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 poems and wordplay grouped by topic on our parent blog "Edifying Nonsense". The poetry displayed is all original (as are the song-lyrics), although portions evolved through rigorous editing on a collaborative website.
October 26, 2022
OCT 26, limerick variations: O'Malley's concept (C-rhyme extension)
October 25, 2022
OCT 25, mythed opportunities: Galatea (and Pygmalion)
The illustration is taken from a drawing by Gerome done in preparation for his iconic painting "Pygmalion and Galatea".
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!
October 24, 2022
OCT 24, patients and their maladies: brain symptoms post-trauma
October 23, 2022
OCT 23, STD-poetry: monkeypox
October 22, 2022
OCT 22, planet-saving verse: phosphate detergents
October 21, 2022
OCT 21, hellenophilia: Cretan gorges
October 20, 2022
OCT 20 (2022), singable satire: Tennessee Ernie Ford sings "The BALLAD of GIULIANI", part #2
PARODY SONG-LYRICS
ORIGINAL SONG: The Ballad of Davy Crockett , by Bruns and Blackburn, Walt Disney Studios 1954, anthem of the "Crockett craze". Several versions of the song were prominent on the Top Ten in 1955.
BACKGROUND INFO: Max Boot's opinion-editorial appeared in our local newspaper on May 8, 2018, under the heading "The long, disappointing fall of Rudy Giuliani". Here is the link to the particular newspaper column.
BALLAD of GIULIANI, part#2
Voice of those wild Trump Years!
Update provided by scribe Max Boot,
Who, May '18, wrote a blurb astute.
New York's refurbished image, he does impute
To Rudy's governance, which few dispute.
Rudy - "America's Mayor",
Praised by media seers.
Max says despite our guy's 'intemp'rate' style,
He granted folks' diversity a high profile.
Supported gays and newbies, and warn't hostile
To programs hailed by both sides o' the aisle.
Rudy Giuliani,
'Moderate' musketeer.
Our Rudy had his 'character flaws',
(Though he knew 'bout state and fed'ral laws)
His pride and vanity could give you pause;
His judgment could have a subordinate clause.
Rudy Giuliani,
Makin' some folks steer clear.
As Max recounted in terms quite blunt,
GOP stars*, the 'Trump test' confront.
They've 'sacrificed their principles', all have flunked -
The party's evolving to the 'National Front'.
Rudy, leading others,
Takin' a downward veer.
Rudy (here, Max is tearful)
His 'fall' is the most severe.
Max's take is that the Chief's defects,
Infect those who bow and genuflect.
Rudy, like the others, has 'failed the test':
He's the voice of an epoch we've learned to detest.
Rudy Giuliani! Voice of the insincere. x2.
October 19, 2022
OCT 19, Canadiana: seniors' hockey
October 18, 2022
OCT 18, reprehensible modern history: submarine warfare #3
October 17, 2022
OCT 17, defining opinion: holler
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.
October 16, 2022
OCT 16, Ontario nostalgia: bunkie
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.
October 15, 2022
OCT 15, Toronto ravines: mysterious lower East Don
If you are interested in wending your way through an encyclopedic collection of four blogposts stuffed with photo-collages on Toronto ravines, click HERE.
October 14, 2022
OCT 14, doctors and their practices: the dermatologist
October 13, 2022
OCT 13, numbers: baker's dozen, bark mitzvah (13)
October 12, 2022
OCT 12, pluralia tantum: the backwoods ('rural plurals')
Authors' Note:
Urals: The Ural Mountains, a discrete range running north and south, separates old Russian from more sparsely populated Siberia, and is considered as the boundary between the continents of Europe and Asia.
The above verses provide further examples of the grammatical phenomenon pluralia tantum. We have discussed in other verses here the relationship of pluralia tantum to medical nomenclature, to life-cycle celebrations, to cooking ingredients, and to fields of study.
Grandpa Greg asked us to pass on this message: "You can view the entire collection of verses about 'Pluralia Tantum' by clicking HERE."
