NOV 21, ambulatory verse: reverse

Authors' Note: 

do a 180: a colloquialism for reversing direction deriving from half the number of degrees in a complete circle; here, as elsewhere, voiced as one-eighty

The author, an old palindromist, finds it appropriate to mention in the context of 'doing a 180', a few palindromic phrases using the verb reverse. These include:

Codes reverse, Doc; Noses reverse, son; Dikes reverse, kid; 

Drawer: sides reversed is ... reward; and the very dark Nooses reverse soon. 

NOV 20, singable satire for Thanksgiving: another pair-ody -- "TURKEY LEFTOVERS"

PASTICHE with PARODY LYRICS subbed into TWO WELL-KNOWN SEASONAL SONGS, another pairody.

ORIGINAL SONG#1: "The Christmas Song" (Chestnuts...), written by Wells and Tormé  in 1944, and recorded by the Nat King Cole Trio 1946.

ORIGINAL SONG#2: "Good King Wenceslas", John Mason Neale 1853, but often now mistakenly referred to as 'traditional'. Neale's piece, (based on accounts of the Bohemian Wenceslas legend, and a 13th century 'spring- carol tune) was highly criticized in the 1920s as "ponderous moral doggerel"; see the interesting description in the Wikipedia essay on this topic.

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, January, 2015. 

PARODY-SONGLINK: To find ukulele chord-charts to help you accompany "Turkey Leftovers" on your favorite instrument, click HERE. 

TURKEY LEFTOVERS

(to the tune of The Christmas Song - "Chestnuts Roasting")

Essay featured in Economist,
Turkeys' origins disclosed -
Centerpiece of each year's Yuletide feast,
Subspecies bred in Mexico.

Dolts like me believed that gobblers and that Mid-East land -
Names were mere coincidence.
Ottomans, trading ships, caravans -
I understand, it now makes sense.

Each year I prove I'm such a goof,
I try create too late a spiffy Christmas spoof,
But with a month's delay I'll get it right
Helped by this article about "Turkey's Flight".

And so I'm offering this paraphrase
Of what the author claimed was true,
French - d'inde, and the Turks call them "hindi" - what jerks!
While in India, name in Hindi,
And in Portugal's "peru".

To the tune of "Good King Wenceslas")


Montezuma once bred fowl tastier than pheasant; 
Shipped the Spanish queen a thou - funky kind of present.
Isabella loathed the birds, trimmings too displeased her;
No use for leftovers, she didn't have a free-eezer.

'Turkeys', Moors, then Jews were banned from the royal kitchens;
Legend says that's how began Spanish Inquisition - 
Cortes later sacked the lands of the Aztec ruler.
Phil or Izz-and-Ferdinand ? Can't say which was cru-ueller.

Avian émigrés toured through, crowns of Europe hosting,
Though few of their lackeys knew oven-time for roasting.
Hot or cold and steep or flat, exiled birds were living,
Prospered in those countries that didn't have Thanksgi-iving.

Thus this misnamed flock did cope through the 16th century,
'ventually hens copped some hope with the English gentry.
For some time they settled down,  breeding they found boring,
Westward they shipped out again, restlessly explo-oring.

Turkeys in America, native home recovered,
Quirky and hysterical history discovered -
Essay we would clearly rank best of the Econ'mist,
Author we should dearly thank-(s)he remains anon-ymous.

NOV 19, exemplification: house

                                 

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

 

NOV 18, planet-saving verse: drought

Author's Note: Pretty much a true story. 

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

incidental photo (2023)

barrel cactuses

NOV 17, palinku (poetic novelty): global warming

 

  In this post, we continue with our novel form of poetic wordplay. 

  Inspired by Japanese haiku poetry, the "palinku" is a terse verse with a total of 17 syllables displayed on three lines. Unlike its earlier English-language forerunners, 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  (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. Readers will note that we have been publishing verses of this type on the 17th of each month.

 You can readily 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, fabric art; untitled

 

a

b Decorative Touches  

 fabric art by R.C.H., presented with thanks

NOV 15, 2023: patients and their maladies: horseshoe kidney

 

 

Authors' Note: Horseshoe kidney is a relatively common congenital malformation, occurring in 1/500 individuals. Also known as renal fusion, it results from the merging of two fetal kidneys in the pelvis during the stage of embryonic organ development and consequently failing to undertake their normal upward migration. Fortunately, health consequences are usually mild, if any; occasionally, one of the ureters becomes obstructed. The abnormal structure is often discovered incidentally during procedures, e.g. CT scanning or ultrasound, targeted at pelvic discomfort or unrelated symptoms (and of course, no normal kidneys are seen in their usual position).

Be sure to check out the multiple collections of verses on 'Patients and their Maladies" by proceeding to our full-service blog ,"Edifying Nonsense." CLICK HERE !

NOV 14r, pandemic poetry: social distancing

b) Decorative Touches 

 fabric art by R.C.H., presented with thanks

NOV 13, terminal (poetic) exclamation: KERPLUNK!

