JUN 2, photo collage: High Park's peacocks strut their stuff

 

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JUN 1, medical testing: true-positive rate (sensitivity)

 

MAY 30, singable satire: Julie Andrews sings "EWE-YEW-YOU" (the English homonym medley)

 PARODY-LYRICS 

ORIGINAL SONG: "Do-Re-Mi", as performed by Julie Andrews and the cast of von Trapp children in the 1965 film version of the musical hit "The Sound of Music". The song was composed by Rogers and Hammerstein for the stage version of the iconic American musical, that premiered in 1959 featuring Mary Martin in the lead role of "Maria". 

  

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, September 2014; the medley, in fact, contains two spoofs based on the same original song. The parody-medley was added to Giorgio's predecessor blog "Giorgio's Ukable Parodies" as one of his earliest parody-songs.

.

PARODY-SONGLINK: To find ukulele and guitar chord-charts to help you accompany "EWE-YEW-YOU (the English homonym medley)" on your favorite instrument, click HERE.

EWE-YEW-YOU

(to the tune of "Do-Re-Mi") 

Dough -- it's paste I knead for bread

Rey -- the Spanish word for "KING"

Mea culpa -- Latin guilt

Fa't -- it's so embarrassing

So -- an adverb meaning "MUCH"

LA -- Louisiana mail

Tee -- a shirt for golf or such

Dough -- there's what I'll need for bail.

Dough, rey, mea, fa't, so, LA, tee, dough !  

Ewe -- a sheep, a female sheep

Yew -- a hedge that's evergreen

You -- a name to call yourself

U- -- a turn to leave the scene

Hugh -- an entertaining guy

A job that's carving wood -- that's hew

Hue -- a tint to catch the eye

And that brings us back to ewe. 

Ewe, yew, you, U-, Hugh, hew, hue, ewe !  

Editor's Note (added April 2024):

"When you know the notes to sing, you can sing most anything."

(The melody and words of this delightful song remain with us as an "earworm".) With this fact in mind, we have concocted another pair of spoofs dealing with the French version. We have labelled this effort, a French homonym song, as "Jeux-de-Mots". (Click the link to enjoy it, available in mid-April 2024). 

Solfège system of naming musical notes, shown here for key of C

MAY 29, photo-collage: polka dots

 

MAY 28, "pictures at a renovation"

 

LR (still no flooring)

inside the office

later in the day, hardwood flooring started 

MAY 27, photo-collage: around Washington, DC

    

the flamingo house

Union Market

'Friendship Archway',
Chinatown gate, world's largest paifang

Union Station

Columbus Circle

typical DC row houses

statue of Nathanael Greene, 
Revolutionary War general.
Stanton Park, Washington NE.

  

"Knife Edge Mirror Two Piece"
Henry Moore,
National Gallery of Art 

on the steps of SCOTUS

congressional selfie

at the United States Botanic Garden
(what a conservatory!)

spokesperson for the Capitol Hill Squirrel Lobby

MAY 26, painterly poetry: 'decamp' (the birth of impressionism)

 

                                                       

Authors' Note:  The above story, dating from France in the 1860s, and relating to the birth of Impressionism, is apocryphal.

Check out our entire collection of illustrated verses on 'painterly poetry' as exhibited on the encyclopedic blog "Edifying Nonsense" by clicking HERE. 

MAY 25, Submitted Palindromes: Introduction to presenters -- Hal Lelujah

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. 

MAY 24, exotic destination: Haifa, Israel (Holyland)

 

Authors' Note: Baha'i, sometimes known as "the youngest of the world's main religions", promotes universal brotherhood and spiritual unity. Members of the faith, like my dental hygienist, make pilgrimages to northern Israel, where there is a complex of sites including the Baha'i Gardens in Haifa, and temples in which the sect's Prophet-Herald, the Bab, and its Prophet-Founder, Baha'i-u'llah, are interred.

Other verses about "Exotic Travel Destinations" can be found on our blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE.

MAY 23, defining opinion: honey

 

Authors' Note:    The authors propose the above verse to define the neologism appiculture.

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.

MAY 22, ambulatory verse: amble

 

Authors' Note:  Hot to trot is an intriguing established idiom, as reflected by its many tribute-verses, such as this one. 

Not to trot, a variant employed in the above verse's final line, has received considerably less attention.

You can review all our verses on this topic, accumulated for you on our companion blog "Edifying Nonsense", by clicking HERE.

MAY 21, Toronto excursions: views around Toronto, Victoria Day

 

takeoff from Billy Bishop Airport

Lishman's sculptures at sunset
(see also the post of March 21)

TO SEE MORE STUFF: 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'.

MAY 20, singable satire: Steve Goodman sings "THE TOURGUIDE KNOWN AS VIRGIL" (Inferno, Canto 1b)

PARODY-LYRICS

ORIGINAL SONG: "The City of New Orleans" Steve Goodman, 1970, as performed by Arlo Guthrie (also covered by Woody Nelson, many others)
ORIGINAL POEM: "Inferno" by Dante Alighieri

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, April 2015.

PARODY-SONGLINK: To find ukulele and guitar chord-charts to help you accompany "The Tour-guide Known As Virgil" on your favorite instrument, click HERE.

Virgil and Dante
"The Onlookers"
A-W Bouguereau

"The Thinker" from "The Gates of Hell"
 by Rodin may represent Dante 

THE TOUR GUIDE KNOWN AS 'VIRGIL'

(to the tune of "City of New Orleans", Guthrie version)

Intro:
Morning meet-up, tour to Paradiso
Guide is that poet, Limbo-dwelling Virge 
Credit-card prepaid by Beatrice-oh! 
Helluva trip from everything I’d heard.

Dante:
Poi che ho posato il corpo lasso 
Ripresi via per la piaggia diserta,
 Il piè fermo sempre era’l più basso
Ed ecco quasi al cominciar de l’erta.

Resting til my body was less weary
Started to climb, with Monday-morning blahs.
Suddenly where the path grew steep and dreary -
Three apparitions that could really make you pause. 

Mi porse tanto di gravezza, perdei speranza de l’altezza 
Mi ripignei dove’l sol tace – la cagione? 
Dinanzi al volto, impedivan mi’ cammino
Una lonza, una lupa, e un leone.

Lost hope of gaining the crest, each effort hiked my level of stress,
So I rolled back into the shadows, gave up tryin’
Cause right before my face, with no chance to leave that place,
Stood a leopard, a she-wolf and a hungry lion. 

Temp’era dal principio del mattino
E’l sol montava ‘n su con queste stelle
Ch’eran con lui quando l’amor divino
Mosse di prima queste cose belle.

Good morning fiendish guard-dogs! How are you? 

The sun is rising on this naïve son, 

Divine love may have set all this in motion

But I’d drive five hundred miles for a trusty gun.

Quando vidi uno in silenzio nel diserto

“Miserere di me” gridai a lui

“Qual che tu sii, ad ombra od omo certo!”

Rispuosemi “Poeta, poeta già fui”

A form appeared, from silence nearly faded 

I cried to him, “Have pity on poor old me,

Whether you’re a real guy or one shaded.” 

He said, “Way back when, I used to write poetry.”

Or sei tu quel Virgilio, nato a Roma sub Iulio,

Quella fonte che parla si largo fiume?

Tu se’l mio autore, vagliami’l grande amore;

De li altri poeti onore e lume.

I asked - Hey, you Roman geezer from the time of Julie Caesar,

Are you the font whose speech creates a river?

We think your rhythm’s really neat, we’re rockin’ to your gentle beat

Your Virgil-rap sets poets’ hearts a-quiver. 

Voglio campar d’esto loco selvaggio

Vedi la bestia per cu’io mi volsi

Aiutami da lei, famoso saggio,

Ch’ella me fa tremar le vene e i polsi.

Can’t wait to wave this crazy wood ‘Good riddance’.

You saw that beast who made me turn and veer,

Please help me famous wise-man with your kindness,

Don’t believe my T-shirt ‘tho it boasts ‘No Fear’

Virgil:

Quest’invidiosa bestia dell’inferno

Non lascia passar per la sua via

Per lo tuo me’ penso e discerno

Che tu mi segui e io saro tua guida.

This hellish beast, you see is quite tenacious

Won’t let anyone get more than halfway home

If you hope to get to Memphis or to Heaven

I’ll guide you there, no charges while you roam. 

Udrai spiriti dolenti e color che son contenti

Perche speran a le beati genti venire.

Se vorrai salire in questa regna, un’anima piu di me degna 

Con lei ti lascerò nel mio partire.

You’ll hear Inferno’s spirits vent, and later those who seem content

While waiting out their stints in Purgatory,

When the Big Guy’s Realm is nearing, this tour-guide is disappearing,

For me no sweet refrain – that’s another story. 

Dante: 

Che tu mi meni là dov’or dicesti

Si ch’io veggia la porta di san Pietro

E color cui tu fai cotanto mesti.

Allor si mosse, e io li tenni dietro.

Hey poet, I will follow where you lead me; 

It’s a good five hundred clicks to Peter’s gate;

To see my Bea, I’ll follow in behind thee.

It’s a heck of a trek, but it should be a heavenly date.  

MAY 19, birdlore: bird droppings

Authors' Note: Although its use appears cute, employing the term bird-turd might display your ignorance. The appropriate expression is pronounced as BEHRD drahp-ing in usual discussions.

 You can view an encyclopedic collection of illustrated poems on this topic by proceeding to the post "Poems about BIRDLORE" on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE.