December 30, 2020

DEC 30, a brief saga (holidays and celebrations): Hogmanay (Auld Lang's Sine)

 A HAPPY NEW YEARS TO ALL !!!











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 other stuff that we offer.    

To access the next 'brief saga' on this blog (January 2021), proceed to 'Italian Treats'. 
To access the most recent previous 'brief saga' (October 2020), back up to 'Cyclades' (Greek Islands).  
 


December 29, 2020

DEC 29, patients and maladies: knee effusion





Authors' Note: This verse resulted from the author’s personal experience (as patient).
  Following trauma, standard X-rays taken in the Emergency Department show most fractures where the bone fragments are displaced. They can not, however, diagnose many undisplaced fractures, particularly in elderly patients with reduced bone density. 
  Nonspecific swelling with evidence of leaking of fluid into the adjacent joint space (joint effusion) is particularly common in injuries about the knee, and is easily discerned on visual inspection and X-rays. Follow up radiographs after another 3 weeks sometimes display an initially missed healing fracture. In cases where instability, ongoing pain, or persistent effusion are prominent, injury to ligaments may be suspected. 


Be sure to check out the whole collection of verses on 'Patients and their Maladies" by proceeding to our full-service blog, "Edifying Nonsense." CLICK HERE !

December 28, 2020

DEC 28, diagnostic imaging: DEXA (BMD)




Authors' Note  DEXA, or Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry, is a simple standardized imaging test to assess bone mass in the context of osteoporosis. It actually measures bone mass in a peculiar form, i.e, mass per unit area (rather than volume) of tissue; differential attenuation (blocking by tissue) for the 2 photons of different energies is assessed for each spatial element in a planar field. The technique is however, excellent for serial tests in the same patient, and is now used  so widely that its results are regarded as synonymous with Bone Mineral Density (BMD).


 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!

December 27, 2020

DEC 27, poetic non-sequitur: cumulative song








 Authors' Note:  The cumulative song "I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" was created by two Canadian folksong aficionados in 1952, and then recorded by Burl Ives in 1953.  Other well-known cumulative songs which are traditional include "Old MacDonald had a Farm" and "The Green Grass Grew All Around". 


 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.

December 23, 2020

DEC 23, classic palindrome: 'Yreka bakery'


HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PEH !!!
 






You can review these illustrated verses in a wider context by proceeding to 'Reversing Verse: Limericks About Classic Palindromes' on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. 


December 22, 2020

DEC 22, waterfowl: brown pelicans


TO ENLARGE any slide or stand-alone photo on this blog, just click on it. To reverse the process, and return to this standard view, find the little 'x' in the upper right corner of the black field and click there.


OCT 10, waterfowl: Caribbean brown pelicans













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'. 


December 21, 2020

DEC 21, anagram swarm: A-VERY-STABLE-GENIUS -- wordplay for the holiday season

Today's collection should definitely wrap up this excessively extended effort. (But I am proud to say that you can now find some 350 anagrams developed as part of the total undertaking -- and some of them do seem to have some important meaning!)  







You can review an amazing number of anagrams based on this book title on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. There are two posts to view: 
 
'A Very Stable Genius': Theme and Variations (97 anagrams),   and 
'A Very Stable Genius': additional funky anagrams.

December 20, 2020

DEC 20, singable satire: Tom Lehrer sings "REDUPLICATIONS A to K"

 PARODY SONG-LYRICS

ORIGINAL SONG: "The Elements", Tom Lehrer, 1959.


PARODY COMPOSED: Dr. G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, 2015. This song is the seventh of nine in the series on Word- Pairs. You can find the links to the lyrics of the previous songs at the bottom of the post. 

EXPLANATION:  For a  discussion of reduplications, check an earlier post on this blog-site by clicking hereThis post also honours our previous venture of Feb 15, 2017 entitled 'Abracadabra' to 'Zoom-zoom': possibly the world's largest compendium of reduplications'. 

