MAR 31, commercial product: furniture protector

Authors' Note:  The principal ingredients and other details of Dust, the indispensable furniture protector, are left to the reader's imagination.

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.

MAR 30, classic palindrome: 'a Toyota's a Toyota'

You can review a collection of illustrated verses on this topic by proceeding to 'Reversing Verse: Limericks About Classic Palindromes' on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. 

MAR 29, culinary verse: gyozas (potstickers)

 

Find the collection of illustrated poems dealing with these issues on the post 'Culinary Verse' on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Click HERE!

MAR 28, French savoir-faire: goat cheese (chevre)

 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. 

MAR 27, portraits of couples: white ibis, mute swans

Enjoy an illustrated verse about the American white ibis, Eudocimus albus, by clicking HERE.

Enjoy an illustrated verse about the (European) mute swan, Cygnus olor, by clicking HERE.

You can view these photos from our portfolio of 'Couples' portraits in a wider context on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense" HERE.

MAR 26, mammalian wildlife: woodchucks

Authors' Note:  The woodchuck or groundhog is a large squirrel-like animal

best know for its extensive tunneling. Although herbivorous, it is not normally interested in eating or tossing wood, the latter being an activity for which it is poorly physically adapted. 

   Apparently, the name woodchuck is a corruption of the Algonquian word wejack; the name also is responsible for the American tongue-twister: 

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

 

You can review the whole collection of illustrated verses about mammals (both domestic and exotic) by checking out the more extensive post on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE !

MAR 25, limerick for lovers of classical languages: Greek

Today is Greek Independence Day. Enjoy this post, and have a good day!

To review all of our output on the topic of classic languages, go to our encyclopedic compendium, "Edifying Nonsense"; click HERE !

MAR 24, classic palindrome: 'sex of foxes'

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

MAR 23, doctors and their practices: the colonoscopist

Authors' Note:

prep: medical jargon for preparatory measures needed before surgery or complex testing

  The general public is aware of the importance of colonoscopy for screening in early colon cancer. Colonoscopy also plays an important role in the diagnosis, treatment and followup of symptomatic colonic problems, including isolated polyps, diffuse polyposis of several kinds, colitis and gastrointestinal bleeding. Your colonoscopist is likely to be a surgeon, less commonly an internist, trained in gastrointestinal diseases and in the technical aspects of flexible fiberoptic endoscopy.

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!

MAR 22, classic palindrome: 'madam, I'm Adam'

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'. 

MAR 21, poems of Nuclear Medicine: seventeen haiku verses

MAR 20, classic palindrome: 'T. Eliot's toilet'

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

MAR 19, sleek Greek prefixes: EPI-

Authors' Note: 

ephemeral: transitory; derived from the Greek epi-'on' + hemera-'day', a variant form of the prefix

ephedrine: drug isolated in 1885 from the traditional Chinese medicine ephedra, sometimes an abused stimulant, recently deleted from combined medications and from formularies in many countries owing to side effects, including increased risk of sudden death

schleppy: dragging or fatigued, from the Yiddish word schlep.

The gravesite of Giuseppe is marked by the simple epitaph, "Epicurean Hippy".

And, here's another verse exemplifying use of this common prefix ...

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

MAR 18, old world palindromes #17 and #18

 You can view the entire collection of 'Old World Palindromes' on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense"; start by clicking here. 

MAR 17, oncologic verses: facial nerve malfunction

Authors' Note:  Following manipulation of the facial nerve during parotid gland surgery, bizarre malfunction often occurs. Sweating in the region around one ear provoked by eating, a state known as Frei’s syndrome, is seen commonly. 

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 !

MAR 16, humorists' scurrilous talk: 'the turd'

EDITORS' WARNING: You must be at least 12 years of age to read this post! 

The collection of informative verses dealing with 'HUMORISTS' SCURRILOUS TALK' can be found by proceeding to our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE!

For more verses of this type, you might also want to review some related informative verses in the collection 'The BOTTOM LINE of MEDICAL HUMOR' . Click HERE! 

MAR 15, anagram swarms: 'Canada's turn at bat' (North American anagram swarm)

These locales are designated in a more formal global format, with the national designation (the two-letter abbreviation 'CA') at the end of each locale (town + province). This wordplay map is a repeat from the post of March 10, designed to get you warmed up. 

Remember, you can enlarge any photo just by clicking on it (and escape from the enlarged format by finding the little 'x' in the upper right field).   

In this treatment, we leave out the national designation (CA) at the end of each destination, coming back to the familiar form of postal address used by Canadians when sending domestic mail. Note that the provinces of Alberta (AB) and British Columbia (BC) can now join in! 

In Canada, we seem to have a propensity to name many of our towns and cities to highlight adjacent geographical features, e.g. Niagara Falls, Goose Bay, Rankin Inlet, Rainy River, Trois Rivieres, etc. The following collection honours that propensity. 

Stay tuned, and there will be more 'fun-with-anagram' wordplay-maps  showing further variants on this theme! 

OR, if you really want to get into this form of wordplay, you could delve into a series of posts on "Edifying Nonsense", starting here. 

 

MAR 14, English literature survey course: "A Connecticut Yankee..." (Twain's novel)

Authors' Note:  The concept for a classic literary satire began in 1884 when author Mark Twain (real name Samuel Clemens) read Le Morte d'Arthur (the Death of Arthur) by Sir Thomas Mallory, a classic romance about the knights of the Round Table. 

