A blogsite offering entertaining daily oddities since January 2020. There are now over a thousand unique posts in these three years. Images, both visual and poetic, are drawn from daily life, as well as from verses, photos and computer-graphics on our parent blog "Edifying Nonsense".
October 31, 2022
OCT 31, Toronto oases: Rouge national park
October 30, 2022
OCT 30, death and the afterlife: ghostbusting equipment
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!
October 29, 2022
OCT 29, exotic destination: Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina
October 28, 2022
OCT 28, Toronto ravines: floating islands at the Brickworks WIP
October 27, 2022
OCT 27, objectionable adjectives: 'estival' and 'hibernal'
October 26, 2022
OCT 26, limerick variations: C-rhyme disciples
C-RHYME EXTENSION
Poet laureate, Seamie O'Malley
Wrote his opus in Limerick Valley,
Quote recorded in history:
"I've found, there's no mystery,"
A- and B-rhymes are boring
(New formats exploring).
An adventure worth mention
Dr.G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, 2022
October 25, 2022
OCT 25, mythed opportunities: Galatea (and Pygmalion)
Whose kits you can buy at Ikea.
In your fetish or wife
(Help from Venus worth mention).
Pygmalion's invention:
Animation for nymph Galatea.
October 24, 2022
OCT 24, patients and their maladies: brain symptoms post-trauma
October 23, 2022
OCT 23, STD-poetry: monkeypox
October 22, 2022
OCT 22, planet-saving verse: phosphate detergents
PHOSPHATE-CONTAINING DETERGENTS
Ecological problem emergent:
Stop eutrophification — that's urgent!
Authors' Note:
October 21, 2022
OCT 21, hellenophilia: Greek evzones
Authors' Note:
Grand Change: a more elaborate version of the hourlychanging of the guard (taking place on Sunday morning at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in
Athens' Syntagma Square), providing a popular photo-op for locals and tourists
fustanella: kilt made from 30 meters of white cotton, supposedly with 400 pleats to represent the years of Ottoman occupation.
October 20, 2022
OCT 20, waterfowl: willets
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'. (Or, if you prefer, you can view them on Facebook in Giorgio's photo-albums).
October 19, 2022
OCT 19, mythed opportunities: Leda and the swan
Wily Zeus, from Olympus, espied
Dr G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, 2022
Authors' Note: King T. refers to Sparta's King Tyndareus, husband of Leda. These characters in the story of "Leda and the Swan" were presumably mortal. However, relevant accounts, as depicted in literature and representative art, vary as to the mortal status of the couple's famous offspring (the twins Helen and Clytemnestra, and Castor and Pollux were hatched as human babies from the oversized eggs.)
October 18, 2022
OCT 18, reprehensible modern history: submarine warfare #3
October 17, 2022
OCT 17, higher connections: haredim
HAREDIM (charedim)
Various groups of strictly Orthodox or haredi (khah-RAY-dee) Jews represent an expanding demographic in Israel, assembling in particular neighborhoods (such as the suburbs of Jerusalem) where they carry out their lifestyle, rejecting and disdaining the secular environment, preferring a world characterized by observance of laws derived from the Torah (Old Testament). Their traditional dress reflects the groups' roots in 19th century Ashkenazi religious communities in northern Europe. The name (the plural noun form) originates from a biblical reference to those who tremble at the word of God.
With large families (averaging 7 children per female), these groups made up 4% of Israeli citizens in 1980, and 13% in 2021.
October 16, 2022
OCT 16, Ontario nostalgia: bunkie
October 14, 2022
OCT 15, non-sequitur: dishwasher (appliance)
AUTOMATIC DISHWASHERS
Though its uptake was slow and inertial,![]() |
socialite who developed a mechanical dishwasher to protect her porcelain while being washed; invention unveiled at the World's Fair, Chicago, 1883 |
![]() |
slow uptake of the residential dishwasher (photos per televised documentary) |
![]() |
inside a current residential dishwasher |
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.
OCT 14, doctors and their practices: the dermatologist
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!
October 13, 2022
OCT 13, numbers: baker's dozen, bark mitzvah (13)
October 12, 2022
OCT 12, pluralia tantum: the backwoods ('rural plurals')
Authors' Note:
Urals: The Ural Mountains, a discrete range runing north and south, separates old Russian from more sparsely populated Siberia, and is considered as the boundary between the continents of Europe and Asia.
The above verses provide further examples of the grammatical phenomenon pluralia tantum. We have discussed in other verses here the relationship of pluralia tantum to medical nomenclature, to life-cycle celebrations, to cooking ingredients, and to fields of study.
October 11, 2022
OCT 11, patients and their maladies: hoarding disorder
Authors' Note: Although folks with this engrained problem may be categorized as having depression, schizophrenia or obsessive-compulsive disorder, hoarding disorder may be a psychiatric entity in its own right.
October 10, 2022
OCT 10, variant Nantucket limerick: the lad from Salinas
Authors' Note: The Sankaty Head Light is a famous lighthouse on the US island of Nantucket. It also serves as the pictorial symbol for OEDILF, the Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form.
You can review our entire collection of spoof verses based on the iconic Nantucket limericks on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense' by clicking HERE.
October 9, 2022
OCT 9, planet-saving verse: coy koi
CONTAINING COY KOI
We don't mean to put off or annoy,
Other fish are just duller;
Koi delight with our color,
But your freshwater ponds we'll destroy."
("With the mud-stirring shtick we deploy.")
On every continent, koi populations have 'escaped' and become established as invasive intruders in freshwater ponds and streams (where their color eventually reverts to that of undomesticated Amur carp). As koi characteristically alter the environment, increasing the turbidity of freshwater bodies, native species have been displaced.
Koi contained in an indoor environment Allan Gardens, Toronto |
You can help save the planet by viewing all our verses in this series at "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE!
October 8, 2022
OCT 8, toxic vignette: 'mad as a hatter' (the Danbury shakes)
THE 'DANBURY SHAKES'
Dr G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, 2022
In the US, hat-making was centered in the Connecticut town of Danbury, where the majority of long-term workers were subject to the 'Danbury shakes' as well as other neuropsychiatric manifestations. The plant continued in operation, including the dumping of wastewater effluent, until the early 1940s. It closed at that time due to staffing shortages and the need for mercury in the armaments industry.
October 7, 2022
OCT 7, American satire: 'from the archives'
Some readers may wish that the fifth line's 'BLOCKhead' could be replaced by another assonance-laden word, targeted at the second line's melodic term 'riDICulous'.
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!
October 6, 2022
OCT 6, (re)duplications: helter-skelter
HELTER-SKELTER
October 5, 2022
OCT 5, inspired by Ogden Nash: a sloth in a slough
October 4, 2022
OCT 4, brief saga (organic brain poetry): metabolic delirium
METABOLIC DELIRIUM
EMS arrives, puzzled; they're querious.
Found attacking his shoes,
And he's threatening violence serious!"
"Phil, it's wintry outside, and you're nude.
Why you've gone on this rant, sir.
This verse belongs to a series on organic causes of neuropsychiatric symptoms, the others being frontal meningioma, hypothyroid depression, general paresis of the insane, cerebral metastases, beriberi and high-dose steroids.
AND, HERE'S A LIST OF LINKS to collections of intriguing verses on other medical/dental topics that can now be found on various posts including:
Doctors and their Practices (part #1 and #2)