October 20, 2021

OCT 20, singable satire: Hoagy Carmichael sings "STAR-NOSED MOLE"

 PARODY-LYRICS

ORIGINAL SONG: "Heart and Soul", Frank Loesser and Hoagy Carmichael, 1938.
PARODY COMPOSED: Dr.G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, February 2015.

Explanatory notes: The star-nosed mole inhabits wet low-lying areas of Canada and the northeastern US. It has been much less well known than its lawn-disturbing cousin, the common Eastern mole. National Geographic recently suggested that it may be the weirdest creature on the planet.
PARODY-SONGLINK: To find ukulele and guitar chord-charts to help you accompany "Star-Nosed Mole" on your favorite instrument, click HERE


STAR-NOSED MOLE

(to the tune of "Heart and Soul")

Star-nosed mole – I fail to grasp your charms -
Fleshy snout, thick tail and flipper arms
Slit eyes,
No need to use a mirror:
You won’t be ogled by peers.
  
Star-nosed mole – a neuroscience find -
Tactile nose, hunts prey though eyes are blind
Feelers (tentacles)
Discern where kisses land,
Just like an eye or a hand.

Star-nosed mole – bolts half its weight each day
Stim-response? – Earth’s quickest, Wiki say,
Nostrils
In midst of quivering nose,
Stay underwater closed.

Strangely evolved for digging, feeding, swimming. 
How do you get to breeding, her-and-himm-ing?

So, you can ‘see'
By integrating touch,
Brain can ‘watch’- snarf yummy worms and such.
Somehow
You find cloacal holes
Of other star-nosed moles. 


You can find a poem about the star-nose mole, with informative notes, on our blogpost 'Mammalian Wildlife'. Click HERE to access it.

 

October 19, 2021

OCT 19, Carolina lowcountry: wildlife revisited #1



black-crowned night heron


 


mud crab





brown pelican





downy woodpecker




great egret, in marsh



great egret at Shem Creek boardwalk 











October 18, 2021

OCT 18, humorists' scurrilous talk: 'the cock'

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



  The collection of informative verses dealing with 'HUMORISTS' SCURRILOUS TALK' can be found by proceeding to our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE!


October 17, 2021

OCT 17, palinku (poetic novelty): identity


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






 You can 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.)

October 16, 2021

OCT 16, wordplay maps: Scramble-towns of eastern Canada, #9 and #10

Who would ever have guessed? It turns out that an unparalleled word in generating anagrams, i.e. 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 to other nonsense in this series: 

Forward to the next Canadian map, eh?
Back to the previous Canadian map, eh?
Default to U.S.A. map #21 (final American version)











October 15, 2021

OCT 15, neologism (personal): POTUSA (abuelita latina)







Authors' Note: 

abuela: grandmother in Spanish

abuelita: 'little grandmother', an honored family role in Hispanic-American culture

POTUS: President of the United States, acronymic title that has so far been applied only to males, few of whom have been bilingual

POTUSA: (A = of America), a title, influenced by Spanish wordforms, for a female American president; and if she's a Latina, so much the better


 (Ed. Note:) To make this effort easier, we have now collected these neologistic verses in a collection on our parent blog "Edifying Nonsense";  click HERE.

October 14, 2021

OCT 14, English literature survey course: "The Raven" (Poe's poem)




Authors' Note:   Edgar Allan Poe wrote his best-known poem, "The Raven", in 1845. "The lost Lenore", and “quoth the Raven, ‘nevermore’ ” are famous phrases repeated in the poem. 

   An established classic, the poem will likely remain in the pantheon of poems ad infinitum (evermore).


You can review the entire curriculum for our 'English Classics Survey Course' at "Edifying Nonsense" by clicking HERE.



 

October 13, 2021

OCT 13, mammalian wildlife: batty idioms



Authors' Note: BATS, the flying mammals, are found in many idioms, which mostly give them unfavorable press, including:
batty,
old bat,
to have bats in the belfry,
(take off) like a bat out of hell,
as blind as a bat.

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 !

