NOV 7, reptiles: autotomy

 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".

NOV 6, exotic destination: Congolese hippodromes

 

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

NOV 5, numbers: pentagons, etc. (5)

 

You can review our cumulated nonsense about numbers by clicking HERE.

NOV 4, excursions: portraits at Riverdale Farm

 You might also like to check a couple of other posts that portray the inhabitants of this Toronto attraction.

Click HERE for 'GOATS AT PLAY (videos)',  HERE for 'Toronto Ravines -- Riverdale Farm' (poem)', and HERE for 'Riverdale Farm -- photocollages'.

NOV 3, variant Nantucket limerick: old Flynn, from Martha's Vineyard

You can review our entire collection of spoof verses based on the iconic Nantucket limericks on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense' by clicking HERE.

NOV 2, STD-poetry: GPI -- general paresis of the insane

Authors' Note:  General paresis of the insane, known by the initialism GPI, was recognized as a distinct disease in 1822, and considered by the Victorians to be a form of madness in persons, primarily men, of dissolute character. It took another century until it was confirmed that it was caused by spirochetes, causative organism for syphilis, damaging the brain in the late (tertiary) stage, and that its progression could be halted by antibiotics such as anti-malarial arsenicals and, after 1940, penicillin. Once a relatively common problem on a global scale, GPI now seems to be confined to developing countries.

   This verse also relates to a series on organic causes of neuropsychiatric symptoms, such as hypothyroid depression, and frontal meningioma.

 

 You can review verses on this topic in a wider context in a post on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense" by proceeding to 'Ruination, Rumination and Reminiscence: STD-Poetry'. Click HERE.  

NOV 1, planet-saving verse: 'too hot to hoot' - palindrome

Authors' Note:

Sir; a plan, if final — Paris.

  In December 2015, the United States, under President Barack Obama, became a part of the Paris Accord, an international convention to mitigate the effects of climate change by curtailing production of greenhouse gases.

  In June 2017, President Donald Trump, whose personal business depended in large part on the construction and operation of golf-resorts, proceeded to withdraw from the treaty.

  Immediately after his inauguration in January 2021, President Joe Biden took measures to rejoin the accord.

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

OCT 30, singable satire: "ZOMBIE COCKROACH"

PARODY-LYRICS

ORIGINAL SONG : "Boney Fingers" 1974, Hoyt Axton. 
PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, October, 2015.

BIOLOGICAL BACKGROUND: The emerald cockroach wasp, or jewel wasp, Ampulex compressa is a fascinating creature, recently investigated with respect to its unusual reproductive behavior. Incredible details of the strange, even nightmarish habits of this predatory insect are shown by this video.   

Emerald Cockroach Wasp

ZOMBIE COCKROACH 

(to the tune of "Boney Fingers")

I’m an emerald-wasp Mom, and I’m doin’ my duty

Looking for daycare, and I’ve found me a doozy

Larvae can snarf, then get their beauty-sleep as pupae

They need a peaceful place where they’ll get protein while they’re growing,

Need a quiet place where they’ll get protein. 

Know where to hunt to find “la cucaracha”
Filled my stinger with a toxin called GABA *
Direct first sting to prothoracic ganglia

Likely that his limbs are weakened for two minutes.
Likely that ‘ll make his big arms weaker.

Inject toxins in his chest - whadda ya get?
(Weak limbs!) Woossie cockroach – woossie cockroach.

Oh! the second sting goes to the base of his brain:
Hit the right target and he's feeling no pain;

Lead him like a leash-dog, then one egg I’ll be layin’
Stuff them in a tunnel, the egg hatches in the mornin'
That is when my larva starts to eat him.

Hungry larva needs to grow - what does it eat?
(Whoo whoo!) Cockroach protein – cockroach protein.

For baby wasps, it’s a huge refrigerator
Inside and out, treats that Mother Nature catered
Five days of eating, then protected place for sleeping

In two weeks adult emerges ripe for breeding
Dressed to kill and carry on life-cycle.

Pretty pupa needs to sleep - where does it rest?
(Whoo whoo!) Zombie cockroach – zombie cockroach.

Wasps' lives are scripted, and they don’t need coaches.

Each gal makes toast of several dozen roaches

Mating takes a minute, they won’t need no urgin’

Every mom will be a horror-movie neurosurgeon

Every gal will be a neurosurgeon.

Inject toxins in his brain - whadda ya get?
(Whoo whoo!) Zombie cockroach – zombie cockroach.

Now, there's.......
Other bio-systems with bizarre behavior
Parasite controls and make the host enslav-ier
There are crazy notions, and this one's no crazier  -   
Maybe further research will have human implications
Maybe we'll make mental illness better.

Best test-model that we've got? What would ya guess?
(Whoo whoo!) Zombie cockroach! Zombie cockroach!

* GABA (pronounced by biologists as " gabba' ") = gamma-aminobutyric acid, a neuro-transmitter substance.

OCT 29, three gruesome verses for Halloween

Authors' Note: Each year at Hallowe'en, all (living) persons, in addition to honoring tradition, must decide if they are ready to combat the zombie revolution.

 

Check out the whole collection in a post called "Gruesome Verse" on our blog "Edifying Nonsense" HERE.

OCT 28, Carolina lowcountry: wildlife revisited #2

  

little blue heron

Atlantic ghost crab

brown pelican, artistic rendering

cormorants and dolphin

roseate spoonbills, Deweese Island

sanderling

willet

yellow-crowned night heron

 

busy sanderlings, 
Sullivan's Island beach

OCT 27, domestic hazards: fatbergs

 You can view an extensive collection of illustrated poems on this topic by proceeding to the post 'DOMESTIC HAZARDS' on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE.

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

OCT 26, wordplay maps: Scramble-towns of eastern Canada, #11 and #12

Who would ever have guessed? It turns out that an unparalleled word in generating anagrams, i.e. letter scrambles, is P-A-L-I-N-D-R-O-M-E-S. We have taken advantage of that property to create this unique series of wordplay maps of imaginary American (and Canadian) locales, each one completed by its official two-letter state (or provincial) abbreviation. 

 LINKS to other nonsense in this series: 

Forward to the next Canadian map, eh?

Back to the previous Canadian map, eh?

Default to U.S.A. map #21 (final American version).

OCT 25, Toronto ravines: Todmorden Mills

 

If you are interested in wending your way through an encyclopedic collection of four blogposts stuffed with photo-collages on Toronto ravines, click HERE.

OCT 24, binomial phrases: "a hug and a kiss"

Authors' Note: "And too many others to mention ..."

 To review the poetic effusion that we have accumulated about binomial phrases, proceed to our blog "Edifying Nonsense", and review the post  'Grandpa Greg's Grammar: Binomial Expressions'. 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 !

OCT 23, gruesome verse: two horrific quandaries for Hallowe'en

Hallowe'en is creeping up on us!

Check out the whole collection called "Gruesome Verse" on our blog "Edifying Nonsense" HERE.

OCT 22, Toronto oases: City Halls

 

OCT 21, Toronto ravines: Moore Park (Mud Creek) Ravine, photocollages #1-#2

 

If you are interested in wending your way through an encyclopedic collection of four blogposts stuffed with photo-collages on Toronto ravines, click HERE.