December 9, 2020

DEC 9, anagram swarm: A-VERY-STABLE-GENIUS -- lawsuits

 The book title "A Very Stable Genius" has invited a flurry of activity in composing anagrams (word-scrambles) that contribute to the sense of uncontrolled chaos that swirled through the American political scene during the White House administration of 2016 to 2020. 

  A compendium of Giorgio's wordplay on this topic can be evaluated by reviewing posts on the blog "Edifying Nonsense".  An initial listing that displays almost 100 anagrams dealing with a variety of topics (foreign policy, internal political maneuvering, domestic scandals, etc.) can be found here. Subsequently, further anagrams dealing with more specific topics were accumulated in a followup offering here

  The tabulation presented today was inspired by the recent series of lawsuits instigated in state and federal courts to contest the results of the 2020 presidential election. 





You can review an amazing number of anagrams based on this book title on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. There are two posts to view: 
 
'A Very Stable Genius': Theme and Variations (97 anagrams),   and 
'A Very Stable Genius': additional funky anagrams.

December 8, 2020

DEC 8, 2020: the origin of our "bloggerel": song-lyrics, poetry, wordplay and photography

SONG LYRICS: Starting in 2011, we had contributed parody song-lyrics to "AmIRight", the most extensive website publishing this type of doggerel on the internet. That website offers authors the advantage of immediate publication, but does not provide editing or post-submission modification. Not surprisingly political and social satire are major elements in AmIRight's table of contents. As I (G.H.) was still personally in sober professional practice at that time, I attributed the submitted works to a pseudonym, and Giorgio Coniglio, a registered practitioner in that field volunteered his writing talents arduously in that regard. After a few years we had contributed some 150 singable entities, but the intense polarization in American society threatened to disrupt the enjoyment previously experienced by AmIRight's cadre of volunteer writers. You can find some of those earlier songs (with familiar tunes, but bizarre lyrics) posted on our current blog "Edifying Nonsense"

  
POETRY: Although, Giorgio and I occasionally still launch into song, we turned our attention in 2016 to poetry. (To be honest, a dozen or so poems had been published earlier as "filler" in medical journals).  We found a "home" for many of our poetic inclination in OEDILF (the Omnificent English Dictionary iLimerick Form), a more-or-less collaborative website, that insists its mission was to create a dictionary with a definitional poetic "tribute" written to every meaning of every word in the language. To ensure this goal is approached in orderly fashion, OEDILF has gradually widened a narrow alphabetic window starting at A-, so that after almost 20 years of effort, poems are being submitted for dictionary entries with key words starting with the letters Ho-, but no further. Acceptance of verses for publication involves mandatory adherence to strict rhyming and scansion, and the use of grammatically correct, standardized language appropriate for the part of the English-speaking world from which the author hails, modified by specific dictionary requirements. 
  Topics that we found of interest include medical and health terms and issues, Canada and Canadianisms, wildlife and nature, wordplay and foreign languages, particularly French and Italian, among others, influenced primarily by our life-experience. Our personal take on this editing process provides difficulty, as we are prone to extend our verses, albeit with limerick-like structure, to more than the customary 5 lines (we ourselves have called these longer verses "limerrhoids"). The rigorous editing process involves polite acceptance or impeccable disputation of colleagues' suggestions, with eventual approval by 4 other members, and further intervention by an assistant editor, and may take anywhere up to a year. To date (2024), we have almost 700 verses accepted, and over 100 more in the works. 
  The use of illustrative photos or computer art, and the merging of these multi-media concoctions are in no way related to OEDILF; they are the concepts and creations only of the authors. Moreover, we should mention that we have also blogged a variety of other types of poetry, not in the purview of OEDILF, that includes Shakespearian blank verse, blank verse and haiku.

WORDPLAY: Like most writers and editors we love words. They are the basis of many of our song lyrics and poems. One of the greatest elements of wordplay is rhyme, a fact that provides some explanation for our persistence in lyrics and poetry. You will find a fair amount of better-defined wordplay on our blogs, including foreign-language borrowings, palindromes and anagrams. In certain cases we have gone to extremes, including "magic" palindromes, anagram wordplay-maps, and spoofs on classic palindromes, etymology and grammar rules. Because these activities consume a lot of time and effort, we have often been drawn to describe them in verse, posting those on the OEDILF site for editing and publication. And, although we are likely to have initiated a fair proportion of the "new" concoctions, we have not attributed them, as such material is lurking and waiting to be found among the letters and words, rather than "created".      
  

