NOV 30, singable satire: Muddy Waters Sings "CRAYFISH ETOUFFEE" (Inferno, Canto 6)

 PASTICHE WITH PARODY SONG-LYRICS

ORIGINAL POEM:  Canto#6 of "Inferno" by Dante Alighieri, the first book in the triad, "The Divine Comedy", written in the early 14th century.
ORIGINAL SONG: "Baby, Please Don't Go", Big Joe Williams 1935, popularized by Muddy Waters, used here primarily for music and meter.

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, November 2015.
PARODY-SONGLINK: To find ukulele and guitar chord-charts to help you accompany "Crayfish Étouffée" on your favorite instrument, click HERE.

In the Third Circle, Dante sees the fate of gluttons like his friend from Florence named ‘Ciacco’ (the equivalent of ‘Piggy’). No fire used for torture here; the climate sounds like Toronto in March. The poor souls confined here in the freezing mud are tormented by a demonic three-headed dog, Cerberus. I took some liberties with Ciacco’s tale; in the original, he discusses the complex politics of 14th century Florence. The details I provided re Ciacco's gluttonous exploits are imagined. Eschatology is the part of theology concerned with final judgment and the destiny of the soul.  Étouffée is a delicious Louisiana dish of seafood, usually crayfish, in a Cajun roux sauce.

"Cerberus", W. Blake

New Orleans style crayfish etouffée

DANTE, GO AND SEE 

(to the tune of "Baby Please Don't Go")

Sono al cerchio terzo,

Dov'è'l crudele Cerbero

La pena di golosi; mi veggio intorno

Novi tormentati.

Dante go and see

Dante go and see

Dante go and see what’s in Circle Three - 

They punish gluttony.

Virge led me way down here

Virge brought me way down here

Another Ring of Fear, fiend in charge appear

Be a three-headed dog.

Thermostat set low

Pelting rain, hail, snow

Sinners grovel, sit in freezing mud, like sh*t

Hounded by that cursed dog.

Guy who waves hello -

Dante used to know,

‘Ciacco’, brought so low; he’s a Florentine

He tells his story, so …..

'ALL YOU EAT - ' , sign say - 

'CRAYFISH ÉTOUFFÉE'
Stayed all day and ate food from New Orleans

Now Circle Three’s my fate. ”

Virgil’s prophecy:

Eschatology -

Our friend ‘Piggy’ sit in that freezing sh*t

‘Til final trumpet blow.

So baby, please don’t stray

Don’t pig out that way

Don’t eat étouffée down in New Orleans

Or Circle Three’s your fate.

Dante go and see

Dante go and see

Dante go and see what’s in Circle Three - 

They punish gluttony.

NOV 29, mammalian wildlife: horsing around

 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 !

NOV 28, decorative touches: "Oberlin Road" (fabric art)

 Y

 Decorative Touches: "Oberlin Road" 

 fabric art by R.C.H., presented with thanks

NOV 27, poets' corner: doggerel (brief sagas)

NOV 26, magical palindromes: more from Paris

 

You can become an expert fan of our wordplay concoction 'magical palindromes' by reviewing the explanatory material found  on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense" HERE.

NOV 25, Submitted Palindromes: H, targeted at "LISA BONET ATE NO BASIL."

  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. Their profiles are indicated 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", and continuing with other well-known phrases, such as "Dennis sinned". Otherwise, their contribution will be grouped in 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). 

You can access all of this delightful entertainment by entering submitted palindromes in one of the two search bars at the top of this post and scrolling downwards through the wordplay posts that you will discover. 

 

NOV 24, decorative touches: more abstract pieces (fabric art)

a) Diptych: "Countryside Abstract"

fabric art by R.C.H., presented with thanks

 b) "Decorative Touches: "Untitled Abstract"

fabric art by R.C.H., presented with thanks

NOV 23, Canadiana: crept and leaped

 

Authors' Note:   We have the good fortune in Canada, in some instances, of choosing either standard British grammar or the American version thereof. In the US, the commonly employed past tenses are "creeped" and "leaped"; these would alter the rhyming of the poem's second and fourth lines. A US-compatible version of this poem is also in the works, but to date preliminary efforts remain heaped under the carpet.

