JAN 12, pill-poppin' poem: glucocorticosteroids (septic shock)

Authors' Note: 

dex: jargony abbreviation for dexamethasone, a potent glucocorticosteroid medication (med), that is used intravenously in intensive care units (ICUs) and other medical settings

septic shock: a life-threatening complication of deep or widespread infection in which blood pressure drops to a dangerous level

  During the recent pandemic (COVID-19), the use of dexamethasone to specifically counter the complications of advanced COVID-19 infection received a lot of attention in the media. 

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.

JAN 11, doctors and their practices: waiting-room journal 'Stitches'

Happy palindromic birthday to D.A.!

Authors' Note: 

Stitches: the Journal of Medical Humour is a monthly Canadian humour magazine. Founded by an Ontario family physician, the journal in its original paper format became the most widely read Canadian medical journal, was licensed in a handful of other countries, and prevailed from 1990. Although targeted at the general public, drug advertisements for medical professionals originally bore the major costs of the project. Since 2007, the jopurnal has survived in a reduced form as a monthly online publication; the author laments that it is no longer a widespread  tool for waiting-room diversion.

You can view additional informative verses on this topic  by proceeding to the collection 'DOCTORS and their PRACTICES' on our full-service 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.

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

JAN 10, garden intruders: lantana

 

Authors' Note:  

Lantana camara, native to a few regions in the tropical Americas and Africa, is tolerant of varied growing conditions other than harsh winters. After extensive blooming of multi-colored flowers (yellow, orangy-pink and purple), each plant produces hundreds of berries that are loved by and distributed by birds. Introduced commercially as an ornamental, it spread invasively in 50 other countries, and with foliage toxic to grazing mammals, became an agricultural detriment, particularly in Australia.

In the US, although hybridized with less-obtrusive species native to south Florida, Lantana spp. continues to be an environmental threat, but a favorite in plant nurseries.   

JAN 9, curtained verse: come and go

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

Authors' Note: Bigger and bigger is an echoic binomial. Vim and vigour, and cool and calm are alliterative binomials. You can see our entire colection of poems explaining and exemplifying this type of idiom as an intriguing aspect of language use by clicking HERE.

 You can review other mildly scurrilous illustrated verses in a wider context by proceeding to 'Curtained verse: Faintly Obscene (Selected) Limericks' on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'.

JAN 8, binomial phrases: "poop and scoop"

 

Authors' Note:  The rhyming binomial phrase, stoop and scoop, sometimes quoted as stoop and scoop, describes a group activity by pet-owners.
See also the author's poem "dog park".  

     

To review our poetic effusion about binomial phrases proceed to our blog 'Edifying Nonsense', click HERE ! 

There is also an entire collection of lyrics to patter songs, somewhat older material, dedicated to various kinds of binomials, that provides more didactic material and an extensive series of examples, and allows you to sing these expressions for your own enjoyment, or for that of others around you. Click HERE !

JAN 7, numbers: sevens (7)

 

 You can review our cumulated nonsense about numbers by clicking HERE.

JAN 6, American satire: 'The Legacy' (free verse)

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 5, life in Palindrome Valley: local cuisine

Authors' Note: 

trat: trendy abbreviation for trattoria, an informal Italian restaurant

   Unfortunately, a few specialties have been taken off menus due to recent supply-chain issues. (No melon, no lemon; Wontons? Not now.) 

   But, you can always wash down your meal with a glass of our famous red ice cider or regal lager !

You can review other illustrated verses on this topic by proceeding to the collection 'Life in Palindrome  Valley' on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'.

JAN 4, a brief saga: drug development

  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 are involved 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. 

To access the next 'brief saga' on this blog, proceed to... 'a gnat and a nit'. 

To access the most recent previous 'brief saga', back up to 'avian digestion'.

Re Medical-Related Verse: Altogether, a hundred or so intriguing verses on medical/dental topics can now be found on various posts in collections, including:

Patients and their Maladies (parts #1, #2 and #3)

The Bottom Line of Medical Humour

Funny Bones (parts #1 and #2),
Doctors and their Practices (part #1 and #2)

To Clot or Not to Clot

The Scopes of Modern Medicine

Handbook of Medical Testing Statistics

Pandemic Verses

Poetry of Healthcare

STD Poetry

Diagnostic Imaging (selected topics)

Toxic Vignettes

Sleek Greek Prefixes

Dental Feelings

and in 'brief sagas' including:

Drug Development

Radiation Exposure

Methylated Spirits

The Gastro-Esophageal Junction

Workplace Pollution

Food Intolerance

Fluoridation

JAN 3, poetry of healthcare: Lewis Carroll's 'the Valgus and the Carbuncle'

You can view these informative verses in a wider context by proceeding to the collection 'Poetry of Healthcare' on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE ! (or if you prefer, you can view them on Facebook in Giorgio's photo-albums.)

JAN 2, etymology: 'dollar'

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!

