November 30, 2022

NOV 30, reprehensible modern history (1800+): Emperor of Elba




Further enlightenment on this topic can be obtained by viewing a post entitled "Able Ere Elba". Click HERE



 

November 29, 2022

NOV 29, planet-saving verse: fur-farming





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

November 28, 2022

NOV 28, French savoir-faire: savoir-faire




Authors' Note: The present participle (participe prĂ©sent) is used much less commonly in French than in English; the good news is that this form is regular for all but three verbs (to know, to have, to be). In contrast, infinitives are used more often, so 'knowing and doing' is described by savoir-faire.

Savant, an archaic form derived from savoir, is still in use as a noun for 'someone who knows' (a prodigy).
Avant looks as though it should be the present participle for avoir, but in fact it derives from the Latin preposition abante; but, as a loanword, e.g. avant-garde, it has become associated with the 'forefront'.   

November 27, 2022

NOV 27, organic brain poetry: high-dose steroids



Authors' Note: A course of high-dose synthetic corticosteroids, e.g. dexamethasone, may be used to help bring under control a severe exacerbation of a chronic illness, e.g. asthma, inflammatory diseases, or an initial presentation, e.g. anaphylaxis, septic shock or brain swelling. Owing to the common side-effect of drug-induced euphoria/mania and other psychiatric issues, doctors attempt to taper the high doses as soon as possible.

 

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."

November 26, 2022

NOV 26, non-sequitur: change in latitude



Authors' Note: The 1977 album Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes by American singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett contained a song of the same title, as well as his most popular hit "Margaritaville".

With holiday season travel plans, and snowbirds' escapes to more appealing climes disrupted by the severe December weather in the winter of 2022, J.B.'s advice has more relevance. And the authors express gratitude to their female partner who has made arrangements for the appropriate seasonal migration.

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.

November 25, 2022

NOV 25, pluralia tantum: 'high hopes'

 



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

November 24, 2022

NOV 24, reptiles: skink-busting





Authors' Note; WHO YA GONNA CALL? 


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



November 23, 2022

NOV 23, doctors and their practices: diabetologist





Authors' Note:

diabetologist: a super-specialized endocrinologist who deals with diabetes mellitus and its control

Glycated hemoglobin (hemoglobin A1C), reflects a chemical influence of ambient glucose levels in blood. This simple but subtle alteration of hemoglobin carried by the blood's red cells was discovered in 1958. As the average lifespan of red cells in the blood is three to four months, the biochemical test of blood levels yields a number that reflects blood sugar control over the previous few months. Generally, as your diabetologist will explain, a value less than 7% has been found to reflect good control.

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!

November 22, 2022

NOV 22, (re)duplication: higgledy-piggledy




Authors' Note: 
Higgledy-piggledy is yet another (re)duplication relating to disorder and impetuousness whose meaning overlaps with helter-skelter, and harum-scarum.

Readers willing to go down an internet rabbit-hole HERE can easily get to a collection of more than a dozen other short verses in which we have dealt with specific reduplications, as well as three fairly lengthy patter-songs about this fascinating linguistic phenomenon. 


November 21, 2022

NOV 21, American satire (prolongation): legal precedence




Authors' note: The 'Mitt' in the above verse is entirely allegorical, unrelated to any real current person or long-serving Republican US senator. 

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! 

November 20, 2022

NOV 20 (2022), singable satire: Johnny Cash sings "VLAD PUTIN'S BLOGGER"

 PARODY SONG-LYRICS


ORIGINAL SONG: "The Frozen Logger", an American folksong of the tall-tale variety, was written by James Stevens in 1928 and published in 1949. It has been recorded by The Weavers in 1951, and subsequently by many other artists, including  Oscar Brand. Enjoy the YouTube recording by Johnny Cash here. 
PARODY COMPOSED:  Dr. G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, February 2019. 

SONGLINK: See the version designed for ukulele and guitar players on 'SILLY SONGS and SATIREHERE

FURTHER INFORMATION: A presidential quote from January 2019, in reference to the suspected perpetrators indicted by the Mueller probe into foreign interference in the 2016 U.S. federal election...

 "Among the 34 people, many of them were bloggers from Moscow or people who had nothing to do with me, had nothing to do with what they were talking about or there were people who got caught telling stories or lying … I think it's a terrible thing (that has) happened to this country, because this investigation is a witch hunt." 