PHOTOGRAPHY: Dr.G.H. spent the latter part of his professional career dealing with the interpretation of low-resolution nuclear images in medical diagnosis. So we have a deep interest in visual documentation whose technique renders the key features obvious. For spontaneous nature photography on bicycle expeditions the cell-phone-camera is an obvious choice for portability, although resolution at a distance is an issue. Most of our photographs have been obtained with an i-phone 13, whose "live" feature provides an advance when the subject is moving. These photos enhance the "life-experience" nature of the posted material. On occasion, to make a point in a multi-media display, we borrow a relevant photo from the web, these are flagged by the term "web-photo", with colour coding of the text background, but space generally does not allow or mandate a full disclosure of the source. The reader is asked to please check these out, if indicated.      
    

December 6, 2020

DEC 6, Ontario nostalgia: art installations




 

You can review the entire series of illustrated poems about  the good old days in Ontario by checking the post 'Ontario Nostalgia' on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE

December 5, 2020

DEC 5, trees: cinnamon tree

Keep more to yourself for a while, wash your hands frequently, remember to laugh on occasion, and stay well!





You can review these illustrated verses in a wider context by proceeding to 'Uprooted Verse: 'Poems about Trees' on the full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". 






December 1, 2020

DEC 1, sleek Greek prefixes: DYS-





Authors' Note: Another example of use of this prefix is the medical term dyspareunia. Click HERE to review a verse on this intriguing topic.

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

November 29, 2020

NOV 29, a brief saga: the Acropolis












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. Your blogging team has been presenting these concoctions at the rate of one per month, mixed in with the shorter poems, wordplay and other stuff that we offer.    
To access the next 'brief saga' on this blog (December 2020), proceed to 'Mar-a-lago'.
To access the most recent previous 'brief saga' (October 2020), back up to 'Cyclades'.  
 

November 28, 2020

NOV 28, savoir-faire: franglais





Authors' Note:


en visite (ahn vee-ZEET): ‘while visiting'

les touristes (lay too-REEST):  'the tourists’

non-français (non frahn-SEH): ‘not French (speaking)’

ils causaient (eel koh-ZEH): 'they chatted‘

Québécois (kay-bay-KWAH): ‘resident of Quebec (province)’

franglais (frahn-GLEH): ‘Franglais, a mixed lingo’





 You can review verses on this topic in a wider context on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Check the post 'Vers Francais: Savoir-Faire' by clicking HERE.


November 27, 2020

NOV 27, commercial product: 'Tucket (an e-bucket, or cyber-safe)


Authors' NoteSault Ste Marie, Ontario, on the St. Mary River, is known casually by its English-speaking inhabitants and visitors as ‘the Sault’ (pronounced SOO). (A smaller town, similarly named, is also present on the American side of the river). French colonists had referred to the rapids on the river as les saults de Ste Marie (SOH).

   A classic limerick, dating from 1902, concerns family economics and stressful relationships of a resident of the island of Nantucket in the state of Massachusetts:
     There once was a man from Nantucket ...
   A series of limericks by the present author provides satirical variations on this iconic tale. 

   The technically advanced bucket and safe combination imagined in the above verse might have been of use to the famous Nantucket protagonist.    


Our range of domestic and commercial products is somewhat limited, but you might want to review our unusual prospective gifts on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE.




 

November 26, 2020

NOV 26, portraits of couples: turkeys, domestic and wild

HAPPY AMERICAN THANKSGIVING TO ALL !!!




Enjoy an illustrated poem about domestic turkeys by clicking HERE.







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



November 25, 2020

November 24, 2020

NOV 24, waterfowl: great egrets







great egret, stalking slowly




great egret, striking



takeoff  from railing,
Shem Creek Park, Mt Pleasant SC



You can review these illustrated verses in a wider context by proceeding to 'Immersible Verse: Limericks about Waterfowl' on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. 


November 23, 2020

NOV 23, political palindromes, P





Oddly, you have reached a set of palindromes designated by the letter 'P', (left lower corner), and you can't go forwards, i.e. there are no more.

To go BACKWARDS, return to the previous set ('O') on September 13, 2020.

OR, return to the ORIGINAL POST ('A') on this topic on May 14.


   If you have enjoyed these verses on the theme of American political satire, you might like to proceed to view other items in our collection including:
- 'American satire: A Term of Endirement'
- 'a brief saga: Mar-a Lago'

   There are also some parody-song lyrics posted in 2019 and 2020, that you might like, including: 
- 'The Ballad of Giuliani', part I and part II.




November 22, 2020

NOV 22, non-sequitur: professor and madman




 
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.
 

November 21, 2020

NOV 21, birdlore: turkeys, desnooded (pre-holiday fling)









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

November 20, 2020

NOV 20, singable satire: Tom Lehrer sings "A LESSON ABOUT REDUPLICATIONS"

 PARODY SONG-LYRICS

ORIGINAL POEM and SONG: Dr. G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, 2015, updated  2017.

