JUN 19, selected pics: mallard ducks at the swimming pool

mallard ducks joining the fun in our residential enclave

 

You can review our collections of illustrated poems on the topic of "waterfowl" as presented on our encyclopedic blog "Edifying Nonsense"; click HERE. 

JUN 16, funny bones: Enid's osteopenia

 

poetry lyrics:/ "My X-rays show osteopen/-ia; What, Enid asked, does that mean?"/
 "A bone density scan/ Then a good treatment plan/ Will reduce fracture risk.
Aren't you keen?"

Authors' Note: 

Osteopenia (ost-ee-oh-PEE-nee-yah), or reduced bone mass as suggested on regular x-ray studies, is a 'washed out' appearance raising the question of whether the patient has osteoporosis, a significant loss of bone mineral resulting in increased fracture risk. The word break in osteopenia (osteo, Latin root for ‘bone’) at the end of the first line is a reminder of its association with fracture. The DEXA test evaluates the mass of bone reproducibly, and, in the context of age and gender, helps decide on the necessity of drug treatment to prevent 'fragility fractures'. 

You can read more about the DEXA test for bone mineral density (BMD) HERE.

You can view verses on this topic in a wider context by proceeding to the post 'Breaking News: FUNNY BONES' on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE!

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JUN 13, culinary verse: gyozas (potstickers)

poetry lyrics:/ Tomodachi, I'd like to propose a/ Tasty treat any wise hosuto knows a/
Texture you've dreamed/ of --,/they're fried and then steamed -- / It's the Japanese dumpling: gyoza.   

Find the collection of illustrated poems dealing with these issues on the post 'Culinary Verse' on our topic-based blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Click HERE!

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JUN 13, photo-collage: more Lowcountry miscellany

 This is a followup to our prior post of May 17, 2025.

a majestic great egret

cool oldster at a public dance,
Marine Park, Mt Pleasant
 (under the Cooper River Bridge)

a loaded cargo ship proceeds up the darkening Cooper River.

 

juvenile night heron

TODAY'S POEM (senryu  *) 

Barber's "Adagio" --

string orchestra or quartet

courts the infinite.

 

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.

JUN 10, terminal (poetic) exclamation: EGAD!

poetry lyrics:/ Dominatrices, hurting so bad/ Cried out, "Egad! No bondage! (So sad!)"/
Vengeful masochists quipped,/ After flipping the script/
(Their appointments they skip/ Once they've swiped the dommes' whip)/
Mocking, "Egad a sad age!" "EGAD!"   

 Authors' Note: The author apologizes that the above verse conjures a nightmare of sado-masochistic behavior. It must be admitted, however, that the sensitive dominatrix and the vengeful masochist do not fit the stereotypes.

Egad, no bondage! and Egad, a bad age! are found in lists of classic palindromic phrases.

"The Whip", bronze sculpture,
George Holschuh,
Brookgreen Gardens, SC. 

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

You can also review several linked collection of verses dealing with classic palindromes by proceeding to 'Reversing Verse: Limericks About Classic Palindromes'. 

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JUN 7, selected pics: goslings, a few weeks older now

for comparison, see the photos taken May 19

 

JUN 4, momentous day

TODAY'S POEM (senryu  *)

 military might displayed,

peaceful protesters --

conflicting visions.  

 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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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 1, selected pics: early morning beach chorus (green tree frogs)

Photos taken on an early excursion to the beach at Sullivan's Island; in the  marshy area just inland from the beach, the frogs were having a vociferous field day!

 And there's an older post with an illustrated poem that deals with this cute little amphibian. The green tree frog is often seen individually in your garden, as well as in swarms in marshy areas. Click HERE.

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MAY 28, selected pics: great blue heron

strutting slong a beach in the Carolina lowcountry

Authors' Note:  You can review an illustrated poem from way back in 2020 that pays tribute to this large wading-bird, as seen in the Carolina lowcountry; there is also an exemplifying photo-collage displaying further details from much further north in its range. 

MAY 25, submitted palindromes: RANDOM PILES 53

   You have reached the "Submitted Palindromes" thread on the blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", a light literary entity. Owing to advancing age and other considerations, the frequency of outpouring, 30 posts per month for the first 60 months, has been reduced stepwise after December 2024 and now numbers 10 per month. But each month you can still find a collection of palindromic phrases proferred by our seven palindromic assistant editors.

You can access this delightful entertainment right here by entering submitted palindromes in a search bar at the top of this post and scrolling downwards through the wordplay posts that you will discover.

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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READY TO SEE MORE ?

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

 

MAY 22, terminal (poetic) exclamation: "holy moly!" -- peeping-Tom lizard

upside-down: reflection in a bathroom window

this green anole displays similar curiosity about human activities
to Dr Seuss's bird-narrator from his classic "In a People House"

 

MAY 19, selected pics: geese with goslings

a goose family relaxing in the shade
 on a warm mid-May mid-day

 

Authors' Note:  The above photos display recent sightings in Mt Pleasant SC, near the base of the Arthur Ravenel Bridge to Charleston SC.