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

NOV 22, pinkos (forward thinkers): vegetarianism

 

Authors' Note: The authors, Ontario anapestrians, have not eaten meat in two decades. The restaurant scene in Ontario, as in some other world-wide destinations, has gradually become more hospitable to vegan and vegetarian preferences, such as Theresa's and the authors'. This development can be attributed in part to our influx of newcomers from south and east Asia. Meat-eaters can still be readily accommodated, however.

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

You can review all the poems in our collection "Pinkos: forward thinkers" by clicking HERE.

NOV 21, ambulatory verse: reverse

Authors' Note: 

do a 180: a colloquialism for reversing direction deriving from half the number of degrees in a complete circle; here, as elsewhere, voiced as one-eighty

The author, an old palindromist, finds it appropriate to mention in the context of 'doing a 180', a few palindromic phrases using the verb reverse. These include:

Codes reverse, Doc; Noses reverse, son; Dikes reverse, kid; 

Drawer: sides reversed is ... reward; and the very dark Nooses reverse soon. 

NOV 20, singable satire for Thanksgiving: another pair-ody -- "TURKEY LEFTOVERS"

PASTICHE with PARODY LYRICS subbed into TWO WELL-KNOWN SEASONAL SONGS, another pairody.

ORIGINAL SONG#1: "The Christmas Song" (Chestnuts...), written by Wells and Tormé  in 1944, and recorded by the Nat King Cole Trio 1946.

ORIGINAL SONG#2: "Good King Wenceslas", John Mason Neale 1853, but often now mistakenly referred to as 'traditional'. Neale's piece, (based on accounts of the Bohemian Wenceslas legend, and a 13th century 'spring- carol tune) was highly criticized in the 1920s as "ponderous moral doggerel"; see the interesting description in the Wikipedia essay on this topic.

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, January, 2015. 

PARODY-SONGLINK: To find ukulele chord-charts to help you accompany "Turkey Leftovers" on your favorite instrument, click HERE. 

TURKEY LEFTOVERS

(to the tune of The Christmas Song - "Chestnuts Roasting")

Essay featured in Economist,
Turkeys' origins disclosed -
Centerpiece of each year's Yuletide feast,
Subspecies bred in Mexico.

Dolts like me believed that gobblers and that Mid-East land -
Names were mere coincidence.
Ottomans, trading ships, caravans -
I understand, it now makes sense.

Each year I prove I'm such a goof,
I try create too late a spiffy Christmas spoof,
But with a month's delay I'll get it right
Helped by this article about "Turkey's Flight".

And so I'm offering this paraphrase
Of what the author claimed was true,
French - d'inde, and the Turks call them "hindi" - what jerks!
While in India, name in Hindi,
And in Portugal's "peru".

To the tune of "Good King Wenceslas")


Montezuma once bred fowl tastier than pheasant; 
Shipped the Spanish queen a thou - funky kind of present.
Isabella loathed the birds, trimmings too displeased her;
No use for leftovers, she didn't have a free-eezer.

'Turkeys', Moors, then Jews were banned from the royal kitchens;
Legend says that's how began Spanish Inquisition - 
Cortes later sacked the lands of the Aztec ruler.
Phil or Izz-and-Ferdinand ? Can't say which was cru-ueller.

Avian émigrés toured through, crowns of Europe hosting,
Though few of their lackeys knew oven-time for roasting.
Hot or cold and steep or flat, exiled birds were living,
Prospered in those countries that didn't have Thanksgi-iving.

Thus this misnamed flock did cope through the 16th century,
'ventually hens copped some hope with the English gentry.
For some time they settled down,  breeding they found boring,
Westward they shipped out again, restlessly explo-oring.

