JUN 10, brief saga (national verse): Canada

Authors' Note:

les États-Unis (lay zay-TAH-zoo-ee, or as here, lay ZAY-tah-zoo-nee ): French for '(the) United States'

Au Canada: (O Ca-na-DUH), a tiny spoof on the title of our national anthem ("O Canada") in both official languages; the heavy emphasis on the final syllable in the English version seems artificial to those of us more accustomed to pronouncing our homeland as CA-nuh-duh.

pays (peh-EE), province (pro-VEHnS), compris (cohn-PREE), Québécois (kay-bay-CWA), chez nous (shay NOO) and au (OH): the French words for 'country', 'province', 'understood/included', 'Quebecker(s)', at home' and 'in/at (the)', respectively

(from) sea to sea: Canada's official motto is the Latin phrase A Mari usque ad Mare

This verse was inspired by speedysnail's "country" verses, including The Gambia. 

You can review our collection of verses about various individual nations, and about the groupings to which they belong, on our topic-based blog "Edifying Nonsense". 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 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.

To access the next 'brief saga' on this blog (February 2022), proceed to 'Careers'. 

To access the most recent previous 'brief saga' (December 2021), back up to 'Echoic Binomials'.

 To access all of our 'brief sagas' by the year of their creation, click on your selection below.

2020
2021
2022
2023.

JUN 9, reptiles: eviction notice

 

 You can review photos and illustrated herpetologic verses in a wider context by proceeding to 'Verses about Reptiles' (don't worry! no snakes)' on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'.

view of wildlife at Caw Caw Interpretive Center,
Charleston County Parks,
April 30, 2022.

WATCH OUT!

 You can review photos and illustrated herpetologic verses in a wider context by proceeding to 'Verses about Reptiles (don't worry! no snakes)' on the full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense".

JUN 8, exotic destination: discount air to Australia

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

JUN 7, death and the afterlife: end-of-life care

Authors' Note: In some jurisdictions, all deaths in a long-term nursing facility must be reported to the office of the coroner.

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

JUN 6, pluralia tantum: the backwoods ('rural plurals')

 

Authors' Note: 

Urals: The Ural Mountains, a discrete range running north and south, separates old Russian from more sparsely populated Siberia, and is considered as the boundary between the continents of Europe and Asia.

 The above verses provide further examples of the grammatical phenomenon pluralia tantum. We have discussed in other verses here the relationship of pluralia tantum to medical nomenclature, to life-cycle celebrations, to cooking ingredients, and to fields of study.

Grandpa Greg asked us to pass on this message: "You can view the entire collection of verses about 'Pluralia Tantum' by clicking HERE."

JUN 5, birdlore: red-tailed hawk

Authors' Note: Regal in appearance, the red-tailed hawk, the most common North American member of the raptor genus Buteo, is a year-round denizen of southern Ontario, and is frequently seen in urban residential areas. 

 

You can view an encyclopedic collection of illustrated poems on this topic by proceeding to the post 'Poems about BIRDLIFE' on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE. 

JUN 4, poets' corner: bold-faced nonsense

Authors' Note:    Our blog, 'Edifying Nonsense', promotes several forms of creative nonsense, including collections of humorous and definitional poems overlapping with those submitted to OEDILF, an online collaborative writing-site. (parenthetically, accepted OEDILFian verses boldface the attributed key word that is ‘defined’ in the poem. On occasion, the partly completed collections are offered to OEDILFian editor-colleagues as a 'temporary Author's Note', to provide context for the cooperative editing task of rehashing a verse that is still in tentative status.

You can find lots of other verses on this blog under the listing "Poets' Corner".  Click HERE.

 

JUN 3, wordplay map: sister-cities anagrams: (36) CasMort/Burialpen

 You can review our entire poetic outpouring on this important topic by proceeding to a post on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'; click HERE.

JUN 2, Italian loanwords: oratorio / opera

Today is Festa de la Repubblica, Italy's National Holiday, and we will be initiating a new series of verses ...

Authors' Note: Demand for gaudy Italian opera faded temporarily in the mid-18th century in his adopted English homeland, so George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) composed a series of non-costumed oratorios for combined choir and orchestra. The sixth in the series was initially produced in Dublin, as poor reception in London was anticipated; this was, in fact, the case, but after a number of yearly springtime performances at Covent Garden Theatre, the New Sacred Oratorio gained critical and audience approval, and acquired a bold new name and unassailable status. The tradition that audiences stand for the Hallelujah Chorus is based on the unfounded myth that King George II attended an early show and was moved to stand during that point in the performance.

  The title for the iconic chorus seems to have been set in the Handelian context as Hallelujah, but dictionaries list variants of the Hebrew-derived exclamation ("praise the Lord!"), including Allelujah and Alleluia.

 You can review our entire poetic outpouring about Italian loanwords by proceeding to a post on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'; click HERE.

JUN 1, savoir-faire: bilingual labelling -- grenades

Authors' Note: 

au verso (oh vehr-soh) French for 'on the reverse side'

Bilingual labelling, if you pay attention to it, produces some startling results. In Canada, pomegranates and their juice must be imported. But, in French-speaking parts of the country, we would refer to them as grenades, the modern French term for the fruit. In the circumstance under discussion, the particular juice-box was labelled on its French side as jus de grenade.

An archaic term for the tree and for the fruit, pomegranate derives from the Middle Ages, but seems to have gotten stuck in English as a sort of borrowed anachronism. On the other hand, we have grenadine syrup, a cocktail additive, putatively made from pomegranate juice, but in fact, often concocted from synthetic ingredients.

You can review verses on this topic in a wider context on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Check the post 'Vers Francais: Savoir-Faire' by clicking HERE.