APR 10, waterfowl: wood ducks

 

male wood duck (below) swimming with male mallard (above) 

male wood duck

 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'. 

APR 8, American satire: tweetstorm

:

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

WHAT IS THE ORIGIN OF THE POETRY ON THIS SITE?

POEMS: Poetry appearing on this site was written (unless otherwise indicated) by Giorgio Coniglio (registered pseudonym), and for the most part contributed to the online humour dictionary-site...

OEDILF (Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form). In its 15 years of existence, 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  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.

APR 7, classic palindrome: 'lonely Tylenol'

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

APR 6, amphibians: Giorgio's froglegs

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

APR 5, trees: Leif the Norway maple, a bilingual complaint

Authors' Note: The winged fruits of the tree are known as keys, but also as samaras, pollynoses and even whirligigs. 

  The second verse, in Norwegian, as well as its English translation and related notes are by GalFisk.

Leif's daily autumn debris

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'. 

APR 4, old world palindromes, #19 and #20

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

APR 3, a brief saga: bipolar illness (gun-toting Phyllis)

 BIPOLAR ILLNESS

Authors' Note: The two phases of bipolar illness or manic-depressive disease are manifested in unpredictable time sequence, with considerable disruption to patients, families, and even the surrounding community. Medications, including longterm lithium salts, are often helpful in maintaining equilibrium; however, prescribed drugs may be discontinued by patients who enjoy the feeling of accomplishment and creativity that accompany the hypomanic phase.

  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 'methylated spirits'.

To access the most recent previous 'brief saga', back up to 'workplace pollution (compensable)'. 

APR 2, Canadiana: "sorry!"

Authors' Note: The metaphorical use of 'borrowing' in the context of speech and ideas continues, often without payback/return, in the examples of 'borrow a word/phrase', 'borrow a page', 'borrow an idea', etc.

  

 Characteristic differences in speech between Canada and adjacent regions of the United States involve words such as eh, out, borrow and sorry. Exposure to a flood of American-based media has eroded some of these differences; but as our national anthem says, "We stand on guard for thee."

  

 Readers may note that, as an intentional measure of international friendliness, the above verse maintains its rhymes when read with either a Canadian or American accent.

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

APR 1 (APRIL FOOL'S DAY): reptiles: 'reptile fantasy'

 You can review photos and illustrated herpetologic verses in a wider context by proceeding to 'Verses about Reptiles' (don't worry! no photos of snakes)' on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'.

MAR 31, commercial product: furniture protector

Authors' Note:  The principal ingredients and other details of Dust, the indispensable furniture protector, are left to the reader's imagination.

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.

MAR 30, classic palindrome: 'a Toyota's a Toyota'

You can review a collection of illustrated verses on this topic by proceeding to 'Reversing Verse: Limericks About Classic Palindromes' on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. 

MAR 29, culinary verse: gyozas (potstickers)

 

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

MAR 28, French savoir-faire: goat cheese (chevre)

 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. 

MAR 27, portraits of couples: white ibis, mute swans

Enjoy an illustrated verse about the American white ibis, Eudocimus albus, by clicking HERE.

Enjoy an illustrated verse about the (European) mute swan, Cygnus olor, by clicking HERE.

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

MAR 26, mammalian wildlife: woodchucks

Authors' Note:  The woodchuck or groundhog is a large squirrel-like animal

best know for its extensive tunneling. Although herbivorous, it is not normally interested in eating or tossing wood, the latter being an activity for which it is poorly physically adapted. 

   Apparently, the name woodchuck is a corruption of the Algonquian word wejack; the name also is responsible for the American tongue-twister: 

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

 

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 !

MAR 25, limerick for lovers of classical languages: Greek

Today is Greek Independence Day. Enjoy this post, and have a good day!

To review all of our output on the topic of classic languages, go to our encyclopedic compendium, "Edifying Nonsense"; click HERE !

MAR 24, classic palindrome: 'sex of foxes'

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

MAR 23, doctors and their practices: the colonoscopist

Authors' Note:

prep: medical jargon for preparatory measures needed before surgery or complex testing

  The general public is aware of the importance of colonoscopy for screening in early colon cancer. Colonoscopy also plays an important role in the diagnosis, treatment and followup of symptomatic colonic problems, including isolated polyps, diffuse polyposis of several kinds, colitis and gastrointestinal bleeding. Your colonoscopist is likely to be a surgeon, less commonly an internist, trained in gastrointestinal diseases and in the technical aspects of flexible fiberoptic endoscopy.

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!

MAR 22, classic palindrome: 'madam, I'm Adam'

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'. 

MAR 21, poems of Nuclear Medicine: seventeen haiku verses

MAR 20 (2021), singable satire: Al Jolson sings "CALI(fornia)"

 PARODY SONG-LYRICS

ORIGINAL SONG: "Swanee" by Al Jolson.

PARODY COMPOSED: Dr. G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, April 2019, following a trip to California.

UKULELE and GUITAR-FRIENDLY LINK: All our songs can be found in a friendly format for ukulele (and guitar)-players, with uke chord-indications, on our sister blog  "SILLY SONGS and SATIRE". Click HERE to proceed to that site, and you'll find some more pictures of the visit. 

(to the tune of Gershwin's "Swanee")

CA’s your postal designation – 

Confusion for this old Canuck.

But I recall     

Having a ball                              

(As a kid down there I'd snuck).

I’m going back as an old codger,

To see my son in academe.

The kid’s no fool,     

In graduate school;

Together we’ll explore this meme.

Cali, how I love ya, how I love ya,

My dear old Cali.  

I’d give my URL to be                           

Among the geeks in S-I-L-I-C-O-N,     

That’s ‘Valley’. I could groove there! 

Should I move there? Silicon Valley.

To folks back home, I’ll e-mail or post 

When I get to that old West Coast.

Muni, Muni,

‘Round San Francisco: Muni.

Silicon Valley -

BART’s where I’ll leave my heart.

Cali: Fillmore Jazz and Alcatraz,

In my dear old Cali.  

Historic trolleys - fun

And cable cars climb halfway to the sun     

Or Santa Clara (San Jose – I lost my way!) 

There’s Jack Kerouac Alley

The City Lights will be within reach 

At Little Italy / North Beach. 

Muni, Muni,

I’ll fill my ‘Clipper’, Muni.

(They won’t take toonies)

BART’s where I’ll leave my heart.

Cali, here I come, I’ll sing and strum, 

'Bout my dear old Cali.  

('Cause when I'm gone I'll mourn                           

Not being there in C-A-L-I California.)     

Cali: How to get there? 

I could jet there! I’ll need to rally.

To folks back east, sure, I’ll brag and I’ll boast,

When I go to that West Coast, 

I'll dally at the best coast, 

When I go to that old West Coast.

PARODY LINK

The original song appears to have been parodied only occasionally. Nonetheless, readers may be quite interested to review a parody concocted in 2005 by 'Airfarcewon' on AmIRight, a song-lyrics website with almost 90,000 entries.

Lyrics for the song "Salami" can be found here.

MAR 19, sleek Greek prefixes: EPI-

Authors' Note: 

ephemeral: transitory; derived from the Greek epi-'on' + hemera-'day', a variant form of the prefix

ephedrine: drug isolated in 1885 from the traditional Chinese medicine ephedra, sometimes an abused stimulant, recently deleted from combined medications and from formularies in many countries owing to side effects, including increased risk of sudden death

schleppy: dragging or fatigued, from the Yiddish word schlep.

The gravesite of Giuseppe is marked by the simple epitaph, "Epicurean Hippy".

And, here's another verse exemplifying use of this common prefix ...

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

MAR 18, old world palindromes #17 and #18

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

MAR 17, oncologic verses: facial nerve malfunction

Authors' Note:  Following manipulation of the facial nerve during parotid gland surgery, bizarre malfunction often occurs. Sweating in the region around one ear provoked by eating, a state known as Frei’s syndrome, is seen commonly. 

 You can view all such verses in a wider context by proceeding to the collection of "ONCOLOGY VERSES" on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE!

MAR 16, humorists' scurrilous talk: 'the turd'

EDITORS' WARNING: You must be at least 12 years of age to read this post! 

The collection of informative verses dealing with 'HUMORISTS' SCURRILOUS TALK' can be found by proceeding to our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE!

For more verses of this type, you might also want to review some related informative verses in the collection 'The BOTTOM LINE of MEDICAL HUMOR' . Click HERE!