A blogsite offering entertaining oddities since January 2020 at the rate of 30x/month. There are now over seventeen hundred posts in these four years. Images -- poetic (including song-lyrics), photographic, and computer-simulated -- are drawn from daily life as well as from poems and wordplay grouped by topic on our parent blog "Edifying Nonsense". The poetry displayed is all original (as are the song-lyrics), although portions evolved through rigorous editing on a collaborative website.
December 8, 2023
DEC 8, at heart: Holter monitor
December 7, 2023
DEC 7r, photo-collage: unusual sightings, Ontario wildlife
a) reprise from December 2020
December 6, 2023
DEC 6, pinkos (forward thinkers): the gamophobic socialist
Authors' Note: Gamophobia is an irrational fear of getting married, or of interpersonal commitment. Gamophobic individuals, or gamophobes, whatever their political views, are people who harbour such neurotic anxieties.
The slogan "better red than dead" was mentioned in a book that British philosopher Bertrand Russell wrote in 1961, in the face of a potential East-West nuclear confrontation; it was subsequently adopted by the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, an organization that Russell helped found. The slogan has been used in both directions, with hardline rightwingers sometimes proclaiming "Better dead then red".
Also, a related disorder, gynophobia, is discussed in another of our intriguing and informative verses.
You can review all the poems in our collection "Pinkos: forward thinkers" by clicking HERE.
December 5, 2023
DEC 5, Submitted Palindromes: I, targeted at "EMBARGOS SO GRAB ME"
December 4, 2023
DEC 4, terminal (poetic) exclamation: DON'T TOUCH!
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.
December 3, 2023
DEC 3, defining opinion: hole #1 + holiday bonus
December 1, 2023
DEC 1r, sleek Greek prefixes: DYS-
a) reprise from December 2020
November 30, 2023
NOV 30, singable satire: Muddy Waters Sings "CRAYFISH ETOUFFEE" (Inferno, Canto 6)
PASTICHE WITH PARODY SONG-LYRICS
ORIGINAL SONG: "Baby, Please Don't Go", Big Joe Williams 1935, popularized by Muddy Waters, used here primarily for music and meter.
PARODY-SONGLINK: To find ukulele and guitar chord-charts to help you accompany "Crayfish Étouffée" on your favorite instrument, click HERE.
In the Third Circle, Dante sees the fate of gluttons like his friend from Florence named ‘Ciacco’ (the equivalent of ‘Piggy’). No fire used for torture here; the climate sounds like Toronto in March. The poor souls confined here in the freezing mud are tormented by a demonic three-headed dog, Cerberus. I took some liberties with Ciacco’s tale; in the original, he discusses the complex politics of 14th century Florence. The details I provided re Ciacco's gluttonous exploits are imagined. Eschatology is the part of theology concerned with final judgment and the destiny of the soul. Étouffée is a delicious Louisiana dish of seafood, usually crayfish, in a Cajun roux sauce.
"Cerberus", W. Blake |
New Orleans style crayfish etouffée |
(to the tune of "Baby Please Don't Go")
Sono al cerchio terzo,
Stayed all day and ate food from New Orleans
Dante go and see
November 29, 2023
NOV 29: mammalian wildlife: horsing around
You can review the 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 !
November 28, 2023
NOV 28r, savoir-faire: franglais
a) reprise from November 2020
NOV 28, savoir-faire: franglais
November 27, 2023
NOV 27, poets' corner: doggerel (brief sagas)
November 26, 2023
NOV 26, magical palindromes: more from Paris
a) reprise from November 2020
NOV 2, magical palindromes: more from Paris
November 25, 2023
NOV 25, Submitted Palindromes: H, targeted at "LISA BONET ATE NO BASIL."
November 24, 2023
NOV 24r, waterfowl: great egrets
a) reprise from November 2020
NOV 24, waterfowl: great egrets
great egret, stalking slowly |
great egret, striking |
takeoff from railing, Shem Creek Park, Mt Pleasant SC |
November 23, 2023
NOV 23, Canadiana: crept and leaped
November 22, 2023
NOV 22r-, birdlore: desnooded
reprise from November 2020
NOV 21, birdlore: turkeys, desnooded (pre-holiday fling)
November 21, 2023
NOV 21, ambulatory verse: reverse
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:
November 20, 2023
NOV 20, singable satire for Thanksgiving: another pair-ody -- "TURKEY LEFTOVERS"
PASTICHE with PARODY LYRICS subbed into TWO WELL-KNOWN SEASONAL SONGS, another pairody.
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.