October 11, 2022
OCT 11, patients and their maladies: the hoarder
Authors' Note: Although folks with this engrained problem may be categorized as having depression, schizophrenia or obsessive-compulsive disorder, hoarding disorder may be a psychiatric malady in its own right. The disorder creates difficult family situations on either side of the Canada-US border, as in this mostly true story about a well-meaning friend of the authors'.
Astute readers may note that this verse, longer than most limericks, bears a certain similarity to the limerick format. You can learn more about this insider issue by proceeding to the collection Progress in Poetry: "Limerrhoids"
You can view verses about medical problems in a wider context by proceeding to "Nurse-Verse: Patients and their Maladies" on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense". Click HERE!
October 10, 2022
OCT 10, variant Nantucket limerick: the lad from Salinas
Authors' Note: The Sankaty Head Light is a famous lighthouse on the US island of Nantucket. It also serves as the pictorial symbol for OEDILF, the Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form.
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.
October 9, 2022
OCT 9, waterfowl: black skimmers
You can review our entire collection of illustrated verses in a wider context by proceeding to 'Immersible Verse: Limericks about Waterfowl' on the full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. (Or, if you prefer, you can view them on Facebook in Giorgio's photo-albums).
October 8, 2022
OCT 8, poets' corner: editorial balking
October 7, 2022
OCT 7, American satire (prolongation): 'a meticulous archivist'
Author's Note: Some readers may wish that the fifth line's 'BLOCKhead' could be replaced by another assonance-laden word, targeted at the second line's melodic term 'riDICulous'.
We hope that you enjoyed this verse. You can find 40 more on this topic in 6 collections on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Click HERE to start!
October 6, 2022
OCT 6, (re)duplication: helter-skelter
Authors' Note: This (re)duplication has elements of impulsiveness, thoughtlessness and randomness in common with harum-scarum, pell-mell and hodge-podge.
Readers willing to go down an internet rabbit-hole HERE can easily get to our other eight short verses dealing with specific reduplications, as well as three fairly lengthy patter-songs about this fascinating linguistic phenomenon.
October 5, 2022
OCT 5, inspired by Ogden Nash: 'a sloth in a slough'
October 4, 2022
OCT 4, a brief saga (organic brain poetry): metabolic delirium
This verse belongs to a series on organic causes of neuropsychiatric symptoms, the others being frontal meningioma, hypothyroid depression, general paresis of the insane, cerebral metastases, beriberi and high-dose steroids.
October 3, 2022
OCT 3, bar-fauna: Gary the gator
October 2, 2022
OCT 2, Italian loanwords: ciao
Authors' Note: You can probably figure out how to pronounce the word 'ciao' if you already know how to say ...
October 1, 2022
OCT 1, palinku (poetic novelty): restaurants, 3-verse medley
In this post, we 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.
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.
September 30, 2022
SEP 30, limerick variations: epitomy
You can review our entire collection of poems on the topic of "Limerick Variations" as compiled on our more encyclopedic blog "Edifying Nonsense" by clicking HERE.
September 28, 2022
SEP-28, spineless verse (invertebrates): chelipods
READING MORE WIDELY:
You can find all our illustrated verses about various 'INVERTEBRATES' , as compiled on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense" HERE. But, in fact, we had hived off verses about INSECTS, and they are gathered in separate blogposts, that you can get into HERE. So, follow these links, and enjoy.
September 27, 2022
SEP 27, defining opinion: diaphoretic
September 26, 2022
SEP 26, organic brain poetry: CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy)
This is consecutive daily post #1000 on this blog!!!
ROSH HASHANAH: To Jewish friends, L' shanah tovah!
Authors' Note: Although military recruits and physically abused spouses also number among the victims of this disease of insidious onset, (characteristically diagnosed with certainty only at post-mortem examination), it is the scourge of those who earlier in life indulged in contact sports, particularly those with a risk of repetitive minor brain trauma.