DEC 2, organic brain poetry: chronic subdural hematoma

                                                             

Authors' Note: A chronic subdural hematoma is a space-occupying intracranial lesion resulting from the body's failure to resorb blood that collected between the dural membrane and the brain parenchyma, usually caused by . Whereas an initial expanding clot presents as a neurosurgical emergency, smaller clots, with a tendency to absorb fluid and expand gradually, may be later suggested only by chronic neuropsychiatric symptoms. In jargon used in actual medical settings and in televised fictional series, the term for the lesion responsible may be shortened to subdural.

In elderly patients, such as Hazel, and in those on blood-thinning drugs, the trauma required to incite events such as those in this tale may be minor or even subliminal.

You can view and review all our verses on the topic of 'Organic Brain Poetry' by following this link to the encyclopedic collection on "Edifying Nonsense."

DEC 1, American satire (prolongation): archival

Authors' Note: In the United States, all documents and materials related to the conduct of business in the executive branch are deemed by law to remain the property of the federal government, particularly after a president and his staff leave office. The federal agency responsible for storing and archiving these documents is NARA (the National Archives and Records Administration).

We hope that you enjoyed this verse. You can find 40 more on this topic in 6 collections on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Click HERE to start! 

NOV 30, singable satire: James Taylor sings "NESSUN DORMA"

PARODY SONG-LYRICS,
inspired by the author attending a James Taylor concert at the North Charleston Coliseum, May 15, 2018.

ORIGINAL SONG#1(music): "Mexico", James Taylor 1975.
ORIGINAL SONG#2(lyrics): "Nessun Dorma", aria from the 3rd act of "Turandot" composed by Giacomo Puccini, first performed after his death in 1926. Translation of the libretto can be found on the Wikipedia link.

PARODY COMPOSED: Dr. G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, 2015, updated 2018.

Singing along with the famous arias brings the crowd out to the opera. You don’t have to know much Italian to understand the libretto here however; ‘ciao’, pronounced like ‘chow’, means ‘so long’. As the mythical princess-character was reinvented by a French author, her name is usually pronounced French-style with the final ‘t’ silent.   

PARODY-SONGLINK: To access ukulele chord-charts to help you accompany "Nessun Dorma" on your favorite instrument, click HERE.

JAMES TAYLOR SINGS ‘NESSUN DORMA'

(to the tune of "Mexico")

Way up here, opera season’s in gear

Tickets craved for ‘Nessun Dorma’ this year

To download – credit-card and name – Baby James.

Wow, “Turandot”!

Sounds so moving, I must see that show,

Or “TuranDOTT” – some folks thought Giacomo*

Said that before he said ‘ciao’.

French and German version of a Persian tale

‘Bout a Princess of China who detested all males.

Empathize with hero who’s beheaded if fails.

Wow, TuranDOTT!

Rang the gong, and her three riddles I got.

Kept my head but the next risk is the same,

I’ll die if she finds out my name.

'Nessun dorma' means that no one should sleep,

Not even the Princess who’s a sadistic creep.

Secret hid within me; if divulged, price is steep.

Wow! Turandot!

Might lose my life when the glaring sun shows

Or get a wife; I could still win this game,

If nobody finds out my name.

Vanish, o night! set stars, give me hope.

The folks back home must think I’m smoking some dope.

She’ll get a long kiss, end the silence, name on her lips.

Wow! The princess Turandot - 

Must be quite a beauty, but I don’t really know.

And oh-oh-oh-oh! Turandot

To close I’ll sing, ‘Vincerò’.  ** (riff on last line of aria)

Wow! “Turandot”!

A Puccini opera that I don’t really know

Oh, “Turandot”

I guess I’ll have to go now.

Talking ‘bout “Turandot”    

Big ol’ op’ra-house playin’ “Turandot”...  fade

* Giacomo Puccini, composer, died in 1924 before he had quite completed the opera “Turandot”. The aria “Nessun Dorma” in the third act is the best-known piece of music in this work.

