Word-Wednesday for September 23, 2026

And here is the Wannaskan Almanac with Word-Wednesday for September 23, 2026, the thirty-eighth Wednesday of the year, the first Wednesday of fall, the fourth Wednesday of September, and the two-hundred sixty-sixth day of the year, with ninety-nine days remaining.


Wannaska Phenology Update for September 23, 2026
apples!
/AP-(ə)l/ n., a round, edible fruit with firm white flesh and red, yellow, or green skin, grown on trees of the rose family, Malus. The word apple is derived from Old English æppel, meaning "fruit", not specifically the apple. That in turn is descended from the Proto-Germanic noun aplaz, descended in turn from Proto-Indo-European h₂é-bōl. As late as the 17th century, the word also functioned as a generic term for all fruit including nuts; one example is the pineapple, the swollen accessory fruit outside of the cashew nut known as the "cashew apple", another is a 14th-century Middle English expression appel of paradis, meaning a banana. The Annishinaabe word for apple is mishiimin.

When to pick your apples? Apples give us clearer harvest signals than pears. Determining ripeness in apples is easier because apples do not require cold storage and give clearer visual cues. Yellow varieties become mature when green tones shift almost completely to yellow. In apples with red stripes or blush, the background color beneath the red usually changes from green to yellowish.

Fruit drop is another signal. When a few sound apples fall to the ground, the ones on the tree are nearly mature. When harvesting, avoid pulling fruit downward. Instead, twist the apple upward with a rotating motion. Ripe apples detach easily.
But the best and funnest way to test an apple for ripeness is to cut it open and taste it.

September 23 Fickle Pickle Wednesday Menu Special: Potato Dumpling


September 23 Nordhem Wednesday Lunch: Still closed until further notice.


Earth/Moon Almanac for September 23, 2026
Sunrise: 7:12am; Sunset: 7:21pm; 3 minutes, 33 seconds less daylight today
Moonrise: 6:11pm; Moonset: 3:30am, waxing gibbous, 86% illuminated.
The fall equinox happened at 3:05pm on Tuesday, September 22.


Temperature Almanac for September 23, 2026
                Average            Record              Today
High             63                     84                     69
Low              41                      22                     59

To Autumn
by John Keats

Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness,
   Close bosom-friend of the maturing sun;
Conspiring with him how to load and bless
   With fruit the vines that round the thatch-eves run;
To bend with apples the moss'd cottage-trees,
   And fill all fruit with ripeness to the core;
      To swell the gourd, and plump the hazel shells
   With a sweet kernel; to set budding more,
And still more, later flowers for the bees,
Until they think warm days will never cease,
      For summer has o'er-brimm'd their clammy cells.

Who hath not seen thee oft amid thy store?
   Sometimes whoever seeks abroad may find
Thee sitting careless on a granary floor,
   Thy hair soft-lifted by the winnowing wind;
Or on a half-reap'd furrow sound asleep,
   Drows'd with the fume of poppies, while thy hook
      Spares the next swath and all its twined flowers:
And sometimes like a gleaner thou dost keep
   Steady thy laden head across a brook;
   Or by a cyder-press, with patient look,
      Thou watchest the last oozings hours by hours.

Where are the songs of spring? Ay, Where are they?
   Think not of them, thou hast thy music too,—
While barred clouds bloom the soft-dying day,
   And touch the stubble-plains with rosy hue;
Then in a wailful choir the small gnats mourn
   Among the river sallows, borne aloft
      Or sinking as the light wind lives or dies;
And full-grown lambs loud bleat from hilly bourn;
   Hedge-crickets sing; and now with treble soft
   The red-breast whistles from a garden-croft;
      And gathering swallows twitter in the skies.

September 23 Celebrations from National Day Calendar

• National Snack Day
• National Great American Pot Pie Day
• Restless Legs Awareness Day
• National Checkers Day
• National Dogs in Politics Day
• Teal Talk Day
• Celebrate Bisexuality Day
• Innergize Day
• International Day of Sign Languages

September 23 Word Pun
Monique asked Sven to put ketchup on the shopping list.
Now he can’t read it.


September 23 Word Riddle
What do you call a chubby psychic?*


September 23 The Devil’s Dictionary Word-Pram
DEIPAROUS, adj., Giving birth, or capable of giving birth, to gods.

    The grand Greek women, who could count
    Among their friends the nobs of Mount
    Olympus, were deiparous;
    Our modern dames, whose godlings fill
    The skyward spaces of Nob Hill
    Are only—well, stultiparous.

    Dame Nature, though, her issues pools,
    For all alike are gods and fools
    Who nectar sip from chalices:
    On cold Olympus who would dwell
    Are fools, and they are gods as well
    Who live in Nob Hill palaces.


