A blogsite offering entertaining oddities since January 2020 at the rate of 30x/month. There are now over sixteen hundred posts in these four years. Images -- poetic, photographic, and computer-simulated -- are drawn from daily life as well as from poems and wordplay grouped by topic on our parent blog "Edifying Nonsense". The poetry displayed is all original (as are the song-lyrics), although portions evolved through rigorous editing on a collaborative website.
September 17, 2022
SEP 17, palinku (poetic novelty): schoolboy humor #1
September 16, 2022
SEP 16, hellenophilia: approaching Santorini
Other verses discussing our appreciation of Greece and things Greek can be found on our blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Click HERE.
September 15, 2022
SEP 15, Italian loanwords: vendetta
You can review our entire poetic outpouring about Italian loanwords by proceeding to a post on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'; click HERE. If you prefer, you could view most of this topically arranged material on Facebook, in Giorgio's photo-albums. (About 20% of those offerings consist of political satire or adult limericks, and you will have to be a 'friend' of Giorgio's to view that stuff.)
September 14, 2022
SEP 14, Ontario nostalgia: native cactus
hidden cactus corner: Allan Gardens Conservatory, Toronto |
Authors' Note: Species of plants belonging to the cactus family are native only to America. Although they are generally heat-loving, a few species of the genus Opuntia are sufficiently cold-tolerant to live in parts of Canada. One of these, the eastern prickly pear, Opuntia humifusa, thrives in the US in dry areas such as along beaches on the Atlantic coastline, and some inland areas. At the northern limit of its range, in areas along the Great Lakes in Ontario (located centrally in Canada), this species has been susceptible to territory loss by severe winter storms and is now considered locally endangered. Three other species of low-growing cacti are still flourishing in the prairie provinces of western Canada.
There's a different story in other parts of the globe, where these and related species were relocated by human activities during and after the sixteenth century. Owing to their edible summer fruit, prickly pears are tolerated as invasives in parts of South Africa, southern Europe, Polynesia, South America, etc. However, the cochineal insect that feeds on the cactus in Mexico can be ground to produce a valuable brilliant red dye kmown as carmine or cochineal. British colonists established a cactus plantation in New South Wales in the early 1800s to supply a nascent dye industry. With hospitable conditions, sandy warm soil, there and in Queensland, these an other host cactuses spread quickly and vigorously, taking over a huge chunk of grazing and horticultural terrain, and are now prohibited throughout the island continent.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opuntia_humifusa
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/cactus
September 13, 2022
SEP 13, pluralia tantum: 'condolences'
Authors' Note: The above verse provides several further examples of the grammatical phenomenon pluralia tantum. An idiom associated with providing condolences for the family and friends of a single deceased person is to 'pay one's final respects'.
Grandpa Greg asked us to pass on this message: "You can view the entire collection of verses about 'pluralia tantum' by clicking HERE."
September 12, 2022
SEP 12, numbers: a dozen (12)
September 11, 2022
SEP 11, planet-saving verse: the fishmonger
You can help save the planet by viewing all our verses in this series at "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE!
September 10, 2022
SEP 10, a brief saga (trace minerals and vitamins): beriberi and alcohol
September 9, 2022
SEP 9, poems about parasites: cat fleas
September 8, 2022
SEP 8, news-post: Elizabeth the Second, OEDILFian tribute
September 7, 2022
SEP 7, patients and their maladies: lichen sclerosus
September 6, 2022
SEP 6, goats at play (videos)
September 5, 2022
SEP 5, reptiles: gila monsters, revelation
Berkeley California -- 100F September5, 2022 screen photo c/o JJH |
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".
September 4, 2022
SEP 4, painterly poetry: Manet, and the lunch on the grass
September 3, 2022
SEP 3, American satire (prolongation): special master (Mar-a-lago documents)
September 2, 2022
SEP 2, binomial phrases: "high and dry"
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 word-pairs, 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 !
September 1, 2022
SEP 1, mythed opportunities: Ovid's "Metamorphoses"
Authors' Note: Sulmona is a town in Italy's Abruzzo region where the renowned Roman poet Ovid (Ovidio in modern italian), contemporary of Horace and Virgil, started writing his works in Latin. His magnum opus "Metamorphoses" is a monumental epic of 15 books, recounting chronologically the creation of the universe to the reign of Julius Caesar. Although many of its tales are recounted with a personal twist, it is the source of much of our knowledge of Greco-Roman myth.
August 30, 2022
AUG 30, trees: camphor laurel
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".
August 29, 2022
AUG 29, exotic destination: Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina
August 28, 2022
AUG 28, planet-saving verse: summer air quality
August 27, 2022
AUG 27, organic brain poetry: frontal meningioma
Authors' Note:
Meningioma is a not-uncommon slowly growing benign tumor within the cranium. Pressure on adjacent portions of normal brain induce neurological symptoms. When the tumor is located in the frontal cortex, neuropsychiatric manifestations may include bizarre thoughts, frequently paranoid, and unrepressed behavior. Fortunately, the tumors, when suspected, are readily diagnosed on neuro-imaging studies, and surgical therapy is often curative.
Brain tumours account for only a small portion of patients suffering such neuropsychiatric symptoms; however, medical practitioners frequently hope that such a correctable cause may be discovered.
August 26, 2022
AUG 26, American satire (prolongation): taking the fifth
August 25, 2022
AUG 25, duplication: fuddle-duddle
fuddle-duddle: an infrequently used (re)duplication, voiced dismissively in dealing with opinions that the speaker rejects.
In 1971 Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, father of current PM Justin Trudeau, unleashed a minor scandal by using unparliamentary language in the Canadian House of Commons. A portion of the ensuing brouhaha, deftly sidestepped by Trudeau, revolved around whether he had actually spoken or merely mouthed the inappropriate words.
Web discussion:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuddle_duddle
August 24, 2022
AUG 24, patients and their maladies: intermittent claudication
August 23, 2022
AUG 23, Canadiana: compassionate use
Growing marijuana seems to be a major activity on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, centred in the city of Nanaimo (nuh-NAHY-moh). Exemptions from restrictions on the substance are given for certain medical conditions, termed compassionate use; however, the criteria appear loosely applied, and overlapping recreational and medicinal use of the substance underlies the region's laid-back attitude.
It is unlikely that Nanaimo will successfully challenge the dominance in limericks currently held by Nantucket. The island of Nantucket has been the setting for a number of limericks; the most famous clean one deals with a crotchety old man whose daughter rips off his poorly hidden cash.