NOV 30, singable satire: Handel's "ALAJUELA CHORUS"

 

ORIGINAL SONG: The Hallelujah Chorus from "Messiah", composed by George Frideric Handel, with scriptural text by Charles Jennens. The oratorio was first performed as a benefit concert in Dublin in 1742. Under the more cautious title "New Sacred Oratorio" it was performed in London a year later, but with only marginal critical acceptance. Its revival at the Covent Garden Theatre in 1749 under its now-familiar title initiated its iconic role as an inspiring religious work. You can listen to the Royal Choral Society perform the chorus at Albert Hall, a yearly treat, HERE.

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, August 2017.

PARODY-SONGLINK: To find ukulele chord-charts to help you accompany "ALAJUELA CHORUS" on your favorite instrument, click HERE.

INFO-LINKS: When you get to the "Silly Songs and Satire" site, you will be exposed to more info about  the monthly rainfall pattern in Alajuela, and in other locales in Costa Rica. Costa Rica is a fascinating place to visit due to its variety of microclimates and preserved natural environments.

For most tourists visiting Costa Rica, the airport of entry is located at Alajuela, a town in the central valley near the capital San José. Some tourists will use the second international airport at Liberia in the drier northwest corner of the country. Alajuela is also the name of the surrounding province which stretches through the central part of the country, north to the Nicaraguan border. 
The name "Alajuela" epitomizes the wonderful musical quality of the Spanish and aboriginal place-names in this great tourist destination.

RAINY SEASON in COSTA RICA

to the tune (with some abbreviation) of "The Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's "Messiah". 


Alajuela, Alajuela, Alajuela, Alajuela, in Costa Rica.
Alajuela, and Liberia; major airhubs; there are downpours, in Costa Rica.

For volcán Arenal, outlook: raineth.
La Fortuna, Monteverde, Puerto Viejo, Tortuguero.

For volcán Irazú, forecast: raineth
For volcán Poás, too, forecast: raineth
Alajuela!
At La Fortuna, Arenal: raineth
Alajuela, Alajuela!í

Jacó, Dominical - beach towns  completely drenched 
Jacó, Bahía Drake, and San José.
And San José.

And it shall rain from May to November.
And it shall rain from May to November.
And it shall rain from May to November.
So bring raingear, spare shoes and umbre-ellas.

Carta-ago, from May through November; Alajuela, Alajuela.
And Liberia, from May to November; Alajuela, Alajuela.
Cartago, from May through November; Alajuela, Alajuela.
And Liberia, from May to November; Alajuela, Alajuela.
Cartago, from May through November; Alajuela, Alajuela.

And Golfito; Cartago; Puerto Limón ;
And even rain at Manuel Anto-onio.
From Panama to Nicaragua;
Paraíso, and Heredia, Cahuita; Alajuela - 
COSTA RICA!

NOV 29, bi-lyrical limerick: 'a poet and his bros'

 Authors' note: We (i.e. Dr. G.H. and his registered pseudonym Giorgio) have two brothers who have each written a textbook in his chosen field of endeavour. Our personal choice, however, is to indulge in the delights of poetry, using rhyme rather than free verse as our preferred modality.   

Be sure to check out the whole collection of 'bi-lyrical limericks' by proceeding to "Edifying Nonsense." CLICK HERE ! 

NOV 28, savoir-faire: franglais

Authors' Note:

en visite (ahn vee-ZEET): ‘while visiting'

les touristes (lay too-REEST):  'the tourists’

non-français (non frahn-SEH): ‘not French (speaking)’

ils causaient (eel koh-ZEH): 'they chatted‘

Québécois (kay-bay-KWAH): ‘resident of Quebec (province)’

franglais (frahn-GLEH): ‘Franglais, a mixed lingo’

 You can review verses on this topic in a wider context on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Check the post 'Vers Francais: Savoir-Faire' by clicking HERE.

NOV 27, wordplay map: American Scramble-towns, 11

 

LINKS to other nonsense in this series: 

Forward to the first Canadian map.

Forward to the next American map (12).

Back up to the first American map.

NOV 26, poetic non-sequitur: dishwasher (appliance)

Authors' Note:    

slow uptake of the residential dishwasher
(photos per televised documentary)

inside a current domestic dishwasher

 storage place for dirty dishes
(photo by G.C.)

a brand new dishwasher
(photo by G.C.)

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.

 

NOV 25, submitted palindromes: RANDOM PILES 4

 

You have reached the "Submitted Palindromes" thread on the blog "Daily Edifying Nonsense", a light literary entity that emanates through the blogosphere daily (almost), i.e. 30 times per month.

