JUN 6r, mammalian wildlife: raccoons in the city

a) reprise from June 2020

JUN 29, mammalian wildlife: raccoons in the city

Authors' Note: In the last century, raccoons have readapted themselves as urban denizens, often relatively unnoticed, but sometimes disturbing their neighbours. And be sure to review our subsequent illustrated poem with respect to their role as nest robbers.  

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 !

b) Olympic sport, 2024 

floor routine, gymnastics

JUN 5, patients and their maladies: hemiplegia

Authors' Note: In medical jargon, a stroke (cerebro-vascular accident) that leaves the victim with complete loss of function in the affected area is said to be dense. Patients like old friend Dave, who have had a dense stroke with severe one-sided weakness (hemiplegia) in mid-life, may survive with appropriate early treatment of atherosclerotic lesions in the opposing carotid artery and other major arteries, to prevent further loss of function. With appropriate physiotherapy, targeted at flexibility in the affected area and strength on the unaffected side, such patients can get through several decades, walking hesitatingly, with the use of canes and other assistive devices. As these courageous persons age, mobility issues become even more problematic than for the rest of us.

You can view collections of verses on this topic by proceeding to "Nurse-Verse: PATIENTS and their MALADIES" on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE!

JUN 4r, national verse: Armenia

a) reprise from June 2020

JUN 4, national and multinational verse: Armenia

Authors' Note:

neurasthenia: obsolete term from psychiatry, implying general debility attributed to exhaustion of the nervous system

Armenia, the first country in the world to adopt Christianity, has had disputes with its neighbors for most of its existence. The revered Mt. Ararat is now located geopolitically in Turkey, but is still considered a national symbol of Armenia, and dominates the view from the Armenian capital of Yerevan. Armenia's borders to the east and west currently remain closed owing to hostile relations with Azerbaijan and Turkey.

You can review our collection of verses about various individual nations, and about the groupings to which they belong, on our topic-based blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE.

b) Olympic sport, 2024

javelin

 

JUN 3, photo-collage: Bloored birds

Yesterday on Toronto's Bloor Street ...

           






 






                                             

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

JUN 2, postal places, USA: Green Bay, WI

Authors' Note: WI is the official abbreviation for the American state of Wisconsin, in which the city of Green Bay, population 110,000, is situated. Founded in 1634 as a French trading post, this settlement on the northern part of Lake Michigan was known in its earlier days as La Baie Verte. Today it is best known as the home of the football team "Green Bay Packers"; activities of the city's priesthood are described in the poem Holy Communion by OEDILFian contributor Chuck Folkers.

 

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 !

JUN 1r, American satire: Sharpie-gate

 

a) reprise from June 2020

JUN 1, American satire: Sharpie-gate (hurricane season reminiscence)

Here's a relevant recollection, given that June 1 is the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season.

We hope that you enjoyed this verse. You can find 40 more on this topic in 5 collections on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Click HERE to start! 

b) Olympic sport, 2024

shot-put (windup for throw)

MAY 30, singable satire: Harry Belafonte sings "ISLAND IN THE SUN" (Iceland)

 PARODY-LYRICS

ORIGINAL SONG : "Island In the Sun", Harry Belafonte 1957. The original song has been covered in versions in German and Swedish, but not as far as I can tell in Icelandic. 
PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, December 2015.

PARODY-SONGLINK: To find ukulele chord-charts to help you accompany "Iceland in the Sun" on your favorite instrument, click HERE.

This song resulted from a family trip to Iceland in June 2015. Our few days there were packed with wonderful sightseeing excursions. The weather was as good as it gets in Iceland (only minimal rain, not interfering with our travels). The highlight of the trip was the recently opened IceCave excursion; after a palpitating ride by giant truck over a huge ice-field, we walked into a system of tunnels in the glacier itself, led by an excellent informative guide.
The Icelandic language, a venerable tongue which has apparently changed little since the first settlers came to the island in the 9th century, seems challenging to learn. Fortunately for us, the friendly locals we encountered, at least in Reykjavik, all spoke English quite well.