  In Twain’s fictional account, published 1889, action unfolds when Hank, a 19th century munitions-factory mechanic, awakens from a head injury to find himself amidst the sorcerers and knights at Camelot. As he rises to high rank in medieval society through manipulation of modern technology, he becomes known simply as "Boss".

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

MAR 13, waterfowl: black-crowned night herons

 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'. 

MAR 12, palinku (poetic novelty): gender-roles

 Continuing with our our novel form of poetic wordplay ...  

palinku

 (Ed. note:) Verses of this ilk have continued to accumulate. You can view them all at one swoop if you  proceed with a single click to our more encyclopedic blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE.

links for any date, January 2020 - March 2022: 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.

MAR 11, a brief saga: workplace pollution (compensable)

Authors' Note:  Only a minority of occupational toxins produce cancer. Asbestos, ionizing radiation, radon gas, and secondhand smoke are the best-studied occupational chemicals that do so. The most prevalent carcinogen encountered by workers is tobacco.

  Often the pattern of body sites affected is characteristic, e.g. soot/scrotal cancer, asbestos/lung cancer, radiation/bone marrow cancers, etc. In many countries, the lifetime risk of developing a malignancy is in the order of 25%. A small increase above this background rate would be highly regrettable, but difficult to discern and to distinguish from random variation.

  The effects of potentially toxic substances are often not well-characterized. As with other harmful effects, study of the situation during plant operation, and efforts to make all exposure as low as reasonably achievable (a principle known as ALARA) , with the cooperation of workers and management in the process, is critical. 

 

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 in Limerick Form'. On the OEDILF site, rigorous standards for content and format proceed 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 the OEDILF number for each accepted multi-verse poem is shown here on the slide with its first verse. 

To access the next 'brief saga' on this blog, proceed to 'Glock-toting Phyllis'.

To access the most recent previous 'brief saga', back up to 'gastro-esophageal junction'. 

Re Medical-Related Verse: Altogether, a hundred or so intriguing verses on medical/dental topics can now be found on various posts in collections, including:

Patients and their Maladies (parts #1, #2 and #3)

The Bottom Line of Medical Humour

Funny Bones (parts #1 and #2),
Doctors and their Practices (part #1 and #2)

To Clot or Not to Clot

The Scopes of Modern Medicine

Handbook of Medical Testing Statistics

Pandemic Verses

Poetry of Healthcare

STD Poetry

Diagnostic Imaging (selected topics)

Toxic Vignettes

Sleek Greek Prefixes

Dental Feelings

and in 'brief sagas' including:

Drug Development

Radiation Exposure

Methylated Spirits

The Gastro-Esophageal Junction

Workplace Pollution

Food Intolerance

Fluoridation

MAR 10, diagnostic imaging: ECG-gated SPECT

Authors' Note:  SPECT (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography) imaging of the myocardium (heart muscle), performed at rest and with stress (exercise or drug infusion) is currently the most frequent test performed in hospitals' nuclear imaging departments.

   The 3-dimensional images, a type of computed tomography, are produced with a camera which detects the emission of the single-energy gamma rays following an injection of a radionuclide. By connecting the patient to a system for recording the ECG (electrocardiogram), the images can be "gated", i.e. divided into segments of the cardiac cycle; these show contraction of the ventricles, following each of two injections of the imaging agent. A muscle region showing identically poor blood flow (perfusion) and contractile function at rest and stress represents prior heart damage, and is unlikely to respond to therapy.

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!

 

MAR 9, funny bones: anatomic snuffbox

 

 You can view verses on this topic in a wider context by proceeding to the post 'Breaking News: FUNNY BONES' on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE!

MAR 8, Toronto oases: Casa Loma

 

MAR 7, amphibians: southern toad

 

Authors' Note:   The southern toad is found in all of the southern US states except Tennessee, particularly in areas nearer to the coasts. Cranial crests giving rise to skin knobs between the eyes are found most prominently in creatures in the extreme southerly parts of their range, giving rise to the term 'horny toad'; there is no relationship of these paired growths to bony horns found in mammals, or to sexual function. During the summer, high-pitched trilling from congregated males can be near-deafening in low-lying marshy areas where the amphibians breed, and females are duly attracted. Each mating results in thousands of toadlets. 

Be sure to check out the whole collection of 'Amphibians' by proceeding to "Edifying Nonsense." CLICK HERE ! 

MAR 6, exotic destination: Swiss Alps

 

MAR 5, patients and their maladies: male infertility

Authors' Note: In medical parlance, ejaculate is pronounced differently as noun (n.) or verb (v.) As a patient in the process of fertility testing, you will undoubtedly be asked to contribute (v.) a sample (n.), to assess sperm quality and cell count.

 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!

MAR 4, anagram swarm: 'REPUBLICAN VOTERS' -- statewise presentation

Stay tuned, and there will be more 'fun-with-anagram' wordplay-maps  showing further variants on this theme! 

OR, if you really want to get into this form of wordplay, you could delve into a series of posts on "Edifying Nonsense", starting here. 

MAR 3, anagram swarm: national presentation of 'REPUBLICAN VOTERS'

 Stay tuned, and there will be more 'fun-with-anagram' wordplay-maps  showing further variants on this theme! 

OR, if you really want to get into this form of wordplay, you could dive into a series of posts on "Edifying Nonsense", starting here. 

MAR 2, wordplay map: r-i-c anagrams #15 and #16

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.

MAR 1, French savoir-faire: French homophones

 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.