APR 30, American satire (prolongation): criminal lying

 

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! 

APR 29, exemplification: hillbilly

Authors' Note: It sure warn't easy to pack the whole bunch of neighbors and pals into a single verse. Sad to say, I had to leave out the following:  bumpkins, crackers, chawbacons, clodhoppers, good-ol'- boys, hayseeds,  and yokels. I'll include 'em next time! 

 To review our whole collection of "exemplary exemplifications", click HERE. 

APR 28, defining opinion: cruddy

 Authors' Note: Trudy's definition seems to be skewed towards the achievement of cruddiness, downplaying inherent or intrinsic cruddiness. We await further reports.

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.

APR 27r, Ontario nostalgia: Trent-Severn canal

 

a) reprise from May 2020

Authors' Note:       

docktails: slang for drinks, and/or a cocktail-snack

social hour at dockside, as used by North American 

motorboating cliques

mocktails: abbreviation for mock (non-alcoholic) cocktails

  The Trent-Severn Waterway is a system operated by Parks Canada and enjoyed by recreational motorboaters. It meanders for 400 km (250 miles) across southern Ontario, joining L. Ontario's Bay of Quinte and L. Huron's Georgian Bay via intervening smaller lakes, rivers and manmade canals. With over 40 locks en route, the altitude near the system's midpoint reaches a level of 180 m (590 feet) above the starting point. The world's highest lift-lock, located at Peterborough, is an impressive piece of engineering and a tourist attraction.

You can review the entire series of illustrated poems about  the good old days in Ontario by checking the post 'Ontario Nostalgia' on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE. 

b) Giorgio's Lexicon of Binomials

APR 26, "pictures at a renovation": the second week

 PREVIOUS VIEWS:

You can follow the whole arduous undertaking by scrolling back through our earlier posts: (you can also click these dates for direct transport back to see the previous "pictures at a renovation"). The earlier posts show the demolition phase, and that may be of particular interest for many viewers.

April 18: reconstruction

April 16: demolition phase winds down (mostly)

April 10: demolition phase

April 6:   demolition phase

April 4:   demolition phase

March 31: demolition phase

And, check out the project-planning stage, elucidated in photos and verse, on March 19, and March 27.

front hall

kitchen

LR

 

DR

den

master BR

master bath
(shower construction underway)

APR 25r, Carolina lowcountry: spring excursions

 
a) reprise from 2020

APR 25, Carolina lowcountry: further spring excursions

mallard drake

mute swan, Middleton Place

a green anole;
one of E.T.'s relations?

cycling under Spanish moss

woodstork near TV2 pond

TO SEE MORE STUFF: 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'.

b) Giorgio's Lexicon of Binomials

APR 24, urban concerns: aged street tree

Authors' Note: This verse drew inspiration from the poem "Cuore di Legno" (Heart of Wood) by poet Primo Levi. In the poem, the narrator, an aged horse chestnut growing on a busy urban street, complains of, among other insults, being peed on by neighborhood dogs. 

APR 23, doctors and their practices: neighbourhood analyst (capsaicin)

 

Authors' Note: 

 (kap-SAY-sin, or kap-SAY-uh-sin)

  Capsaicin is a chemical derived from hot peppers that creates a sensation of heat on the human skin and in the human mouth. Almost all other mammals also dislike the sensation, so the chemical has come to play a role as the major ingredient in many products touted for repelling mammalian pests.

  Despite the mostly-true story related here, the drug has seldom been prescribed as a treatment by psychoanalysts or other psychiatrists. Moreover, the difficulty of repeated applications (repetition may be needed after each rainfall) to rooftop sites makes its use in this setting hazardous. 

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!

APR 22, poetic non-sequitur: hope for victims of bullying

Authors' Note: We attended an inspiring book launch this afternoon. 

Our collection of 'Non-Sequiturs' on our parent blog "Edifying Nonsense", contains an unusual assortment of odds-and-ends, that don't quite fit into other topic-based offerings. But should you want to review the entire collection, click HERE.

APR 21, mammalian wildlife: a peek at elephant seals

Reminiscence from a year ago (somehow this didn't get posted back then):  

What we got to see at Año Nuevo State Park on our April '22 trip was a mass of seal pups, who had been heavily fed by their mothers and then abandoned  on the beach, while the mothers swim out to sea as usual on their long and lonely migration. The pups spend a lot of time sleeping off their recent huge intake of food, and after a few months make their own way, eventually, into the sea where they somehow cope with doing their own life-adventure, learning to swim, hunt and eventually to relocate their home beach, all miraculously without guidance.

It would be great to return in late fall to see the older males, who weigh up to 5000 pounds, when they return for annual breeding.

 

You can review a 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 !

APR 20, singable satire: Elton John sings "DANTE's SONG" (Inferno, Canto 1a)

 PARODY-LYRICS

ORIGINAL SONG: "Your Song", Elton John, 1970.

ORIGINAL POEM: "Inferno" by Dante Alighieri, the first of 3 books constituting "The Divine Comedy" or "La Divina Commedia".

