FEB 13, commercial product: Smart Garden Gnome

verse in honour of Dr. JJ, whose love of life included comedy and the music of poetry ...

Authors' Note:  A garden gnome is an ersatz creature, often assumed to be of below average intelligence and technical sophistication. Here the author reimagines the garden gnome as a technically adept home protection device, suited to the western American setting.

 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.

Incidental Photo:

JJ, undated childhood photo

FEB 12, limericks by 'Dr. JJ'

'Dr. JJ', as many readers would have ascertained, did not seem to be a big fan of 'the 45th'.  

Incidental Photo:

FEB 11, at heart: Jack Sprat and his bypass grafts

verse in honour of 'Dr. JJ', whose love of life included comedy, satire, and the music of poetry ...

Authors' Note: Statins are drugs in frequent use for patients with arterial disease that reduce the body's manufacture of cholesterol. A small proportion of patients are intolerant of this class of oral medication, most commonly due to muscle cramps.

The most common site of symptomatic arterial blockage is the coronary arteries, which provide nutrient blood flow to the heart muscle. Surgical bypass grafting of multiple sites of obstruction is a common treatment for this disease. Following such surgery, patients such as Jack need to remain attentive to risk factors including dietary fats.

You can view more poems on this topic by proceeding to "Cardiologic Tracings: AT HEART" (parts #1 and #2) on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE!

Incidental Photo:

JJ. at his younger bro's bar mitzvah celebration

FEB 10 (2022), singable satire: The Animals sing Lewis Carroll's "JABBERWOCKY"

  

 "Dr. JJ" enjoyed playing the electric guitar among other instruments. He frequently enlivened major family events by performing parody songs written for the occasion, using base songs from the golden oldies period. His favorite song vehicle was undoubtedly the folk-rock classic "The House of the Rising Sun" (1964) as recorded by the British band The Animals. (A YouTube version is found HERE.)  

"Jabberwock", Giorgio's copy,
 drawing by John Tenniel,
illustrator of Carroll's books

  The authors of this daily blog, Dr. G.H. and his registered pseudonym Giorgio, have been fans for a long time of "Jabberwocky", the iconic nonsense-poem revealed and discussed in Lewis Carroll's "Through the Looking Glass" (1871). A sneak preview; later this month, you will be able to find the poem "MERGERWOCKY", a parody on Jabberwocky that we later realized could similarly be sung to the tune of "The House of the Rising Sun". Your current authors do acknowledge that singing a version of "Jabberwocky" itself had been otherwise achieved by the British folk-rock singer-composer Donovan, a pastiche that is recorded in his 1971 album of childrens' songs "HMS Donovan". (Click HERE for the YouTube version). 

PARODY-SONGLINK: To find ukulele and guitar chord-charts to help you accompany "Jabberwocky (the Animals' version)", on your favorite instrument, click HERE.

To review the rest of the lyrics and chord-charts, follow this link to our song-blog "Silly Songs and Satire" by clicking HERE.

For historic interest, here is a slide used as part of an open-mike at a ukulele club when the concept of this pastiche was first entertained.  

Incidental Photo:

Dr. JJ, Bermuda, 1965

FEB 9, exotic destination: Hawaii vs. Haida Gwaii

verse in honour of 'Dr JJ', whose love of life included comedy and the music of poetry ...

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

Incidental Photo:

JJ, age 14, dancing with his mother

FEB 9, insects: termites

verse in honour of 'Dr. JJ', whose love of life included comedy and the music of poetry ...

You can review Giorgio's other verses about pesty and occasionally beneficial insects, as  collected in 'Buzzwords: Verses about Insects' on the full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE.

Incidental Photo:

Bermuda externship, 1965

FEB 7, pathos and poetry (gun control verse): concealed carry

verse in honour of 'Dr. JJ', who believed, as your editors do, that guns in most settings are an insanity, and whose love of life included comedy and the music of poetry ...

 You can review our entire poetic outpouring on this topic by proceeding to a post on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'; click HERE.

Incidental Photo:

Dr JJ, visiting Charleston SC, late 70s

FEB 6: palinku (poetic novelty): sports

This blog-post is in honour of 'Dr. JJ', whose love of life included satire, the music of poetry, and of course, both participatory and spectator sports ...

