DEC 30, singable satire: "IN DAYS OF YORK", Canadian public school reunion:

 PARODY-LYRICS

ORIGINAL SONG:  "The Maple Leaf Forever", by Alexander Muir, modified
lyrics by Vladimir Radian 1997.

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, September 2013, updated 2015, 2017, and 2018.

(FURTHER SONGS ON THE SAME THEME: For other nostalgic takes on Canada's national hymns, you can view (and sing along with) ...
 (January 2015)  Flight of the Loonie

(June 2018)  Something to Groan About 

            

 

Grade 8 classes
Cedarvale Public School, 1958.

You can also view these lyrics and commentary (without images or chords)  displayed on a parody-lyrics website at AmIRight.com Post "Canadian Reunion". 

CANADIAN REUNION

(to the tune of "The Maple Leaf Forever")

While young and frail at Poplarvale

Our mentors taught Muir's stirring song;

It eulogized forefathers’ feats,

Didn’t help us to belong.

As baby-boomers, second-gen,

Homes shaped by cookie-cutters;

Its patriotic sentiments

Maple Leaf Gardens
Carlton Street, Toronto

Dismissed those of our mothers.

No copyright, no fleur-de-lys;

Of insight only traces - 

Muir's “Maple Leaf” excluded half

Our country’s founding races.

       

Though reg’ments touted it their tune,

And Anglo journals ranted,

Decades ago, “O Canada”

Muir’s time-worn chant supplanted.

More recent play: ere Y-2-K,

Ann Murray sings
Maple Leaf Gardens

February, 2013

The C-B-C a contest ran;
So flourished a new pluralist "Leaf"
By songwright Vlad Radian. 

Its fabled British glory tamed,
No heaven or hegemony;
Olympic Closing half-time showed,
While "O (Canada)" did Ceremonies. 

Its reassembled mission clear, 
A newfound "Feuille" quite clever --
Anne Murray sang, The Gardens closed: 
The Maple Leafs forever.        

Five decades late, we congregate,

Our Grade Eight class remembered,  

No “Maple” hymn heard in the gym  - 

The song’s appeal now severed.

Reprise:

Last year Muir's ancient fabled tree

Was felled by stormy weather*.

Still sometimes heard, but seldom hymned -- 

The Maple Leaf Forever. 

* an ancient maple, that presumably had inspired

 Muir’s lyrics, was destroyed by a storm in July 2013.

DEC 29, photo-collage, Carolina lowcountry: delicious December days

 Editor's Note: As old age and aversion to cold weather have descended, we spend time whenever we can in the Carolina low-country. It is a cliché to say that winter is shorter in more southerly places, but that sometimes means that there are days when winter rages back in central Canada, but is not in evidence down here in lotus-land. On this particular day we learned from our weather-app that it would be snowy back home in Toronto, but would be a short-sleeve day in coastal Carolina.

Note the mid-day temperatures in Toronto and Charleston, South Carolina

The boardwalk takes you past the trawlers at Shem Creek, Mt. Pleasant, SC

Pelicans perched at creekside awaiting the returning fishers

Tranquility near the center of suburban action

Setting up for a community-center wedding with a harbor view

\

Grillwork fence with wisteria seedpods and a view of a 'sea' of jonquils 

Geometric restored oyster-bed at the Pitt St. Bridge park,
Arthur Ravenel Bridge in background 

American white ibises in the marsh

white ibis in flight

cormorants on dock

seasonal decor at the beach

toothpick grasshopper on papyrus leaf

pizza delivery boxes in Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina,

touting service to 'the Lowcountry'

DEC 28, patients and their maladies: non-tumorous '-oma's,

Authors' Note:   Well, yes.

  With advancing age, life becomes a minefield of unexpected diseases; for several of these, the suffix -oma, implying growth or swelling, is used although an underlying neoplastic process is not present.

  In the elderly, subdural hematomas or intracranial bleeds (within the envelope of membranes surrounding the brain) may occur with minimal trauma or even spontaneously, particularly if anticoagulants have been used. 

  The patchy process of atherosclerosis may involves the left main coronary artery or its major division, the left anterior descending artery. In such cases, sudden clotting with blockage of the artery may occur at the site of atheroma, and cause a severe heart attack with cardiac arrest, a major cause of sudden death in the middle-aged and elderly population.

  This verse is a companion piece to others by the author dealing with malignant tumors and benign tumors; these are found in the collection of 'Oncologic Verses'.

You can catch other instances of Dr. G.H.'s explanation of medical terminology on posts on this daily blog:

 HERE, re malignant tumors (-omas),

 HERE, re benign tumors (-omas)

Or, you can review the entire collection of poems about 'Patients and their Maladies' on our more encyclopedic blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE.  

DEC 27, wordplay: Scramble-towns eastern Canada,2

 

LINKS to other nonsense in this series: 

Forward to the next Canadian map (3), eh?

Back up to the first Canadian map.

Back up to the first American map.

