MAY 3, "pictures at a renovation": third week

 PREVIOUS VIEWS:

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

April 26

April 18

April 16

April 10

April 6

April 4

etc.

hall towards LR

LR (stack of wallboard)

kitchen

den entrance

new office space

studio (stack of flooring)

(photos from Apr28 - May1)

MAY 2, waterfowl: seabird feeders

 

MAY 1, magical palindromes: examples #21 - #25

 You can view our entire collection of these intriguing wordplay oddities, in a post on our blog "Edifying Nonsense", entitled Magical Palindromes: a compendium".

APR 30, singable satire: "ADENOMA", a pair-ody

 

PAIR-ODY-LYRICS, subbed into two songs (pair-ody is a neologism for a parody using a pair of original songs) .

ORIGINAL SONG#1: "Mona Lisa" , Nat King Cole, 1950 
ORIGINAL SONG#2. "Buona Sera", Louis Prima, 1956

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, December, 2014.

EXPLANATORY NOTE: Rudolf Virchow, 1821-1902, is regarded as "the father of modern pathology".

Benign tumours are discussed in various other short poems by the author, including "Benign tumours, a guidebook", and "Pat's adenoma". Facial nerve malfunction, including Frei's syndrome, after resection of benign or malignant salivary tumours is discussed HERE.

PARODY-SONGLINK: See the version of "Adenoma" designed for ukulele and guitar players on "SILLY SONGS and SATIRE" HERE.

ADENOMA

(to the tune of "Mona Lisa")

Adenoma, Adenoma, Virchow named you;

You’re a common lesion in the neck and face -

Presentation with an endocrine secretion,

Or a painless little lump that’s out of place.

pleiomorphic adenoma
     of the salivary gland           

We don’t understand your motives, Adenoma.
What strange factors make you spurn control and grow?
But your schemes don’t require exploration,
They’re revealed by needle aspiration.

Are you truly benign, Adenoma,
Or just an irksome Neoplasia’s little bro?

Are you truly benign, Adenoma

Or just an irksome Neoplasia’s little bro?
Adenoma, Adeno-o-ma.

(to the tune of "Buona Sera")

Sayonara, salivary Adenoma
I’ve engaged a surgeon trained in ENT.
In the morning, he’ll resect you from your bed there

For removal of the specter of malignancy.

By next evening, Adenoma, we’ll be separate -
You’ll be sliced and spread on slides for full review;
And my mouth-droop from that nerve you’ve cruelly damaged -
With its fibers freed, my smile might yet be salvaged.

In the long-term, I am better off without ya’
Sayonara, Adenoma, kiss me goodbye.
Hasta mañana, Adenoma; kiss me goodbye.

APR 29, exemplification: hillbilly

Authors' Note: It sure warn't easy to pack the whole bunch of neighbors and pals into a single verse. Sad to say, I had to leave out the following:  bumpkins, crackers, chawbacons, clodhoppers, good-ol'- boys, hayseeds,  and yokels. I'll include 'em next time! 

 To review our whole collection of "exemplary exemplifications", click HERE. 

APR 28, defining opinion: cruddy

 Authors' Note: Trudy's definition seems to be skewed towards the achievement of cruddiness, downplaying inherent or intrinsic cruddiness. We await further reports.

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.

APR 27, photo-analysis: flight of the great blue heron

Start at the right hand side, uppermost row, and scroll downward to follow the bird as it flies from your right to our left.

Interested readers might also want to review an illustrated poem about great blue herons in an earlier post on this blog. Or, you could check out our entire collection of illustrated verses on this topic in a wider context by proceeding to 'Immersible Verse: Limericks about Waterfowl' on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. 

