NOV 30, holiday verse: Advent #1

 

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, commercial product: 'Tucket (an e-bucket, or cyber-safe)

Authors' Note: Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, on the St. Mary River, is known casually by its English-speaking inhabitants and visitors as ‘the Sault’ (pronounced SOO). (A smaller town, similarly named, is also present on the American side of the river). French colonists had referred to the rapids on the river as les saults de Ste Marie (SOH).

   A classic limerick, dating from 1902, concerns family economics and stressful relationships of a resident of the island of Nantucket in the state of Massachusetts:

     There once was a man from Nantucket ...

   A series of limericks by the present author provides satirical variations on this iconic tale. 

   The technically advanced bucket and safe combination imagined in the above verse might have been of use to the famous Nantucket protagonist.    

Our range of domestic and commercial products is somewhat limited, but you might want to review our unusual prospective gifts on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE.

 

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, photo-collage, reptiles: green anoles in southern suburbs

 At our home in the Carolina lowcountry ...

 

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

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. 

NOV 16, sleek Greek prefixes: DIA- (and DI-)

Authors' Note: Click HERE, for your entertainment, to review a verse about diarrhea; and HERE's another, about diaphoresis (sweating).

 Clicking HERE will introduce you to our entire collection of verses about the Greek prefixes!

NOV 15, Toronto ravines: Avoca

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 14, pandemic poetry: social distancing

Hi! I'm your social distancing trainer.

You can review these illustrated verses in a wider context by proceeding to 'Pandemic Poetry' on the full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense".

NOV 13, basic medical science: ode to gamma rays

Authors' Note:   In measuring ionizing radiation such as gamma rays with an instrument such as a  dosimeter, terms such as exposure-rate, flux, and fluence relate to the strength of the source. With regard to possible harm to humans and other biologic creatures, the absorbed dose is more important. The many different units involved in scientific descriptions may, in fact, detract from comprehension by non-experts. A simple rule of thumb, adopted by most professional societies, is to keep exposure "as low as reasonably achievable", as summarized in the acronymic slogan ALARA.

 

 

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!

NOV 12, Toronto ravines: art installations

 

The sculpture is the work of the renowned Canadian innovator, naturalist and artist William Lishman.

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

NOV 11, wordplay maps: new world palindromes (#41,#42)

 

You can view the entire collection of these 50 wordplay maps, by accessing the collection 'Tourists Palindromic Guides: The Americas'. Start by clicking HERE! 

NOV 10, a brief saga (hellenophilia): the Acropolis

Authors' Note:  

* properly, the Panathenaic Way.

The worst blow to the monument was in 1687 when Venetians attacked the Turkish-held site, and gunpowder stores caused an explosion that damaged all the buildings. The greatest part of the existing frieze marbles from the Parthenon, taken by Lord Elgin in the early 19th century, are currently found in the British museum. The Beulé Gate near the Propylaia at the entrance was discovered by a French archeologist in 1852.

Other verses discussing our appreciation of Greece and things Greek can be found on our blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Click HERE.

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. Your blogging team has been presenting these concoctions at the rate of one per month, mixed in with the shorter poems, wordplay and generally enjoyable doggerel that we offer.

    

To access the next 'brief saga' on this blog (December 2020), proceed to 'Auld Lang's Sine', a concoction for Hogmanay (New Years' Eve).

To access the most recent previous 'brief saga' (October 2020), back up to 'Cyclades'.  

To access all of our 'brief sagas' by the year of their creation, click on your selection below.

2020
2021
2022

2023.