  In this post, we will continue with a novel form of poetic wordplay. Inspired by Japanese haiku poetry, this new form is used for a terse verse with a total of 17 syllables displayed on three lines. Unlike its classic Japanese analogue, this concoction does not mandate the precise distribution of the syllables among the three lines, but does stipulate that each word in the poem be included in a palindromic phrase or sentence in English (i.e. one that can be read either forwards or backwards). 

  To help the reader discern the origin of the lyrics, each palindrome (generally occupying one of the three lines of the poem) has been color-coded.

   And, just in case you have forgotten what palindromes are about, your blogsite hosts have arranged a serial set of brief lessons on the topic ('Political Palindromes'); click HERE to start. 

 

(Ed. note) Verses of this type have continued to accumulate. You can view them all at one swoop if you proceed with a single click to our more encyclopedic blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE.

Incidental Photo:

on Florida beach, undated

FEB 5, inspired by Ogden Nash: a brief saga -- 'a gnat and a nit'

verse in honour of 'Dr. JJ', whose love of life included comedy, satire and the music of poetry ...

   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 multiverse poem is shown here on the slide with its first verse. 

The gnu photo illustrating this verse was kindly provided to the editors by Barry Weinstock. But you already knew that, if you had read the prior blogpost about 'gnu dung'. 

 

A version of this poem by Giorgio can also be found on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". There you can find appended some examples of the wonderful limericks that were indisputably written by Ogden Nash. CLICK to proceed to that version if you are interested.

To access the next brief saga in this series, proceed to 'bequest'

To access the most recent previous 'brief saga', back up to 'drug development'.

Incidental Photo:

FEB 5, reptiles: brown (Bahaman) anoles

verse in honour of 'Dr. JJ', whose love of life included comedy, satire, and the music of poetry ...

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

Further reading? See this interesting article: 

Y. Stuart et al., “Rapid evolution of a native species following invasion by a congener,” Science, doi: 10.1126/science.1257008, 2014.

Incidental Photo:

two hippy-haired bros, Dec 1976

FEB 3, bi-lyrical limerick: 'dispoarity' (daughter and son)

Happy Upcoming Birthday to JMH!!!

Be sure to check out the whole collection of 'bi-lyrical limericks' by proceeding to "Edifying Nonsense." CLICK HERE ! (Or, if you prefer, you could look over this stuff on Giorgio's Facebook photo-albums.) 

links for any date: scroll over to the calendar-based listings of 'Past Posts' in the righthand column on this page, choose your month of interest, and then select (by clicking) the post of your choice.

to continue daily titillations: BE SURE TO BOOKMARK THIS SITE!
 

FEB 2, American satire: corruption

Authors' Note: 

frumpery: dowdy or old-fashioned appearance or behaviour

trumpery: attractive articles of little value or worth

This verse was written in early January, 2021, after revelation of a recorded telephone conversation involving the chief election official of the American state of Georgia, as well as lawyers on both sides, in which suggestions were made to illegally revise the previously reported state's results in the recent presidential election of November 2020. The president, in the waning few weeks of his term, had seemed consumed by concern about poorly specified fraud that might have contributed to his loss of Electoral College votes in closely contested states.

   

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! 

FEB 1, variant Nantucket limerick: sugar-daddy from Nanking

You can review our entire collection of spoof verses based on the iconic Nantucket limericks on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense' by clicking HERE.

JAN 31, poet's corner: argumentively (the Cans and the Can'ts)

 You can find lots of other verses on this blog under the listing "Poets' Corner".  Click HERE.

JAN 30, planet-saving verse: beach foam

 

You can help save the planet by viewing all our verses in this series at "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE!

JAN 29, hellenophilia: Santorini wines

 Other verses discussing our appreciation of Greece and things Greek can be found on our blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Click HERE.

links for any date: scroll over to the calendar-based listings of 'Past Posts' in the righthand column on this page, choose your month of interest, and then select (by clicking) the post of your choice.

JAN 28, pathos and poetry (gun control verse): anger and guns

 You can review our entire poetic outpouring on this important topic by proceeding to a post on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'; click HERE.

JAN 27, reprehensible modern history: 'clannishness' negated

 View the entire collection of poetic assertions on this topic (currently small, but growing) at our more encyclopedic blog 'Edifying Nonsense', by clicking HERE.