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 SATIREwith chord-charts and helpful performing suggestions. Click HERE to proceed to this site. 




This post is a follow-up to "The Reduplications: A Lesson"

  This collection of fascinating phrases has been modified somewhat since its original posting on the site AmIRight.com. Thanks are due to Al Silver, Becky Hurwitz and Uncle Paul for suggesting several examples which were incorporated into the current version. 

 WARNING!  Do not attempt to sing this lesson at the pace of a patter-song. The management of this blog will take no responsibility for any injuries sustained.





Many of these words have fascinating stories of their origin and subsequent use; the hotlinks highlight those with instructive or amusing information available on the web.

A mini-lesson found on the Internet


There’s achy-breakyartsy-fartsybigwigBB, and aye-aye
And Bora Bora, beriberi, (good) bees knees, and (bad) boo-boo
And bonbonbuddy-buddybunga-bungacan-can, and choo-choo

There's crackerjackcouscous, and chili, chugalugchin-chin, cocoa 
And clap-trap, culture vulture,  chit-chatchock-a-block,  cluck-cluck, dodo 
And dilly-dally, deadhead, dum(b)-dum(b), dingle-dangle, and clip-clop 
And easy-peasy, even Steven, fifty-fifty, and flip-flop.

There's flim-flam, fiddle-faddle, fuddy-duddy, fat cat, funny mon-
And four-door, ga-ga, goody-goody, golden-oldy, and hotshot
And go-go, gibber-jabber, hurly-burly, honky-tonk, hotspot. 
                       
And holy moly!  hoity-toityhip-hop, heeby-jeebies, oy!
And hullaballoo and hokey-pokey, hotpot, hoodoo, and hobo
And handy-dandy, hari-kari, Henny-Penny and heigh-ho!


Hell’s bells! there’s hanky-pankyhootchie-kootchie, hobnob and hoo-haw
Hush-hush! knock-knock, NewYork NewYork, (its zip is fixed twixt MA and PA)
Ill will, and itsy-bitsy, heyday, juju, bass-ackward blackjack
And jingle-jangle, jeepers-creeperskow-tow, kiwi, and knick-knack


Ta-Dah !!!


And, for those interested, here's how you find the lyrics-only-version
of the nine songs that make up this cycle. 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". 
1. PAIRSto the tune of "Words" in the style of the Beegees
...  the following songs in the style of "The Elements" by Tom Lehrer
9. LEGALISTIC DOUBLETS, in the style of "Supercalifragilistic..." from  the musical "Mary Poppins"


December 19, 2020

DEC 19, wordplay maps: r-i-c anagrams #11+#12




 

You can view the entire collection of 18 wordplay maps of 'R-E-P-U-B-L-I-C-A-N-S in Canada' on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense" by clicking HERE.

December 18, 2020

DEC 18, American anagram swarm: 'C-O-N-S-T-I-T-U-T-I-O-N-A-L'










A brief explanation of anagram swarms, and some other examples can be found on the blogpost "A Brief Saga: Anagram Swarms"; click HERE.


 

December 17, 2020

DEC 17, palinku (poetic novelty) : partying #2

 

  In this post, we will continue with our novel form of poetic wordplay, inspired by Japanese haiku poetry. This new form, in its English-language version, is used for a terse verse with a total of 17 syllables displayed on three lines. Unlike its classic Japanese analogue, this concoction does not mandate the precise distribution of the syllables among the three lines, but does stipulate that each word in the poem be included in a palindromic phrase or sentence in English (i.e. one that can be read either forwards or backwards). 

  To help the reader discern the origin of the lyrics, each palindrome (generally occupying one of the three lines of the poem) has been color-coded. And, as you likely surmised, the first verse in this collection has already been published here. Part #1 of this trilogy was exhibited in November, 2020.

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










 You can view all our "palinku" verses if you proceed with a single click to our more encyclopedic blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE. (Or if you prefer, you can stay on this particular blogsite and look for the offerings for the 17th day of each month -- there are now more than 60 of these.)



