FEB 29, views from the Carolina lowcountry

boardwalk at Shem Creek, Mt. Pleasant SC

Carolina anole, napping in our backyard

longleaf pine, re-establishing itself
on an old rice plantation

Carnival cruise

political perturbation

allee of moss-covered live oak trees,
 lining an old road at a rice plantation

pelican, skimming surface of the creek

a small boat tries to imitate the pelican

                                                  

 

FEB 28, Charleston garden: garden-tour docent

 

a) reprise from February 2020

FEB 26, the Charleston garden: garden-tour docent

You can review these illustrated verses in a wider context by proceeding to 'Poetry Praising the Charleston Garden' on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Click HERE!

b) daily palindromes, as randomly submitted by various readers

FEB 27, defining opinion: honk

 

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.

FEB 26, chemical states: Canadian provinces and territories

 You can view the collection of posts on this topic with this link to our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense" -- click HERE.

FEB 25, canal verse: the St-Martin canal, Paris

 

a) reprise from February 2020

You can discover a bunch of silly illustrated poems about canals by checking out the collection on "Edifying Nonsense" entitled "Panama Palindrome Parodies".

b) current political turmoil, US version

polling station for SC Republican primary,
all quiet (2024) 

,

FEB 24, American satire (prolongation): Nikki Haley rally

 We hope that you enjoyed this verse, concocted just in time for the South Carolina primary election. You can find 40 more on this topic in 6 collections on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE to start! 

FEB 23, defining opinion: hormone

Authors' Note: The biologic term hormone includes blood-borne "messenger molecules" such as adrenaline, insulin, cortisol, prolactin, melatonin, androgens and estrogens, as well as those with more easily discerned names such as thyroid hormone, growth hormone and anti-diuretic hormone.

The reader might be surprised to learn that a sober scientific journal "Hormones and Behavior" has been editing and publishing scientific papers in this field for over 50 years.

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.

FEB 22, bottom line of medical humor: gastro-intestinal pact

 

a) reprise from February 2020

Feb 22, bottom line of medical humor: gastro-intestinal pact

Authors' Note: The concept of a formal truce was approached by both parties following the authors' misguided indulgence in the preparation for an endoscopic procedure. 

The authors regret that there are no appropriate images to accompany this verse.

But, you can view informative verses of this type in a wider context by proceeding to the collection 'The BOTTOM LINE of MEDICAL HUMOR' on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE!

b) incidental photo

"Me and my shadow"

   

FEB 21, American satire: nursery rhyme -- 'grating'

 

a) reprise from January 2020

JAN 21, American satire(1): nursery rhyme -- 'grating'

FEB 20 (2024), singable satire: Tom Lehrer sings "NO ELEMENTS"

PARODY-LYRICS

ORIGINAL SONG: "The Elements", a parody by Tom Lehrer,1959. 

PARODY COMPOSED: "No Elements", Giorgio Coniglio, a patter-song based on examples of the third declension of Latin nouns, April 2013. A decade later, it might be worthwhile to review these lyrics once more!

EXPLANATION: Lehrer had adapted the tune of "The Major General's Song" from Gilbert and Sullivan's "Pirates of Penzance". There are 3 somewhat different melodies/chord-sequences used in alteration through the GandS song, and in Lehrer's derived take-off.

PARODY SONGLINK: You can view the lyrics for "No Elements" with chord indications for ukulele or guitar, if you wish to accompany your singing of these lines. But warning! It is not an easy task, particularly the singing part! Click HERE.

NO ELEMENTS          

(to the tune of "The Elements")    

Singable Introduction:
Tom Lehrer became a legend with his scientific patter-song,

More popular and loved than his unpublished “Anti-Matter Song”;

Enhancing humdrum discourse, just to quote his ode lends elegance

To conversation thrumming with the spectrum of the Elements.

  

We face this glum conundrum as alumni of Philology:

Lay-folk would like a list replete with Latin etymology

The possibilities for neutral nouns in -U-M loom awesome;

No need to invoke hokum terms like tantrum or opossum, chum.

Most names for elements are
 neutral Latin nouns

The Roman empire included England

  

A famous building in Rome

      




 

Patter-Song Lyrics:
There’s atrium, asylum, arboretum, auditorium

Compendium and modicum and rostrum, crematorium

And coliseum, quantum, condominium, euphonium

And album, acetabulum, museum, pandemonium.

            

There’s maximum and minimum and optimum and medium

And opium, opprobrium, colloquium and tedium

Colostrum, serum, sputum, sebum, nostrum and meconium

And sternum, talcum, labium, ovum, spermatogonium.  

Caladium, nasturtium and laburnum and geranium

And sacrum, c(a)ecum, ischium and tympanum and cranium

Consortium, memorandum, and symposium and podium

Desideratum, datum, vacuum, ultimatum, odium.

There’s pablum, perineum, paramecium, petroleum

And locum and inoculum, lyceum and linoleum

A few English words ending in -UM
 are not of Latin origin

And tritium, deuterium, trapezium and trillium
Mycelium, flagellum, endothelium and cilium.

