JUN 30, singable satire: "AREN'T YOUR ETHICS LOW?"

Scene from "The Elephant Show"

ORIGINAL PARODY-LYRICS

MUSICAL UNDERPINNINGS: "Do Your Ears Hang Low?", around 1900, likely a sanitized version of a bawdy, nonsensical campfire song, with some similarity to "Turkey in the Straw". The tune is now most familiar as a children's novelty song, as performed by Sharon, Lois and Bram, and others. (Check out their You-tubed version HERE.)

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, July, 2025,and performed at the Ukes of York uke-jam shortly thereater.

UKULELE and GUITAR-FRIENDLY LINK: Our whole series of songs can be found in a friendly format for ukulele (and guitar)-players on our sister blog "SILLY SONGS and SATIRE" with chord-charts for both the parody and original song, as well as helpful performing suggestions. 

To find ukulele chord-charts to help you accompany
 "Are Your Ethics Low?" on your favorite instrument, click HERE. 

AREN'T YOUR ETHICS LOW?

 (to the tune of "Do your Ears Hang Low?")

                                                                        

Are your ethics low, unlike Kamala and Joe?

The DOJ* 's got photo-pics and piles of video. 

If released, corroboration could cause MAGA** consternation -- ,

Drive poll-ratings low.

Are your standards low? Friendly pedophiles you know

Have bestowed conspiring theorists with rumors that will flow -- 

MAGA-loyalists hoped Dems would crowd Jeff's "list", and steal the show. 

Are your ethics low?   

Are your moral precepts low? Nasty pederasts you know

Seen in birthday cards and photo-files and piles of video. 

At some parties you were host; bimbos aged eighteen at most.  

Are your standards low?

Are your moral standards low? It's "fake news", we hear you crow: 

"Files concocted by James Comey, and Hillary and Joe."  

So get Congress dismissed early, and avoid the hurly-burly.

Aren't your precepts low?

* Department of Justice (US)

** make America great again, slogan for the loosely defined Trump-controlled  Republican Party 

To review our other 120-or-so parody songs, type "singable satire" in the browser search-line, and enjoy the results. 

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JUN 29, indigenous sport

 

TODAY'S POEM (senryu *) 

 

aboriginals

inspired the game of  lacrosse, 

not base- or foot- ball.

 

Giorgio Coniglio

* learn more HERE about senryu, a lesser-known Japanese short poem that shares the physical characteristics of haiku (nominally 17 'on' / syllables in three non-rhyming lines), but deals in a satiric or humorous way with human foibles rather than with Nature. 

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JUN 28, Everglades ending ...

  

TODAY'S POEM (senryu *) 

 

invasive pythons 

terrorize Florida swamps -- 

"Leave only footprints".

 

Giorgio Coniglio

* learn more HERE about senryu, a term that designates a lesser-known Japanese short poem that shares the physical characteristics of haiku (nominally 17 'on' / syllables in three non-rhyming lines), but deals in a satiric or humorous way with human foibles rather than with Nature. 

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 OR, go back to the latest post on this blogsite ("Elegy to Tom Lehrer") HERE. 

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JUN 27, exotic destination: LaBelle, Florida (swamp-cabbage festival)

photo courtesy of Uncommon Solutions

Other verses about 'Exotic Travel Destinations' can be found on our blog 'Edifying Nonsense'.     Click HERE.

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 OR, go back to the latest post on this blogsite ("Elegy to Tom Lehrer") HERE. 

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JUN 26, crepe myrtles

TODAY'S POEM (senryu *) 

 

late June's sultry heat

convinces coy crepe myrtles

to show vivid blooms.

Giorgio Coniglio

* learn more HERE about senryu, a lesser-known Japanese short poem that shares the physical characteristics of haiku (nominally 17 'on' / syllables in three non-rhyming lines), but deals in a satiric or humorous way with human foibles rather than with Nature. 

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 OR, go back to the latest post on this blogsite ("Elegy to Tom Lehrer") HERE. 

If you aren't on the 'web-version', you can get there by clicking that choice ('view web-version') at the very bottom of this blog-page! 

JUN 25, submitted palindromes: RANDOM PILES 58

You have reached the "Submitted Palindromes" thread on the blog "Daily Edifying Nonsense", a light literary entity that emanates through the blogosphere daily (almost), i.e. 30 times per month.

  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).

You can access this  entertainment right here 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, OR, just follow the links indicated above. 

Devotees of palindromic wordplay can further explore limericks and other short verses about the classic palindromes (and quite a few recent concoctions) that are randomly scattered on this blog after September 2000, or collected into grouped postings on our more scholarly blog "Edifying Nonsense" -- start HERE.  

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OR, go back to the latest post on this blogsite ("Elegy to Tom Lehrer") HERE.

JUN 24, US universities (three terse verses)

 

TODAY'S POEMS (senryu *) 

 #1

universities,

centers that pursue knowledge,

should resist bullies. 

 

 #2

Harvard, Hopkins, Yale, 

Pennsylvania and Stanford -- 

smarter than a Prez.

 #3

 American teens

prefer to attend "college",

not factory jobs. 

Giorgio Coniglio

* learn more HERE about senryu, a term that designates a lesser-known Japanese short poem that shares the physical characteristics of haiku (nominally 17 'on' / syllables in three non-rhyming lines), but deals in a satiric or humorous way with human foibles rather than with Nature. 

