* DEC 31, HOGMANAY (New Year's Eve): Auld Lang's sine

reprise from December 31, 2020

DEC 31, a brief saga: Hogmanay (New Year's Eve)

 A HAPPY NEW YEARS TO ALL !!!

Incidental photo (start of 2023):

midnight scene from our Toronto aerie

DEC 30, creative anachronism: Roget's Roman "Thesaurus"

 

Authors' Note: 

bud: shortened form of the word buddy (friend)

Roman poets Horace and Ovid are discussed in other verses on this site.

Roget's "Thesaurus" was initially published in 1852, although it had been compiled much earlier, in 1805.

DEC 29, ecto-parasites: bedbugs

                                                                                                             #120747, approved May 2023

Authors' Note:  Details of the allegory: The protagonist needed some vacation following a busy time of downsizing and changing residences. A few days prior to taking off on Snowbird flight 203, it became obvious that a domestic infestation of bedbugs, presumably acquired during the household move, had pre-empted his search for a subtropical respite. 

  Watson, the bedbug sniffer-dog (and his contollers) to the rescue!

Watson, the bedbug sniffer-dog

DEC 28, painterly poetry: Auvers-sur-Oise

Authors' Note: 

Oise: a tributary of the Seine River, just north of Paris

Auvers-sur-Oise (oh-vayr-syoor-WAHS): village on the river Oise, in which a number of prominent 19th and 20th century painters lived

Vincent Van Gogh moved from St-Remy in the south of France to Auvers-sur-Oise to be closer to Paris and his art-dealer brother Theo. The move brought the possibility of supervision by Doctor Gachet, a friend of Cezanne and other impressionist painters. Appearing to be convalescing from his mental illness, Vincent spent 70 productive days there before his unexpected suicide. He is buried in a cemetery in the village beside his brother Theo, who died 6 months later.

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.)

DEC 26, mammalian wildlife: gerbils

Authors' Note:

Honest Herb(ie), a westponder, concedes that pronouncing the herbal 'H' in Britain and Australia may be the norm there, but he prefers the more common North American way to say it with the 'H' silent, as in 'hour', and 'honest'.  In fact, language detectives may correctly intuit that Herb is a Canadian, as he spells offence with a 'c', rather than the 's' used by Americans.

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

You can review the whole collection of illustrated verses about mammals (both domestic and exotic) by checking out the more extensive post on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE !

* DEC 25, Holiday season -- every Adventuality

reprise from December 25, 2020

DEC 25, holiday verse: every Adventuality

 

Incidental Photo:

decoration of a gingerbread house

DEC 24: holidays and celebrations: poinsettias

Happy Birthday to Trooper, wherever you are!

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.

 
rainy-day visit to the
Allan Gardens Conservatory

DEC 23, objectionable adjectives: fulsome

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to P.E.H. !!!!!!!

 

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.

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

DEC 22, higher connections: great chain of being

Authors' Note: Originally conceived by Plato and Aristotle as a construct to explain the universe, the Great Chain of Being, known in Latin as scala naturae, organized all beings and matter in a hierarchy, descending from heavenly powers through humans, animals, plants and minerals. 

   In medieval times, the concept was expanded as a rationale for the Divine Right of Kings, and to deny unapproved social mobility.  

 

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.

Incidental Photo:

the holiday season is upon us ...

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 21, Canadiana: over-wintering waterfowl (downy)

Authors' Note: Ron, the anthropomorphic trumpeter swan, first appeared on this site in the verse 'trumpeter swan' in a blogpost dealing with waterfowl.

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

DEC 20, mythed opportunities: Aurora and Tithonus (eternally)

 Authors' Note:   Well, this is about as close as you can get to the bona fide Greek myth. In actuality, Eos became enamored of a series of mortal lovers, but wanted to get on with things, and eventually turned the formerly handsome Prince Tithon/Tithonus into a cicada (which does not match the rhyming scheme). Be careful what you wish for!

   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. Also, the involved deities have been immortalized in human names for astrophysical phenomena.

  In any case, this story fits an immutable pattern in which we mortals get clobbered in interactions with Greco-Roman deities.

 Click HERE for another verse about Eos's astronomical protégé.

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!

DEC 19, death and the afterlife: where bad Jews go

 

 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!

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 ?

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'. 

DEC 16, patients and their maladies: Graves' disease

 

Authors' Note:  Graves' disease (often shortened by medical types to the ominous-sounding Graves' ), described by Robert Graves in 1835, is a common auto-immune disease that attacks the internal controls in the thyroid gland, and results in the overproduction of thyroid hormones. Significant symptoms result from hyperthyroidism, the hypermetabolic state that is produced.

Among several effective treatments, antithyroid drugs, taken over months or years, block production of these hormones, and often result in resumption of the euthyroid (normal) state.       

DEC 15, reptiles: ophidiophobia

Authors' Note: 

ophidiophobia: an extrem or incapacitating fear of snakes

herpetophobia: a similar anxiety disorder extending to all reptiles

The reptilian suborder Serpentes was previously known as Ophidia, a term derived from ophis, Greek for 'snake'. 

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".

DEC 14, classic palindrome: go hang a salami ...

Authors' Note: Hanging a salami is an easily accomplished, but important step in the process of dry curing this meat product.

'Go hang a salami; I'm a lasagna hog' is a frequently cited palindrome of relatively recent origin. It has been variously attributed to Jon Agee, a cartoonist and children's writer, and Baby Gramps, a musician and wordplay guru. A lesser known variant of this phrase, possibly primally inspirational, is 'Yo, bang a salami. I'm a lasagna boy.'

The second palindrome cited in this verse is of limited longevity and suboptimal quality, as admitted by our protagonist, little Bobby; it is a brief variant of a classic phrase of unknown origin, usually cited as 'God, a red nugget: a fat egg under a dog.'

Web-resources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Gramps

https://jonagee.com/ 

You can review a collection of such illustrated verses in a wider context by proceeding to 'Reversing Verse: Limericks About Classic Palindromes' on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. 

DEC 13: (re)duplication: harum-scarum

Authors' Note: The grammatical term (re)duplications is also discussed by the author in a verse about hanky-panky.

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

DEC 12, planet-saving verse: drought

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!

DEC 11, signs of confusion: second collection

This post is the second in a series of 5. You can attempt to get all of this straight by reviewing the collection in the previous post of November 16, '22

toplessness?

as a child, I believed that 'Pickering'
was an abbreviation for 'pickled herring'.
I guess I was wrong

 This post is the second in a series of 5. You can push onwards and  review the collections in these subsequent posts ... 

1. February 22, '23
2. March 3, '23
3. April 12, '23

DEC 10, palinku (poetic novety): diapers

 

(Ed. note:) Verses of this ilk have continued to proliferate, and there are now more than 50. You can view them all at one swoop if you proceed with a single click to our more encyclopedic blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE.

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

DEC 9, inspired by Ogden Nash: ultimate tribute

 

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.

Authors' Note:    (mayd-SEHN sahn frohn-TYAYR)

 A small group of French doctors and journalists, in the wake of the horrific Biafran famine in 1971, founded Médecins Sans Frontières (occasionally for English speakers translated as Doctors Without Borders). Designed to deal with humanitarian crises in the developing world in regions beseiged by overt war, armed internal conflicts, epidemics and natural disasters, the charity has repeatedly distinguished itself, winning the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999. It currently (2022) operates in over seventy countries worldwide.

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!