There’s quorum and decorum, mausoleum, moratorium

And premium, per-annum, honorarium, emporium

And pendulum and forum, fulcrum, speculum, bacterium

And cerebellum, plenum, sum, curriculum, delirium.

Gymnasium and stadium and magnum and terrarium

Solarium, momentum, myocardium, aquarium

And scrotum and factotum and postpartum and continuum

And duodenum, referendum, rectum and residuum.

Addendum #1
There's stratum, alum, allium, alluvium et alia,
And mom's pouch called marsupium, but mostly in Australia.

Addendum #2

To plural them, heads swirling them, “What single rule? - please answer, Pa”.

My dictum, “Don’t inflict ‘em with erratums or chrysanthema !” 

 

FEB 19, waterfowl: Canada geese

 

a) reprise from February, 2020

FEB 19, waterfowl: Canada geese

b) updated birdie-pic

occasional aggressive stance adopted by a Canada goose

You can review a collection of illustrated verses in a wider context by proceeding to "Immersible Verse: Limericks about Waterfowl" on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'.

FEB 18, pathos and poetry (gun control): Second Amendment rights (finalbirdiepic?)

 

a) reprise from February 2020

FEB 18, pathos and poetry (gun control verse): Second Amendment rights

 

b: current birdie-pic

red-bellied woodpecker

FEB 17, wordplay maps: American Scramble-towns 1,2

a) reprise from February 2020 

FEB 17, wordplay maps: American Scramble-towns 1,2

Who would ever have guessed? It turns out that an unparalleled word in generating anagrams (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: 

Forward to U.S.A. map #3

b) current scene: sunny February day

FEB 16, postal places, Canada: La Tuque, QC

Authors' Note:  QC is the official abbreviation for the Canadian province of Quebec, in which La Tuque, population 11,000, is situated beside the St-Maurice River, 170 km (105 miles) north of the Saint Lawrence. The town's iconically shaped low mountain, resulting in its name (Fr. tuque is a soft wool hat), was partly destroyed in construction of a hydro-electric installation 80 years ago.

In each of the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario, administrative rearrangements resulted in a handful of "cities" and "regional municipalities" with extensive areas that had low population densities, contrary to the usual expectation for urban centres. In this regard La Tuque heads up the pack, its central town surrounded by a vast forested area of 28,000 km² giving it a population density of 0.4/km², compared to Montreal, QC, and Quebec City, QC, with densities of 2,700 and 1,600/km² respectively.

 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 !

FEB 15, the origin of "bloggerel": part#2 -- wordplay and photography

WORDPLAY: Like most writers and editors we love words. They are the basis of many of our song lyrics and poems. One of the greatest elements of wordplay is rhyme, a fact that provides some explanation for our persistence in lyrics and poetry. You will find a fair amount of better-defined wordplay on our blogs, including foreign-language borrowings, palindromes and anagrams. In certain cases we have gone to extremes, including "magic" palindromes, anagram wordplay-maps, and spoofs on classic palindromes, etymology and grammar rules. Because these activities consume a lot of time and effort, we have often been drawn to describe them in verse, posting those on the OEDILF site for editing and publication. And, although we are likely to have initiated a fair proportion of the "new" concoctions, we have not attributed them,as such material is lurking and waiting to be found among the letters and words, rather than "created".        

PHOTOGRAPHY: Dr.G.H. spent the latter part of his professional career dealing with the interpretation of low-resolution nuclear images in medical diagnosis. So we have a deep interest in visual documentation whose technique renders the key features obvious. For spontaneous nature photography on bicycle expeditions the cell-phone-camera is an obvious choice for portability, although resolution at a distance is an issue. Most of our photographs have been obtained with an i-phone 13, whose "live" feature provides an advance when the subject is moving. These photos enhance the "life-experience" nature of the posted material. On occasion, to make a point in a multi-media display, we borrow a relevant photo from the web, these are flagged by the term "web-photo", with colour coding of the text background, but space generally does not allow or mandate a full disclosure of the source. The reader is asked to please check these out, if indicated.  

FEB 14, holidays and celebrations: Valentine's day

a) reprise 

"The Kiss" by Auguste Rodin, marble, 1882
(photo by G.C. at Rodin Museum, Paris, 2019)

b) current scene: Valentine's Day Solicitation (the young lady's hand-made sign notifies rush-hour drivers on the adjacent bridge, "I love you".)

FEB 13, classic palindrome -- 'never odd or even'

a) reprise from February, 2020

FEB 13, classic palindrome: 'never odd or even'

Authors' Note: 

odd or even: binary classification of whole real numbers, related to basic counting, as in the idiomatic ‘counting sheep’ remedy for insomnia

never odd or even: classic palindrome that seems to revel, perhaps excessively, in the profusion of numbers that cannot be classified by the above simple scheme

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

 b) current birdie-pic

house sparrow

FEB 12, magical palindromes: examples #6 to #10

 

a) reprise from February 2020

FEB 12, magical palindromes: examples #6 to #10

You can become an expert fan of our wordplay concoction 'magical palindromes' by reviewing the explanatory material found in ancient days on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense" HERE; then, you could check how we applied this technique to 'canal palindromes' by viewing this more recent post.

b) current birdie-pic

goldfinch, female