JAN 17, culinary verse: Cretan salad

 

Find the collection of illustrated poems dealing with these issues on the post 'Culinary Verse' on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Click HERE!

JAN 16, anagram swarm: 'ELECTION FRAUD' anagram contest: runners-up

Continuing from the post of January 16  ...

The national runner-up for best anagram is...

OUTLINED FARCE

Now to the runners-up for each participating state...

Read carefully. These concoctions are all different from the state 'Winners', which were posted 2 days ago!

And, have a safe week -- two-day countdown to Freedom-from-Trump Day.

JAN 15, classic palindrome: no 'D'; no 'L -- London

                                                                                                              #120749 approved May 2023

You can review these illustrated verses in a wider context by proceeding to 'Reversing Verse: Limericks About Classic Palindromes' on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. 

JAN 14, doctors and their practices: the endocrinologist

You can view these informative verses in a wider context by proceeding to the collection 'DOCTORS and their PRACTICES' on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE!

JAN 13, sleek Greek prefixes: ECTO-

Clicking HERE will introduce you to our entire collection of verses about the Greek prefixes!

JAN 12, anagram swarm: 'ELECTION FRAUD' contest winners

Over the last week we have had an anagram contest at the national (U.S.) level. We are sorry if you missed the opportunity to participate.

The challenge was to come up with the best anagram (letter-scramble) of

E-L-E-C-T-I-O-N F-R-A-U-D

Out of an abundance of caution, we avoided announcing the contest initially, and have not required contest participants to agree to publishing their phone numbers, email addresses or charge-card PINs.

But we are now pleased to announce that the winning entry nationally was ...

FAILED RECOUNT

Consideration was also given by the judges to the best entry for each participating state; the winning entries are shown on the accompanying map.

Sincere thanks to all who participated.

JAN 11, classic palindromes: critique of palindromes

You can review these illustrated verses in a wider context by proceeding to 'Reversing Verse: Limericks About Classic Palindromes' on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. 

JAN 10, a brief singable saga: Italian treats

PARODY-SONGLINK: These verses were originally conceived as poetic lyrics. However, they can, like almost all limericks, be easily sung using  certain well-known tunes; in this case, the classic "Limerick Song?".  

Click HERE to access ukulele and guitar chord-charts to help you accompany the song ("Italian Treats") on your favorite instrument. Otherwise, you can follow along with the poetic lyrics ...

Late-life learning:
Portabella is an accepted variant of portobello,
 a mushroom named after the Italian town of Porto Bello.

  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 proceed in a collaborative editing process that may take several weeks to over a year. 

   Generally, OEDILF has not been enormously welcoming of multi-verse submissions, but Giorgio Coniglio has persisted, and the OEDILF number for each accepted multi-verse poem is shown here on the slide with its first verse. 

To access the next 'brief saga' on this blog, proceed to 'the gastro-esophageal junction'.

To access the most recent previous 'brief saga', back up to 'The Dacha (Mar-a-lago)'. 

JAN 9, American satire: "It Is what it is"

Authors' Note:  In August, 2020, “It is what it is” became a key U.S. presidential comment on deaths due to the coronavirus that were downplayed in the rush to 'reopen' the country. Subsequently, various explanations for the excess were squirmingly offered by the Executive branch of the U.S. government. It was purported, for example, that some doctors were rewarded by their hospitals for inflating the number of death certificates indicating COVID-19 as the apparent cause of death.

 We hope that you enjoyed this verse. You can find 30 more on this topic in 5 collections on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Click HERE to start!  

JAN 8, old world palindromes #7 and #8

 

  You can view the entire collection of 'Old World Palindromes' on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense";  start by clicking HERE. 

JAN 7, anagram swarm: 'impeachment' (again)

Sixteen states have two-letter postal abbreviations that fit in with this scheme. Other locales may have decided on their stance on this issue, but their preferences are hidden on the 'dark web'.

JAN 6, classic palindrome: 'UFO tofu'

You can review these illustrated verses in a wider context by proceeding to 'Reversing Verse: Limericks About Classic Palindromes' on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. 

JAN 5, amphibians: anurans - 'frog' vs 'toad'

Be sure to check out the whole collection of 'Amphibians' by proceeding to "Edifying Nonsense." CLICK HERE ! 

JAN 4, portraits of couples, Harris' hawks, brown pelicans

 

Enjoy illustrated verses about the brown pelican, Pelecanus occidentalis, by clicking HERE and HERE.

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

JAN 3, diagnostic imaging: DEXA (BMD)

Authors' Note:   DEXA, or Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry, is a simple standardized imaging test to assess bone mass in the context of osteoporosis. It actually measures bone mass in a peculiar form, i.e, mass per unit area (rather than volume) of tissue; differential attenuation (blocking by tissue) for the 2 photons of different energies is assessed for each spatial element in a planar field. The technique is however, excellent for serial tests in the same patient, and is now used  so widely that its results are regarded as synonymous with Bone Mineral Density (BMD).