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

APR 26, "pictures at a renovation": the second week

 PREVIOUS VIEWS:

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

April 18: reconstruction

April 16: demolition phase winds down (mostly)

April 10: demolition phase

April 6:   demolition phase

April 4:   demolition phase

March 31: demolition phase

And, check out the project-planning stage, elucidated in photos and verse, on March 19, and March 27.

front hall

kitchen

LR

 

DR

den

master BR

master bath
(shower construction underway)

APR 25, Submitted Palindromes: Introduction to presenters -- Ed, the Derailed Liar

You have reached the "Submitted Palindromes" thread on the blog "Daily Edifying Nonsense", a light literary entity that emanates through the blogosphere daily (almost), i.e. 30 times per month.

  On the 25th of each month you will find a slide-filling group of palindromic phrases submitted to the editors by a panel of 7 palindromists. These folks have all been working on this project since January 2020. Their profiles are indicated in panels published here at the start of things, and then, we have asked them to provide (palindromically, of course) their views on one of the iconic items in the classic literature, starting with "A man, a plan, a canal -- Panama", and continuing with other well-known phrases, such as "Dennis sinned". Otherwise, 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).

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

APR 24, urban concerns: aged street tree

Authors' Note: This verse drew inspiration from the poem "Cuore di Legno" (Heart of Wood) by poet Primo Levi. In the poem, the narrator, an aged horse chestnut growing on a busy urban street, complains of, among other insults, being peed on by neighborhood dogs. 

APR 23, doctors and their practices: neighbourhood analyst (capsaicin)

 

Authors' Note: 

 (kap-SAY-sin, or kap-SAY-uh-sin)

  Capsaicin is a chemical derived from hot peppers that creates a sensation of heat on the human skin and in the human mouth. Almost all other mammals also dislike the sensation, so the chemical has come to play a role as the major ingredient in many products touted for repelling mammalian pests.

  Despite the mostly-true story related here, the drug has seldom been prescribed as a treatment by psychoanalysts or other psychiatrists. Moreover, the difficulty of repeated applications (repetition may be needed after each rainfall) to rooftop sites makes its use in this setting hazardous. 

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!

APR 22, poetic non-sequitur: hope for victims of bullying

Authors' Note: We attended an inspiring book launch this afternoon. 

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

APR 21, mammalian wildlife: a peek at elephant seals

Reminiscence from a year ago (somehow this didn't get posted back then):  

What we got to see at Año Nuevo State Park on our April '22 trip was a mass of seal pups, who had been heavily fed by their mothers and then abandoned  on the beach, while the mothers swim out to sea as usual on their long and lonely migration. The pups spend a lot of time sleeping off their recent huge intake of food, and after a few months make their own way, eventually, into the sea where they somehow cope with doing their own life-adventure, learning to swim, hunt and eventually to relocate their home beach, all miraculously without guidance.

It would be great to return in late fall to see the older males, who weigh up to 5000 pounds, when they return for annual breeding.

 

You can review a 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 !

APR 20, singable satire: Elton John sings "DANTE's SONG" (Inferno, Canto 1a)

 PARODY-LYRICS

ORIGINAL SONG: "Your Song", Elton John, 1970.

ORIGINAL POEM: "Inferno" by Dante Alighieri, the first of 3 books constituting "The Divine Comedy" or "La Divina Commedia".

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, April 2015.

PARODY-SONGLINK: To find ukulele and guitar chord-charts to help you accompany "Dante's Song" on your favorite instrument, click HERE.

Although Dante Alighieri wrote these poetic lines 700 years ago, they have received very little play on various parody-sites. Dante was a forerunner in his use of vernacular language (rather than Latin); based mainly on Tuscan dialect, his writings were critical in the development of modern Italian. To make the poetic lines singable, I had to take down Dante’s hallmark “terza rima” rhyming scheme (aba, bcb, cdc….), and rearrange it to a simpler aabb format. Other than this rearrangement, which leaves out some original lines, the lyrics for the beginning of the first Canto are primarily Dante’s. My English translation follows the Italian, with some adaptations for modern readers. Endless kudos are owing to the Pinsky translation, which inspired this effort.

