JAN 30, singable satire: James Taylor sings "NESSUN DORMA", a parasit-ody

PARODY SONG-LYRICS,
inspired by the author attending a James Taylor concert at the North Charleston Coliseum, May 15, 2018.

MUSICAL UNDERPINNINGS:
Original Song#1(music): "Mexico", James Taylor 1975.

Original Song#2 (lyrics): "Nessun Dorma", aria from the 3rd act of "Turandot" composed by Giacomo Puccini, first performed after his death in 1926. Translation of the libretto can be found on the Wikipedia link.

PARODY COMPOSED: Dr. G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, 2015, updated 2018.

PARODY-SONGLINK: To access ukulele chord-charts to help you accompany "Nessun Dorma" on your favorite instrument, click HERE.

Singing along with the famous arias brings the crowd out to the opera. You don’t have to know much Italian to understand the libretto here however; ‘ciao’, pronounced like ‘chow’, means ‘so long’. As the mythical princess-character was reinvented by a French author, her name is usually pronounced French-style with the final ‘t’ silent. 

  

JAMES TAYLOR SINGS ‘NESSUN DORMA'

(to the tune of "Mexico")

Way up here, opera season’s in gear

Tickets craved for ‘Nessun Dorma’ this year

To download – credit-card and name – Baby James.

Wow, “Turandot”!

Sounds so moving, I must see that show,

Or “TuranDOTT” – some folks thought Giacomo*

Said that before he said ‘ciao’.

French and German version of a Persian tale

‘Bout a Princess of China who detested all males.

Empathize with hero who’s beheaded if fails.

Wow, TuranDOTT!

Rang the gong, and her three riddles I got.

Kept my head but the next risk is the same,

I’ll die if she finds out my name.

'Nessun dorma' means that no one should sleep,

Not even the Princess who’s a sadistic creep.

Secret hid within me; if divulged, price is steep.

Wow! Turandot!

Might lose my life when the glaring sun shows

Or get a wife; I could still win this game,

If nobody finds out my name.

Vanish, o night! set stars, give me hope.

The folks back home must think I’m smoking some dope.

She’ll get a long kiss, end the silence, name on her lips.

Wow! The princess Turandot - 

Must be quite a beauty, but I don’t really know.

And oh-oh-oh-oh! Turandot

To close I’ll sing, ‘Vincerò’.  ** (riff on last line of aria)

Wow! “Turandot”!

A Puccini opera that I don’t really know

Oh, “Turandot”

I guess I’ll have to go now.

Talking ‘bout “Turandot”    

Big ol’ op’ra-house playin’ “Turandot”...  fade

* Giacomo Puccini, composer, died in 1924 before he had quite completed the opera “Turandot”. The aria “Nessun Dorma” in the third act is the best-known piece of music in this work.

** Vincerò (Italian) I will win; repeated x 3 as last words of the famous aria.

 

JAN 29, poetic non-sequitur: professor and madman

 

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.

 

JAN 28, lexicon of word-pairs: alliterative binomials H to K

 

Giorgio's Lexicon of Binomials (alliterative):

Quite a few alliterative binomials have been highlighted in short verses by the authors:   

And, for those with a musical bent, we have a song-cycle of 9 songs displaying the spectrum of these binomial expressions. They have lyrics stuffed with word-pairs, arranged to familiar tunes. You can readily access this singable treasure trove of binomial expressions of various types by clicking on the link for the first song, "WORD PAIRS", HERE. 

You can proceed to the next blogpost in the lexicon series (alliteratives L to M)

JAN 27, wordplay: Scramble-towns eastern Canada,15

Who would ever have guessed? It turns out that an unparalleled word in generating anagrams, i.e. letter scrambles, is P-A-L-I-N-D-R-O-M-E-S. We have taken advantage of that property to create this unique series of wordplay maps of imaginary American (and Canadian) locales, each one completed by its official two-letter state (or provincial) abbreviation. 

LINKS to other nonsense in this series: 

Forward to the next Canadian map (16), eh?

Back up to the first Canadian map.

Back up to the first American map.

JAN 26, poems about parasites: the parasitologist (host)

Authors' Note: The term host has become a classic descriptor used in infectious diseases, and particularly in parasitology, although such usage may seem distasteful to many. Symbiosis describes a relationship in which the parasitized host and the invading organisms share a mutually beneficial association.

You can review Giorgio's other verses about parasites, both external (ecto-) and internal (endo-) on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE.

