AUG 31, objectionable adjectives: flaccid

Authors' Note: 

 flaccid (FLASS-id or FLAX-id): flabby or limp

You can review our editorially selected doggerel (eight verses) relating to 'Objectionable Adjectives' by clicking HERE.

 

AUG 30, trees: camphor laurel

Authors' Note:  Cinnamomum is a genus of evergreen aromatic trees and shrubs noted for the aromatic oils found in their leaves and bark. 

  C. camphora, a tree important for production of camphoraceous oils in parts of Asia, was introduced into Australia as an ornamental in 1822. The hardy invaders have degraded the environment as they spread, clogging sewers, changing the composition of the soil, and taking over habitat from the eucalyptus on which koalas feed.

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". 

 

AUG 29, exotic destination: Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina

Other verses about 'Exotic Travel Destinations' can be found on our blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Click HERE.

shoreline of Charleston Harbor,
cruiseship approaching in shipping lane

approachable 'wild' waterfowl,
an attraction at the Shem Creek boardwalk

AUG 28, planet-saving verse: summer air quality

Authors' Note: Although meat-eating is a practice that we personally have avoided for almost 20 years, we do accept that most people around us continue to indulge in this ancient tradition, appropriate to when the planet and our species were younger. We would not make you happy if we continued on a rant (kvetch = complaint) about this issue; we prefer to remain silent, and live and let live. Inhabiting a downtown neighborhood with very small urban lots has its limitations, and the smells and smoke of dinner being barbecued by our neighbors almost every summer evening is one of them. 

By the way, we and our partner continue to eat seafood and fish on occasion to ensure adequate protein intake, but one person in our immediate family is a true vegetarian (but not vegan). As you know, the terms to describe these eating patterns are complex and even misleading, but all non-meat-eaters would prefer that others keep their steak-smoke to themselves.    

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

AUG 27, organic brain poetry: frontal meningioma

Authors' Note: 

stroma: connective tissue that supports normal body structures and, on occasion, abnormal growths

Meningioma is a not-uncommon slowly growing benign tumor within the cranium. Pressure on adjacent portions of normal brain induce neurological symptoms. When the tumor is located in the frontal cortex, neuropsychiatric manifestations may include bizarre thoughts, frequently paranoid, and unrepressed behavior. Fortunately, the tumors, when suspected, are readily diagnosed on neuro-imaging studies, and surgical therapy is often curative.

Brain tumours account for only a small portion of patients suffering such neuropsychiatric symptoms; however, medical practitioners frequently hope that such a correctable cause may be discovered.

You can view and review all our verses on the topic of 'Organic Brain Poetry' by following this link to the encyclopedic collection on "Edifying Nonsense."

AUG 26, a brief saga: Mar-a-lago (the dacha)

Authors' Note: 

NARA (NAY-ruh): acronym for the US agency National Archives and Records Administration

‘M.B.S’: Mohammid bin Salman, Saudi prince

 The name of the Florida estate, Mar-a-lago, might have been better formulated by its builder Marjorie Post in Spanish as Mar-al-lago, or in Italian as Mare-al-lago. 

  It is noted that the following are palindromes:

Deified  (but not ‘declassified’)

Dacha: ah!, cad. 

Mar-a-lago: O, gal, a ram!

  The Mar-a-lago estate, purchased by Donald Trump in 1985, served since 2016 as the 'Southern White House’. In 2021, having lost the national election of November 2020, Trump decamped from the White House to Mar-a-lago, taking with him, contrary to regulations, a substantial number of government documents.

  

  John McCain and Jeff Flake were Republican senators from Arizona who became vocal opponents of DJT. 

   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 most recent previous 'brief saga', back up to 'Grandpa Greg's Advanced Grammar: pluralia tantum'. 

  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'

- 'political palindromes A through P' (click HERE to start)

  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.

AUG 25, (re)duplication: fuddle-duddle

Authors' Note: (usually, FUD-uhl-dud-uhl, or with a French lilt, as here, fud-uhl-DUD-uhl)

fuddle-duddle: an infrequently used (re)duplication, voiced dismissively in dealing with opinions that the speaker rejects.