December 16, 2020

DEC 16, diagnostic imaging: parathyroid scanning




Authors' Note:   Attacks of renal colic (spasmodic intermittent pain) may occur due to blockage of urine flow by stones in the ureters. In adult patients, stones consisting of calcium salts are most likely. If a high serum calcium level is found (this situation prevails in only a minority of cases of kidney stones), overactivity of the tiny parathyroid (PT) glands may be responsible. Milder cases of excessive parathyroid hormone secretion may also occur without symptoms, but can lead to loss of bone mass and increased risk of bone fracture.
   A single functioning adenoma (benign tumor)  of one of the PT glands is most commonly responsible, but hyperplasia (overgrowth) of all four glands may also result in inappropriate PT hormone secretion, detected by increased blood levels. The radiotracer Tc-99m sestamibi is taken up selectively by overactive PT glands, and may help plan surgery to explore the neck and remove the tumor.
  

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!

December 15, 2020

DEC 15, etymology: 'miser'










For fans of etymology, we have three blogposts with collections of verses about word-origins such as the one above on our more encyclopedic blog "Edifying Nonsense". You can start to review some of this intriguing material by clicking HERE, and then following the links!

 

December 14, 2020

DEC 14, Toronto oases: upbeat art


NEWSFLASH !!!


December 14th: The Electoral College meets, and according to all expectation confirms the victory in the November election of Joe Biden as incoming President and Kamal Harris as Vice-President. 





 




December 13, 2020

DEC 13, wordplay maps: r-i-c anagrams #9+#10






 


You can view the entire collection of 18 wordplay maps of 'R-E-P-U-B-L-I-C-A-N-S in Canada' on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense" by clicking HERE.

December 11, 2020

DEC 11, American satire: government shutdown



Author's Note:  The verse imagines an advisor or supporter picking up on an assertion by the contentious 45th US president. The latter had remained steadfast in demanding budgeting for a southern border wall with Mexico (putatively to decrease the unregulated influx of refugees), and was prepared to take the credit/blame for the pending global shutdown of government financing should it occur.
A venous cutdown is a maneuver to provide reliable access for fluids and drugs during a medical emergency. 


 We hope that you enjoyed this verse. You can find 30 more on this topic in 5 collections on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Click HERE to start! 

December 9, 2020

DEC 9, anagram swarm: A-VERY-STABLE-GENIUS -- lawsuits

 The book title "A Very Stable Genius" has invited a flurry of activity in composing anagrams (word-scrambles) that contribute to the sense of uncontrolled chaos that swirled through the American political scene during the White House administration of 2016 to 2020. 

  A compendium of Giorgio's wordplay on this topic can be evaluated by reviewing posts on the blog "Edifying Nonsense".  An initial listing that displays almost 100 anagrams dealing with a variety of topics (foreign policy, internal political maneuvering, domestic scandals, etc.) can be found HERE. Subsequently, further anagrams dealing with more specific topics were accumulated in a followup offering HERE

  The tabulation presented today was inspired by the recent series of lawsuits instigated in state and federal courts to contest the results of the 2020 presidential election. 





You can review an amazing number of anagrams based on this book title on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. There are two posts to view: 
 
'A Very Stable Genius': Theme and Variations (97 anagrams),   and 
'A Very Stable Genius': additional funky anagrams.

December 8, 2020

DEC 8, 2020: the origin of our "bloggerel": song-lyrics, poetry, wordplay and photography

SONG LYRICS: Starting in 2011, we had contributed parody song-lyrics to "AmIRight", the most extensive website publishing this type of doggerel on the internet. That website offers authors the advantage of immediate publication, but does not provide editing or post-submission modification. Not surprisingly political and social satire are major elements in AmIRight's table of contents. As I (G.H.) was still personally in sober professional practice at that time, I attributed the submitted works to a pseudonym, and Giorgio Coniglio, a registered practitioner in that field volunteered his writing talents arduously in that regard. After a few years we had contributed some 150 singable entities, but the intense polarization in American society threatened to disrupt the enjoyment previously experienced by AmIRight's cadre of volunteer writers. You can find some of those earlier songs (with familiar tunes, but bizarre lyrics) posted on our current blog "Edifying Nonsense"

