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".
December 31, 2022
* DEC 31, HOGMANAY (New Year's Eve): Auld Lang's sine
December 30, 2022
DEC 30, exotic destination: the tropical conservatory (Toronto excursion)
Warm and humid, yet calm and serene house.
Koi cavort in its ponds
Our exotic escape-from-routine house.
December 28, 2022
DEC 28, non-sequitur: the communist church
December 27, 2022
DEC 27, palinku (poetic novelty): sweet treats
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.
(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.)
December 26, 2022
DEC 26, mammalian wildlife: gerbils
MONGOLIAN GERBIL
Honest Herb takes offence (sub-type: verbal)
When the H gets pronounced in word herbal.
"Each hour, I'm observing,
My distaste is unswerving.
It unnerves me; not so with my gerbil."
The Mongolian gerbil, Meriones unguiculatus, a hardy small herbivorous rodent, has become a popular pet. Originally a resident of Asia transported for use as a research subject, it was introduced from the US to the UK in 1964; its pronunciation preferences currently remain unrecorded.
Check out this link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mongolian_gerbil
December 25, 2022
* DEC 25, Holiday season -- every Adventuality
December 24, 2022
DEC 24: holidays and celebrations: poinsettias
Happy Birthday to Trooper, wherever you are!
CHRISTMAS POINSETTIAS
Pulcherrima, Euphorbia (spurge),
"With its bracts, Christmas-red,
US cultivars bred,
Global sales are expected to surge."
Authors' Note: Joel Poinsett, South Carolinian physician and amateur botanist, served as the first US ambassador (a position designated as minister) to Mexico. In the 1820s, he sent home to his greenhouses samples of Euphorbia pulcherrima (member of the spurge family), then known as nochebuena, associated in Latin America with the Christmas story. Distribution of the poinsettia in the US was enhanced by other horticulturalists' development of cultivars with a more lush profusion of the colored bracts, and more recently, by variants in various appealing colors. Today, a single nursery in Texas accounts for 70% of American sales, and half of all global sales of this decorative seasonal potted plant.
Incidentally, although the plant is assumed by many to be toxic, that possibility appears based on an incorrect original report, and is unsupported by other evidence.
December 23, 2022
DEC 23, objectionable adjectives: fulsome
Authors' Note: Pretentiousness may be at work when the word fulsome is (ab)used by a writer or speaker who feels that 'full' is not sufficiently impressive.
December 22, 2022
DEC 22, higher connections: great chain of being
December 21, 2022
DEC 21, Canadiana: seniors' hockey
December 20, 2022
DEC 20, mythed opportunities: Aurora and Tithonus (immortality)
The legend continued into Roman times, during which Aurora personified the role of Eos, and Jove or Jupiter the role of Zeus. Much later, the dilemma of the once-mortal hero was fantasized in the poem "Tithonus" by Alfred Tennyson.
In any case, this story fits an immutable pattern in which we mortals get clobbered in interactions with Greco-Roman deities.
As Eos's day-job was to fly across the skies announcing the arrival of the Sun, the above deities have been immortalized in human names for astronomical or geophysical phenomena. Click HERE for another verse about Eos's astronomical protege.
You can also review other nonsensical poems dealing with 'Mythed Opportunities' in context on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Click HERE!
December 19, 2022
DEC 19, death and the afterlife: where bad Jews go
December 18, 2022
DEC 18, news-post: FIFA (soccer) World Cup 2022
FIFA WORLD CUP 2022:
Final at Qatar venue ends in 3-3- tie.
Thrilling tie-breaker, Argentina, Messi: What more can you say ?
December 17, 2022
DEC 17, waterfowl: flightless seabirds
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'.
December 16, 2022
DEC 16, patients and their maladies: gynophobia
EDITORS' WARNING: You must be at least 12 years of age to read this post (perhaps we should have listed it as a 'curtained verse')!
December 15, 2022
DEC 15, reptiles: ophidiophobia
December 14, 2022
DEC 14, palinku (poetic novelty): drinks
(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.
December 13, 2022
DEC 13: (re)duplications: harum-scarum
HARUM-SCARUM
Facing foolhardy, wild degradation?
Meaning reckless or rash,
Thoughtless, slaphappy, brash,
As when madcaps trash organization.
December 12, 2022
DEC 12, planet-saving verse: the climatologist
Wrote her thesis and change was the fodder.
Now she travels about
As an expert on drought,
And she seldom feels out of her water.
Dr G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, 2022
Author's Note: Pretty much a true story.
You can help save the planet by viewing all our verses in this series at "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE!
If you prefer, you could view most of this topically arranged material on Facebook, in Giorgio's photo-albums.
December 11, 2022
DEC 11, poets' corner: epitomy
EPITOMY
To epitomize what could be boring:December 10, 2022
DEC 10, palinku (poetic novety): diapers
December 9, 2022
DEC 9, non-sequitur: communitarian dinners
COMMUNITARIAN DINNERS
Modern dinners with groups communitarianAuthors' Note: As pointed out by Janet McConnaughey, an OEDILF assistant editor, the term dinner, the principal meal of the day, can be used in several connotations, including assemblies of civic groups over a periodic organizational meal.
The communitarians were philosophically oriented writers arising in Britain in the 19th century, whose utopian ideas incorporated socialism, collectivism, and experimentation with communal living. Whether they had organizational meetings over meals, and the specific foods served, are unrecorded details; one imagines that most such thinkers would avoid eating meat, and would likely be vegans or vegetarians.
December 8, 2022
DEC 8, doctors and their practices: Doctors Without Borders
This verse is dedicated to Dr. M. G., an Irish-Canadian emergency physician, now in Yemen.
DOCTORS without BORDERS
Modern heroes, Médecins Sans Frontières,
Bring resources and skill-sets to bear,
Where disastrous disorders
Require docs without borders.
Aren't you glad, readers, someone does care?
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!
December 7, 2022
DEC 7, ecto-parasites: order of fleas
ORDER of FLEAS
Species? Twenty-five hundred of these.
Each selects its key host,
Feeds and breeds, then can boast,
"We bring itch, infestation, disease."
Ectoparasites, sure to displease.
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.
December 6, 2022
DEC 6, bar-fauna: Hamlet at the pub
If you liked this offering, you might want to refer to our entire collection of verses about human and animal denizens of bars, pubs and other watering-holes. Click HERE.
December 5, 2022
DEC 5, insects: entomologists
ENTOMOLOGISTS
Dr G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, 2022
December 4, 2022
DEC 4, pluralia tantum: 'moronics' -- unusual fields of study
'MORONICS'
Dr G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, 2022
Grandpa Greg asked us to pass on this message: "You can view the entire collection of verses about 'pluralia tantum' by clicking HERE."
December 3, 2022
DEC 3, hellenophilia: tipping on Santorini
December 2, 2022
DEC 2, organic brain poetry: chronic subdural hematoma
CHRONIC SUBDURAL HEMATOMA
In elderly patients, such as Hazel, and in those on blood-thinning drugs, the trauma required to incite events such as those in this tale may be minor or even subliminal.
December 1, 2022
DEC 1, mythed opportunities: Cronus
CRONUS
Now on me falls the gruesomest onus,Dr G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, 2022 (OEDILF #113710)
In the harsh Greek version of the myth, the youth Cronus castrates his father, Uranus, at the urging of his peevish mother Gaia. Later, Cronus learns that he, too, is fated to be overturned by his own offspring, and devours them, except for Zeus, who escapes and eventually does overthrow him to become king of the gods.