** Vincerò (Italian) I will win; repeated x 3 as last words of the famous aria.

 

NOV 29, planet-saving verse: fur-farming

You can help save the planet by viewing all our verses in this series at "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE!

NOV 28, savoir-faire: the avant-garde savant

Authors' Note: The present participle (participe présent) is used much less commonly in French than in English; the good news is that this form is regular for all but three verbs (to know, to have, to be). In contrast, infinitives are used more often, so 'knowing and doing' is described by savoir-faire.

Savant, an archaic form derived from savoir, is still in use as a noun for 'someone who knows' (a prodigy).

Avant looks as though it should be the present participle for avoir, but in fact it derives from the Latin preposition abante; but, as a loanword, e.g. avant-garde, it has become associated with the 'forefront'.   

NOV 27, organic brain poetry: high-dose steroids

Authors' Note: A course of high-dose synthetic corticosteroids, e.g. dexamethasone, may be used to help bring under control a severe exacerbation of a chronic illness, e.g. asthma, inflammatory diseases, or an initial presentation, e.g. anaphylaxis, septic shock or brain swelling. Owing to the common side-effect of drug-induced euphoria/mania and other psychiatric issues, doctors attempt to taper the high doses as soon as possible.

You can view and review all our verses on the topic of 'Organic Brain Poetry' by following this link to the encyclopedic collection on "Edifying Nonsense."

NOV 26, poetic non-sequitur: changes in latitude

Authors' Note: The 1977 album Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes by American singer-songwriter Jimmy Buffett contained a song of the same title, as well as his most popular hit "Margaritaville".

With holiday season travel plans, and snowbirds' escapes to more appealing climes disrupted by the severe December weather in the winter of 2022, J.B.'s advice has more relevance. And the authors express gratitude to their female partner who has made arrangements for the appropriate seasonal migration.

Our collection of 'Non-Sequiturs' on our parent blog "Edifying Nonsense", contains an admittedly bizarre assortment of nonsensical odds-and-ends, that don't quite fit into other topic-based offerings. But should you want to review the entire collection, click HERE.

NOV 25, pluralia tantum: 'high hopes'

 

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

NOV 24, reptiles: skink-busting

Authors' Note; WHO YA GONNA CALL? 

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

NOV 23, doctors and their practices: diabetologist

Authors' Note:

diabetologist: a super-specialized endocrinologist who deals with diabetes mellitus and its control

Glycated hemoglobin (hemoglobin A1C), reflects a chemical influence of ambient glucose levels in blood. This simple but subtle alteration of hemoglobin carried by the blood's red cells was discovered in 1958. As the average lifespan of red cells in the blood is three to four months, the biochemical test of blood levels yields a number that reflects blood sugar control over the previous few months. Generally, as your diabetologist will explain, a value less than 7% has been found to reflect good control.

You can view these informative verses in a wider context by proceeding to the collection 'DOCTORS and their PRACTICES' on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE!

NOV 22, duplication: higgledy-piggledy

Authors' Note: 

Higgledy-piggledy is yet another (re)duplication relating to disorder and impetuousness whose meaning overlaps with helter-skelter, and harum-scarum.

Readers willing to go down an internet rabbit-hole HERE can easily get to a collection of more than a dozen other short verses in which we have dealt with specific reduplications, as well as three fairly lengthy patter-songs about this fascinating linguistic phenomenon. 

NOV 21, American satire (prolongation): legal precedence

Authors' note: The 'Mitt' in the above verse is entirely allegorical, unrelated to any real current person or long-serving Republican US senator. 

We hope that you enjoyed this verse. You can find 40 more on this topic in 6 collections on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Click HERE to start! 

NOV 20, singable satire: Johnny Cash sings "VLAD PUTIN'S BLOGGER"

 PARODY SONG-LYRICS

ORIGINAL SONG: "The Frozen Logger", an American folksong of the tall-tale variety, was written by James Stevens in 1928 and published in 1949. It has been recorded by The Weavers in 1951, and subsequently by many other artists, including  Oscar Brand. Enjoy the YouTube recording by Johnny Cash here. 

