JUL 27, holidays and celebrations: unicorny fifth birthday

  a) Reprise of material posted on July 27 in previous years

2020: anagram swarm, very-stable-genius 14 (wordplay)
2021: insects, deer- and horse- flies (illustrated poem) 
2022: birdlore, California scrub-jay (illustrated poem)
2023: Carolina lowcountry, sundown at Shem Creek (photo-essay)

To access any of these items, type its title, as displayed above in red font (e.g. ... feral ducks) , into one of the two search bars at the the top of your blog-page. Underneath each item you will find a further link to explore a collection of items (verse, photos, wordplay, song-lyrics etc.)  on the relevant topic.

b) Today's offering (July 27, 2024): 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, 

You-Know-Who !!!

JUL 26, reprehensible modern history: Crimean war

  a) Reprise of material posted on July 26 in previous calendar years ...

2020: magic canal palindromes, more far-flung venues (wordplay)
2021: Toronto ravines, Glen Stewart ravine (illustrated poem) 
2022: saving the planet, compostables (illustrated poem)
2023: creative anachronism, heavenly host (poem)

To access any of these items, type its title, as displayed above in red font (e.g. ... heavenly host) , into one of the two search bars at the the top of your blog-page. Underneath each item you will find a further link to explore a collection of items (verse, photos, wordplay, song-lyrics etc.)  on the relevant topic.

b) Today's offering (Jul 26, 2024): 

View the entire collection of poetic assertions on this topic ( at our more encyclopedic blog 'Edifying Nonsense', by clicking HERE.

JUL 25, Submitted Palindromes: RANDOM PILE #20

  a) Review of material posted on July 25 in previous years ...

2020: anagram swarm, very-stable-genius 13 (wordplay)
2021: funny bones, comminuted fracture (illustrated poem) 
2022: mythed opportunities, Aurora and Tithon (illustrated poem)
2023: palindrome submitter, Pedro the Goofy 'Dromer (wordplay)

To access any of these items, type its title, as displayed above in red font (e.g. ... comminuted fracture), into one of the two search bars at the the top of your blog-page. Underneath each item you will find a further link to explore a collection of items (verse, photos, wordplay, song-lyrics etc.)  on the relevant topic.

b) Today's offering (Jul 25, 2024): 

  On the 25th of each month (recently buoyed up by additional postings on the 5th and 15th) 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. 

JUL 24, photo-collage: voting from abroad

  a) Reprise of material posted on July 24 in previous years ...

2020: Ontario nostalgia, Toronto ravines (illustrated poem)
2021: magical palindromes, selfless (wordplay) 
2022: Italian loanwords, fiasco (poem)
2023: lexicon of word-pairs, duplications D-G (wordplay)

To access any of these items, type its title, as displayed above in red font (e.g. ... fiasco), into one of the two search bars at the the top of your blog-page. Underneath each item you will find a further link to explore a collection of items (verse, photos, wordplay, song-lyrics etc.)  on the relevant topic.

b) Today's offering (Jul 24, 2024): 

photos by Giorgio Coniglio... 

seating at an airport departure gate,
Vancouver, Canada

We owe a debt of gratitude to the volunteers who staff organizations like this.. 

Unrelated to the previous photos, here's the reworking (for enhanced legibility) of a sign attached to a housefront, as posted recently on the internet. ...

JUL 23, handbook on trace minerals and vitamins: vitamin B12 (erythropoiesis)

 

 a) Reprise of material posted on July 23 in previous years

2020: anagram swarm, very-stable-genius 12 (wordplay)
2021: scopes of medicine, fiberoptic laryngoscopy (illustrated poem) 
2022: toxic vignette, gadolinium (illustrated poem)
2023: Carolina lowcountry, suburban wildlife (photo-essay)

To access any of these items, type its title, as displayed above in red font (e.g. ... gadolinium) , into one of the two search bars at the the top of your blog-page. Underneath each item you will find a further link to explore a collection of items (verse, photos, wordplay, song-lyrics etc.)  on the relevant topic.

b) Today's offering (Jul 23, 2024): 

 

Authors' Note: The myelin sheath is an envelope of lipid-rich material that wraps around peripheral nerve fibers, acting as a form of insulation; its development and maintenance is dependent on vitamin B12. 

You can find our incipient collection of verse related to micro-nutrients, i.e. trace minerals and vitamins on our topic-based blog "Edifying Nonsense" by clicking HERE. 

