JUN 15, doctors and their practices: ophthalmologist sibling xxxxxxxxxxxx Dr. JJ

 A nostalgic recollection inspired by a birthday. Dr. JJ would be enjoying his 79th today.

at his younger bro's Bar Mitzvah

 

surprise party (40th anniversary) for his folks

an iconic 50th anniversary celebration

 

  

JUN 14, mammalian wildlife: Steller sea lions

Authors' Note:  A falling birth rate  (along with ongoing hunting) has been proposed as a principal factor in the decline in the last century of Pacific Ocean populations of the Steller sea lion, Eumetopias jubatus. Although wanton polygamy has, to be honest, always been an option for females of this species of magnificent marine mammals, the particular efforts of concerned individuals like our heroine Bella may have contributed to a recent recovery.

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 !

Last OEDILF revision

Inside-Passager: otarines telling Tales from rocks where sea lions were dwelling: Seems polygamous fellers Bumped up stocks of the Stellers. At your bookstore, this novel's bestselling. It's historical fiction, compelling! otarine: member of the family of eared seals, primarily including sea lions A falling birth-rate (along with ongoing hunting) has been proposed as a major factor in the worrisome decline in the last century of populations of Steller sea lions. Wanton polygamy has always been the modus for this species of magnificent marine mammals, including the novel's author who has written her account under the pseudonym Stella. More recently, with bans on hunting, and ongoing efforts by leaders of the eastern population (that inhabits rocky outcroppings around the Inside Passage), there has been some recovery. The western population (ranging from the Gulf of Alaska, the Aleutian Islands, and across the Pacific to Japan) remains significantly endangered. Temp AN: https://racerocks.ca/marine-mammals-in-british-columbia/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Historical_fiction

JUN 13, English literature survey course: "Jabberwocky", Lewis Carroll's poem

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

JUN 12, reprehensible modern history: submarine warfare #2

Charleston, South Carolina played a major role in the development of submarine warfare. The Cold War Submarine Memorial is located at Patriot's Point in Mt. Pleasant SC, on the eastern side of Charleston harbor. 

At our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense', you can review our entire collection of panels about the history of submarine warfare, as well as the lyrics to the parody-song "Relic Submarines". Click HERE. 

JUN 11, funny bones: Lisfranc fractures

 

Authors' Note: 

crank: an unpleasant person who has difficulty with anger control

ORIF: acronym for surgical intervention for bone fractures — open reduction, internal fixation

plain films: medical jargon for two-dimensional x-ray studies, as opposed to CT, although digital media, not 'film' emulsion, are now generally used to analyze and record the images

With these injuries that involve one or more fractures, metatarsal bones of the lower foot are dissociated from the tarsus, making the mid-foot unstable. They were first observed in cavalry men during the Napoleonic Wars and later described by a French surgeon, Jacques Lisfranc de St-Martin. In English medical jargon they are known as Lisfranc (LIZ-frank or liz-FRANK) fractures. Self-diagnosis of this type of injury by a patient would be an unusual event.

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! 

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, trees: horsechestnut trees

 

You can review these illustrated verses in a wider context by proceeding to 'Uprooted Verse: 'Poems about Trees' on the full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". 

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, pathos and poetry (gun control verses): good-guy shooters

 (Editorial comment) Insanity!

 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. 

 

MAY 30, singable satire: Gordon Lightfoot sings "THE WRECK OF THE DANISH ROYALTY"

 

PASTICHE with PARODY-LYRICS

ORIGINAL POEM:  Hamlet's Soliloquy, Act iii, Shakespeare's "Hamlet, Prince of Denmark", 1600.
ORIGINAL SONG: "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", 1976 by Gordon Lightfoot, used primarily for music and meter.

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, 2014.

KEYWORDS: classics, poetry, pastiche, goldenoldy

See an earlier collaboration of G. Lightfoot and W. Shakespeare in a post of Nov 22 on this blog. 

Now suppose Lightfoot sang Hamlet's most famous soliloquy........... 

Ken Branagh as Hamlet ponders man's fate

THE WRECK OF THE DANISH ROYALTY

A RE-WRITE OF THE HAMLET SOLILOQUY

(to the tune of "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald")

The question is …… Whether ‘tis nobler to suffer,

 Fate’s arrows and stings so outrageous

 Or to be, and take arms against troubling seas,

 And oppose them with action courageous?

To die, not to be; it's just sleep, possibly

- An escape from heart-aches flesh is heir to -

All quiet past that portal, where no longer mortal

- consummation we offer a prayer to.

To die, to sleep, perchance to dream; there’s the rub;

For death’s dreams may provoke dissolution;

And the puzzling dread of that something when you’re dead

Discolours our strong resolution.  

With dagger that’s naked we’d easily make it

To that land whence no traveller’s recovered.

But that puzzles our wills, rather bear our known ills

Than fly off to others undiscovered. 

Explaining persistence of troubled existence,

For Time’s whips and scorns, who would bear’em? 

The haughty, oppressors, and rejecting lovers -

The wrongs and the spurns they don’t spare’em.

And who would bear "fardels" - whatever those are -  

With a life grimy, sweaty and weary, 

Hauling tons of iron ore to the desolate shore
Of that low-lying lake some deem eerie? 

Yet there’s puzzling dread of that thing when you’re dead 

And the pale cast of thought which can sicken,

Enterprise of great moment and pith turns awry          

And thus conscience makes all of us chicken. 

The question lives on …… When the chips are all down,

To bear outrageous fate so much drearier?

Or to be, and take arms against troubling seas,

|And oppose them with action superior?|X2

The Fitzgerald in Nov '75, just prior to the iconic shipping disaster

MAY 29, Ontario nostalgia: commuting by rail

You can review the entire series of illustrated poems about the good old days in Ontario by checking the post 'Ontario Nostalgia' on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE. 

links for any date: scroll over to the calendar-based listings of 'Past Posts' in the righthand column on this page, choose your year and then month of interest, and then select (by clicking) the post of your choice.

to continue daily titillations: BE SURE TO BOOKMARK THIS SITE!

MAY 28, Toronto excursion: 'Brickworks', dusk approaching

 

The great blue heron has been featured in posts on this blog HERE, HERE, and HERE.

The ponds are filled with yummy koi.

a midland painted turtle

Check our post about the painted turtle (southern subspecies) HERE. 

The black-crowned night heron has been featured in other posts on this blog. Click HERE. 

See other views of Toronto's Brickworks HERE.

MAY 27, mythed opportunities: 'Infernal' (Dante's Divine Comedy)

You can take advantage of the whole spectrum of illustrated poems dealing with 'Mythed Opportunities' that we have collected on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Click HERE!