FEB 9, culinary verse: caponata (Sicilian eggplant relish)

 

Find the collection of illustrated poems dealing with these issues on the post 'Culinary Verse' on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Click HERE!

FEB 8, inspired by Ogden Nash: anapestic rehash of "the purist"

Authors' Note: The above verse represents an anapestic rehash of the story, originally told in rhyming couplets, of Ogden Nash's well-known ten-line work "The Purist". (The anapest is the basic unit of poetic meter in which each 'foot' has the pattern da-da-DA.)        

FEB 7, at heart: hypertension

 Authors' Note: High blood pressure, or hypertension, a chronic condition generally of unknown cause, is one of the major cardiovascular risk factors playing a role in the development of adult heart disease. It is also of particular importance in the causation of stroke, accounting for up to 50% of the risk for that condition. 

You can view more poems on this topic by proceeding to "Cardiologic Tracings: AT HEART" (parts #1 and #2) on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE!\

FEB 6, objectionable adjectives: histonomical

            ultimately given final approval at OEDILF with the Defined Word histological #122468                                                                                                     

Authors' Note: Around the globe, hundreds of thousands of doctors have learned the microscopic appearance and function of tissues early in medical school through the study of histology. (The corresponding adjectival forms are histologic or histological.)

The role of histonomy, if any, as well as that of its adjectival derivatives, is considerably less certain.

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

FEB 5, higher connection: wannabe autocrat

 Readers can view our collected verses dealing with 'higher connections' by clicking HERE.

FEB 4, duplication: hubba-hubba

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, J.M.H !!!

 

Authors' Note:

bubba: stereotyped male inhabitant of the southern US with an upbeat, but macho attitude

Bubba: frequent nickname for a specific male, as used by his family or buddies

rubba: rubber (American slang for condom), with typical non-rhotic pronunciation

Web-search: https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2012/06/hubba-hubba.html

Readers willing to go down an internet rabbit-hole can easily get to a collection of more than a dozen other short verses SHORT VERSES  in which we have dealt with specific reduplications. 

If interested you could also discover three fairly lengthy PATTER-SONGS about this fascinating linguistic phenomenon. These songs form an important part of our cycle of 9 songs about "Word Pairs".

FEB 3, W-I-P

 

FEB 2, defining opinion: hot

Our blogpost "Defining Opinion" on the topic-based blog "Edifying Nonsense" shows a selection of similar verses submitted to OEDILF (the online Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form). You can see all of these on one visit by clicking HERE.

 

FEB 1, poems about parasites: geohelminths

Authors' Note: Intestinal parasites belonging to the phylum Nematoda are transmitted primarily through contaminated soil; they include members of these worm-families that produce systemic human disease: roundworms, whipworms, hookworms. A related group, the threadworms, cause disease primarily among pets.

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

JAN 30, cynic's singable satire: "GLOBAL ROASTING CAN BE SET ASIDE"

 PARODY-LYRICS

ORIGINAL SONG: "The Christmas Song", a.k.a. "Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire..." written by Wells and Tormé, 1944; recorded by the Nat King Cole Trio in 1946.

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, November 2014.
PARODY-SONGLINK: To access ukulele chord-charts to help you accompany "GLOBAL ROASTING CAN BE SET ASIDE" on your favorite instrument, click HERE.

THE CLIMATE-CYNIC'S SONG
("Global Roasting Can Be Set Aside")

(to the tune of "The Christmas Song")  
 

Al Gore
former U.S. Vice-President

Planet’s roasting can be set aside.

Al Gore’s nightmare can’t unfold -

Records tumbling, roads closed, bursting pipes

And six-foot drifts in Buffalo ...  

   ...Armchair  experts doubt, outliers like some melting floes
Help predict our global fate.
Tiny dots graphing century lows-
 Warm some years, but it’s not too late.

We know that Sa-anta’s on his way;    

If he brings shorter winters here - more time to play!

I’ll ditch my snowboots, yet retire in my town,

‘Cause rising seas may make South Florida drown.

And so I send November sympathies,

Where Christmas came too soon this year -

Although it’s been said many times many ways,

Glad it didn’t,  glad it didn’t,

Glad it didn’t hap - pen here.

JAN 29, poetic non-sequitur: professor and madman

 

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.

 

JAN 28, lexicon of word-pairs: alliterative binomials A to D

 

Giorgio's Lexicon of Binomials (alliterative):

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

Matching the selection on the first slide, these include "ants in pants", "birds and bees" and "betwixt and between". 