In 1971 Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, father of current PM Justin Trudeau, unleashed a minor scandal by using unparliamentary language in the Canadian House of Commons. A portion of the ensuing brouhaha, deftly sidestepped by Trudeau, revolved around whether he had actually spoken or merely mouthed the inappropriate words.

Web discussion:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuddle_duddle

 Readers willing to go down an internet rabbit-hole HERE can easily get to our other eight short verses dealing with specific reduplications, as well as three fairly lengthy patter-songs about this fascinating linguistic phenomenon.

AUG 24, patients and maladies: intermittent claudication

Authors' Note:

claudicant: limping, lame

 Pain occurring in one or both legs with exercise in patients with blockages in their leg arteries is termed 'intermittent claudication', a condition particularly prevalent in longterm smokers. 

 Discarded cigarette butts, which may release toxins injurious to wildlife, have been identified by environmentalists as an ecological hazard. 

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!

AUG 23, Canadiana: 'compassionate use'

Authors' Note (originally written in 2016):  

   Growing marijuana seems to be a major activity on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, centred in the city of Nanaimo (nuh-NAHY-moh). Exemptions from restrictions on the substance are given for certain medical conditions, termed compassionate use; however, the criteria appear loosely applied, and overlapping recreational and medicinal use of the substance underlies the region's laid-back attitude.

   It is unlikely that Nanaimo will successfully challenge the dominance in limericks currently held by Nantucket. The island of Nantucket has been the setting for a number of limericks; the most famous clean one deals with a crotchety old man whose daughter rips off his poorly hidden cash.

You can review poems, pictures and diverse nonsense related to Canada on the post "Canadiana" on our full-service blog  "Edifying Nonsense".

AUG 22, funny bones: olecranon (elbow) fracture

Happy Birthday, MMH!!

                                                                verse finally accepted April 2023, #112902

Authors' Note:

funner: a neologism for 'fun-seeker', as used here; also, a disputed equivalent to the comparative expression 'more fun’

  The olecranon is the boney process (extension) of the forearm's ulna that extends into the elbow joint. Fractures of the olecranon are moderately common, due to direct trauma (fall on the elbow), but even more so due to indirect trauma (transmission of intense force with a fall on the outstretched hand). Owing to the proximity of the ulnar nerve, a broken funny bone may be associated with numbness and tingling extending into the fingers.

  Such injuries have bedevilled joggers and elite athletes, but recently have become more common with the popularity of personal electric transport devices. Surgical treatment is generally required for these fractures that often have displaced bone fragments. 

 You can view more than a dozen other 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!

(Or, if you prefer, you can find most of our blatherings on Facebook in Giorgio's photo albums.)

AUG 21, classic palindrome: 'dogma: I am God'

                                                                     

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'.

AUG 20, Toronto oases (cultural): Harbourfront Centre

spectators watch the National Ballet Company of Canada,
Harbourfront Centre, Toronto,
August 2022

AUG 19, curtained verse: foul-mouthed Phil (the night heron)

Author's Note:  The authors have observed exuberant springtime spread of duckweed, an aqueous plant that superficially resembles an algal bloom, but is in fact beneficial in controlling pollutants.

The resultant marked increase in opacity of the pondwater's surface doesn't seem to bother dabbling fowl like ducks, whose omnivorous eating is targeted primarily at vegetable matter. Night herons, on the other hand, eat a diet of various small creatures, aquatic and terrestrial, ambushing them while standing near the edge of the water. I presume that a dense cover of duckweed would complicate attempts by Phil (as well as his colleagues, although he tends to hunt alone)  to grab a meal of small fish (fries or minnows), if he was so motivated.  

AUG 18, Italian loanwords: cicerone

Authors' Note:    Guides for tourists in Italy are often given the interesting name cicerone (plural -oni). The label is derived from the Italian Cicerone (chee-che-ROH-neh), the surname of the legendary Roman orator Marcus Tullius Cicero (SIH-suh-roh in Anglo-Latin, 106–48 BCE). The term has been applied to Italian antiquarians, as well as to talkative guides and interpreters.

 

   The Roman family's name was related to the word for chickpeas (ciceri in Latin, ceci in Italian). ‘Baloney’, an anglicism derived from the globally popular Italian sausage mortadella bolognese, has come in American slang to mean exaggerated claims or nonsense.