JUL 22, artistic weightlifting + special events (Paris Olympic Games, 2024)

  

a) Reprise of material posted on July 22 in previous years

2020: at heart, myocardial ischemia (illustrated poem)
2021: death and afterlife, cardiac arrest (illustrated poem) 
2022: at heart, arteriopath (poem)
2023: patients and maladies, nervous bladder (poem)

To access any of these items, type its title, as displayed above in red font (e.g. ... arteriopath), into one of the two search bars at the the top of your blog-page. Underneath each item you will find a further link to explore a collection of items (verse, photos, wordplay, song-lyrics etc.)  on the relevant topic.

b) Today's offering (Jul 22,2024): 

Authors' Note:   In the currently televised Olympic summer games, Paris 2024, the term artistic is used to cover all gymnastic events (four for women and six for men), and is now used exclusively for what was once called "synchronized swimming" (synchronized retains usage in duet platform and springboard diving).

All of these events, and scores more, such as standard weightlifting, provide awe and inspiration for viewers. In certain cases, there is wonderment that a global athletic community has developed around the particular competitive activity. Artistic weightlifting is an apocryphal mind-sport concocted by the author.

b) additional photo-collage

actual date of the opening ceremony: July 26, 2024
Thanks to the CBC! 

Readers can find reminiscences of some key Olympic moments in Giorgio's photos that are  appended randomly to certain posts in the previous three months. To find them, search for "Olympic sport, 2024").  

JUL 21, photo-collage: High Park Zoo, Toronto

  a) Reprise of material posted on July 21 in previous years ...

2020: anagram swarm, very stable genius, #11  (wordplay)
2021: excursion, Niagara Falls (photo-collage) 
2022: anagram swarm, bilateral North American (wordplay maps)
2023: terminal poetic exclamation, KAPOW! (poem)

To access any of these items, type its title, as displayed above in red font (e.g. ... KAPOW!), into one of the two search bars at the the top of your blog-page. Underneath each item you will find a further link to explore a collection of items (verse, photos, wordplay, song-lyrics etc.)  on the relevant topic.

b) Today's offering (Jul 21, 2024): 

Authors' Note: All the fencing separating the residents from the visitors initially appears rather pathetic at this site, but at least the residents seem to have sufficient space, and are protected from the worst impulses, e.g. unapproved feeding, of the otherwise-well-intentioned visitors.

A few other residents of this secondary zoo in Toronto have been highlighted in posts on this blog. Click HERE(Jun 29,2023), HERE(Jun 25, 2023) and HERE(Nov 5, 2020).  
And, please check in tomorrow when we will display local birdlife in natural settings at this urban park. 

 

JUL 20, singable satire: The Beatles sing "RELIC SUBMARINES"

   a) Reprise of material posted on July 20 in previous years

2020: singable satire, Alliterative Binomials 1  (parody lyrics)
2021: singable satire, Hats Off/Borge (parody lyrics) 
2022: singable satire, Rosenstein (parody lyrics)
2023: singable satire ("Inferno"), Acheron Riviera (parody lyrics)

To access any of these items, type its title, as displayed above in red font (e.g. ... Nessun Dorma), into one of the two search bars at the the top of your blog-page. Underneath each item you will find a further link to explore a collection of items (verse, photos, wordplay, song-lyrics etc.)  on the relevant topic.

b) Today's offering (Jul 20, 2024):

PARODY SONG-LYRICS

ORIGINAL SONG:  "Yellow Submarine", The Beatles 1966, with lead vocals by Ringo Starr.

U.S.S. Clamagore at Patriots Point
(background: Arthur Ravenel Bridge, in fog)

BACKGROUND: Giorgio's substitute lyrics draw on his personal experience as an occasional resident of South Carolina. With prominent tourist sites for the display of submarines from the Civil War, World War II and the Cold War, Charleston SC and the adjacent suburb of Mt Pleasant seem like a grim version of The Beatles' fantasy "land of submarines". 

SATIRE COMPOSED: Dr G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, 2018. As a bonus, you can read about the history of development and deployment of submarines in Charleston SC in three informative blogposts on our blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense" (HERE, HERE, and HERE).

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

[Giorgio's other satire lyrics substituted to Beatles' songs include "Vonnegut" (Imagine); "Saturday Night" (Yesterday); "Brennan's Tweet" (Let It Be); "Jake" (While My Guitar Gently Weeps)].

RELIC SUBMARINES

(to the tune of "Yellow Submarine")

In the town where I’ve retired

A Memorial’s awfully near.

And it tells us of the time

When the Cold War engendered fear.

Sailors sailed, to keep us ‘safe’ --

Secret missions ‘neath the waves.

Soviet strike? Well we’d respond.

They could never make us slaves.

Nuclear power transformed the submarine --

Submerged months in between, with missile launch unseen.

Trident warheads, a payload that’s obscene,

A missile-launch machine, nuclear submarine.

No recourse, all mankind’s caught

In the path of the juggernaut.