 

DEC 26, reptiles: geckos (on ceiling)

Authors' Note: A profusion of tiny setae (filament-hairs) on the lizards' palm-pads, as shown by electron microscopy, explain the gecko's unusual gravity-defying mobility.

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

DEC 25, targeted palindromes, submitted (L) w-i-p

DEC 24, personal and family history: a brief personal bio xxxxxxxxxxxxx Nate

That's my older brother in 1945 holding Dad's photo;
  (lower left). I wasn't quite on the scene, yet!

Mom and Dad with their offspring,
50th anniversary celebration

Update:

seasonal gourmet feast, December 25, 2021:
 Xmas lunch in the Carolina lowcountry

DEC 23, classic palindromes: 'A Santa at NASA'

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, UNCLE PAUL!

AND

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL

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'. 

seasonal scene pre -Xmas:
office lobby in Toronto 

DEC 22, planet-saving verse: shorebird council's demand

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'. 

ruddy turnstone at a narrow Carolina beach-strip
 littered with oyster-shells. This bird is a long distance migrator, roosting in the high Arctic.

shorebird, seen near Toronto lakeshore: killdeer?

turnstones (running), and oystercatcher

You can help save the planet by viewing all our verses in this series at "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE!

DEC 21, wordplay maps: new world palindromes (#49,50)

 

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

DEC 20, singable satire: Alan Sherman sings "The CLOTHING-MOTH HAT-DANCE"

 Singable Satire

ORIGINAL SONG: "Mexican Hat Dance" (spoof) Allan Sherman, 1963. The original music, based on traditional Mexican dance-forms from the central and southern part of the country, is also known as "Jarabe Tapatío"; the music, unaccompanied by lyrics, is a typical repertoire item for mariachi.  

LIMERICK VERSE:  Original poems composed by Giorgio Coniglio, 2017-2018, provided the fodder for these song lyrics. The verses have  can be found  readily on a post "A Brief Saga: Clothes Moths" on our blog HERE.  

A mariachi band
Kensington Market, Toronto
August 2018.

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, August 2018. 

PARODY SONGLINK: Note that the melody and lyrical adaptation for Mexican Hat Dance were used previously by G.C. as the base song for "Dante's 'Inferno' Canto#5a: Minos's Tail Twist".

To find ukulele and guitar chord-charts to help you accompany "THE CLOTHING-MOTH HAT-DANCE" on your favorite instrument, click HERE.

CLOTHING MOTH HAT-DANCE 

(to the tune of "Mexican Hat Dance" with adaptation and 'original' lyrics by Alan Sherman)

Clothing moths, we are not like the fruit fly
(We admit with orange eyes they're a cute fly)
We shun froth, just ask any astute fly,
We eat sweaters and shirts, even hats.

Can't stand fruit, we eat dry, suits us better,
Like your suits; we don't fancy things wetter.
And we love old skin flakes from a shedder,
Like that guy who wears Mexican hats. Olé! 

We can't stand foam or froth.
Our favorite food's 'whole cloth'.
The hats and suits you doff
Are a family meal for the moth.

As adults we don't need feed our offspring. 
We just mate, and do things of that ilk.
Don't fly much, legs we lay,
Larvae hatch, and then they
Ravage cotton and woollens and silk.

Clothing moths! Live like toffs.
We're just snobs - Tineolas,
We play our violas,
While your old sombreros we doff.

Feel voracious? Please look you old meany
We're your dinner guests though we're quite teeny,
We'll infest your old box of 'linguini'.
But don't like your rendition of 'sauce'.  

REPRISE:
We can't stand foam or froth.
Our favorite food's 'whole cloth'.
The hats and suits you doff
Are a family meal for the moth.

Now in closing...  your sweaters are tatters,
The scraps literally filled up our platters.
We're engorged on keratinous matter.
Like your silk and wool suits
(We've ignored leather boots),
Left large holes in chapeaux made of cloth.
That's the work of the quirky clothes moth. Olé! 

DEC 19, poetic non-sequitur: the charity auction

                                                                        

 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.

DEC 18, limerick for language-lovers: Hebrew alphabet

Authors' Note: In its earlier versions, the Hebrew alphabet was a pure abjad, or consonantary, with over twenty consonants, but no vowel sounds. The modern script used today has five symbols which may assist in the vocalization of vowels. In certain specific usages (poetry, teaching children, studying ancient texts, books of prayer used in the diaspora), a system of diacritic marks under the letters indicates the standardized vowel sounds. Without them, as in the majority of informal printed texts and in handwriting, you have to know some grammar, and have a moderate vocabulary of root words (often consisting of three consonants) to solve the meaning.   

 

web-illustration

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

DEC 17, palinku (poetic novelty): X-mas scandal

 

   In this post, we continue with a novel form of poetic wordplay. Inspired by Japanese haiku poetry, 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. 

(Editors' Note): Concepts in this poem were also expressed in limerick format in the post of December 24.

 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.)