Matching the selection on the above slide, these include "cool and calm", and "down and dirty". 

You can easily find all of these on our topic-based blog "Edifying Nonsense" by clicking HERE, and following the links.  

JAN 27, national and multinational verse: Iceland

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. 

JAN 26, poems about parasites: the parasitologist (host)

Authors' Note: The term host has become a classic descriptor used in infectious diseases, and particularly in parasitology, although such usage may seem distasteful to many. Symbiosis describes a relationship in which the parasitized host and the invading organisms share a mutually beneficial association.

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

JAN 25, Submitted Palindromes: Introduction to presenters -- Don's Ho

 

This post initiates a new thread on this blog consistent with its mission as a creative dog's-breakfast ... Presumably inspired by some of our earlier writings involving palindromic phrases, (see examples below), a number of persons communicated with the editors and volunteered to periodically send us some of their best work. We know very little of these entities/persons, who are only identified to us by their pseudonyms, but have now on hand sufficient material that we can characterize theses submitters' interests and predilections. We recently asked them to provide their take on some of the classic palindromic phrase, starting with "A man, a plan, a canal -- Panama", and continuing with other well-known phrases, such as "Dennis sinned", and we will publish those in the future as well.

  

Their profiles are indicated in panels published here at the start of things.   In the future, their contribution will be grouped in random piles (a phrase that you might recognize as an anagram of the word p-a-l-i-n-d-r-o-m-e-s). Posts dealing with this submitted material will be provided on the 5th and the 25th of each month.

You can access all of this material by entering submitted palindromes in one of the two search bars at the top of this post and scrolling downwards through the delightful material that you will discover. 

  

JAN 24, bi-lyrical limerick: 'aphonic'

 

Be sure to check out the whole collection of 'bi-lyrical limericks' by proceeding to "Edifying Nonsense." CLICK HERE !  

JAN 23, braincheck: homonomous hemianop(s)ia

  

Authors' Note: Lesions in the occipital, or posterior portion of the brain's cerebral hemispheres are notorious for producing visual disruption. Each side of this sensitive area of brain tissue is targeted at integrating one half of the patient's visual field (to left or right). So for example, a tumour in the right side of the occipital lobe interrupts the signals arriving from the nerve fibres in the right side of the retina in both eyes; the patient's ability to see objects in the well-defined semi-circular zone to his left is eliminated in a fashion that is homonomous or congruent - both eyes are affected similarly. The resulting pattern of contralateral loss of visual sensation (homonomous hemianopsia) may be mapped by a test known as perimetry (visual-field analysis).

JAN 22, poets' corner: noun-verb contractions

Authors' Note: In the above limerick verse, seven noun-verb contractions, each characteristically joining its two elements (a pronoun or noun, and a verb) with an apostrophe, are italicized in blue. But, don't be misled: other types of contractions also use the apostrophe, and these are flagged in red font. Aren't is of course a negative contraction, and one's is a possessive form. 

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

JAN 21, creative anachronism: the dawning of history

Along the same lines, readers are invited to review our small but growing collection of "creative anachronisms" on our blog "Edifying Nonsense" by clicking HERE.

JAN 20, singable satire: The Four Lads sing "THUNDER BAY" (Ontario)

  PARODY LYRICS

ORIGINAL SONG: "Istanbul (not Constantinople)" a jazz-band style concoction recorded by The Four Lads in 1953. 

PARODY COMPOSED: Dr.G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, May 2023. See some additional photos and the song-lyrics alone (without chord indication) on the blog "Edifying Nonsense."

PARODY-SONGLINK: To access ukulele chord-charts to help you accompany "Thunder Bay (not Constantinople)" on your favorite instrument, click HERE.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

In 1930, "Istanbul" was designated as the official name of the largest city in Türkiye (Turkey), known in earlier periods as Byzantion, Byzantium, Constantinople, and primarily as Istanbul since the fall of the Byzantine empire in 1453.

In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's tenth and newest province; in 2001, the Canadian Constitution was amended to revise the province's name to "Newfoundland and Labrador" (the mainland area of Labrador included less than 5% of the province's population but the majority of its landmass). The island of Newfoundland (NEW-found-land) is known by its inhabitants as "the Rock". 