September 23 Etymology Word of the Week
panic
/PAN-ik/ n., a sudden, strong feeling of fear or anxiety that stops you from thinking clearly, from "sudden mass terror," especially an exaggerated fright affecting a number of persons without visible cause or inspired by trifling cause or danger, 1708, from an earlier adjective (circa 1600, modifying fear, terror, etc.), from French panique (15th century), from Greek panikon, literally "pertaining to Pan," the god of woods and fields, who was the source of mysterious sounds that caused contagious, groundless fear in herds and crowds, or in people in lonely spots. In the sense of "panic, fright" the Greek word is short for panikon deima "panic fright," from neuter of Panikos "of Pan."


September 23 Historic Events, Literary or Otherwise, from On This Day

• 1862 US President Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation is published in northern newspapers.
• 1908 University of Alberta opens.
• 1922 Bertolt Brecht's Drums in the Night premieres.
• 1925 George Kaufman's Butter and Egg Man premieres.
• 1958 Stravinsky's Thieni premieres.
• 1962 Martin Walser's play Eiche und Angora premieres.

September 23 Author/Artist/Character Birthdays, from On This Day

• 480BC Euripides, Greek playwright.
• 1591 Michael Lohr, German composer.
• 1605 Daniel von Czepko, German poet.
• 1642 Giovanni Maria Bononcini, Italian violinist, composer.
• 1684 Johann Theodor Römhild, German organist and composer,.
• 1703 Jean-Marie Leclair le cadet (the younger), French composer.
• 1782 Jacques-Fereol Mazas, French violinist, composer.
• 1791 Theodor Körner, German soldier and poet.
• 1800 William Holmes McGuffey, American author.
• 1817 Léon Kreutzer, French composer.
• 1842 Karl Munzinger, Swiss conductor and composer.
• 1849 Mikhail Ivanov, Russian composer.
• 1852 James Carroll Beckwith, American painter.
• 1856 William Archer, Scottish critic and playwright.
• 1863 Mary Church Terrell, American author.
• 1865 Pekka Halonen, Finnish painter.
• 1865 Emma Orczy, Hungarian-English author and playwright.
• 1866 Édouard Combe, Swiss composer.
• 1871 František Kupka, Czech pioneering abstract artist.
• 1884 Josef Váchal, Czech poet.
• 1890 Arthur Walter Kramer, American composer.
• 1895 Miron Merzhanov, Russian architect
• 1897 Paul Delvaux, Belgian surrealist painter.
• 1899 Louise Nevelson, American sculptor.
• 1901 Jaroslav Seifert, Czech poet.
• 1905 Jenö Kenessey, Hungarian conductor and composer.
• 1907 Dominique Aury, French author.
• 1907 Jarmila Novotná, Czech-American soprano.
• 1908 Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, Indian poet.
• 1909 Marianne Straub, Swiss-born English textile designer and weaver.
• 1910 Soulima Stravinsky, Swiss-American pianist, composer.
• 1912 Tony Smith, American sculptor and painter.
• 1914 Norman Cazden, American composer.
• 1915 Finn Arnestad, Norwegian contemporary classical composer.
• 1920 Alexander Arutiunian [Harut'unyan], Soviet Armenian classical pianist and composer.
• 1920 Jiri Jaroch, Czech composer.
• 1922 Philip Sherrard, English author.
• 1926 John Coltrane, American composer.
• 1928 Julio Le Parc, Argentine artist and sculptor.
• 1930 Colin Blakely, Irish character actor.
• 1930 Ray Charles, American pianist, composer.
• 1930 Sehba Akhtar, Pakistani poet.
• 1934 Per Olov Enquist, Swedish writer.
• 1934 Thomas Kilroy, Irish writer.
• 1937 Jacques Poulin, Canadian author.
• 1940 Bernard Pomerance, American playwright.
• 1942 Daniel Perlongo, American classical music composer.
• 1944 Ivan Martin Jirous, Czech poet.
• 1948 Rob van Koningsbruggen, Dutch abstract painter.
• 1952 Mark Bego, American author.
• 1952 Colin O'Daly, Irish chef.
• 1954 George C. Wolfe, American playwright.
• 1959 Frank Cottrell-Boyce, English writer.

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

• adumbrate: /ə-DəM-brāt/ v., to give a vague outline of something, to foreshadow a future event, or to partially conceal and overshadow.
• boozeroo: / boo-zuh-ROO / n., on the boozeroo: out drinking; engaged in a bout of heavy drinking.
• fictile: /FICK-tuhl/ adj., of clay or similar malleable raw material that has been moulded into shape and hardened or fired. 
• gammer: /GAM-er/ n., an old woman of the heath; an old countrywoman; v., to waste time doing nothing; to idle.
• ludraman: /LOO-druh-man/ n., IRISH, a azy, unproductive, or stupid person (esp. a man).
• malstick: /MǑL-stik  /n., a lightweight rod with a padded end that painters use to steady and support their working hand without touching the wet canvas.
• pyrrhonism: /PEER-uh-NIZ-um/ n., 1. Extreme or universal skepticism; profound doubt. 2. A school of philosophical skepticism characterized by the suspension of judgment in the face of uncertain or equally persuasive claims.
• quatervios: /KWA-ter-vwa/ n., a place where four roads or ways meet, or a crossroads.
• spavined: /SPA-vənd/ adj., old and decrepit.
• wordle: /WUR-dul/ n., the world; the earthly realm or sphere of human existence.

September 23, 2026 Word-Wednesday Feature
autumn
/ô-dəm/ n., the third season of the year, when crops and fruits are gathered and leaves fall, in the northern hemisphere from September to November and in the southern hemisphere from March to May, from Old French autumpne, automne (13th century), from Latin autumnus (also auctumnus, perhaps influenced by auctus "increase"), which is of unknown origin, perhaps from Etruscan. Compare Vertumnus, an Etruscan deity, god of the changing year (whose statue in Rome stood in the quarter where the booksellers kept their shops). Tucker suggests a meaning "drying-up season" and a root in auq- (which would suggest the form in -c- was the original) and compares archaic English sere-month "August." De Vaan writes, "Although 'summer', 'winter' and 'spring' are inherited IE words in Latin, a foreign origin of autumnus is conceivable, since we cannot reconstruct a Proto-Indo-European word for 'autumn'."

Harvest (n.) was the English name for the season until autumn began to displace it in the 16th century. Astronomically, from the descending equinox to the winter solstice; in Britain, the season is popularly August through October; in U.S., September through November. Compare Italian autunno, Spanish otoño, Portuguese outono, all from the Latin word.

As de Vaan notes, autumn's names across the Indo-European languages leave no evidence that there ever was a common word for it. Many "autumn" words mean "end, end of summer," or "harvest." Compare Greek phthinoporon "waning of summer;" Lithuanian ruduo "autumn," from rudas "reddish," in reference to leaves; Old Irish fogamar, literally "under-winter."

But this etymology barely suggests the beauty of this new season. On the first Wednesday and first full day of autumn, here are a few seasonal quotes from some favorite authors:

Autumn is the mellower season, and what we lose in flowers we more than gain in fruits.

Samuel Butler

Autumn is the best season in which to sniff, and to sniff for pleasure, for this is the season of universal pungency.

Bertha Damon

Autumn is the hardest season. The leaves are all falling, and they’re falling like they’re falling in love with the ground.

Andrea Gibson

Magnificent Autumn! He comes not like a pilgrim, clad in russet weeds. He comes not like a hermit, clad in gray. But he comes like a warrior, with the stain of blood upon his brazen mail. His crimson scarf is rent. His scarlet banner drips with gore. His step is like a flail upon the threshing floor.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

At no other time, it seems to me, does the earth let itself be inhaled in one smell, the ripe earth; in a smell that is in no way inferior to the smell of the sea, bitter where it borders on taste, and more honeysweet where you feel it touching the first sounds. Containing depth within itself, darkness, something of the grave almost.

Rainer Maria Rilke

A second spring, where every leaf is a flower.

Albert Camus

Spring is the season of hope, and autumn is that of memory.

Marguerite Gardiner 

In autumn, when the leaves are brown,
Take pen and ink, and write it down.

Lewis Carroll

I am struck by the simplicity of light in the atmosphere in the autumn, as if the earth absorbed none, and out of this profusion of dazzling light came the autumnal tints.

Henry David Thoreau

The weather of heaven will be bright autumn, I always think.

Louise Bogan

Autumn wins you best by this its mute
Appeal to sympathy for its decay.

Robert Browning

On the motionless branches of some trees, autumn berries hung like clusters of coral beads, as in those fabled orchards where the fruits were jewels.

Charles Dickens

Why do I like the first days of autumn more than those of spring? Certainly I have passed beyond my love for the pallid poetry of falling leaves and moonlit mists! But this golden color enchants me. There is a sad, intoxicating perfume everywhere.

Gustave Flaubert

Autumn comes to the sea with a fresh blaze of phosphorescence, when every wave crest is aflame. Here and there the whole surface may glow with sheets of cold fire, while below schools of fish pour through the water like molten metal.

Rachel Carson

It is a vast wilderness of rocks in a sea of light, colored and glowing like oak and maple in autumn, when the sun gold is richest.

John Muir

There is no better time than the autumn to begin forgetting the things that trouble us, allowing them to fall away like dried leaves. There is no better time to dance again, to make the most of every crumb of sunlight and warm body and soul with its rays before it falls asleep and becomes only a dim light bulb in the skies.

Paulo Coelho

Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.

George Eliot

The year’s last, loveliest smile.

John Howard Bryant

As long as autumn lasts, I shall not have hands, canvas and colors enough to paint the beautiful things I see.

Vincent van Gogh

From A Year with Rilke, September 23 Entry
The God that is Coming, from The Book of Hours II, 25

You too will find your strength.
We who must live in this time
cannot imagine how strong you will become—
how strange, how surprising,
yet familiar as yesterday.

We will sense you
like a fragrance from a nearby garden
and watch you more through our days
like a shaft of sunlight in a sickroom.

We are cradled close in your hands—
and lavishly flung forth.

Corridor in Saint-Paul Hospital 
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 four chin teller.