 You can review our entire poetic outpouring about Italian loanwords by proceeding to a post on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'; click HERE.

AUG 17, waterfowl: habitat restored (Crab Bank)

Heartfelt birthday wishes to RCH!

pelican take-off

 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'. 

If you prefer, you could view most of this topically arranged material on Facebook, in Giorgio's photo-albums. (About 20% of those offerings consist of political satire or adult limericks, and you will have to be a 'friend' of Giorgio's to view that stuff.)

AUG 16, toxic vignette: digitalis toxicity

Authors' Note: 

(di-JOK-sin)

Digoxin, a cardiac glycoside derived initially from the garden plant digitalis (foxglove), has been used to treat chronic congestive heart failure and to control the heart rate in atrial fibrillation. During the author's professional lifetime, there has been a major reduction in the death-rate and in the incidence of hospital admissions for digoxin poisoning, also known as digitoxicity. This improvement is due to more judicious assessment of factors, e.g. decreasing kidney function, that may result in increasing blood levels of the drug, but also to limitation of the drug's use as alternatives have become available.     

 Review all our poems of toxicologic interest by clicking HERE.  

AUG 15, American satire (prolongation): FBIer

Author's Note: FBIer is a term that is occasionally used to denote an employee of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation. The search in question in the above verse was carried out by warrant after a federal judge had been persuaded that a crime hae been committed in the premises, in this case a south Florida golf-club. Apparently, as subsequently shown, negotiations for the return of the unlawfully sequestered documents had gone on for months, and a subpoena had been issued. (See, also, our verse 'Espionage Act')

We hope that you enjoyed this verse. You can find 40 more on this topic in 6 collections on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Click HERE to start! 

AUG 14, STD-poetry: the 'gon-dom' and the condom

 

Authors' Note: These lyrics are intended to be sung in rap format.

Life-threatening medical aspects of the often-discounted STD (sexually transmitted disease) gonorrhea are well described in the Author's Note to SheilaB’s verse ‘Chaldaea’. 

  Gonorrheal infection of the external genitalia, caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae, may also result in pelvic inflammatory disease in females, epididymitis in males, and chronic infertility. Transmission of the disease is prevented by condoms.

You can review verses on this topic in a wider context in a post on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense" by proceeding to the post 'Ruination, Rumination and Reminiscence: STD-Poetry'. Click HERE. 

AUG 13, birdlore: cattle egrets

Authors' Note: The cattle egret is a wading bird most closely related to the herons of Ardea species, but is also a cousin of the common egret and snowy egret. Unlike the latter birds, it may breed in drier areas further inland, and consume terrestrial insects as a substantial portion of its diet. Recently documented changes in its range include expansion to much of the United States, South America, southern Africa and Australia. In general, the bird's enlarged domain has followed that of domesticated grazing mammals.

As bovine may have the meaning of 'dull' or 'stolid', the author was delighted to ascribe more emotional responses to these beasts.

You can view an encyclopedic collection of illustrated poems on this topic by proceeding to the post 'Poems about BIRDLIFE' on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE.  (Or, if you prefer, you can view the collection on Facebook in Giorgio's photo-albums).

AUG 12, ecto-parasites: order of fleas

Authors' Note: The fleas, wingless blood-sucking hopping insects, infest and make miserable a variety of warm-blooded host species including most famously man and dog. In America, the vast majority of infestations of domestic pests involve the cat flea, Ctenophalides felis.

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.

AUG 11, poet's corner: argumentively (the Cans and the Can'ts)

 

AUG 10, American satire (prolongation): taking the fifth

Today's news ...

 

We hope that you enjoyed this verse. You can find 40 more on this topic in 6 collections on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Click HERE to start! 

AUG 9, limerick variations: ka-pow! (terminal exclamation!)

Authors' Note: 

Ka-pow! (variant kerpow!): comic-book type interjection for a noise emitted when a blow is landed in a fight (often involving a super-hero)

Line 6: occasionally used sixth line of a limerick, unheard of in the early days of the modality, finding some currency among modern authors. See our poem 'Addendum-icitis'. 

The limericks written by Edward Lear and his contemporaries a century ago often included repetition of the poem's key word at the end of the final line.