 You can review all our verses on this intriguing topic by proceeding to a post on 'Edifying Nonsense' entitled 'Selected Topics in Diagnostic Imaging'. Click HERE!

JAN 2, waterfowl: great egrets, more pics

Great Egret: Shem Creek, Mt. Pleasant, South Carolina

Fabric art contributed by RCH

POEMS: Poetry appearing on this site was written (unless otherwise indicated) by Giorgio Coniglio, and for the most part contributed to the  on-line humour dictionary site OEDILF Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form). OEDILF has worked its way alphabetically from Aa- to Gr-, with the goal of accumulating a verse defining every meaning of every word in the English language. This co-operative project has in its 15 years of existence accumulated over 107,000 carefully edited limericks, with completion date estimated to be around the year 2065. In the past three years, Giorgio has contributed over 300 poems to the project; the site's accession number for the verses is indicated at the bottom of the relevant slides in our presentations.

PHOTOGRAPHY: The majority of photographic illustrations were obtained by Giorgio Coniglio, using an i-phone 7 camera. These illustrations were collected independently of the verses, and formulated using Powerpoint software. Subjects for the wildlife photographs were not reimbursed for appearing in these illustrations, and the editor admits that their consent was not always obtained; an effort was made not to disturb their environment. Other artwork by the author was performed using Powerpoint.  Where indicated, friends provided some bird photographs. When required for purposes of illustration, photos, primarily open-use, were drawn from the internet, and are designated by pale blue title plaques.

LOCALES: Unless otherwise displayed, photographs relating to flora and fauna, and to artwork in the southern United States, were shot in and around Charleston, South Carolina. We will endeavor to note other sites, which may include Toronto, San Francisco, Florida, Washington, DC, and Paris.   

JAN 1, wordplay maps: new world palindromes(#43,#44)

 

You can view the entire collection of these 50 wordplay maps, by accessing the collection 'Tourists Palindromic Guides: The Americas'. Start by clicking HERE! 

DEC 31, a brief saga: Hogmanay (Auld Lang's Sine)

 A HAPPY NEW YEARS TO ALL !!!

DEC 30, Canadiana: Haida Gwaii

web-photo

Authors' Note:

snowbird: a Canadian retiree seeking a warmer venue to spend the wintry months

  The Queen Charlotte Islands are a Canadian archipelago situated between 

the northwestern tip of Vancouver Island and the Alaska Panhandle, with landmass one-third that of the Hawaiian Islands (the latter located considerably further south). They had been the heartland of the aboriginal Haida people, who numbered thirty thousand at the time of first contact with European explorers in the eighteenth century. Their territory has a unique environment based on moderate temperatures and heavy rainfall. The province of British Columbia renamed the islands Haida Gwaii (HIE-duh GWIE[-ee], 'islands of the people') in 2010.

You can review poems, pictures and diverse nonsense related to Canada on the post "Canadiana" on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense".

DEC 29, patients and maladies: knee effusion

Authors' Note: This verse resulted from the author’s personal experience (as patient).

  Following trauma, standard X-rays taken in the Emergency Department show most fractures where the bone fragments are displaced. They can not, however, diagnose many undisplaced fractures, particularly in elderly patients with reduced bone density. 

  Nonspecific swelling with evidence of leaking of fluid into the adjacent joint space (joint effusion) is particularly common in injuries about the knee, and is easily discerned on visual inspection and X-rays. Follow up radiographs after another 3 weeks sometimes display an initially missed healing fracture. In cases where instability, ongoing pain, or persistent effusion are prominent, injury to ligaments may be suspected. 

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

DEC 28, pill-poppin' poems: antimalarial

 

 

Author's Note: Hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil), a drug developed to combat the infectious disease malaria, was found by happenstance to be of value in suppressing certain manifestations of SLE (systemic lupus erythematosus), an inflammatory disease, and retains a niche use for that secondary purpose.

  Recently, the drug has been advocated, without convincing evidence, to treat the severe lung involvement of COVID-19 pneumonia.

Also, please check out the Lancet's concurrent study on the acute use of antimalarial drugs as published online  at  https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31180-6/fulltext
Or, check this link to the story in the Washington Post.

You can review these illustrated verses in a wider context by proceeding to 'Pharmaceutical (pill-poppin') Poems' on the full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE.

DEC 27, poetic non-sequitur: cumulative song

 Authors' Note:  The cumulative song "I Know an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" was created by two Canadian folksong aficionados in 1952, and then recorded by Burl Ives in 1953.  Other well-known cumulative songs which are traditional include "Old MacDonald had a Farm" and "The Green Grass Grew All Around". 

 Our collection of 'Non-Sequiturs' on our parent blog "Edifying Nonsense", contains 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.

DEC 26, old world palindromes #5 and #6

 

DEC 25, holiday verse: every Adventuality

 

DEC 24, holiday verse: "The Night Before Christmas", pandemically

 

DEC 23, classic palindrome: 'Yreka bakery'

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, PEH !!!

 

You can review these illustrated verses in a wider context by proceeding to 'Reversing Verse: Limericks About Classic Palindromes' on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'.