VLAD PUTIN'S BLOGGER


(to the tune of "The Frozen Logger")



As I logged on in Moscow in an internet café,
An English-speaking pop-up troll did these terse words display,
“We know you are a blogger, and not just a common nerd.
Mother Russia wants your hacking help, of this please be assured.”

“And yes, I am Vlad Putin; please excuse my being crass,
But we’ll count on your assistance, or your relatives we’ll gas.
What we ask’s not too much effort, in fact it’s a walk in the park.
We’ll assign a friendly mentor, KGB-trained oligarch.”

“I want to win real elections, just not keen to call my own;           
We’ll monitor the chats and thoughts on each U.S. cellphone.
You’ll scoop the goods for blackmail in a world as dark as night,
And steal e-mail for WikiLeaks to publish on their site.”

“We’ll post you there in Washington, you’ll help us get the clues;
When time is right to dominate, we’ll start our world-wide coups.
We’ll signal in that courtroom that Putin’s time has come;
That’s where you’ll sit ‘til someone moons Bob Mueller with
his bum.”

November 19, 2022

NOV 19, Italian loanwords: ghetto




Authors' Note:
libretto: Italian for 'little book'; a summary of the text distributed to the audience of an opera, mass or oratorio.

gondola (plural - gondole): the stereotypic Venetian small boat, poled down the Venetian canals; gondole-ly is a personal, incorrectly-stressed Anglo-Italian neologism

imperfetto: Italian for 'imperfect' or 'flawed'
 The ghetto first appeared as a section of the city in which members of a particular ethnic group were cordoned off, in Venice's working-class Cannaregio quarter in 1516. The word ghetto is of uncertain origin, possibly derived from a term in the local dialect for 'foundry', related to a nearby factory. The region of northeastern Italy that surrounds Venice, stretching from the Alps to the Adriatic Sea, is known as (the) Veneto.
You can review our entire poetic outpouring about Italian loanwords by proceeding to a post on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'; click HERE.




November 18, 2022

NOV 18, classic palindromes: 'Ida's denial'







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'.




November 17, 2022

NOV 17, Canadiana: Canadian weather




Authors' Note: 
hinterland: a geographic term for 'interior', derived from the German adverb hinder = 'behind'.

The author contends that the summary he received overemphasized the adverse climatic conditions faced by Canadians, the majority of whom live in the more temperate southern portions of the country.


mid-November in Toronto


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


November 16, 2022

NOV 16, scopes of modern medicine: bronc(h)oscopy




Authors' Note: SheilaB, a physician and prodigious creator of limericks at the OEDILF web-site, defined the bronco ("unbroken horse"), and would have been perplexed by my confusion with the homonomous Greek root broncho- ("windpipe"). Certainly, we would all need to call on our veterinarian colleagues to learn more about the investigation of respiratory maladies in horses. Bronchoscopy is a fairly commonly performed procedure in diagnosis of human lung disorders.

The unrelated term honcho ("group leader", or "boss") is of Japanese derivation.

 

November 15, 2022

NOV 15, signs of confusion: first collection




 







half-way between the Battery and the beach






















This post is the first in a series of 5. You can attempt to get all of this straight by reviewing the collections in these subsequent posts ...

signs of confusion #3
signs of confusion #4

November 14, 2022

NOV 14, higher connections: gnostic





Authors' Note: 
gnostic: adjective derived from the Greek noun...
gnosis: pertaining to or possessing spiritual nowledge or insight


November 13, 2022

NOV 13, patients and their maladies: amblyopia

 


Authors' Note: 
pas-de-deux: a term, originating in French, for a balletic performance with two dancers, often moving in unison

Amblyopia includes a number of conditions in which the single affected eye provides less useful information to the brain, resulting in suppression of that information in comparison to that from the more normal eye. Double vision or strabismus (crossed-eyes) from weakened eye muscles on the one side is a common cause. When strabismus is relatively minor, the persistence of two discordant images under certain conditions with resulting double vision, may be disconcerting to the adult patient. Reduced lighting, head position and fatigue may enhance the problem, but corrective prismatic lenses may help in reachieving integrated binocular vision.

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!

November 12, 2022

NOV 12, objectionable adjectives: efficacious





Authors' Note:  The author disavows overly blunt speech and writing, but finds the tendency to embellish disconcerting. Efficacious seems to be used disproportionately when effective or efficient would do nicely. Other words with inflated frequency of usage include symptomatology, methodology and, yes, even usage

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

November 11, 2022

NOV 11, death and the afterlife: memorial service

 



 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!