Ísland = Iceland , pronounced eess-lant. 
góðan daginn = good morning, hello, pronounced goh-than die-in.
Eyjafjallajökull (j's pronounced as y)  = Island-Mountain-icecap, the subglacial volcano whose brief eruption caused the Icelandic ash problem in 2010; the volcano has now been considered dormant for 5 years.
    

ÍSLAND (Iceland) IN THE SUN

(to the tune of Belafonte's "Island in The Sun")

This year we flew with Icelandair

Europe-bound and stopped halfway there.

We left TO, our kids from DC,

A meet-up trip for our family. 

Oh, Ísland, land of sun

Nights stay bright for the month of June;

Four full days, awesome sights to praise

Geysers, glaciers, volcanoes

IceCave, Langjökull

And Blue Lagoon.

A neat idea, break our trip

Meet at hotel-suite in Reykjavik.

Restos coped with vegg-necessity

And one kid GF lactose-free.

Didn’t know, but they’re eco-smart

Geo-thermal at system’s heart

Hot water piped everywhere you see

Heat all home and greenhouse for free.

Oh, Ísland, northern light

Eyjafjallajökull
eruption March 2010

Four full days touring awesome sights

Hotel choose, or your sleep you’ll lose

Weekends downtown bars

Never close at night.

Recent attraction, not to skip

Monster truck, glacier Ice-Cave trip

Bundle up, walk though colored ice

View crevasse, bottom-up is nice. 

Oh, Ísland, isle of fun

Nights stay bright for the month of June

Four full days, awesome sights to praise

Glacier overlying
 dormant volcano, 2013

Close with steamy bathing

At Blue Lagoon.

I'll greet old friends - “góðan daginn”, soon

When we go back some year in June

Next time stay longer, get my fill - 

Climb, and say, “Eyjafjallajökull”.

Oh, Ísland, isle of sun

Nights stay bright for the month of June;

More full days, awesome sights to praise

Geysers, glaciers, volcanoes

And Blue Lagoon.

tourist-party atop the glacier

 'night'-time hike down volcano
 to a steamy bathing spot

MAY 29, submitted palindromes, targeted: "EMBARGOS SO GRAB ME."

 

For word nerds like us, who adore palindromes, hours of delight await  on our blog "Edifying Nonsense".

First of all, there  is a series of posts, on the 25th of each month (2020 through 2024) featuring collections of "submitted palindromes", attributable to the contributing authors shown above, constituting a loosely organized compendium of intriguing back and forth phrases; frequently, these are inspired by the "classic" palindrome repertoire, as is the case in today's offering as shown in the above slide.

Then, on the 20th of each month, original topic-based collections of wordplay items are displayed, often as "wordplay maps". These include anagrams and other forms of wordplay in addition to palindromes. However, the latter lexical device is honored in major outpourings including "New World Palindromes", "Old World Palindromes", "Magical Palindromes" and even a post on "The Meaning of Life as Revealed in Palindromes". 

The first three posts of each month on "Edifying Nonsense", (on the 5th, 10th and 15th), are the repository of short poetic verses, mostly limericks and "limerrhoids",  the majority of which have gone through rigorous collaborative editing on an online site. But even there, wordplay, particularly palindromes, are honored and discussed. So you can, by following the links, find some five collections (with eight verses each),  dealing with the "Classic Palindrome Repertoire", not to mention  extensions displaying terse verses about the fabled "Palindrome Valley" and parodies about the "Panama Canal". 

And, even further, there is under construction a group of parody-songs honoring the classic palindromes. The song lyrics will be posted here, on this blog ("Daily Illustrated Nonsense") and also, with more musical direction on "Silly Songs and Satire."  We will update you when that project has been completed, but if you insist, you could sneak an advance peak at the song "Sin and Redemption".  