  
POETRY: Although, Giorgio and I occasionally still launch into song, we turned our attention in 2016 to poetry. (To be honest, a dozen or so poems had been published earlier as "filler" in medical journals).  We found a "home" for many of our poetic inclination in OEDILF (the Omnificent English Dictionary iLimerick Form), a more-or-less collaborative website, that insists its mission was to create a dictionary with a definitional poetic "tribute" written to every meaning of every word in the language. To ensure this goal is approached in orderly fashion, OEDILF has gradually widened a narrow alphabetic window starting at A-, so that after almost 20 years of effort, poems are being submitted for dictionary entries with key words starting with the letters Ho-, but no further. Acceptance of verses for publication involves mandatory adherence to strict rhyming and scansion, and the use of grammatically correct, standardized language appropriate for the part of the English-speaking world from which the author hails, modified by specific dictionary requirements. 
  Topics that we found of interest include medical and health terms and issues, Canada and Canadianisms, wildlife and nature, wordplay and foreign languages, particularly French and Italian, among others, influenced primarily by our life-experience. Our personal take on this editing process provides difficulty, as we are prone to extend our verses, albeit with limerick-like structure, to more than the customary 5 lines (we ourselves have called these longer verses "limerrhoids"). The rigorous editing process involves polite acceptance or impeccable disputation of colleagues' suggestions, with eventual approval by 4 other members, and further intervention by an assistant editor, and may take anywhere up to a year. To date (2024), we have almost 700 verses accepted, and over 100 more in the works. 
  The use of illustrative photos or computer art, and the merging of these multi-media concoctions are in no way related to OEDILF; they are the concepts and creations only of the authors. Moreover, we should mention that we have also blogged a variety of other types of poetry, not in the purview of OEDILF, that includes Shakespearian blank verse, blank verse and haiku.

WORDPLAY: Like most writers and editors we love words. They are the basis of many of our song lyrics and poems. One of the greatest elements of wordplay is rhyme, a fact that provides some explanation for our persistence in lyrics and poetry. You will find a fair amount of better-defined wordplay on our blogs, including foreign-language borrowings, palindromes and anagrams. In certain cases we have gone to extremes, including "magic" palindromes, anagram wordplay-maps, and spoofs on classic palindromes, etymology and grammar rules. Because these activities consume a lot of time and effort, we have often been drawn to describe them in verse, posting those on the OEDILF site for editing and publication. And, although we are likely to have initiated a fair proportion of the "new" concoctions, we have not attributed them, as such material is lurking and waiting to be found among the letters and words, rather than "created".      
  

PHOTOGRAPHY: Dr.G.H. spent the latter part of his professional career dealing with the interpretation of low-resolution nuclear images in medical diagnosis. So we have a deep interest in visual documentation whose technique renders the key features obvious. For spontaneous nature photography on bicycle expeditions the cell-phone-camera is an obvious choice for portability, although resolution at a distance is an issue. Most of our photographs have been obtained with an i-phone 13, whose "live" feature provides an advance when the subject is moving. These photos enhance the "life-experience" nature of the posted material. On occasion, to make a point in a multi-media display, we borrow a relevant photo from the web, these are flagged by the term "web-photo", with colour coding of the text background, but space generally does not allow or mandate a full disclosure of the source. The reader is asked to please check these out, if indicated.      
    

December 6, 2020

DEC 6, Ontario nostalgia: art installations




 

You can review the entire series of illustrated poems about  the good old days in Ontario by checking the post 'Ontario Nostalgia' on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE

December 5, 2020

DEC 5, trees: cinnamon tree

Keep more to yourself for a while, wash your hands frequently, remember to laugh on occasion, and stay well!





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".