JUN 30, numbers and counting -- zero

JUN 30, numbers and counting : Zero (0)

V

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

JUN 29, poets' corner: collaboration

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

JUN 28, classic palindrome: 'sex at noon taxes'

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'. 

JUN 27, sleek Greek prefixes: CHIRO-

Authors' Note: These names for professional endeavours, derived from the Greek root chiro (hand), have quite different meanings and pronunciations.

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

JUN 26, mammalian wildlife: the concupiscent rabbit

Authors' Note: For a somewhat different take on concupiscence, check out the illustrated verse 'Horny Rhino' by clicking HERE. 

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 !

JUN 25, wordplay maps: new world palindromes (#47,#48)

 

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

JUN 24, photo-collage: unusual sightings, Muskoka waterfowl

 

You can review  illustrated verses about boating in Muskoka by proceeding to 'Reverse Strokes: 'Verses About Canoeing' on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'.

For more revealing photographs of loons in Muskoka, not to mention an appealing limerick-saga, you might want to click (or cluck) to get to the recent post 'Life As a Loon' on our full-service blogsite 'Edifying Nonsense'.

JUN 23, funny bones: the prosthetic hipster

                                                                                                   final approval #120852, May 2023

Authors' Note: The slang term hip, synonym for 'cool', appearing at the beginning of the 20th century, is related etymologically to hepcat, but not to the anatomic hip. Hipsters and hippies embody various elements of being hip.

Owing to impairment of blood flow, fracture of the femoral neck may result in the the acute need for hip-point replacement. The most common cause for hip replacement remains chronic osteoarthritis.

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!

JUN 22, humorists' scurrilous talk: 'giving a shit'

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!

JUN 21, reptiles: broad-headed skinks

another individual, spotted at Caw Caw Plantation

 You can review photos and illustrated herpetologic verses in a wider context by proceeding to 'Verses about Reptiles' (don't worry! no snakes)' on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'.

JUN 20, singable satire: the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band sings about canoeing, "LOST COUNTRY"

PARODY-LYRICS 

Young canoeist in the bow,
Sunset on Bass Lake, Ontario

ORIGINAL SONG: "Lost River" by Michael Martin Murphey, most famously performed in conjunction with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band HERE.

Key lyrics from the original, retained in the parody version, include lines in the chorus about a "Quebec girl" and "fleur de lis". Murphey is in fact married to a Québécoise, and, as the song's protagonist presumably wishes to take her on a trip of rediscovery to the nostalgia-generating "lost river" of his youth. For those interested, the original song is displayed in ukulele-friendly format on our sister-blog.

SONG-LYRIC UNDERPINNINGS: On our song-blog you can find an earlier concoction entitled "Canoeing Lesson (Canoe, Canoe, Canoe, Canoe, Canoe)",  based on the original song  "I Do, etc." by ABBA, 1975. This earlier song also builds on Berton's concept of the relevance of canoeing to Canadian identity.

"A Canadian is someone who knows how to make love in a canoe", Pierre Berton, eminent Canadian journalist, editor, historian and author.

PARODY COMPOSED: Dr.G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, December 2018, based on the precedents of song-lyrics and limerick verses, with a few new twists.

CHORD-CHARTS and OTHER PARAPHERNALIA:
As is usually the case with song-lyrics, we have simultaneously provided suggested chords for ukulele, guitar or whatever-stringed-instruments for the parody and for the original lyrics on our music-buff site "SILLY SONGS and SATIRE".  To access ukulele chord-charts to help you accompany "Lost Country" on your favorite instrument, click HERE. 

"LOST COUNTRY" (Canadian Canoeing Nostalgia)

(to the tune of "Lost River" by M. M. Murphey) 

M. M. Murphey
songwriter and performer

Urban summers seem so hot

That you'll need to find a spot

To escape (no use stewin'),

Where it's cool for canoein'.

Paddle straight and go faster

When the J-stroke you'll master.

Once you learn what you're doin'

Seek your spirit's renewin'.