MAY 28r, birdlore: cedar waxwings

a)  reprise from May 2020: 

MAY 25, birdlore: cedar waxwings

b)  season's farewell to South Carolina

fiddler crab

MAY 27r, exotic destination: Cappadocia, Turkey

a) reprise from 2020

MAY 28, 2020: exotic destination: Cappadocia (troglodytes)

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

 

b) incidental current photo

A sad but determined bumblebee, having lost its left wings, likely in an altercation with some physical object (building?), makes its way on foot across a stone patio.  

MAY 26, defining opinion: hoarding (construction)

 
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 25, pill-poppin verse: Fentanyl addiction

 Authors' Note: Everything you might want to know about fentanyl can be found in a verse at OEDILF by DavidGries. Click HERE.

MAY 24r, etymology: havoc / haven

 a) reprise from May 2020

MAY 29, etymology: 'havoc'/'haven'

For fans of etymology, we have three blogposts with collections of verses about word-origins such as the one above on our more encyclopedic blog "Edifying Nonsense". You can start to review some of this intriguing material by clicking HERE, and then following the links!

b) incidental photo (misc)

MAY 23, photo-collage: Lishman's sculptures

Bill Lishman's sculpture displayed at Tanenbaum Sculpture Garden, Bridgepoint Health, Toronto, is described by blogTO as "one of Toronto's best-kept art secrets". 

Note that Lishman, the inventor-aviator-naturalist father portrayed in the close-to-real-life story of the 1996 film "Fly Away Home", was a polymath who took up sculpting rather late in life.

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 22, photo-collage: trumpeter swans at Lake Ontario

 

MAY 21r, geysers: geyser guru

a)reprise from May 2020

MAY 21, geysers: geyser guru

Authors' Note:  The geyser (GHIE-zer or GHEE-ser) is an unusual hydrogeologic phenomenon which occurs in volcanic zones where magma (molten lava) is close to the surface, and there is fissuring of rocks due to earthquake faults. Minerals dissolved from adjacent rocks precipitate out, forming a lining for a type of 'plumbing system' in which steam builds up, resulting in regular eruptions of boiling water. Changes in the colour of the swirling hot water in the pool help predict the arrival of the next photogenic discharge. 

 Yellowstone Park, in the American Rockies, is a site of these natural wonders, including the famous geyser ‘Old Faithful’.

b) Olympic sport, 2024 

boating, kayak cross

  

MAY 20, submitted palindromes, targeted: "LISA BONET ATE NO BASIL"

 For word nerds like us, who adore palindromes, hours of delight await  on our blog "Edifying Nonsense".

First of all, there  is a series of posts, on the 25th of each month (2020 through 2024) featuring collections of "submitted palindromes", attributable to the contributing authors shown above, constituting a loosely organized compendium of intriguing back and forth phrases; frequently, these are inspired by the "classic" palindrome repertoire, as is the case in today's offering as shown in the above slide.

Then, on the 20th of each month, original topic-based collections of wordplay items are displayed, often as "wordplay maps". These include anagrams and other forms of wordplay in addition to palindromes. However, the latter lexical device is honored in major outpourings including "New World Palindromes", "Old World Palindromes", "Magical Palindromes" and even a post on "The Meaning of Life as Revealed in Palindromes". 

The first three posts of each month on "Edifying Nonsense", (on the 5th, 10th and 15th), are the repository of short poetic verses, mostly limericks and "limerrhoids",  the majority of which have gone through rigorous collaborative editing on an online site. But even there, wordplay, particularly palindromes, are honored and discussed. So you can, by following the links, find some five collections (with eight verses each),  dealing  with the "Classic Palindrome Repertoire", not to mention  extensions displaying terse verses about the fabled "Palindrome Valley" and parodies about the "Panama Canal". 

And, even further, there is under construction a group of parody-songs honoring the classic palindromes. The song lyrics will be posted here, on this blog ("Daily Illustrated Nonsense") and also, with more musical direction on "Silly Songs and Satire."  We will update you when that project has been completed, but if you insist, you could sneak an advance peak at the song "Sin and Redemption".