APR 10, a brief saga (hellenophilia): Dodecanese Islands

Other verses discussing our appreciation of Greece and things Greek can be found on our 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. And the good news is that almost all limerick-derived verses can be set to music!

To access the next 'brief saga' on this blog ("May" 2023), proceed to 'America'. 

To access the most recent previous 'brief saga' (March 2023), back up to  'Possessives' (adjectives and pronouns).

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

2020
2021
2022
2023.

APR 9, special event: Toronto's Easter parade

 

APR 8, Captain R's impossible mission: rhotic-poet school

To optimally enjoy this poem, readers are advised to try to read it aloud firstly in a rhotic accent, and then non-rhotically (see the authors' notes below). 

Authors' Note:

otic: pertaining to the ear, or to hearing, as in the medical specialty oto-laryngology (ENT)

The author is pleased to explain that this verse can be read with either a rhotic or non-rhotic accent. In fact, it is highly recommended that each reader try to recite it aloud both ways.

Poor, sure, more is a trio of words often used for rhyming in poetic or song-lyric lines (a random example: I'd like to ensure / That our love will bring more). Non-rhotic speakers apparently find that these words rhyme as indicated in the phonetic renderings paw, shaw, maw. To rhotic ears, however, the partial rhyming of 'sure' and 'more' sounds as amateurish as pairing 'time' and 'fine'.

With occasional exceptions, native-born and -schooled Canadians using English are rhotic speakers, their Rs being fully sounded, even after vowels. However, we have welcomed to our shores large numbers of immigrants from around the globe who have brought their non-rhotic dialects. Their speech pattern is rendered roughly by changing all the relevant Rs to Hs, e.g. 'hard' == > 'hahd'; 'exhort == > 'exhoht'

Apparently, expert linguists have established that English was spoken only rhotically until the time of Shakespeare. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the use of non-rhotic speech, with the loss of 'post-vocalic R', spread until it became the dominant speech pattern in most of England, the Atlantic seaboard of the United States, Australia and several other English colonies.

The farce continues with the verse "non-rhotic versus rhotic accents".

You can find our other verses dealing with non-rhotic accents under the listing "Captain R's Impossible Mission".  Click HERE. 

APR 7, binomial phrases: "here and there"

To review our poetic effusion about binomial phrases proceed to our blog 'Edifying Nonsense', click HERE ! 

There is also an entire collection of lyrics to patter songs, somewhat older material, dedicated to various kinds of binomials, that provides more didactic material and an extensive series of examples, and allows you to sing these expressions for your own enjoyment, or for that of others around you. Click HERE !

APR 6, "pictures at a renovation": demolition, day#5

PREVIOUS VIEWS:

You can follow the whole arduous undertaking by scrolling back through earlier posts: (you can also click these dates for direct transport back to see the previous "pictures at a renovation"). Today's vistas, as well as the earlier posts show the demolition phase, and that may be of particular interest for many viewers.

April 4

March 31

front hall 

'vestibule' off front hall

'new' office space

kitchen

LR/DR

guest bathroom

APR 5, "pictures at a renovation": demolition, day #4

front hall, seen from den 

kitchen

LR/DR

den

master bathroom

guest bathroom

 

APR 4, "pictures at a renovation": demolition, day#3

 At the end of a busy day. (Availability of the service elevator is an issue for the demolition crew.)

No poetry today!

front hall (newly opened up 'vestibule')

kitchen

LR/DR

den

en suite master bath

APR 3, ambulatory verse: strut

 

 You can review all our verses on this topic, accumulated for you on two posts (eight verse each) on our companion blog "Edifying Nonsense", by clicking HERE.

APR 2, "pictures at a renovation": demolition, day#1

March 29 was demolition day #1. See below for a photo-tour. 

Click HERE to get some information on the demolition plan and to see a few pics of the pre-renovation suite.

Authors' Note: Contractors will describe the first phase of your tired old home's renovation as demolition, forgetting that, to the sensitive older homeowner, that term may conjure up visions of damage caused by aerial bombing, earthquakes or cyclones. In fact, we now have photos showing that the removal of half-century old linoleum tiles, popcorn ceilings and built-in cabinets may require almost that much destruction. We give thanks for the invention of the dumpster, and hope that things will look better in the next phase. 

Here are some pics from the first day of the demolition-in-progress. We hope to follow up with further views as they become available.  

 

front hall

kitchen

LR/DR

den

master BR

APR 1, lexicon of word-pairs: alliterative binomials Si-to T

 Giorgio's Lexicon of Binomials (alliterative binomials)

Quite a few alliterative binomials have been hightlighted in short verses by the authors:  

Matching the selection on the first slide, these include "right or wrong" and "short and sweet". 

And, for those with a musical bent, we have a song-cycle of 9 songs displaying the spectrum of these binomial expressions. They have lyrics stuffed with word-pairs, arranged to familiar tunes. You can readily access this singable treasure trove of binomial expressions of various types by clicking on the link for the first song, "WORD PAIRS", HERE. 

You can proceed to the next blogpost in the lexicon series (alliteratives U to Z) by clicking HERE.

DEMOLITION UPDATE (2023)

Yesterday there was a lot of cleaning up, and some further tearing apart!

master BR