Inferno, Canto#1a: DANTE'S SONG

(to the tune of "Your Song")

"Dark Wood"

detail of Dore engraving

Intro:

Put down words to “Commedia” sev’n centuries past,

My take on Life and after- seemed to take hold and last

Died exiled in Ravenna, but I guess I did well,

My gift is what we all think about Heav’n and Hell………

Dante:

Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita,

Che la diritta via era smarrita

Mi ritrovai per una selva oscura, a dir

Quanto e qual era è cosa dura.

It’s a little bit funny, but in the midst of life’s road,

I got lost on the path where I’d easily strode,

Found myself without money in a dark gloomy wood –

I’d use a GPS if only I could.

Questa selva selvaggia ed aspra e forte

Tanto è amara, che poco è piu morte –

Era tanto pien di sonno com’io v’entrai

Che la verace via abandonnai.

This unyielding woodland is wild and perverse

No place to get coffee, only death might be worse

Can’t say how I got here, seems I’ve used up my stash

That I’d thought of smoking near the jogging path.

Chorus(It.)

Ma dove terminava l’orribile valle

Vidi vestite di raggi le spalle d’un colle

La paura cheta, un poco cheta

Dopo notte di pièta

Per ogne calle mena dritto questa pianeta

Chorus(Eng.):

I spotted a billboard for a roadside motel

Where a fearsome trench ended at the foot of a hill

I’d had a bad night, my credit’s quite tight,

If I had enough cash

I’d get out of this sunlight, I need a place to crash.

E come quei che con lena affannata

Si volge all’acqua perigliosa e guata;

Uscito fuor del pelago alla riva,

      "Dante nella Selva"

W.Blake

Cosi l’animo mio ancor fuggiva.

Like an agent who’s landed and stripped off scuba-gear

007, no tuxedo, proceeding out of fear,

From depths to some hostile shore is what I really mean,

That’s the way that my soul appeared to be fleeing.

Si volse indietro, l’animo mio

Che ancor fuggiva,

A rimirar lo passo che non lasciò persona viva.

Fearing what to find, my passing-lane mind

Checked the rear-view mirror, then hurtled

Peering back at the passage that leaves the living world.

APR 19, American satire (prolongation): obstruction of justice

 

Author's Note: 

A.G.: Attorney General, a political appointee heading the US Department of Justice   

prez: casual term for president, used in lightweight discussion of the American political situation

Forty-Five: a sequential numbering system is used in the United States for successive holders of the elected office of President; we are currently on number Forty-Six (Joe Biden)

capo: 'head', or 'boss' in Italian, frequently used in connection with the Cosa Nostra (Mafia)

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! 

 

APR 18, "pictures at a renovation": reconstruction begins

 Yesterday, the project entered a new chapter in forward progress: At least in some rooms, the putting-together stage has begun. This started with  the front hall and kitchen, applying levelling cement over the underlying concrete slabs in preparation for tiling in the kitchen and hardwood installation in the front hall. The den remains the site of intense removal of 'popcorn ceiling'. 

 PREVIOUS VIEWS:

You can follow the whole arduous undertaking by scrolling back through our earlier posts: (you can also click these dates for direct transport back to see the previous views. The earlier posts show the demolition phase, and that may be of particular interest for many viewers.

April 16

April 10

April 6

April 4

March 31

front hall (watch your step!)
(wet levelling cement in place)

kitchen

LR/DR

LR, ready for some refinishing

den, ongoing intense ceiling restoration

APR 17, palinku (poetic novelty): London (UK and Ontario)

palinku

\

 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.)

APR 16, "pictures at a renovation": demolition phase winds down

 The dramatic part of the demolition phase is winding down...

PREVIOUS VIEWS:

You can follow the whole arduous undertaking by scrolling back through our earlier posts: (you can also click these dates for direct transport back to see the previous pics. These earlier posts show the demolition phase, and that may be of particular interest for many viewers.

April 10

April 6

April 4

March 31

nd, check out the project-planning stage, elucidated in photos and verse, on March 19, and March 27.

LR
the floors throughout are now bare concrete

kitchen

the studio

exterior view