JUN 6, trees: horsechestnut trees

 

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". 

JUN 5, birdlore: red-tailed hawk

Authors' Note: Regal in appearance, the red-tailed hawk, the most common North American member of the raptor genus Buteo, is a year-round denizen of southern Ontario, and is frequently seen in urban residential areas. 

 

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

JUN 4, poets' corner: bold-faced nonsense

Authors' Note:    Our blog, 'Edifying Nonsense', promotes several forms of creative nonsense, including collections of humorous and definitional poems overlapping with those submitted to OEDILF, an online collaborative writing-site. (parenthetically, accepted OEDILFian verses boldface the attributed key word that is ‘defined’ in the poem. On occasion, the partly completed collections are offered to OEDILFian editor-colleagues as a 'temporary Author's Note', to provide context for the cooperative editing task of rehashing a verse that is still in tentative status.

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

 

JUN 3, pathos and poetry (gun control verses): good-guy shooters

 (Editorial comment) Insanity!

 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.

JUN 2 , Italian loanwords: oratorio / opera

Today is Festa de la Repubblica, Italy's National Holiday, and we will be initiating a new series of verses ...

Authors' Note: Demand for gaudy Italian opera faded temporarily in the mid-18th century in his adopted English homeland, so George Frideric Handel (1685–1759) composed a series of non-costumed oratorios for combined choir and orchestra. The sixth in the series was initially produced in Dublin, as poor reception in London was anticipated; this was, in fact, the case, but after a number of yearly springtime performances at Covent Garden Theatre, the New Sacred Oratorio gained critical and audience approval, and acquired a bold new name and unassailable status. The tradition that audiences stand for the Hallelujah Chorus is based on the unfounded myth that King George II attended an early show and was moved to stand during that point in the performance.

  The title for the iconic chorus seems to have been set in the Handelian context as Hallelujah, but dictionaries list variants of the Hebrew-derived exclamation ("praise the Lord!"), including Allelujah and Alleluia.

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

JUN 1, savoir-faire: bilingual labelling -- grenades

Authors' Note: 

au verso (oh vehr-soh) French for 'on the reverse side'

Bilingual labelling, if you pay attention to it, produces some startling results. In Canada, pomegranates and their juice must be imported. But, in French-speaking parts of the country, we would refer to them as grenades, the modern French term for the fruit. In the circumstance under discussion, the particular juice-box was labelled on its French side as jus de grenade.

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, defining opinion: hamuli (little hooks)

Authors' Note:

hamulus: (Latin) a little hook, plural = hamuli, with biologic implications discussed at OEDILF in a verse by Snowy Owl. Also, the hamate bone of the human wrist, bearing a prominent hook-like extension is a relatively frequent site of human fractures, as in a verse by your blogging team (see link below).

Remus: one of Rome's mythological founding twin infants, most often pronounced in anglo-Latin as REE-mus, but here, invoking more classic Latin, as RAY-mus.

 

Our blogpost "Defining Opinion" on the topic-based blog "Edifying Nonsense" shows a selection of similar verses submitted to OEDILF (the online Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form). You can see all of these on one visit by clicking HERE.

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.

Readers willing to go down an internet rabbit-hole HERE can easily get to a collection of more than a dozen other short verses in which we have dealt with specific reduplications, as well as three fairly lengthy patter-songs about this fascinating linguistic phenomenon. 

MAY 29, Ontario nostalgia: commuting by rail

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. 

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

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

MAY 28, Toronto excursion: 'Brickworks', dusk approaching

 

The great blue heron has been featured in posts on this blog HERE, HERE, and HERE.

The ponds are filled with yummy koi.

a midland painted turtle

Check our post about the painted turtle (southern subspecies) HERE. 

The black-crowned night heron has been featured in other posts on this blog. Click HERE. 

See other views of Toronto's Brickworks HERE.

MAY 27, mythed opportunities: 'Infernal' (Dante's Divine Comedy)

You can take advantage of the whole spectrum of illustrated poems dealing with 'Mythed Opportunities' that we have collected on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Click HERE!

MAY 26, reptiles: fence lizards

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

MAY 25, back in Toronto: views in the neighborhood

the red-winged blackbirds are back, too !

 

Cabbagetown horsechestnut in bloom

at Riverdale Farm

deer in the nearby Don River valley

bunny !!!

MAY 24, life in Palindrome Valley: organizing the Palindrome Rally

Authors' Note: Most readers will be familiar with the lap-pool. The loop-pool, a luxury innovation found in Palindrome Valley, enhances swimming in either direction along a circuitous route.

Related palindromes include:

Harass selfless Sarah.

Ma is as selfless as I am. 

Harass Iris, Sarah.

Ev, lovers revolve.

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'.

MAY 23, toxic vignette: 'mad as a hatter' (the Danbury shakes)

Authors' Note: Erethismus (irritation) mercurialis, synonym for mercurialism, was well-known by Lewis Carroll's time, as signs of chronic poisoning had become common among workers in the hatting industry in which salts of mercury were used in the felting of furs; his character, the 'Mad Hatter' reflects the prevalent stereotype.

  In the US, hat-making was centered in the Connecticut town of Danbury, where the majority of long-term workers were subject to the 'Danbury shakes' as well as other neuropsychiatric manifestations. The plant continued in operation, including the dumping of wastewater effluent, until the early 1940s. It closed at that time due to staffing shortages and the need for mercury in the armaments industry.

   In 2020, a study of fish populations in Danbury's Still River showed alarming levels of mercury; the persistence of this toxic residue reflects, in part, the concept of biomagnification. 

Review all our poems of toxicologic interest by clicking HERE. 

MAY 22, palinku (poetic novelty): Dennis's ongoing sin

Toronto: welcome back!

welcome back to Toronto

 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. 

The continually widening circle of Dennis's sins is indicated by the following recently discovered palindromes ...

Dennis and Ed, Nadine, Enid and Edna sinned. 

Dennis and Ed, Nadine, Eve, Enid and Edna sinned.

Dennis and Ed, Nadine, Eva, Dave, Enid and Edna sinned.

Dennis and Ed, Nadine, Eva, Dana, Ana, Dave, Enid and Edna sinned.

Also, you might want to check an earlier posting on this site for a somewhat different take on Dennis's entourage. And, if you are overwhelmed by an urge to sing about Dennis's sinful relationships, you can satisfy those urgings by clicking HERE. 

(Ed. note:) Poetry in the palinku format has continued to accumulate. You can view all the poems at one swoop if you proceed with a single click to our more encyclopedic blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE.

MAY 21, Carolina lowcountry: farewell, wildlife!

'Til next year, IAC!

Readers' advisory: You can expand any photo on this blogpost, or any other, by clicking on the photo (those embedded in slides are an exception.) 

great egret at a pond in a nearby luxury condo.
Watch your step!

unabashed swimmer in a gatory pond

another suburban pond, close by

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'

'

paper-wasp mother building her nest

And, here's a verse about another domesticated great egret ...

pelican swimming fantasia

wood stork and Canada goose

a white ibis sits for a portrait

MAY 20 (2022), singable satire: John Denver sings "INDIANA SONG"

SATIRE COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, May 2018. Readers interested in this topic might also enjoy Giorgio's lyrics posted on these earlier blogposts...
Dark Schemes
Rosenstein
Brennan's Tweet 
"Get Me Roger Stone - the Song" 

ORIGINAL SONG:  "Annie's Song" by John Denver, 1974.

Enjoy Denver's recording HERE on Youtube. 

PARODY-SONGLINK: To find ukulele and guitar chord-charts to help you accompany "Indiana Song" on your favorite instrument, click HERE. 

BACKGROUND INFO: George Will's opinion-editorial  was published in the Washington Post under the rubric "Trump is no longer the worst person in government". It appeared in our local newspaper on May 10, 2018, under the heading "Mike Pence sets sad standard for governing by groveling."

Here is the link to the particular newspaper column which generated all the interest.

INDIANA SONG

to the tune of "Annie's Song"

  

George Will writes Mike Pence sets
A 'sad standard for ... groveling',
Like at cabinet meetings
Where he's 'humbled' by Trump.
Using barbs like 'oleaginous', 
Like 'repulsive' and 'toady',
George fills up his column -- 
His disdain doesn't slump.

Then George targets invective
At Mike's praise for Arpaio,
At a rally in Tempe
Near the home of McCain.
George invokes Mike's 'vocation'
(Servile ingratiation)
And asks voters repudiate
That mob's M.A.G.A.* again.

*  Make America Great Again, slogan of the 2016 Republican campaign.

CAST OF CHARACTERS

George Will  'conservative political commentator' and popular columnist with the Washington Post Writer's Group.
Mike Pence  Vice-President 2017- . Previous experience as Republican governor of his home-state of Indiana. Described as 'conspicuously devout' by Will, presumably picked for his current post due to his freedom from financial or lifestyle imbroglios. 

Donald Trump  President, 2016-.

"Sheriff Joe" Arpaio   controversial local political figure in Arizona, self-styled as 'America's toughest sheriff', convicted of contempt of court in relation to repeated racially charged practices, 'pardoned' by Trump in 2017.
John McCain   high-profile long-serving senator from Arizona, Republican candidate for President in 2008, struggling with terminal brain cancer at the time of these events.

 

MAY 19, doctors and their practices: ex-hospital chief

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!
 

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

MAY 18, insects: gnats

Authors' Note:   The term 'gnat' can be used to described a variety of small, swarming flies. Owing to their small size, the sort that bite are often known as 'no see 'ums'. There is a companion piece to this verse 'gnat repellent' that extends the details of this topic.    

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.