You can view an illustrated poem about Canada geese, including goslings, HERE. And, there's a photo-collage that you can access HERE. 

These blogposts feature Canada geese who have made their permanent homes in both the US, as here, and in Canada.

The authors of this piece avoid comments on birthright dual citizenship, and leave readers to draw their own conclusion. 

MAY 16, selected pics: ruddy turnstones

ruddy turnstone in flight (background subtracted image)

ruddy turnstone (flying over beach with oyster shells)

Authors' Note:  Ruddy turnstones, sparrow-sized shorebirds, despite their tiny size, are intrepid and accomplished migrators, with a rigorous annual pole-to-pole itinerary. For a few years now, I have seen them in late May on the same small strip of beach near a harborside boardwalk in the Carolina lowcountry. They seem consumed, when there in groups of a dozen or so, not with global travel issues, but rather with mundane considerations such as which individual can claim rights to a small hole dug in the sand.

You can review an illustrated poem about these shorebirds in general HERE, and one about ruddy turnstones in particular HERE.

MAY 13, selected pics: "green" (native) anole versus "brown" (invasive) anole

 

presumably a green anole in the dark grey-brown colour phase
(larger head, no body-length white ridge)

MAY 10, waterfowl: shelduck (visitor)

poetry lyrics:/ Quacked the shelduck, "With no GPS/ We migrate. In high winds, we digress/

From our usual flight-path./ So one dark-stormy-night path,/

We land here, refugees in US/ (They prefer that we leave, that's my guess). 

Authors' Note:  The above photos commemorate the unusual sighting of a shelduck, a handsome European duck species, in Brooklyn, New York, USA, in early May, 2026. This particular bird was noted in the company of native mallard ducks swimming and feeding in a pond at the Prospect Botanical Garden. The bird-visitor is distinguished by its red face-plate, longitudinal black body stripes and horizontal brown belly stripe.

Occasionally, Eurasian species like the shelduck are forced off course in their migration southward from Europe to Africa by major storms, and land up along the Atlantic seaboard of the United States; this eventuality was at play here, as particularly bad weather had preceded our visit to New York City at the beginning of May. Attributable to the same storm, You-tube had posted a video of a visit to a Pennsylvania pond where a local duck expert had clinched a similar unusual sighting.     

MAY 7, selected pics: London-canal bird-babies

Photos from canal locales in London, UK, were kindly provided by Josh.

a family of coots

a mute swan family

Authors' Note:  The above photos display the wildlife in easy view along the waterways of the London canal system, of which Regent Canal is the portion best known by North Americans.

May is the time to see the fledgling birds on both sides of the Atlantic, and readers might enjoy the images of Canada-goose goslings found on our recent post.

MAY 4, selected pics: skinks' springtime return

 

Authors' Note:  The above photos hark back to a photo-collage, and illustrated poem featuring the broad-headed skink.

MAY 1, selected pics: yellow-capped night heron

 

Authors' Note:  The above photos were taken by Giorgio Coniglio near the Charleston harbour in May 2026. The bird is focused on hunting in the pluff mud 

(sludge) at low tide, likely for small fish, small reptiles, and its favorite foods -- crabs and crayfish. 

You can review an illustrated poem about these herons, native only to the Americas, HERE.

APR 28, selected pics: brown-pelican yoga-student

 

Authors' Note:  

APR 25, submitted palindromes: RANDOM PILES 52

 

 

 You have reached the "Submitted Palindromes" thread on the blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", a light literary entity. Owing to advancing age and other considerations, the frequency of outpouring, 30 posts per month for the first 60 months, has been reduced stepwise after December 2024 and now numbers 10 per month. But each month you can still find a collection of palindromic phrases proferred by our seven palindromic assistant editors.

You can access this delightful entertainment right here by entering submitted palindromes in a search bar at the top of this post and scrolling downwards through the wordplay posts that you will discover.

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.  

  _________________________________________________________________________

READY TO SEE MORE ?

To navigate around the 2,000 posts on this blog ("Daily Illustrated Nonsense", or D.I.N.), scroll downwards until you get to a widget with a clickable SUMMARY OF CONTENTS BY DATE displayed with blue fonts -- the most recent are at the top; the oldest at the bottom of the list. Then, just click on any year or month to view the detailed contents -- illustrated short humorous poems, wordplay, parody song-lyrics, funky photos, etc. 

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

 

APR 22, selected pics: brown-pelican yoga-instructor

 

"Sorry! I have a frog in my throat"

Authors' Note:  The above photos document the bizarre positioning adapted by these birds in digestibng large chunks of jagged, even sharp fish-carcasses, tossed away by fisher-guides after an expedition (see posts about the 'pelicatessen').

APR 20, selected pics: anole patrol

Authors' Note:  The above photos show the activity in our yard once the lizards return in April.

You can review an illustrated poem about the green anole HERE.