  On the 25th of each month you will find a slide-filling group of palindromic phrases submitted to the editors by a panel of 7 palindromists. These folks have all been working on this project since January 2020. The personal profiles for each of these contributors are displayed in panels published here at the start of things, and then, we have asked them to provide (palindromically, of course) their views on one of the iconic items in the classic literature, starting with "A man, a plan, a canal -- Panama", continuing with other well-known phrases, such as "Dennis sinned". Otherwise, their contribution will be grouped in monthly random piles (a phrase that you might recognize as an anagram of the word p-a-l-i-n-d-r-o-m-e-s).

You can access this delightful entertainment right here by entering submitted palindromes in one of the two search bars at the top of this post and scrolling downwards through the wordplay posts that you will discover, OR, just follow the links indicated above. 

Devotees of palindromic wordplay can further explore limericks and other short verses about the classic palindromes (and quite a few recent concoctions) that are randomly scattered on this blog after September 2000, or collected into grouped postings on our more encyclopedic blog "Edifying Nonsense" -- start HERE.

NOV 24, waterfowl: great egrets

great egret, stalking slowly

great egret, striking

takeoff  from railing,
Shem Creek Park, Mt Pleasant SC

You can review these illustrated verses in a wider context by proceeding to 'Immersible Verse: Limericks about Waterfowl' on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. 

NOV 23, political palindromes, PPP

Oddly, you have reached a set of palindromes designated by the letter 'P', (left lower corner), and you can't go forwards, i.e. there are no more.

To go BACKWARDS, return to the previous set ('O') on September 13, 2020.

OR, return to the ORIGINAL POST ('A') on this topic on May 14.

   If you have enjoyed these verses on the theme of American political satire, you might like to proceed to view other items in our collection including:

- 'American satire: A Term of Endirement'

-  'Poetry and Pathos: Gun Control Verses' 

- 'The Fun with Impeachment Collection'

- 'a brief saga: Mar-a Lago'

   There are also some parody-song lyrics posted in 2019 and 2020, that you might like, including: 

- 'Brennan's Tweet'

- 'Rosenstein'- 'Kooky Presidential Views' 

- 'Jailhouse Now'

- 'Vlad Putin's Blogger'

- 'Indiana Song'

- 'Get Me Roger Stone', and 

- 'The Ballad of Giuliani', part I and part II.

NOV 22, Canadiana: urban portaging

 

From the Archives: An Illustrated E-Mail about Urban Portaging, 2017

GxxHxxxxx <gxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>@gmail.com>	Nov 13, 2016, 7:50 PM
to Mike, Josh, Paul, Dr, Alec, Art, Marna, Eric

I encountered this on my late afternoon cycle-ride through trendy Rosedale on a rainy autumn afternoon. In its second year, 

this festival, I found out, brings together people portaging canoes across a 17 km ancient aboriginal trail between the

Humber and Don watersheds. At this point, the portagers had just crossed the Mt Pleasant Expressway.

You can review poems, pictures and diverse nonsense related to Canada on the post "Canadiana" on our full-service blog  "Edifying Nonsense".

NOV 21, birdlore: turkeys, desnooded (pre-holiday fling)

 You can view an encyclopedic collection of illustrated poems on this topic by proceeding to the post 'Poems about BIRDLORE' on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE. 

NOV 20, singable satire: Tom Lehrer sings "A LESSON ABOUT REDUPLICATIONS"

 PARODY SONG-LYRICS

ORIGINAL POEM and SONG: Dr. G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, 2015, updated  2017.

...

... in a fallout shelter?

EXPLANATION: This poem, consisting of a lesson on types of reduplication, evolved as a musical parody using the template of "The Elements" by Tom Lehrer. Further exploration of this type of wordplay also progressed into the venture of 

Feb 15, 2017 entitled 'Abracadabra' to 'Zoom-zoom': possibly the world's largest compendium of reduplications.

   Eventually, this poem was set to music, using the framework of Lehrer's patter-song framework, and became an intrinsic part of a series of nine songs devoted to musical Word-Pairs. This posting of The Lesson, and subsequent posting of a Lexicon of Reduplications contains a total of almost 300 examples of this fascinating and amusing linguistic form.

 UKULELE and GUITAR-FRIENDLY LINK: Our whole series of songs can be found in a friendly format for ukulele (and guitar)-players on our sister blog  "SILLY SONGS and SATIRE", along with chord-charts and helpful performing suggestions; click HERE to proceed to this site.  

 

1) Introduction

I’m so enthralled with lyrics – their inherent musicality;

I love the words I’ve heard, for both their quantity and quality.

And so I’ll share with you this recent lexic revelation –

My favorite word-device goes by the name ‘reduplication’.

This humble term is used for killer-diller innovations,
Some recent lulus – chick flick, boy-toy – marvellous creations. 

For others, spoke with reverence, their birth can date back centuries

Like hully-gully, boogie-woogie, riff-raff, and hurdy-gurdy.