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 OR, go back to the latest post on this blogsite ("Elegy to Tom Lehrer") HERE. 

If you aren't on the 'web-version', you can get there by clicking that choice ('view web-version') at the very bottom of this blog-page! 

JUN 23, Japan reminiscence: yukata (limerick)

 YUKATA

Wear the Japanese loungeware -- yukata

Paired with obi and geta, you oughtta.

Where? onsen or buffet, 

Family stroll, summer's day,

Suiting you, or your son and your daughter.

Giorgio Coniglio

Interested readers can find daily blogposts related to a recent month's tour of Japan starting with April 2, 2025 -- "arrival in Tokyo" 

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JUN 22, vegan lunch

 

TODAY'S POEM (senryu *) 

 

great sandwich filling: 

mashed chickpeas, onion, lemon, oil -- 

tunas breathe easy.

 

Giorgio Coniglio

 

* learn more HERE about senryu, a lesser-known Japanese short poem that shares the physical characteristics of haiku (nominally 17 'on' / syllables in three non-rhyming lines), but deals in a satiric or humorous way with human foibles rather than with Nature. 

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 OR, go back to the latest post on this blogsite ("Elegy to Tom Lehrer") HERE. 

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JUN 21, pill-poppin' poetry: naloxone

 

 NALOXONE

There's an antidote med I'm advising

For opiate users demising

By OD or intention.

Inject stat: death's prevention.

Naloxone's a drug worth apprising.

Giorgio Coniglio. 

Authors' Note: The euphemistic initialism OD, for drug overdose, in the parlance of emergency health providers, most often refers to an unintentional drug overdose of narcotic street drugs (e.g. heroin), by an unscheduled user. In a somewhat different context, it may refer to a suicide attempt with a variety of oral medications, including oral opioids, e.g. fentanyl. Naloxone is an antidote molecule, directed at the brain's opioid receptors that can promptly reverse the intense depression of respiratory centres caused by this specific class of drugs. Kits are available for use of this life-saving antidote by injection, and also, more recently, as a nasal spray.

You can view informative verses like this one in a wider context by proceeding to the collection "Pill-Popping Poems (selected pharmaceuticals)" on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE! 

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JUN 20, singable satire: "SKITTISH DOLL"

 

ORIGINAL PARODY-LYRICS

MUSICAL UNDERPINNINGS:  "Satin Doll"  is a jazz ballad with music written in 1953 by Billy Strayhorn, lyrics composed years later by Johnny Mercer, recorded subsequently by Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., etc. The second verse of the original lyrics contain the words ... "Speaks Latin, my Satin Doll."

So, could it hurt if she spoke Yiddish?  

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, July, 2017. The song was revised and performed recently (2025) a the Ukes of York ukulele-jam. 

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

Couple dancing, 1958,
at their son's Bar Mitzvah party.

SKITTISH DOLL      

(to the tune of "Satin Doll") 

Chicken soup served with gold ladles,
Live band, ice sculpture, sweet tables;
Speaks Yiddish, my skittish doll.

Cousin's Bar Mitzvah, ... wire lift dress,
Built kind of zaftig -- a 'princess',
Speaks Yiddish, my skittish doll.

Uncle Seymour is right:
When I'm near, she's uptight as can be;
Cause she's noticed me drool
And she ain't cool 'bout fooling with me
(kenahora!).

After the dinner, candle lighting,
Alone in the corner, looks inviting,
Fingers wander, but that is all.
Slaps hand back, my skittish doll.
Can't mess with ... my skittish doll.

This piece was submitted to "Medium", November 2025.

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JUN 19, photo-collage: talking heads ('lower' creatures), A to F

 This tongue-in-cheek collection is a followup to earlier blog-posts "Talking Heads, avian", and "Talking Heads, mammalian". All the photos were taken by G.C., using his i-phone camera. Most of the sites were in "the wild"; a minority of the photos were taken at zoos and aquariums. None of the subjects were reimbursed for participation. Th present group of participants includes well-known personalities from the communities of reptiles, amphibians and fish.

Click HERE if you want to return to the beginning of the whole series.

CURRENT PARTICIPANTS: alligator (juvenile), American toad, bearded dragon, broad-headed skink, burrfish, Carolina green anole, copperhead snake, five-lined skink, French angelfish.

alligator (juvenile)

American toad

bearded dragon (lizard)

broad-headed skink

burrfish

Carolina (green) anole

copperhead snake-- watch out !

five-lined (bluetailed) skink

French angelfish

If you enjoyed this foolish collection, you might want to proceed to another post featuring talking heads. 

Click here for 'other' talking heads G to Z. 

Click here if you would like to go back and review the whole series, starting with avian talking heads.

Readers who would like further information on the subjects, locales or technique of these photos are asked to leave a query in the Comments section. 

TODAY'S POEM  (senryu  *) 

optimistically

the octogenarian

cycles down the trail.

Giorgio Coniglio

 * learn more HERE about senryu, a term that designates a lesser-known Japanese short poem that shares the physical characteristics of haiku (nominally 17 'on' / syllables in three non-rhyming lines), but deals in a satiric or humorous way with human foibles rather than with Nature. 

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 OR, go back to the latest post on this blogsite ("Elegy to Tom Lehrer") HERE. 

If you aren't on the 'web-version', you can get there by clicking that choice ('view web-version') at the very bottom of this blog-page!