November 10, 2022

NOV 10, a brief saga: Leigh Mercer's palindrome workshop










Authors' Note: 
Ipanema: (pronounced ee-pah-NAY-muh in Portuguese): trendy neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, known for its marvellous beach and for its bossa nova music
Leigh Mercer (1893–1977) was credited with the iconic palindrome, A man, a plan, a canal — Panama. Mercer, an isolated British eccentric who worked at low-level jobs with frequent turnover, occasionally communicated with journals and contest organizers about wordplay and mathematical puzzles. After his death, notebooks filled with unique palindromes were discovered.
This early workshop conducted by Mercer, during which the iconic canal palindrome is almost invented, is fictitious, but with the exception of the first, all the italicized phrases in the 'workshop' session are legitimate palindromes.

 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 iLimerick Form'. On the OEDILF site, rigorous standards for content and format are involved 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 there are now over 90 of these multi-verse poems feature in his "Author's Showcase". The  OEDILF number for each accepted multiverse poem is shown here on the slide with its first verse. We have been blog-publishing these poetic adventures here monthly.


November 9, 2022

NOV 9, patients and their maladies: the hemorrhoid

  



Authors' Note

pro tem: frequently used short form for the Latin 'pro tempore' -- for the time being, in the short term.

Readers might also enjoy a verse on the same topic presented in September 2021 in the collection "The Bottom Line of Medical Humor". Click HERE.

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!

November 8, 2022

NOV 8, urban concerns: school districts (glowingly)




Authors' Note: Real estate agents are masters at the psychology of selling of homes. They employ 'stylists' to 'stage' houses, first by decluttering, and then by adding grace notes to indicate the putatively carefree and desirable lifestyle of the owners. In this case, a Victorian-era home with an appallingly small outdoor space was staged to appear more attractive to families. 


Our collection of illustrated poems about "Urban Concerns" on our parent blog "Edifying Nonsense", contains a number of intriguing verses that you can access by clicking HERE.


November 7, 2022

NOV 7, ecto-parasites: hog lice




Authors' Note: This agricultural pest, Haematopinus suis, commonly known as the hog louse, lives its life only on porcine hosts, with the larvae (nymphs) concentrating on the head region. Apparently, infestations of swine herds can be treated easily with avermectins, a class of veterinary antibiotics.

 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 (and keep following along 'til you get to the section on ecto-parasites).


November 6, 2022

NOV 6, hellenophilia: Cretan gorges

 




 Other verses discussing our appreciation of Greece and things Greek can be found on our blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Click HERE.

November 5, 2022

NOV 5, defining opinion: hostile




 



Our blogpost "Defining Opinion" on the topic-based blog "Edifying Nonsense" shows a selection of similar verses submitted to OEDILF (the online Omnificent English Dictionary iLimerick Form). You can see all of these on one visit by clicking HERE.


November 4, 2022

NOV 4, mythed opportunities: Eos (Dawn's endless night)





Author's Note: The asteroid known by astronomers as 221 Eos is apparently a large orbiting body with a diameter of over 100 km. It has a potential, should it strike the Earth, to bring about an extinction similar to that produced 60 million years ago that wiped out the dinosaur population.
  Like most heavenly bodies, this one was named after a figure from Greco-Roman mythology, Eos (Aurora), the Goddess of Dawn; the irony is apparent. Click HERE for another nonsensical poem about Aurora/Eos and learn more about the legend.

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!

November 3, 2022

NOV 3, American satire (prolongation): Espionage Act

 This post is CLASSIFIED! (proper security clearance is required)




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! 



November 2, 2022

NOV 2, binomial phrases: "first and last"




 Authors' Note: Binomial expressions combine two paired elements in a fixed order. Lists of these phrases show that when the two genders are in question, males almost always come first. This bias is shown in dozens of idioms such as boys and girlslords and ladiesmen and womenbrother and sisterkings and queensJack and Jill, etc.

The few notable exceptions highlight a gender-constrained role for women, including belles and beausbride and groom, and moms and dads.

Gender-bias in language is also discussed in another verse by the authors. Click HERE

November 1, 2022

NOV 1, palinku (poetic novelty): conformity and timidity


  In this post, we will 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. 

 And, just in case you have forgotten what palindromes are about, your blogsite hosts have arranged a serial set of brief lessons on the topic ('Political Palindromes'); click HERE







(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.

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