...
... in a fallout shelter?
EXPLANATION: This poem, consisting of a lesson on types of reduplication, evolved as a musical parody using the template of "The Elements" by Tom Lehrer. Further exploration of this type of wordplay also progressed into the venture of 
Feb 15, 2017 entitled 'Abracadabra' to 'Zoom-zoom': possibly the world's largest compendium of reduplications.
   Eventually, this poem was set to music, using the framework of Lehrer's patter-song framework, and became an intrinsic part of a series of nine songs devoted to musical Word-PairsThis posting of The Lesson, and subsequent posting of a Lexicon of Reduplications contains a total of almost 300 examples of this fascinating and amusing linguistic form.

 UKULELE and GUITAR-FRIENDLY LINK: Our whole series of songs can be found in a friendly format for ukulele (and guitar)-players on our sister blog  "SILLY SONGS and SATIRE", along with chord-charts and helpful performing suggestions; click HERE to proceed to this site.  



 

1) Introduction
I’m so enthralled with lyrics – their inherent musicality;
I love the words I’ve heard, for both their quantity and quality.
And so I’ll share with you this recent lexic revelation –
My favorite word-device goes by the name ‘reduplication’.

This humble term is used for killer-diller innovations,
Some recent lulus – chick flickboy-toy – marvellous creations. 
For others, spoke with reverence, their birth can date back centuries
Like hully-gullyboogie-woogieriff-raff, and hurdy-gurdy.

These fuzzy-wuzzy friends are formed by vocal repetition,
With wi-fi you might find them in Wiki’s current edition;
The three important sub-types you will wiki-wiki* learn about
Are known as Rhyming, Exact, and the oddly German-named Ablaut *.

2) Rhyming Reduplicates
Hear hear! some fine examples start with “H”, like helter-skelter, see!
Hodge-podgehumdrumhubbubhillbilly, and higgledy-piggledy.
Although the showing’s not so glowing for some, like the letter “D”
Just ding-aling and Double-Bubble, and surname of H.-Dumpty.

3) Exact Reduplicates
As toddlers we knew quite precisely what pee-pee and yum-yum meant
They’re constituted by exact repeating of each element.
Extension into adult life – tsk-tsk!  it doesn’t matter
For mahi-mahirah-rahhubba-hubbanight-nightyada-yada.

4) Ablaut Reduplicates
Linguistic term that might put off, but don’t throw in the towel
To form the second part you merely change a single vowel.
Criss-crosssplish-splashKing Kongmish-mash provide the explanation;
Though tidbitboob-tubewhipper-snapper show some variation.

5)  Borrowings from Other Languages
Some foreign words sound quite absurd, and might be greeted with yuk-yuks,
Like chi-chitututête-à-têteand tse-tsemuu-muu and mukluks

6) 'Shm-Reduplicates'
And many word-shmords are employed by speaker-shmeakers of Yiddish,
Like fancy-shmancychoosy-shmoozy, horseradish(mmh!), gefilte-fish.

7) Related Forms e.g. collocation
Dream Teams of paired words get primetime - in rhyming collocation;
These catchy terms, like kitty-cat, aren’t true reduplications. 
Tut-tut! for many wild-child words, there's no accord on how they're grouped,
Like fuddle-duddleWalla Wallavoodoowiseguyshula-hoop.

8) Conclusion
The lesson's sung, my cha-cha's done, we’ve reached our termination.
(Boo-hoo!) True blue, and through and through we’ve viewed reduplication;
But while we bid our fond ta-tas, I leave this final message – “HI!”
These phrases love to start with “H”, and their initial vowel – “I”.

Ta-Dah !!!

* German= "off-sound", word coined in the 16th century to indicate a systematic change in the vowel of a word-root to convey a difference in meaning; rhymes with shout

Hawaiian for quickly or  bus !!

9) Add-On: A Singable Lexicon of Reduplicates
See the relevant posts.




November 19, 2020

NOV 19, Toronto ravines: upper East Don valley




 

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



November 18, 2020

NOV 18, portraits of couples: broad-headed skinks, llamas




 

Enjoy an illustrated poem about the broad-headed skink, Plestiodon laticeps by clicking HERE.




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

 

November 17, 2020

NOV 17, Canadiana: urban portaging

 


From the Archives: An Illustrated E-Mail about Urban Portaging, 2017

GxxHxxxxx gxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>@gmail.com

AttachmentsNov 13, 2016, 7:50 PM
to MikeJoshPaulDrAlecArtMarnaEric

I encountered this on my late afternoon cycle-ride through trendy Rosedale on a rainy autumn afternoon. In its second year, 

this festival, I found out, brings together people portaging canoes across a 17 km ancient aboriginal trail between the

Humber and Don watersheds. At this point, the portagers had just crossed the Mt Pleasant Expressway.


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


November 16, 2020

NOV 16, sleek Greek prefixes: DIA- (and DI-)




Authors' Note: Click HERE, for your entertainment, to review a verse about diarrhea; and HERE's another, about diaphoresis (sweating).



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

November 15, 2020

NOV 15, Toronto ravines: Avoca





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