In 1953 (the 500th anniversary of the "fall of Constantinople"), the Four Lads, a Canadian singing quartet who had moved from Toronto to the United States, acquired their first gold record with the release of the jazz-band styled "Istanbul (not Constantinople)". Other hit recordings by this group include "Standing on the Corner" and "Moments to Remember". BTW, the original members of the Four Lads attended the St. Michael's Choir School in downtown Toronto, on a small street well known to the authors.  

In 1970, the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario (current population about 110,000), at the western end of Lake Superior was formed by the merger of the two smaller communities of Fort William and Port Arthur.  

THUNDER BAY (not CONSTANTINOPLE)

(Intro theme, mid-Eastern, on kazoo)

"The [Am]Lakehead" was Fort William and Port Arthur
Now it's Thunder Bay, not Willi-am and Arthur
It's a [E7]wondrous town with name that's far superior --
Like [Am]Turkish delight, [Dm]on a [E7]stormy [Am]night.

Every [Am]dame today, 'round Lakehead way,
Stays in Thunder Bay, not with William or with Arthur
You've a [E7]rainy date in Fort William or Port Arthur?
She'll be [Am]waiting in [E7]Thunder [Am]Bay.

Even [Am]old Newfoundland hooked up with Labrador.

[Bm7+5]Ask a Newfie, he might say,

"They [E7]thought, on the Rock, we'd like that more, eh?"

So, [Am]take me back: Fort William and Port Arthur
No, you can't go back in time, it's so much farther;
Been a [E7]long while past, since Willi-am and Arthur.

Why the [Am]name-change? Here's the crux:
[E7]  It's no one's business but Ca-[Am]nucks.

Thunder Bay. 

(kazoo)

Thunder Bay.

JAN 19, defining opinion: hose

Our blogpost "Defining Opinion" on the topic-based blog "Edifying Nonsense" shows a selection of similar verses submitted to OEDILF (the online Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form). You can see all of these on one visit by clicking HERE.

JAN 18, reptiles: anoles going green

 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'.

WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF THE POETRY ON THIS SITE?

 Poetry appearing on this site was written (unless otherwise indicated) by Giorgio Coniglio (registered pseudonym), and for the most part contributed to the online humour dictionary-site...

OEDILF (Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form). In its 15 years of existence, OEDILF has worked its way alphabetically from Aa- to He-, with the goal of accumulating a verse defining every meaning of every word in the English language. This co-operative project has  accumulated over 110,000 carefully edited limericks, with completion date estimated to be around the year 2065. In the past five years, Giorgio has contributed over 500 poems to the project; the site's accession number for the verses is indicated at the bottom of the relevant slides in our presentations.

JAN 17, palinku (poetic novelty): family life

  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 classic Japanese analogue, 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. 

  And, just in case you have forgotten what palindromes are about, your blogsite hosts have arranged a serial set of brief lessons on the topic ('Political Palindromes'); click HERE. 

  You can readily view all our "palinku" verses 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.)

 

JAN 16, classic palindromes, 'no left felon'

Authors' Note: Apparently a few felons are politicians, and vice versa.

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

JAN 15, binomial phrases: "poop and scoop"

 

Authors' Note:  The rhyming binomial phrase, poop and scoop, sometimes quoted as stoop and scoop, describes a group activity by pet-owners.
See also the author's poem "dog park".  

     

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 !

JAN 14, curtained verse: octogenarian sex

EDITORS' WARNING: You must be at least 12 years of age to read this post!

You can review other mildly scurrilous illustrated verses in a wider context by proceeding to 'Curtained verses: Faintly Obscene (Selected) Limericks' on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'.

JAN 13, Carolina lowcountry: photo-study of the Cooper River (Arthur Ravenel) bridge

This photogenic bridge, a part of US highway 17, links the historic city of Charleston, South Carolina, with the suburban town of Mt. Pleasant across the Cooper River. 

Photos were taken with the camera function on Giorgio Coniglio's i-phone 7, later upgraded to an i-phone 13. A few other pictures can be found in a pre-pandemic blogpost HERE. 

t-shirt

 motif

You can see this marvellous feat of engineering as rendered in fabric art by clicking HERE and HERE.

TO SEE MORE STUFF (poems, pics, peculiarities): To see older or newer material  (posted daily, or at least on most 'good' days), CLICK below the Comments Section, on 'Older Post' or 'Newer Post'.

JAN 12, portraits of couples: horses

You can view all of our folio-photos from the collection of 'Couples' portraits in a wider context on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE.