July 12, 2022

JUL 12, a brief saga (pluralia tantum) 'careers'

 





Authors' Note:  For the purpose of this blog, a 'brief saga' is defined as a poem, usually narrative, but occasionally expository, that tell its story in at least 15 lines. Most commonly, the format involves three stanzas in limerick form, constituting a single submission to the online humor site 'Omnificent English Dictionary iLimerick Form'. On the OEDILF site, rigorous standards for content and format are involved in a collaborative editing process that may take several weeks to over a year. 

 Generally, OEDILF has not been enormously welcoming of multi-verse submissions, but Giorgio Coniglio has persisted, and there are now over 70 of these multi-verse poems feature in his 'Author's Showcase'. The  OEDILF number for each accepted multiverse poem is shown here on the slide with its first verse. We have been blog-publishing these poetic adventures here monthly.

 
To access the most recent previous 'brief saga', back up to 'Anagram Swarms'

Grandpa Greg asked us to pass on this message: "You can view the entire collection of verses about 'pluralia tantum' by clicking HERE."

July 11, 2022

JULY 11, numbers: eleven/elf (11)






 You can review our cumulated nonsense about numbers by clicking HERE.

July 10, 2022

JUL 10, (re)duplication: hobos




Readers willing to go down an internet rabbit-hole HERE can easily get to a collection of more than a dozen other short verses in which we have dealt with specific reduplications, as well as three fairly lengthy patter-songs about this fascinating linguistic phenomenon. 


                                                                                           

July 9, 2022

JUL 9, doctors and their practices: lithotripsy specialist




Authors' Note: 'dais' may apparently be pronounced DYE-uhs or DAY-uhs, although the authors had been familiar with only the former pronunciation.


You can view these informative verses in a wider context by proceeding to the collection 'DOCTORS and their PRACTICES' on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE!

July 8, 2022

JUL 8, poets' corner: 'Held'




Authors' Note:

 Held: a state of workshopping selected by an OEDILF author to shield their submission from discussion until further self-editing makes it suitable to return to the Tentative state for open collegial comment

A reminder: the Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form is an online humor dictionary that has been making its way for 17 years through the alphabet to define the meaning(s) of each word in the English language. Its highly polished verses are accumulated by a collaborative editing process. In its 19 years of existence, it has progressed from A- to Ho-.  


You can find lots of other verses on this blog under the listing "Poets' Corner".  Click HERE.

  



July 7, 2022

JUL 7, trees: crepe myrtle xxxxxxxxxxxxLil






Addendum: Fall color, mid-Atlantic seaboard
photo kindly contributed by MMH



You can review these illustrated verses in a wider context by proceeding to 'Uprooted Verse: 'Poems about Trees' on the full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". 


As today is Lil's birthday, we are re-posting some old photos. She would be 106 today!








































1976



















July 6, 2022

JUL 6, binomial phrases: "down and out"




To review our poetic effusion about binomial phrases proceed to our blog 'Edifying Nonsense', click HERE ! 

There is also an entire collection of lyrics to patter songs, somewhat older material, dedicated to various kinds of binomials, that provides more didactic material and an extensive series of examples, and allows you to sing these expressions for your own enjoyment, or for that of others around you. Click HERE !

July 5, 2022

JUL 5, insects: cryoprotection


Authors' Note: The isabella tiger moth, Pyrrharctia isabella enters the cold season in wintry parts of North America in the form of a banded woolly bear caterpillar. Traditionally, her peer-group would attempt to get through the winter by altering their metabolism to manufacture compounds known as cryoprotectives, allowing them to recover from freezing. Our protagonist seems to have discovered another way around this challenge.

 

July 4, 2022

JUL 4, American anagram swarms: election fraud

reprise from July 4, 2021


JUL 4, anagram swarm: 'ELECTION FRAUD' #4

 Continuing from the posts of January 16January 18January 20January 22January 24, and January 27. You might note that there are now more than 200 anagrams in this collection. Who would have guessed?




If you have enjoyed this post, you can find a series of other 'American anagram swarms' gathered in two posts on our 'parent' blog "Edifying Nonsense".  To get started, click HERE


July 3, 2022

JUL 3, English literature survey course: "La Belle Dame sans Merci" (Keats' poem)



Authors' Note: 

rêverie (rehv-uh-REE): French for ‘dream, daydream’

grotesque: term adopted from French for an ancient Roman decorative artform rediscovered in Rome in the 15th century. Grotesques depict fantastical scenes and figures; the related adjective highlights the bizarre and even frightening nature of the images

grot: poetic variant of ‘grotto’ 

merci (mehr-SEE): French for mercy, forgiveness

   The usual critical view is that the protagonist of the poem, transfixed by the 'faery's child', has been trapped and victimized. However, Keats' description in his poem written in 1819 (but taking place in a mythical medieval past), leaves little doubt that the 'Belle Dame' is underage. The societal view of what constitutes child molestation / statutory rape seems to have changed over time.

You can review the entire curriculum for our 'English Classics Survey Course' at "Edifying Nonsense" by clicking HERE.

 

July 2, 2022

JUL 2, death and the afterlife: homes in heaven



Authors' Note: 

chutzpah (Yiddish): shameless audacity
Shemayim (Hebrew): heaven

You can review more poems about 'Death and the Afterlife' in context on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Click HERE!


July 1, 2022

* JUL 1, reprise: -- a Canadian defined

reprise from July 1, 2020

In honour of Canada Day (July 1), 











You can review these illustrated verses in a wider context by proceeding to 'Reverse Strokes: Limericks About Canoeing' on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. 




June 30, 2022

JUN 30, American satire (prolongation): 'coups' in the news




We hope that you enjoyed this verse. You can find 40 more on this topic in 6 collections on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Click HERE to start! 



June 28, 2022
Mark Meadows' aide testifies at the Jan 6 committee hearings


June 29, 2022

JUN 29, palinku (poetic novelty): Canadiana

Get ready! CANADA DAY is coming up in just two days.



 

 (Ed. note:) Verses of this type have continued to proliferate, and the total now is approaching 60. You can view them all at one swoop if you proceed to our more encyclopedic blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE. Or, if you want to stay on this daily blog, you can enter 'Palinku' on the search line in the browser and find individual verses of this type published here over the last year.



'He won snow, eh?'





A snowy Christmas Day, Toronto, 2020



links for any date: scroll over to the calendar-based listings of 'Past Posts' in the righthand column on this page, choose your month of interest, and then select (by clicking) the post of your choice.

to continue daily titillationsBE SURE TO BOOKMARK THIS SITE!




June 27, 2022

JUN 27, pluralia tantum: 'eruptions' -- medical nomenclature




Authors' Note: Eruption is a venerable medical term for a skin rash, in use since an earlier era when practitioners paid careful attention to characteristic skin lesions and various symptoms, but knew little of disease causality such as viral infection and allergy. Traditional names for medical symptoms and diseases in general are often based on lay vernacular terms dating from a much earlier time. Shingles is also known as herpes zoster, the second term referring to the belt-like distribution of lesions.

Grandpa Greg asked us to pass on this message: "You can view the entire collection of verses about 'pluralia tantum' by clicking HERE."



June 26, 2022

Jun 26, (re)duplication: hanky-panky




 Authors' Note:  Reduplications as they are best known, sometimes also called duplications, are language forms (morphs), usually for nouns, in which an element of the word is repeated with little or no change; they figure prominently among the most musical elements in English and in other languages. To this author, the more commonly used term seems redundant. Many other examples begin with the letter 'h', e.g. harum-scarum, helter-skelter, higgledy-piggledyhillbilly, and hubba-hubba.

Readers willing to go down an internet rabbit-hole HERE can easily get to a collection of more than a dozen other short verses in which we have dealt with specific reduplications, as well as three fairly lengthy patter-songs about this fascinating linguistic phenomenon. 

June 25, 2022

JUN 25, patients and their maladies: vitreous detachment










 You can view these verses in a wider context by proceeding to 'Nurse-Verse: Patients and their Maladies' on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE!

June 24, 2022

JUN 24, a brief saga: anagram swarms













 For the purpose of this blog, a 'brief saga' is defined as a poem, usually narrative, but occasionally expository, that tell its story in at least 15 lines. Most commonly, the format involves three stanzas in limerick form, constituting a single submission to the online humor site 'Omnificent English Dictionary iLimerick Form'. On the OEDILF site, rigorous standards for content and format are involved in a collaborative editing process that may take several weeks to over a year. 

 Generally, OEDILF has not been enormously welcoming of multi-verse submissions, but Giorgio Coniglio has persisted, and there are now over 90 of these multi-verse poems feature in his "Author's Showcase". The  OEDILF number for each accepted multiverse poem is shown here on the slide with its first verse. We have been blog-publishing these poetic adventures here monthly.


To access the next 'brief saga', advance to 'careers (pluralia tantum)'

To access the most recent previous 'brief saga', back up to 'echoic binomials (Eco-pairs)'




US Congressman Jamie Raskin


June 23, 2022

JUN 23, non-sequitur: judge's gavel, plus yesterday's temperature perversion







 


Our collection of 'Non-Sequiturs' on our parent blog "Edifying Nonsense", contains an admittedly bizarre assortment of nonsensical odds-and-ends, that don't quite fit into other topic-based offerings. But should you want to review the entire collection, click HERE.


June 22, 2022

JUN 22, diagnostic imaging: AC (attenuation correction) for PET scanning







Authors' Note:   Absorption of rays by body tissues complicates the interpretation of medical imaging with Positron Emission Tomography (PET). In equipment development since the year 2000, 'hybrid' scanners combine the nuclear camera with a CT x-ray unit that provides maps of attenuation; this technique for correction of attenuation (known to workers in the field as A.C.), makes PET more accurate in the detection of cancer. A potential limitation, the much lower energy of the photons used for x-ray CT, turns out to have little degrading effect in practical usage.

   Moreover, anatomic localization of the lesion can be obtained at the same session, enabling techniques such as superposition of the ‘hot’ focus on a 3D anatomic body-map. This technique has been given  the difficult and somewhat redundant term ‘PET-CT’.


 You can review all our verses on this intriguing topic by proceeding to a post on 'Edifying Nonsense' entitled 'Selected Topics in Diagnostic Imaging'. Click HERE!