JAN 25, submitted palindromes: RANDOM PILES 30

 

  On the 25th of each month you will find a slide-filling group of palindromic phrases submitted to the editors by a panel of 7 palindromists. These folks have all been working on this project since January 2020. The personal profiles for each of these contributors are displayed in panels published here at the start of things, and then, we have asked them to provide (palindromically, of course) their views on one of the iconic items in the classic literature, starting with "A man, a plan, a canal -- Panama", continuing with other well-known phrases, such as "Dennis sinned". Otherwise, their contribution will be grouped in monthly random piles (a phrase that you might recognize as an anagram of the word p-a-l-i-n-d-r-o-m-e-s).

  

JAN 24, bi-lyrical limerick: 'aphonic'

 

Be sure to check out the whole collection of 'bi-lyrical limericks' by proceeding to "Edifying Nonsense." CLICK HERE !  

JAN 23, basic medical science: homonymous hemianop(s)ia

  

Authors' Note: Lesions in the occipital, or posterior portion of the brain's cerebral hemispheres are notorious for producing visual disruption. Each side of this sensitive area of brain tissue is targeted at integrating one half of the patient's visual field (to left or right). So for example, a tumour in the right side of the occipital lobe interrupts the signals arriving from the nerve fibres in the right side of the retina in both eyes; the patient's ability to see objects in the well-defined semi-circular zone to his left is eliminated in a fashion that is homonomous or congruent - both eyes are affected similarly. The resulting pattern of contralateral loss of visual sensation (homonomous hemianopsia) may be mapped by a test known as perimetry (visual-field analysis).

JAN 22, poets' corner: noun-verb contractions

Authors' Note: In the above limerick verse, seven noun-verb contractions, each characteristically joining its two elements (a pronoun or noun, and a verb) with an apostrophe, are italicized in blue. But, don't be misled: other types of contractions also use the apostrophe, and these are flagged in red font. Aren't is of course a negative contraction, and one's is a possessive form. 

You can find lots of other verses on this blog under the listing "Poets' Corner".  Click HERE. 

JAN 21, creative anachronism: the dawning of history

Along the same lines, readers are invited to review our small but growing collection of "creative anachronisms" on our blog "Edifying Nonsense" by clicking HERE.

JAN 20, singable satire: The Four Lads sing "THUNDER BAY" (Ontario)

  PARODY LYRICS

MUSICAL UNDERPINNINGS:: "Istanbul (not Constantinople)" a jazz-band style concoction recorded by The Four Lads in 1953. 

PARODY COMPOSED: Dr.G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, May 2023. 

PARODY-SONGLINK: To access ukulele chord-charts to help you accompany "Thunder Bay (not Constantinople)" on your favorite instrument, click HERE. Also, some additional photos and the song-lyrics alone (without chord indication) can be seen on the blog "Edifying Nonsense." 

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

In 1930, "Istanbul" was designated as the official name of the largest city in Türkiye (Turkey), known in earlier periods as Byzantion, Byzantium, Constantinople, and primarily as Istanbul since the fall of the Byzantine empire in 1453.

In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's tenth and newest province; in 2001, the Canadian Constitution was amended to revise the province's name to "Newfoundland and Labrador" (the mainland area of Labrador included less than 5% of the province's population but the majority of its landmass). The island of Newfoundland (NEW-found-land) is known by its inhabitants as "the Rock". 

In 1953 (the 500th anniversary of the "fall of Constantinople"), the Four Lads, a Canadian singing quartet who had moved from Toronto to the United States, acquired their first gold record with the release of the jazz-band styled "Istanbul (not Constantinople)". Other hit recordings by this group include "Standing on the Corner" and "Moments to Remember". BTW, the original members of the Four Lads attended the St. Michael's Choir School in downtown Toronto, on a small street well known to the authors.  

In 1970, the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario (current population about 110,000), at the western end of Lake Superior was formed by the merger of the two smaller communities of Fort William and Port Arthur.  

THUNDER BAY (not CONSTANTINOPLE)

(Intro theme, mid-Eastern, on kazoo)

"The Lakehead" was Fort William and Port Arthur
Now it's Thunder Bay, not Willi-am and Arthur
It's a wondrous town with name that's far superior --
Like Turkish delight, on a stormy night.

Every dame today, 'round Lakehead way,
Stays in Thunder Bay, not with William or with Arthur
You've a rainy date in Fort William or Port Arthur?
She'll be waiting in Thunder Bay.

Even old Newfoundland hooked up with Labrador.

Ask a Newfie, he might say,

"They thought, on the Rock, we'd like that more, eh?"

"So, take me back: Fort William and Port Arthur."
No, you can't go back in time, it's so much farther;
Been a long while past, since Willi-am and Arthur.

Why the name-change? Here's the crux: 

It's no one's business but Ca-nucks.

Thunder Bay. 

(kazoo)

Thunder Bay.

JAN 19, defining opinion: hose

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 in Limerick Form). You can see all of these on one visit by clicking HERE.