October 12, 2021

OCT 12, portraits of couples: loons

 



Enjoy an illustrated poetic 'brief saga' featuring the common loon, Gavia immer, by clicking HERE. 

You can view our entire collection from our portfolio of 'Couples' portraits in a wider context on our full-service blog "Edifying NonsenseHERE



October 11, 2021

OCT 11, garden intruders: gnome adventures

 


Authors' Note:
The propensity of garden gnomes to travel, often against their will, is explained here. The author does not condone the trespassing, theft or kidnapping inherent in the services proposed by the narrator to expunge egregious esthetics from one's neighborhood.

October 10, 2021

OCT 10, a brief saga (exemplary exemplification): ablauts and verb past-tenses

 








Authors' Note: Ablaut (AHB-lowt) is a linguistic term, derived from German, for a vowel transition resulting in a change in word meaning. Such changes are the basis of the simple past tense and the past participle in a substantial proportion of irregular English verbs, as exemplified in the second and third stanzas. 

To review the blogpost displaying our entire collection of verses dealing with "Exemplary Exemplification", click HERE

 
 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 or more stanzas in limerick form, constituting a single submission to the online humor site 'Omnificent English Dictionary iLimerick Form'. On the OEDILF site, rigorous standards for content and format are involved in a collaborative editing process that may take from several weeks to over a year for completion. 

  Generally, OEDILF has not been enormously welcoming of multi-verse submissions, but Giorgio Coniglio has persisted, and the OEDILF number for each accepted multiverse poem is shown here on the slide with its first verse. 

To access the next 'brief saga' on this blog, proceed to 'Domestic Turkey'.
To access the most recent previous 'brief saga', back up to ''Cormorant Rookery''.  
To access all of our 'brief sagas' by the year of their creation, click on your selection below.



October 9, 2021

OCT 9, bottom line of medical humor: borborygmi




 Authors' NoteBorborygmi (plural of the Latin borborygmus, a normal phenomenon, are rumbling noises in the abdomen related to movement of fluid and gas through gastrointestinal viscera (hollow organs).

s in a wider context by proceeding to the collection 'The BOTTOM LINE of MEDICAL HUMOR' on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE!





October 8, 2021

OCT 8, variant Nantucket limerick: moeurs of Nantucket




 



You can review our entire collection of spoof verses based on the iconic Nantucket limericks on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense' by clicking HERE.



October 7, 2021

OCT 7, waterfowl: hooded merganser






















You can review illustrated verses on such bird-brained topics in a wider context by proceeding to 'Immersible Verse: Limericks about Waterfowl' on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. (Or, if you prefer, you can view them on Facebook in Giorgio's photo-albums).





October 6, 2021

OCT 6, death and the afterlife: [sic] to death




Authors' Note: We were inspired, in studying the enigmatic final chapter of existence, to find that OEDILF, as of mid-2022, has about 150 submissions that deal with the subject of 'death'. That research shows that the spectre of death underscores many linguistic idioms.

getting off cheap: an idiom, perhaps further towards the slang end of the scale, in comparison with getting off easy
sick to death of: a cliché, only rarely entailing the imminent demise of the subject
to die in your sleep: a cliché, albeit puzzling biologically
survive to a ripe old age: a cliché; here also used as the basis of a pun




 You can review more poems about 'Death and the Afterlife' in context in the post ('Death and the Afterlife') on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Click HERE!





October 5, 2021

OCT 5, insects: computer 'bugs'








 You can review Giorgio's other verses about pesty and occasionally beneficial insects, as  collected in 'Buzzwords: Verses about Insects' on the full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE.




October 4, 2021

OCT 4, numbers: quartets, foursomes (4)





You can review our cumulated nonsense about numbers by clicking HERE.


Related photo: 

string quartet,
Dundas Square, Toronto


October 3, 2021

OCT 3, oncologic verses: benign tumors, a guidebook





Authors' Note: Readers should be aware that the guidebook deals primarily with the lexical aspects of benign tumors, and is therefore of interest primarily to word-nerds and Scrabble-players, rather than pathologists or other health professionals.
  Also, visitors to the online site OEDILF.com might note that close to thirty verses dealing with benign human tumors already grace the 'pages' of that dictionary-in-progress. One-third of these were written by the prolific SheilaB, a retired physician, including acoustic neuroma, angioma, cementoblastoma, chemodectoma, cystoma, dicytoma, hamartoma and lipoma.