JAN 1, insects: toothpick grasshoppers

 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 ! (or if you prefer, you can view them on Facebook in Giorgio's photo-albums.)

SUPPLEMNENTAL PHOTO: locust swarm

DEC 31, death and the afterlife: decease in the crease

Authors' Note: In hockey, an assist is recognition awarded to a player who passes the puck to the goal-scorer at a key point in play. A sudden death system for resolving the winner in games tied at the end of regulation play has generally been used in organized hockey since its inception. The (goal) crease is an area demarcated by colored ice directly in front of the goal line where the goalie (goalkeeper) is not to be interfered with by attackers.

Although professional hockey has been the undisputed domain of males, more and more women are participating in Canada's national sport as amateurs and international competitors.

 You can review more poems about 'Death and the Afterlife' in context ('death and the afterlife') on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Click HERE!

 

DEC 30, poetic Panama palindrome parody: 'if final ... Panama'

 

You can review the whole collection of our illustrated verses on this topic  by proceeding to 'Reversing Verse: Panama palindrome parodies' on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'.

And, if you are interested in seeing innumerable examples of spoofy palindrome variants on wordplay maps, you could embark on a journey through a collection of  blogposts entitled 'Tourists' Palindromic Guides: The Americas, #1 -#4'. All that's needed is to click on the link.

DEC 29, curtained verse: orchestral pecking-order

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

Authors' Note: In casual speech, musicians in a symphony may be referred to by their rankings in their orchestral sections, as in "Flo, the first flute". 

 

You can review other mildly scurrilous illustrated verses in a wider context by proceeding to 'Curtained verse: Faintly Obscene (Selected) Limericks' on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'.

DEC 28, patients and their maladies: non-tumorous '-oma's,

Authors' Note:   Well, yes.

  With advancing age, life becomes a minefield of unexpected diseases; for several of these, the suffix -oma, implying growth or swelling, is used although an underlying neoplastic process is not present.

  In the elderly, subdural hematomas or intracranial bleeds (within the envelope of membranes surrounding the brain) may occur with minimal trauma or even spontaneously, particularly if anticoagulants have been used. 

  The patchy process of atherosclerosis may involves the left main coronary artery or its major division, the left anterior descending artery. In such cases, sudden clotting with blockage of the artery may occur at the site of atheroma, and cause a severe heart attack with cardiac arrest, a major cause of sudden death in the middle-aged and elderly population.

  This verse is a companion piece to others by the author dealing with malignant tumors and benign tumors; these are found in the collection of 'Oncologic Verses'.

You can catch other instances of Dr. G.H.'s explanation of medical terminology on posts on this daily blog:

 HERE, re malignant tumors (-omas),

 HERE, re benign tumors (-omas)

Or, you can review the entire collection of poems about 'Patients and their Maladies' on our more encyclopedic blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE.  

DEC 27, binomial phrases: fossil words

Authors' Note:   The concept of fossil words derives from the fact that dozens of obsolete and obscure words, e.g. betwixt, retain currency only as a part of idioms whose use has continued into modern times. The final line of the verse refers to beck and call, goods and chattels, and hither and yon.

 

 More examples of fossil words and phrases are given in the verse hem and haw.

To review the poetic effusion that we have accumulated about binomial phrases, proceed to our blog "Edifying Nonsense", and enjoy the post  'Grandpa Greg's Grammar: Binomial Expressions'. Click HERE ! 

There is also an entire collection of lyrics to patter songs, somewhat older material, dedicated to various kinds of binomials, that provides more didactic material and an extensive series of examples, and allows you to sing these expressions for your own enjoyment, or for that of others around you. Click HERE !

DEC 26, reptiles: geckos (on ceiling)

Authors' Note: A profusion of tiny setae (filament-hairs) on the lizards' palm-pads, as shown by electron microscopy, explain the gecko's unusual gravity-defying mobility.

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

DEC 25, personal and family history: a brief personal bio xxxxxxxxxxxxx Nate

That's my older brother in 1945 holding Dad's photo;
  (lower left). I wasn't quite on the scene, yet!

Mom and Dad with their offspring,
50th anniversary celebration

Update:

seasonal gourmet feast, 2021:
 (a dual-mode family celebration)
Xmas lunch in the Carolina lowcountry

DEC 24, classic palindrome: 'a Santa at NASA'

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, TROOPER, WHEREVER YOU ARE!

AND

HAPPY HOLIDAYS TO ALL

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'. 

seasonal scene pre -Xmas:
office lobby in Toronto 

DEC 23, variant Nantucket limerick: zoophile from Nanoose

 Such adventures show etiquette loose.

Authors' Note: You can find another daily offering on this blog dealing with zoophilia by clicking HERE.

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

DEC 22, planet-saving verse: shorebird council's demand

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'. 

ruddy turnstone at a narrow Carolina beach-strip
 littered with oyster-shells. This bird is a long distance migrator, roosting in the high Arctic.

shorebird, seen near Toronto lakeshore: killdeer?

turnstones (running), and oystercatcher

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