You can review our entire collection of poems on the topic of "Limerick Variations" as compiled on our more encyclopedic blog "Edifying Nonsense"; click HERE.  

AUG 8, reptiles: update on anole coloration

   During the first week of May, 2022, with spring seriously underway  in the Carolina Lowcountry, little lizards were out doing their thing in our yard (I presume that's hunting for insects, looking out for potential mates, and patrolling their territories to keep out intruders). 

  Harking back to previous reference on this site to anoles, I came across the following illustrated verses:

Carolina (green) anoles

brown anoles

anole coloration

'the Lizard Lair' 

  Events around our yard 'today' (May 3, i.e. taking down an old fence) made it a good day for further observations of green anoles and their remarkable penchant/ability to change colour, even though biologists insist that they are not true chameleons. 

'Ollie' the green anole,
looking greyish on old post

'Ollie', posing again, in our backyard,
on Ocala anise branch,
2 minutes later 

a different creature,
('Ollie's cousin?)
climbing down crepe myrtle,
few minutes later, 100 feet away

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".

AUG 7, pluralia tantum: 'dependent' -- cooking ingredients

 

Authors' Note: 

clunky: slang for 'awkward'

Our disappointed grammar-buff is right: a lot of grammar is not derived from logical principles. All languages face the problem of characterizing masses and groups of undistinguished small objects as singular or plural. This dilemma seems to reach its peak with items that are the basis of cooking. Despite an attempt to find rules, there is no dependency on particle size.

Nouns used only, or principally in the plural form are known as pluralia tantum; those used excusively in the singular form are known as singularia tantum. This usage varies from one language to another. We find some foreign uses 'incomprehensible', as in the general Hebrew plural form mayim for 'water', despite the fact that, on occasion, "Still waters run deep."

We have discussed in other verses here the relationship of pluralia tantum to life-cycle celebrations, and to medical nomenclature.

Grandpa Greg asked us to pass on this message: "You can view the entire collection of verses about 'pluralia tantum' by clicking HERE."

AUG 6, death and the afterlife: dining in Heaven

 You can review more poems about 'Death and the Afterlife' in context on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Click HERE!
 

AUG 5, mythed opportunities: dryads

 a small reforestation project,
 Port Bruce, Ontario, 2000.

You can take advantage of the whole spectrum of illustrated poems dealing with 'Mythed Opportunities' that we have collected on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Click HERE!

AUG 4, wordplay map: renamed US state capitals (western)

We presume that there are others out there who have found that the names of the US state capital cities are a chore to remember. So, here's a practical application of wordplay with anagrams!

We might eventually do the eastern US states, so stay tuned (but be patient).

links for any date: scroll over to the calendar-based listings of 'Past Posts' in the righthand column on this page, choose your year then your month of interest, and then select (by clicking) the post of your choice.

AUG 3, palinku (poetic novelty): evil

   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. 

(Ed. note:) Verses of this type have continued to accumulate, and there are now more than 50 of them. You can easily view them all  if you  proceed  to our more encyclopedic blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE.

(Or, if your prefer, you can view all this material on Facebook  in Giorgio's photo-albums.)

AUG 2, reprehensible modern history: Franco-German conflicts

Authors' Note:

nachbarlich (NAKH-bahr-likh): neighborly 

l'après-guerre (la-preh-GAYR): period immediately after the Second World War in France, approximately 1945-1948

Cannes (KAN): French town on the Côte d'Azur, famous for its luxury hotels and villas, and for its international film festival

Worms (VORMZ): German town (sometimes pronounced by anglophones as WUHRMZ) of about the same size as Cannes and Limerick, famed for its production of liebfraumilch 

AUG 1, English classics survey course: Paradise Lost (Milton's epic poem)

Authors' Note: The noun-form of the adjective essential, used almost exclusively in the plural, exempifies pluralia tantum, and indicates what is truly needed (Credentials, similarly, is an example of that grammatical curiosity).

Paradise Lost, the epic poem about the Fall of Man and the Garden of Eden, by 17th-century English poet John Milton (1608–1674). is contained in twelve books. Its review by young literature students is aided by student guides such as Cliff's Notes. 

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