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, April 2015.

PARODY-SONGLINK: To find ukulele and guitar chord-charts to help you accompany "Dante's Song" on your favorite instrument, click HERE.

Although Dante Alighieri wrote these poetic lines 700 years ago, they have received very little play on various parody-sites. Dante was a forerunner in his use of vernacular language (rather than Latin); based mainly on Tuscan dialect, his writings were critical in the development of modern Italian. To make the poetic lines singable, I had to take down Dante’s hallmark “terza rima” rhyming scheme (aba, bcb, cdc….), and rearrange it to a simpler aabb format. Other than this rearrangement, which leaves out some original lines, the lyrics for the beginning of the first Canto are primarily Dante’s. My English translation follows the Italian, with some adaptations for modern readers. Endless kudos are owing to the Pinsky translation, which inspired this effort.

Inferno, Canto#1a: DANTE'S SONG

(to the tune of "Your Song")

"Dark Wood"

detail of Dore engraving

Intro:

Put down words to “Commedia” sev’n centuries past,

My take on Life and after- seemed to take hold and last

Died exiled in Ravenna, but I guess I did well,

My gift is what we all think about Heav’n and Hell………

Dante:

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita,

Che la diritta via era smarrita

Mi ritrovai per una selva oscura, a dir

Quanto e qual era è cosa dura.

It’s a little bit funny, but in the midst of life’s road,

I got lost on the path where I’d easily strode,

Found myself without money in a dark gloomy wood –

I’d use a GPS if only I could.

Questa selva selvaggia ed aspra e forte

Tanto è amara, che poco è piu morte –

Era tanto pien di sonno com’io v’entrai

Che la verace via abandonnai.

This unyielding woodland is wild and perverse

No place to get coffee, only death might be worse

Can’t say how I got here, seems I’ve used up my stash

That I’d thought of smoking near the jogging path.

Chorus(It.)

Ma dove terminava l’orribile valle

Vidi vestite di raggi le spalle d’un colle

La paura cheta, un poco cheta

Dopo notte di pièta

Per ogne calle mena dritto questa pianeta

Chorus(Eng.):

I spotted a billboard for a roadside motel

Where a fearsome trench ended at the foot of a hill

I’d had a bad night, my credit’s quite tight,

If I had enough cash

I’d get out of this sunlight, I need a place to crash.

E come quei che con lena affannata

Si volge all’acqua perigliosa e guata;

Uscito fuor del pelago alla riva,

       Dante nella Selva

W.Blake

Cosi l’animo mio ancor fuggiva.

Like an agent who’s landed and stripped off scuba-gear

007, no tuxedo, proceeding out of fear,

From depths to some hostile shore is what I really mean,

That’s the way that my soul appeared to be fleeing.

Si volse indietro, l’animo mio

Che ancor fuggiva,

A rimirar lo passo che non lasciò persona viva.

Fearing what to find, my passing-lane mind

Checked the rear-view mirror, then hurtled

Peering back at the passage that leaves the living world.

APR 19r, curtained verse -- business agenda

 

a) reprise from 2020

APR 19, curtained verse: business agenda

 EDITORS' WARNING: You must be at least 12 years of age to read this post!

Authors' Note:  We hope and trust that Fran did actually check the age of her agents.

You can review other mildly scurrilous illustrated verses in a wider context by proceeding to 'Curtained verse: Faintly Obscene (Selected) Limericks' on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'.

b) Giorgio's Lexicon of Binomials

APR 18, "pictures at a renovation": reconstruction begins

 Yesterday, the project entered a new chapter in forward progress: At least in some rooms, the putting-together stage has begun. This started with  the front hall and kitchen, applying levelling cement over the underlying concrete slabs in preparation for tiling in the kitchen and hardwood installation in the front hall. The den remains the site of intense removal of 'popcorn ceiling'. 

 PREVIOUS VIEWS:

You can follow the whole arduous undertaking by scrolling back through our earlier posts: (you can also click these dates for direct transport back to see the previous views. The earlier posts show the demolition phase, and that may be of particular interest for many viewers.

April 16

April 10

April 6

April 4

March 31

front hall (watch your step!)
(wet levelling cement in place)

kitchen

LR/DR

LR, ready for some refinishing

den, ongoing intense ceiling restoration

APR 17, palinku (poetic novelty): London (UK and Ontario)

palinku

\

 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.)

APR 16, "pictures at a renovation": demolition phase winds down

 The dramatic part of the demolition phase is winding down...

PREVIOUS VIEWS:

You can follow the whole arduous undertaking by scrolling back through our earlier posts: (you can also click these dates for direct transport back to see the previous pics. These earlier posts show the demolition phase, and that may be of particular interest for many viewers.

April 10

April 6

April 4

March 31

nd, check out the project-planning stage, elucidated in photos and verse, on March 19, and March 27.

LR
the floors throughout are now bare concrete

kitchen

the studio

exterior view