So give Gor--bachev our thanks,

(nautical tune)

We all live near a nuclear submarine,

Missile-launch machine; we’re all trapped in between.

We all live with nuclear submarines.

Missile-launch machines blow Earth to smithereens.

Cold War’s thawed – a time of peace.

From a gruesome fate, we’re now released.

A Memorial down the street --

Tourists gripe about the summer heat.

We all live near a nuclear submarine,

Missile-launch machine; we’re all trapped in between.

Live or die with nuclear submarines.

Missile-launch machines blow Earth to smithereens.

JUL 19, special event: rooftop crane dismantling, finishing the job! (part 2)

 a) Reprise of material posted on July 19 in previous years

2020: anagram swarm, very-stable-genius 9 (wordplay)
2021: at heart, dobutamine for imaging (poem) 
2022: organic brain poetry, Alzheimer's (poem)
2023: duplication, cootchie-coo (poem)

To access any of these items, type its title, as displayed above in red font (e.g. ... cootchie-coo), into one of the two search bars at the the top of your blog-page. Underneath each item you will find a further link to explore a collection of items (verse, photos, wordplay, song-lyrics etc.)  on the relevant topic.

b) Today's offering (Jul 19, 2024): 

In yesterday's post we showed how a large retrieval crane was erected on the street and used to remove pieces of a smaller rooftop crane; the latter had been used for a year to hoist construction materials, and was repositioned progressively on the topmost floor of the nearby building as it was constructed skyward to over 30 stories. This morning, the large ladder-like yellow upper tower for the rooftop crane was brought down to street level.

Today, we'll see the retrieval crane used to remove more temporary pieces from the top of the new building, and then all the cranes will be disassembled, loaded on large trucks and carried away. 

  yellow tower supporting the rooftop crane
brought to earth using the retrieval crane
(large red vertical structure on the right) 

additional pieces of the rooftop construction crane
progressively brought to street-level for transport

control module for the rooftop crane
lowered towards the street

pieces of the rooftop crane are packed
 on a flat-bed truck for removal  

the large retrieval crane is then brought flat 
for packing up, with the aid of a smaller working crane

early evening: only the base of the retrieval device
and its smaller helper-crane remain on site

9 o'clock on the second morning:
all equipment removed, the street reopened

Other issues of interest to readers who live in deep downtown locations can be found in illustrated poems on our more encyclopedic blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE for the collection entitled "Urban Concerns". 

JUL 18, special event: dismantling of a nearby rooftop crane (ringside seats!)

a) Reprise of material posted on July 18 in previous years ...

2020: waterfowl, pelicatessen (illustrated poem)
2021: amphibians, bufotoxin (illustrated poem) 
2022: funny bones, heterotopic ossification (illustrated poem)
2023: Canadiana, Eastern funky towns (wordplay maps)

To access any item, type its title, as displayed above in red font (e.g. ... bufotoxin), into one of the two search bars at the the top of your blog-page. Underneath each item you will find a further link to explore a collection of items (verse, photos, wordplay, song-lyrics etc.)  on the relevant topic.

b) Today's offering (Jul 18, 2024): 

almost unnoticed, the retrieval crane
appears just before midnight
(diagonal structure in foreground)

retrieval crane, fully assembled
on Jarvis St. next day at 6 a.m. 

retrieval crane, control pod at street level

 retrieval crane, its working midsection
 at 15-20 stories above the street

grabbing the untethered unit
 of the rooftop crane

carefully lowering the rooftop crane's
ladder-like structure
(Toronto's busy Jarvis Street
blocked off on this Sunday morning) 

lowering proceeds calmly
on this windless day

approaching the level of the helper crane
(lower left), about 15 stories above the street

 

ladder-like unit from the rooftop crane

soon gets set down on Jarvis street

There are more striking photos of the process of dismantlement of all the cranes, and their subsequent transport off-site. Stay tuned as these will be displayed, and the street  reopened tomorrow. 

Other issues of interest to readers who live in deep downtown locations can be found in illustrated poems on our more encyclopedic blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE for the collection entitled "Urban Concerns". 

JUL 17, palinku: veggies #2

a) Review of material posted on July 17 in previous years ...

2020: poets' corner, inventiveness (poetic innovation)
2021: palinku, fruits, 2 (poetic novelty) 
2022: palinku, invective (poetic novelty)
2023: palinku, schoolboy humor 2 (poetic novelty)

To access any item, type its title, as displayed above in red font (e.g. ... bufotoxin), into one of the two search bars at the the top of your blog-page. Underneath each item you will find a further link to explore a collection of items (verse, photos, wordplay, song-lyrics etc.)  on the relevant topic.

b) Today's offering (Jul 17, 2024):