PARODY COMPOSED:  Dr. G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, February 2019. 

PARODY-SONGLINK: To access ukulele chord-charts to help you accompany "Vlad Putin's Blogger" on your favorite instrument, click HERE.

FURTHER INFORMATION: A presidential quote from January 2019, in reference to the suspected perpetrators indicted by the Mueller probe into foreign interference in the 2016 U.S. federal election...

 "Among the 34 people, many of them were bloggers from Moscow or people who had nothing to do with me, had nothing to do with what they were talking about or there were people who got caught telling stories or lying … I think it's a terrible thing (that has) happened to this country, because this investigation is a witch hunt." 

VLAD PUTIN'S BLOGGER

(to the tune of "The Frozen Logger")

As I logged on in Moscow in an internet café,

An English-speaking pop-up troll did these terse words display,

“We know you are a blogger, and not just a common nerd.

Mother Russia wants your hacking help, of this please be assured.”

“And yes, I am Vlad Putin; please excuse my being crass,

But we’ll count on your assistance, or your relatives we’ll gas.

What we ask’s not too much effort, in fact it’s a walk in the park.

We’ll assign a friendly mentor, KGB-trained oligarch.”

“I want to win real elections, just not keen to call my own;           

We’ll monitor the chats and thoughts on each U.S. cellphone.

You’ll scoop the goods for blackmail in a world as dark as night,

And steal e-mail for WikiLeaks to publish on their site.”

“We’ll post you there in Washington, you’ll help us get the clues;
When time is right to dominate, we’ll start our world-wide coups.

We’ll signal in that courtroom that Putin’s time has come;

That’s where you’ll sit ‘til someone moons Bob Mueller with

his bum.”

NOV 19, Italian loanwords: ghetto

Authors' Note:

libretto: Italian for 'little book'; a summary of the text distributed to the audience of an opera, mass or oratorio.

gondola (plural - gondole): the stereotypic Venetian small boat, poled down the Venetian canals; gondole-ly is a personal, incorrectly-stressed Anglo-Italian neologism

imperfetto: Italian for 'imperfect' or 'flawed'

 The ghetto first appeared as a section of the city in which members of a particular ethnic group were cordoned off, in Venice's working-class Cannaregio quarter in 1516. The word ghetto is of uncertain origin, possibly derived from a term in the local dialect for 'foundry', related to a nearby factory. The region of northeastern Italy that surrounds Venice, stretching from the Alps to the Adriatic Sea, is known as (the) Veneto.

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

NOV 18, classic palindromes: 'Ida's denial'

You can review these illustrated verses in a wider context by proceeding to 'Reversing Verse: Limericks About Classic Palindromes' on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'.

NOV 17, palinku (poetic novelty): conformity + b)

  In this post, we will continue with a novel form of poetic wordplay. Inspired by Japanese haiku poetry, this new form is used for a terse verse with a total of 17 syllables displayed on three lines. Unlike its earlier analogues, this concoction does not mandate the precise distribution of the syllables among the three lines, but does stipulate that each word in the poem be included in a palindromic phrase or sentence in English (i.e. one that can be read either forwards or backwards). 

  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 verses of this type 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.)

NOV 16, scopes of modern medicine: bronc(h)oscopy

Authors' Note: SheilaB, a physician and prodigious creator of limericks at the OEDILF web-site, defined the bronco ("unbroken horse"), and would have been perplexed by my confusion with the homonomous Greek root broncho- ("windpipe"). Certainly, we would all need to call on our veterinarian colleagues to learn more about the investigation of respiratory maladies in horses. Bronchoscopy is a fairly commonly performed procedure in diagnosis of human lung disorders.

The unrelated term honcho ("group leader", or "boss") is of Japanese derivation.
 