Authors' Note: Kerplunk is an onomatopoeic expression for the sound produced as a non-buoyant object suddenly sinks below the watery surface.

You can review our collection of poems on the topic of "Terminal Exclamation (Limerick Variations)" as it evolves on our more encyclopedic blog "Edifying Nonsense"; click HERE.  

NOV 12, portraits of couples: broad-headed skinks

 

Enjoy an illustrated poem about the broad-headed skink, Plestiodon laticeps by clicking HERE.

You can view samples from our portfolio of 'Couples' portraits in a wider context on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE.

NOV 11, poetic non-sequitur: hoggishly

 

The collections of short verses entitled "Non-Sequiturs" on our parent blog "Edifying Nonsense", contain 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 10, brief sagas, a placeholder (W-I-P)

 Until we write another "brief saga", we'll use this verse as a placeholder ...

 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.

NOV 9r, bi-lyrical limerick: 'a poet and his bros'

a) reprise from November 2020

NOV 10, bi-lyrical limerick: 'a poet and his bros'

 Authors' note: We (i.e. Dr. G.H. and his registered pseudonym Giorgio) have two brothers who have each written a textbook in his chosen field of endeavour. Our personal choice, however, is to indulge in the delights of poetry, using rhyme rather than free verse as our preferred modality.  

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

reminiscence of South Carolina

b) Decorative Touches 

 fabric art by R.C.H., presented with thanks

NOV 8, postal places, Canada: Goose Bay and Gander, NL

 Authors' Note: NL is the official abbreviation for the Canadian province comprised of the Atlantic island of Newfoundland, and Labrador — the sparsely populated section of mainland Canada that borders the Atlantic Ocean to its north.
Gander, population 12,000, located on the island north of the capital of St. John's, had been founded in the 1930s as a refuelling stop for the expanding number of commercial transatlantic flights. It recently became famous as the recipient town for diverted passenger aircraft during the 9/11 debacle.

The town of Goose Bay, population 8000, now administratively known as Happy Valley - Goose Bay, is the largest settlement in the icy northern portion of the province. Founded in 1941, it was selected for its potential as a military airbase, and served that function throughout World War Two.

A terse story about "dangerous": A recent novice visitor from France, flying overnight to Toronto, sleepily noted the key towns on the plane's route-map, and wondered why "Danger" was prominently displayed near the country's east coast.

 At one swell foop, you can review all our postal poems about intriguing places in the USA and Canada, by proceeding to the encyclopedic blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE !

NOV 7, Toronto excursion: autumn at the lakefront

\\

 

NOV 6, waterfowl: action photos of great egrets

 

great egret, stalking slowly

great egret, striking

takeoff  from railing,
Shem Creek Park, Mt Pleasant SC

egret disputation at a spillway in Mt Pleasant SC: 
great egret (longer neck, yellow bill, black feet) above,
snowy egret (shorter black bill, yellow feet) being chased

You might also enjoy reviewing our illustrated verses about these birds by proceeding to 'Immersible Verse: Limericks about Waterfowl' on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. 

NOV 5, Submitted Palindromes: G, targeted at " MA IS AS SELFLESS AS I AM"

  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.  

NOV 4, decorative touches: a collage of favorites

 

NOV 3, decorative touches: lowcountry landscape

 Decorative Touches 

 fabric art by R.C.H., presented with thanks

 

NOV 2, lexicon of word-pairs: repetitive binomials P to Z

Giorgio's lexicon of word pairs (repetitive or echoic binomials) 

Quite a few repetitive ('echoic') binomials have been highlighted in short verses by the authors:  

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

b) Decorative Touches 

Continuation from "Pictures at a Renovation -- finishing touches" (fabric artwork), September 22, 2023. 

California scene:

                                                                 fabric art by R.C.H., presented with thanks

NOV 1, objectionable adjectives: horrible

 Authors' Note:  Horrible (like its close cousins terrible and frightful) has become a difficult term to define. Originally meaning full of horror, or capable of engendering horror, it can now be applied in two opposing directions.

SINGING THIS POEM

Some readers will be itching to sing the above verse. Here's our suggestion as to how to do it, using the well-known tune of "Home on the Range", slightly modified to fit the situation. Have fun !!! 

Horrible    (uke chords: E9 = 1222; A9 = 0102);

verse:

This Oct[D]ober my [D7]poems won't be [G]snorable [Gm]

Grisly, [D]gruesome. they're [E9] terribly [A7]gorable.

Critics, [D]reading at [D7]night,

Can't a[G]void taking [Gm]fright --

They'll con[D]demn them as [A9]"Hallowe'en-[D]horrible."

chorus:

Next [D]month dispo[G]sitions are [D]sunny;

With Thanks[E9]giving-fest sweeter than [A7]honey.

Critics [D]won't be an[D7]noyed;

They'll de[G]light, over[Gm]joyed

At my [D]verse they'll term [A7]"horribly [D]funny".

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