Turkeys in America, native home recovered,
Quirky and hysterical history discovered -
Essay we would clearly rank best of the Econ'mist,
Author we should dearly thank-(s)he remains anon-ymous.

NOV 19, exemplification: house

                                 

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

 

NOV 18, 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!

incidental photo (2023)

barrel cactuses

NOV 17, palinku (poetic novelty): global warming

 

  In this post, we continue with our novel form of poetic wordplay. 

  Inspired by Japanese haiku poetry, the "palinku" is a terse verse with a total of 17 syllables displayed on three lines. Unlike its earlier English-language forerunners, 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  (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. Readers will note that we have been publishing verses of this type on the 17th of each month.

 You can readily view all our verses of this type 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.)

NOV 16, decorative touches: studies of the Ravenel Bridge (fabric art)

 

Decorative Touches

 fabric art by R.C.H., presented with thanks

NOV 15, 2023: defining opinion: bupkes

 

 

Be sure to check out the multiple collections of verses on 'Patients and their Maladies" by proceeding to our full-service blog ,"Edifying Nonsense." CLICK HERE !

NOV 14, decorative touches: three untitled abstract pieces (fabric art)

a) Decorative Touches: "Untitled Abstract 1"  

   fabric art by R.C.H., presented with thanks

 

b) Decorative Touches: "Untitled Abstract 2"  

 fabric art by R.C.H., presented with thanks

 c) Decorative Touches: "Untitled Abstract 3"  

                                              fabric art by R.C.H., presented with thanks

NOV 13, terminal (poetic) exclamation: KERPLUNK!

Authors' Note: Kerplunk is an onomatopoeic expression for the sound produced as a non-buoyant object suddenly sinks below the watery surface.

You can review our collection of poems on the topic of "Terminal Exclamation (Limerick Variations)" as it evolves on our more encyclopedic blog "Edifying Nonsense"; click HERE.  

NOV 12, portraits of couples: broad-headed skinks

 

Enjoy an illustrated poem about the broad-headed skink, Plestiodon laticeps by clicking HERE.

You can view samples from our portfolio of 'Couples' portraits in a wider context on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE.

NOV 11, poetic non-sequitur: hoggishly

 

The collections of short verses entitled "Non-Sequiturs" on our parent blog "Edifying Nonsense", contain 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.

NOV 10, brief sagas, a placeholder

 Until we write another "brief saga", we'll use this verse as a placeholder ...

 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 in Limerick 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. 

 There are now over 40 of these lengthier bits of doggerel featured at OEDILF in Giorgio's "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 since January 2020.

NOV 9, birdlore: Carl the cardinal -- live-action photo

northern cardinal

 

NOV 8, postal places, Canada: Goose Bay and Gander, NL

 Authors' Note: NL is the official abbreviation for the Canadian province comprised of the Atlantic island of Newfoundland, and Labrador — the sparsely populated section of mainland Canada that borders the Atlantic Ocean to its north.
Gander, population 12,000, located on the island north of the capital of St. John's, had been founded in the 1930s as a refuelling stop for the expanding number of commercial transatlantic flights. It recently became famous as the recipient town for diverted passenger aircraft during the 9/11 debacle.

The town of Goose Bay, population 8000, now administratively known as Happy Valley - Goose Bay, is the largest settlement in the icy northern portion of the province. Founded in 1941, it was selected for its potential as a military airbase, and served that function throughout World War Two.

A terse story about "dangerous": A recent novice visitor from France, flying overnight to Toronto, sleepily noted the key towns on the plane's route-map, and wondered why "Danger" was prominently displayed near the country's east coast.

 At one swell foop, you can review all our postal poems about intriguing places in the USA and Canada, by proceeding to the encyclopedic blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE !

NOV 7, Toronto excursion: autumn at the lakefront

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