NOV 15, signs of confusion: first collection

 

half-way between the Battery and the beach

This post is the first in a series of 5. You can attempt to get all of this straight by reviewing the collections in these subsequent posts ...

signs of confusion #2

signs of confusion #3
signs of confusion #4

signs of confusion #5

NOV 14, higher connections: gnostic

Authors' Note: 

gnostic: adjective derived from the Greek noun...

gnosis: pertaining to or possessing spiritual nowledge or insight

NOV 13, patients and their maladies: amblyopia

 

Authors' Note: 

pas-de-deux: a term, originating in French, for a balletic performance with two dancers, often moving in unison

Amblyopia includes a number of conditions in which the single affected eye provides less useful information to the brain, resulting in suppression of that information in comparison to that from the more normal eye. Double vision or strabismus (crossed-eyes) from weakened eye muscles on the one side is a common cause. When strabismus is relatively minor, the persistence of two discordant images under certain conditions with resulting double vision, may be disconcerting to the adult patient. Reduced lighting, head position and fatigue may enhance the problem, but corrective prismatic lenses may help in reachieving integrated binocular vision.

You can view these verses in a wider context by proceeding to 'Nurse-Verse: Patients and their Maladies' on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE!

NOV 12, objectionable adjectives: efficacious

Authors' Note:  The author disavows overly blunt speech and writing, but finds the tendency to embellish disconcerting. Efficacious seems to be used disproportionately when effective or efficient would do nicely. Other words with inflated frequency of usage include symptomatology, methodology and, yes, even usage. 

You can review our editorially selected doggerel (eight verses) relating to 'Objectionable Adjectives' by clicking HERE. 

NOV 11, death and the afterlife: memorial service

 

 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!

NOV 10, a brief saga (classic palindromes): Leigh Mercer's palindrome workshop

Authors' Note: 

Ipanema: (pronounced ee-pah-NAY-muh in Portuguese): trendy neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, known for its marvellous beach and for its bossa nova music

Leigh Mercer (1893–1977) was credited with the iconic palindrome, A man, a plan, a canal — Panama. Mercer, an isolated British eccentric who worked at low-level jobs with frequent turnover, occasionally communicated with journals and contest organizers about wordplay and mathematical puzzles. After his death, notebooks filled with unique palindromes were discovered.
This early workshop conducted by Mercer, during which the iconic canal palindrome is almost invented, is fictitious, but with the exception of the first, all the italicized phrases in the 'workshop' session are legitimate palindromes.

 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 (December 2022), proceed to 'Hemianopsia'. 

To access the most recent previous 'brief saga' (October 2022), back up to 'Metabolic Delirium'.

NOV 9, patients and their maladies: the hemorrhoid

  

Authors' Note: 

pro tem: frequently used short form for the Latin 'pro tempore' -- for the time being, in the short term.

Readers might also enjoy a verse on the same topic presented in September 2021 in the collection "The Bottom Line of Medical Humor". Click HERE.

You can view these verses in a wider context by proceeding to 'Nurse-Verse: Patients and their Maladies' on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE!

NOV 8, urban concerns: school districts (glowingly)

Authors' Note: Real estate agents are masters at the psychology of selling of homes. They employ 'stylists' to 'stage' houses, first by decluttering, and then by adding grace notes to indicate the putatively carefree and desirable lifestyle of the owners. In this case, a Victorian-era home with an appallingly small outdoor space was staged to appear more attractive to families. 

Our collection of illustrated poems about "Urban Concerns" on our parent blog "Edifying Nonsense", contains a number of intriguing verses that you can access by clicking HERE.

NOV 7, poems about parasites: hog lice

Authors' Note: This agricultural pest, Haematopinus suis, commonly known as the hog louse, lives its life only on porcine hosts, with the larvae (nymphs) concentrating on the head region. Apparently, infestations of swine herds can be treated easily with avermectins, a class of veterinary antibiotics.

You can review Giorgio's other verses about parasites, both external (ecto-) and internal (endo-) on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE.