A blogsite offering entertaining daily oddities since January 2020. There are now over fifteen hundred posts in these four years. Images, photographic, computer-simulated and poetic, are drawn from daily life, as well as from material grouped by topic on our parent blog "Edifying Nonsense". The poetry displayed is all original, although portions of it evolved through rigorous editing on a collaborative website.
June 8, 2022
JUN 8, exotic destination: discount air to Australia
June 7, 2022
JUN 7, death and the afterlife: end-of-life care
Authors' Note: In some jurisdictions, all deaths in a long-term nursing facility must be reported to the office of the coroner.
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!
June 6, 2022
JUN 6, trees: horsechestnut trees
June 5, 2022
JUN 5, birdlore: red-tailed hawk
June 4, 2022
JUN 4, poets' corner: bold-faced nonsense
June 3, 2022
JUN 3, pathos and poetry (gun control verses): good-guy shooters
June 2, 2022
JUN 2 , Italian loanwords: oratorio / opera
June 1, 2022
JUN 1, savoir-faire: bilingual labelling -- grenades
An archaic term for the tree and for the fruit, pomegranate derives from the Middle Ages, but seems to have gotten stuck in English as a sort of borrowed anachronism. On the other hand, we have grenadine syrup, a cocktail additive, putatively made from pomegranate juice, but in fact, often concocted from synthetic ingredients.
May 31, 2022
MAY 31, defining opinion: hamuli (little hooks)
May 30, 2022
MAY 30, (re)duplication: claptrap
Authors' Note: The disparaging term gobbledegook was first used in 1944 by a Texas politician named Maverick (scion of the original staunchly independent thinker). Its meaning — pompous, overinflated language — gave rise a few year later to the equivalent bafflegab. These expressions, employing repetition of sounds, have a musical and amusing quality, as do their venerable synonyms --hogwash, poppycock, balderdash, bunkum and tommyrot, but only their close cousin claptrap (alternately clap-trap) -- would qualify as a reduplication.
May 29, 2022
MAY 29, Ontario nostalgia: commuting by rail
May 28, 2022
MAY 28, Toronto excursion: 'Brickworks', dusk approaching
a midland painted turtle |
May 27, 2022
MAY 27, mythed opportunities: 'Infernal' (Dante's Divine Comedy)
May 26, 2022
MAY 26, reptiles: fence lizards
May 25, 2022
MAY 25, back in Toronto: views in the neighborhood
May 24, 2022
MAY 24, life in Palindrome Valley: organizing the Palindrome Rally
May 23, 2022
MAY 23, toxic vignette: 'mad as a hatter' (the Danbury shakes)
May 22, 2022
MAY 22, palinku (poetic novelty): Dennis's ongoing sin
Toronto: welcome back!
In this post, we continue with a novel form of poetic wordplay. Inspired by Japanese haiku poetry, the new format 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.
May 21, 2022
MAY 21, Carolina lowcountry: farewell, wildlife!
great egret at a pond in a nearby luxury condo. Watch your step! |
a green (Carolina) anole, on patrol |
Carolina anole at leisure, sunning on our front-yard sago palm |
a handsome southern toad, occasional visitor to our backyard |
brown pelicans strolling after dinner at the neighborhood 'pelicatessen' |
pelican swimming fantasia |
wood stork and Canada goose |
a white ibis sits for a portrait |