A Canadian's someone who

Can make love in a canoe.

He knows lots of good strokes

And can thwart ogling folks.

Starting foreplay, he'll untether,

He'll move sideways with the feather;

He'll avert curious eyes

With a series of pries.

CHORUS: Oh, lost country, now I'm paddlin' back

To those thousands of lakes,

That beau paysage I've lacked*. 

Oh Quebec girl come with me, 

Oh, ma belle, ma fleur de lis,

Northern vision in our mind,

That Pierre Berton defined.

Now at heart our Rose did hate
Tryin' to make the boat go straight.
Paddlin' lessons were a battle
'Til some tricks she learned (don't tattle!)
In the stern she could discern
That instructors might well yearn
To teach Trudeau's stroke, fiddle-faddle
While she straddled their paddle.

Repeat CHORUS

 

JUN 19, waterfowl: oystercatchers

oystercatcher at Crab Bank

 running along the Mt. Pleasant shoreline

at a more leisurely pace

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'. 

JUN 18, birdlore: red-winged blackbirds

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

JUN 17, palinku (poetic novelty): ponderings

 

   In this post, we continue with a novel form of poetic wordplay. Inspired by Japanese haiku poetry, and by European-language attempts to convey its essence ina cross-cultural context, this new form 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. 

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.)

 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.

JUN 16, amphibians: American toad

Authors' Note:    In the Canadian province of Ontario we have only two species of toad, apparently -- the American toad, Anaxyrus americanus, and the closely related Fowler's toad. There are also some 10 species of 'true' frog.

  The author had initially given excessive credence to the differentiating rule that states, "if something hops, it's a toad, but if it leaps, it's a frog." The creature in question was apparently under great pressure to reach the Great Lakes beach.

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

JUN 15, patients and maladies: eye discharge

Verse in honour of Dr. J J.'s birthday (also, check the post of June 23)

Authors' Note:

dacryocystorhinostomy: a surgical procedure used to relieve lacrimal obstruction (blocked tear drainage)

 DCR: abbreviation for above, used by surgical ophthalmologists, who usually perform the procedure

 

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!

JUN 14, poetic Panama palindrome parody: Sir, .. a Paris

You can review the whole collection of our illustrated verses on this topic  by proceeding to 'Reversing Verse: Panama palindrome parodies' on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'.

And, if you are interested in seeing innumerable examples of spoofy palindrome variants on wordplay maps, you could embark on a journey through a collection of  blogposts entitled 'Tourists' Palindromic Guides: The Americas, #1 -#4'. All that's needed is to click on the link.

JUN 13, doctors and their practices: the lecturing internist

Authors' Note: 'Essential', an outdated-sounding modifier, is used to imply 'idiopathic', i.e. without known cause. There are some underlying risk factors, e.g. genetic disposition, and kidney disease, that may contribute, but well over 90% of hypertension is without a definable underyling cause. 'Essential hypertension' is a well-known (although archaic) term for your health-care provider, but is confusing and even counterintuitive for patients.  

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!

JUN 12, portraits of couples: black (Australian) swans

  

 You can view all of our folio-photos from the collection of 'Couples' portraits in a wider context on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE.

JUN 11, death and the afterlife: leaving the planet (by canoe)

There are not many poems dealing with canoeing in the afterlife, so we hope that you enjoyed this one. You can review more poems about 'Death and the Afterlife' in context ('death and the afterlife') on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'.  Click HERE!

JUN 10, a brief saga (insects): clothes moths ('holesome verse')

Experienced poet-humorists had stated that it wasn't possible to write a limerick about 'caterpillars', but we proved them wrong (see verse D below)!

You can review Giorgio's other verses about pesty and occasionally beneficial insects, as  collected in 'Buzzwords: Verses about Insects' on the full-service 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, 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 (July 2021), proceed to 'Radiation Exposure'.

To access the most recent previous 'brief saga' (May 2021), back up to 'Methylated Spirits'. 

JUN 9, English literature survey course: the diary of Samuel Pepys

 

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