These fuzzy-wuzzy friends are formed by vocal repetition,

With wi-fi you might find them in Wiki’s current edition;

The three important sub-types you will wiki-wiki* learn about

Are known as Rhyming, Exact, and the oddly German-named Ablaut *.

2) Rhyming Reduplicates

Hear hear! some fine examples start with “H”, like helter-skelter, see!

Hodge-podge, humdrum, hubbub, hillbilly, and higgledy-piggledy.

Although the showing’s not so glowing for some, like the letter “D”

Just ding-aling and Double-Bubble, and surname of H.-Dumpty.

3) Exact Reduplicates

As toddlers we knew quite precisely what pee-pee and yum-yum meant

They’re constituted by exact repeating of each element.

Extension into adult life – tsk-tsk!  it doesn’t matter

For mahi-mahi, rah-rah! hubba-hubba, night-night, yada-yada.

4) Ablaut Reduplicates

Linguistic term that might put off, but don’t throw in the towel

To form the second part you merely change a single vowel.

Criss-cross, splish-splash, King Kong, mish-mash provide the explanation;

Though tidbit, boob-tube, whipper-snapper show some variation.

5)  Borrowings from Other Languages
Some foreign words sound quite absurd, and might be greeted with yuk-yuks,
Like chi-chi, tutu, tête-à-tête, and tse-tse, muu-muu and mukluks. 

6) 'Shm-Reduplicates'
And many word-shmords are employed by speaker-shmeakers of Yiddish,
Like fancy-shmancy, choosy-shmoozy, horseradish(mmh!), gefilte-fish.

7) Related Forms e.g. collocation

Dream Teams of paired words get primetime - in rhyming collocation;

These catchy terms, like kitty-cat, aren’t true reduplications. 
Tut-tut! for many wild-child words, there's no accord on how they're grouped,
Like fuddle-duddle, Walla Walla, voodoo, wiseguys, hula-hoop.

8) Conclusion

The lesson's sung, my cha-cha's done, we’ve reached our termination.

(Boo-hoo!) True blue, and through and through we’ve viewed reduplication;

But while we bid our fond ta-tas, I leave this final message – “HI!”

These phrases love to start with “H”, and their initial vowel – “I”.

Ta-Dah !!!

* German= "off-sound", word coined in the 16th century to indicate a systematic change in the vowel of a word-root to convey a difference in meaning; rhymes with shout

* Hawaiian for quickly or  bus !!

9) Add-On: A Singable Lexicon of Reduplicates
See the relevant posts.

And, for those interested, here's how you find the lyrics-only-version

of the nine songs that make up this cycle. 

1. PAIRS, to the tune of "Words" in the style of the Beegees

...  the following songs in the style of "The Elements" by Tom Lehrer

2. ALLITERATIVE BINOMIALS, part#1

3. ALLITERATIVE BINOMIALS, part#2

4. RHYMING BINOMIALS, part#1

5. RHYMING BINOMIALS, part#2

6. A LESSON ABOUT REDUPLICATIONS

7. REDUPLICATIONS, part#1

8. REDUPLICATIONS, part#2

9. LEGALISTIC DOUBLETS, in the style of "Supercalifragilistic..." from  the musical "Mary Poppins".

If you would like to  accompany yourself on ukulele or guitar, find relevant chord-charts by following the links that will take you to the versions in our blog "Silly Songs and Satire". 

NOV 19, Toronto ravines: upper East Don valley

 

If you are interested in wending your way through an encyclopedic collection of four blogposts stuffed with photo-collages on Toronto ravines, click HERE.

NOV 18, waterfowl: American white ibises

immature white ibis (less than two years)
Note the duller color of the bill and legs
and the brown-black body feathers
 versus its older companions

To see more photos of these birds, you might want to review our posts "photo-collage: white ibises" and "folio-entry: white ibis couple".

You can review these illustrated verses in a wider context by proceeding to 'Immersible Verse: Limericks about Waterfowl' on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. 

NOV 17, palinku (poetic novelty): partying #1

 

    In this post, we are introducing a novel form of poetic wordplay, the details of which are displayed on the accompanying slide. 

  The name reflects its derivation from Japanese poetic concepts; most of us learned a smattering of haiku poetry in elementary school. But the format we are presenting today is strongly influenced by palindromes: This form of wordplay is a concoction that can be found in both English and Japanese, and has been the basis of study, wonderment and amusement by scholars and word-nerds. The very different structure of the two languages makes the incorporation of wordplay into poetry unique in each case. We were delighted to learn recently that palindromic sentences, known as kaibun are found relatively frequent in Japanese ; the phenomenon is enhanced by the fact that there a fair number of single word palindromes in the language.   

   And, just in case you have forgotten what palindromes are about in English, your blogsite hosts have arranged a serial set of brief lessons on the topic ('Political Palindromes') which you can review by clicking HERE.