 You can view all such verses in a wider context by proceeding to the collection of "ONCOLOGY VERSES" on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE!


October 2, 2021

OCT 2, wordplay maps: Scramble-towns of eastern Canada, #7 and #8


Who would ever have guessed? It turns out that an unparalleled word in generating anagrams, i.e. 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 to other nonsense in this series: 

Forward to the next Canadian map, eh?
Back to the previous Canadian map, eh?
Default to U.S.A. map #21 (final American version)


October 1, 2021

OCT 1, STD-poetry: tabes dorsalis (tertiary syphilis)


Authors' Note

CNS: central nervous system, i.e. the brain and spinal cord; a commonly used medical initialism

spirochete(n.): a generalization for a bacterium of the type that causes syphilis (Treponema pallidum), based on its microscopic appearance

spirochete(v.): novel use confined to this verse, implying damage by syphilitic spirochetes

  The above verse, dealing with the late or ('tertiary') manifestations of syphilis (a.k.a. lues), emphasizes the common disorders of the CNS, including tabes dorsalis, a disease of the spinal cord producing sensory limitations in the legs, compensated by a characteristic (tabetic) stomping gait. Accompanying brain disorders may include general paresis (weakness), mania, delirium and dementia; and manifestations in other organ systems are not uncommon.


You can review verses on this topic in a wider context in a post on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense" by proceeding to 'Ruination, Rumination and Reminiscence: STD-Poetry'. Click HERE. 


September 30, 2021

SEP 30, singable satire, takin' care of reminiscence: "YOGI BERRA'S WISDOM"


PARODY-LYRICS
ORIGINAL SONG"Takin' Care of Business" 1973, Bachman-Turner Overdrive. 
PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, September 2015.



YOGI BERRA'S WISDOM
(Takin' Care of Reminiscence)

(to the tune of "Takin' Care of Business")

A native of St Louie
Where they don’t put up with hooey,
'Cause Missouri’s motto is “Show me.”
Signed with Yankees in his teens
Power hitter, eighteen seasons
They retired his Number Eight jersey.
Lots of Series as a coach,
So reporters would approach
To find out what this winning mave
n say
He became our ‘Wisest Fool’    * 
But did only eight in school
Known for witticisms quite pithy.
And it’s...

Not over ‘til it’s over (in this game)
If the road forks, take it (just the same)
Asking what the time is - Do you mean now?
You observe a lot just by watching, anyhow.
Work out.

If it were déjà vu again,

We might get him to explain
If the people won’t come out, who’ll stop ‘em.
So don’t make wrong mistakes
Go to other peoples’ wakes,



Otherwise they won’t show when it’s your turn. 
Overwhelming underdogs
Take it with a grin of salt
He didn’t really say what he said.
And if you walk or drive
You’ll be lost when you arrive
If you don’t know where you are headed.
And we’ll use ..

Yogi Berra’s wisdom (every day)
Yogi Berra’s wisdom (every way)
That record stands ‘til broken, every time
Future’s not like once was; no nickel’s worth a dime.

They wouldn’t have won if we’d beat ‘em.
We have deep depth. Pair up in threes.


Out here it gets late early
Thanks for making necessary
That night when he’s inducted, Hall of Fame
It’s ninety percent mental,
And the other half’s physical
Don’t know nothing, baseball’s that kind of game.
No one goes there ’cause it's crowded
And though fan mail makes you proud
Don’t respond to anonymous letters
And when your batting slumps
With your average in the dumps
It’s blaming the bat that is better.
And we’ll be

Using Yogi’s wisdom (every day)
Yogi Berra's wisdom (every way)
If the world were perfect, it wouldn’t be.
He said, "It's not the heat, it's the humility."


 *  based on his speaking style, in 2005 The Economist named Yogi Berra 'Wisest Fool of the Past 50 Years'.