JAN 18, reptiles: anoles going green

You can find a lot more pictures of these cute little tree-lizards by clicking to links to blogged photo-collages HERE (suburban neighbours), HERE (pole-dancer), and HERE (coloration), among others.

There are also other illustrated poems HERE (dewlaps), HERE ("skink-busting") and HERE ("patrolling").

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

WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF THE POETRY ON THIS SITE?

 Poetry appearing on this site was written (unless otherwise indicated) by Giorgio Coniglio (registered pseudonym), and for the most part contributed to the online humour dictionary-site...

OEDILF (Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form). In its 15 years of existence, OEDILF has worked its way alphabetically from Aa- to He-, with the goal of accumulating a verse defining every meaning of every word in the English language. This co-operative project has  accumulated over 110,000 carefully edited limericks, with completion date estimated to be around the year 2065. In the past five years, Giorgio has contributed over 500 poems to the project; the site's accession number for the verses is indicated at the bottom of the relevant slides in our presentations.

JAN 17, palinku (poetic novelty): family life

  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. 

  You can readily view all our "palinku" verses if you proceed with a single click to our more encyclopedic blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE. (Or if you prefer, you can stay on this particular blogsite and look for the offerings for the 17th day of each month -- there are now more than 60 of these.)

 

JAN 16, classic palindromes, 'no left felon'

Authors' Note: Apparently a few felons are politicians, and vice versa.

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'. 

JAN 15, lexicon of word-pairs: alliterative binomials E to G

Giorgio's lexicon of binomials (alliterative)

Quite a few alliterative binomials have been highlighted in short verses by the authors:  Matching the selection on the above slide, these include "flora and fauna".

And, for those with a musical bent, we have a song-cycle of 9 songs displaying the spectrum of these binomial expressions. They have lyrics stuffed with word-pairs, arranged to familiar tunes. You can readily access this singable treasure trove of binomial expressions of various types by clicking on the link for the first song, "WORD PAIRS", HERE. 

You can proceed to the next blogpost in the lexicon series (alliteratives H to K) by clicking HERE.

JAN 14, birdlore: turkey on the roof (Berkeley)

 

TURKEY ON THE ROOF -- Berkeley, California

TURKEY FLIGHT

SUNSET, SHORTLY THEREAFTER

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.

JAN 13, Carolina lowcountry: photo-study #1 of the Cooper River (Arthur Ravenel) bridge

This photogenic bridge, a part of US highway 17, links the historic city of Charleston, South Carolina, with the suburban town of Mt. Pleasant across the Cooper River. 

Photos were taken with the camera function on Giorgio Coniglio's i-phone 7, later upgraded to an i-phone 13. A few other pictures can be found in a pre-pandemic blogpost HERE. 

t-shirt motif

You can see this marvellous feat of engineering as rendered in fabric art by using the search bar at the top of the post.

TO SEE MORE STUFF (poems, pics, peculiarities): To see older or newer material  (posted daily, or at least on most 'good' days), CLICK below the Comments Section, on 'Older Post' or 'Newer Post'.

JAN 12, folio-entry, couples: horses

You can view all of our folio-photos from the collection of 'Couples' portraits in a wider context on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE.

JAN 11, bar-fauna: the monster-bar

 

Authors' Note: 

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.

A NOTE from the EDITORS: 

 As readers may have gathered, this blogsite highlights several types of light, wistful and humorous reflections on current life, chief among them being short verses using the limerick format, more or less (see the blogpost "Limerick Variations"). But on occasion, we feel the urge to continue important themes through several stanzas worth of poetic ideas. So in this post, we highlight the previous years' offerings of 'lengthier' poems of at least 15 lines or 3 stanzas. We have been publishing these at the rate of once a month on this blog ("Daily Illustrated Nonsense"), but as they are found mixed with shorter verses of five lines, i.e. standard limericks, or even three lines, (palinku --palindromic haiku), you might have failed to notice and review them in their entirety. 

  This summary gives you a second chance to explore these lengthier creations that contain as many as 6 stanzas -- hardly lengthy enough to be considered a genuine saga, but we hope that they reflect the authors' sagacity.  

  The compressed mode in which our 'sagas' are displayed may enhance your appreciation of the range of topics covered; if you prefer to enjoy the details in a larger and more readable font, you can quickly access the posts on this blog devoted uniquely to their stanza-by-stanza display (as well as notes, related photos and videos), by entering their title into the search lines provided. And from there, you can, of course, explore further to enjoy the multitude of shorter verses.  

For the curious reader's convenience, we have sorted our treasury of 'brief sagas' by the year of publication on this blog. Altogether, you will find more than 40 whimsical poems that cover about 700 lines of verse. 

Click below, and enjoy!
2020
2021
2022
2023.

a flap at the Ibis Hotel