to say No.

Friedrich Nietzsche

One-half the troubles of this life can be traced to saying “Yes” too quick and not saying “No” soon enough. 

Josh Billings

The art of leadership is saying no, not saying yes. It is very easy to say yes.

Tony Blair

Girls are so queer you never know what they mean. They say No when they mean Yes, and drive a man out of his wits for the fun of it.

Louisa May Alcott

The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say “no” to almost everything.

Warren Buffett

What is a rebel? A man who says no, but whose refusal does not imply renunciation. He is also a man who says yes, from the moment he makes his first gesture of rebellion.

Albert Camus

I live by the truth that "No" is a complete sentence.

Anne Lamott

Fortitude is the capacity to say “no” when the world want to hear “yes.”

Erich Fromm

You have to decide what your highest priorities are and have the courage–pleasantly, smilingly, non-apologetically–to say ‘no’ to other things. And the way to do that is by having a bigger ‘yes’ burning inside.

Stephen Covey

If you must say yes, say it with an open heart. If you must say no, say it without fear.

Paulo Coelho

He who never says “no” is no true man.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

So learn to say No—and be rude about it when necessary. Otherwise you will not have time to carry out your duty, or to do your own work, and certainly no time for love and happiness. The termites will nibble away your life and leave none of it for you.

Robert A. Heinlein

From A Year with Rilke, April 22 Entry
With Silence or a Solitary Joy, from Rome, December 23, 1903, Letters to a Young Poet

Just as bees gather honey, so we collect from all that happens what is sweetest—and we build Him. Even with the littlest, most insignificant thing, when it comes from love, we begin. We begin with effort and the repose that follows efforts, with silence or a solitary joy, with everything we do alone without anyone to join or help us, we begin Him whom we will not live to see, any more than our ancestors could experience us. Yet they are in us, those long departed ones, they are in our inclinations, our moral burdens, our pulsing blood, and in gestures that arise from the depths of time.

Woman Walking in a Garden
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.






*a polar bear.