DEC 20 (2021), "SELFLESSNESS": More Magical Palindromes

SATIRE COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio/ Dr GH, November 2019.
An extensive series of our recent posts highlighted maps that displayed targets for palindromic utterances about the world and its major cities. And in the process of doing this, we rediscovered our previous concept of "'Magical Palindromes". You can get into this delightful world or wordplay by checking out the most recent posts in that series, "Magical Canal Palindromes", " Unplanned Canal Palindromes", and  "Magical Palindromes -- Beyond Canals" and . 
The aim of the current blog is to extend these concepts in the spirit of the holidays, using a word that has been pivotal in the development of palindromes -- selfless. 

You might also want to review the comments by our band of spoofing contributing palindromists, in response to the challenge of spoofing the classic palindromic phrase "Ma is as selfless as I am." 

If you need help with the concept of magical palindromes, see the slide at the bottom of the post; it shows some simple examples which help you get the idea.

DIRECTION FOR WEB-TRAVELLERS: (updated June 2024)

To resume daily titillations on our related blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", click HERE. Once you arrive, you can select your time frame of interest from the calendar-based listings in the righthand margin, and check the daily offerings for any month in the years 2020 to the present. (As of June 2024, there are over 1500 unique entries available on the Daily blog, and most of these are also presented here on "Edifying Nonsense" in topic-based collections.) The "Daily" format has the advantage of including Giorgio's photo-collages, song-lyrics and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.

BASIC MEDICAL SCIENCE: a somewhat random assortment

 

CURRENT CONTENTS:
Autophagia
Ejection Fraction (left ventricular)

Gamma Rays

Haversian canals
Homeostasis

Horseshoe kidney (congenital malformation)

Authors' Note:  In disease states, including those producing congestive heart failure, the ejection fraction of the left ventricle, a measure indicating the strength of contraction, provides important information concerning prognosis (potential outcome) and the need for treatment. 

   The ejection fraction can be measured by echocardiography, magnetic resonance imaging, or several different nuclear (radio-isotope) techniques. These techniques measure the volume of the ventricle at the end of diastolic (relaxation) and systolic (contraction) phases of the cardiac cycle. Despite the name, the change during systole is generally given in medical jargon as the percent relative change, rather than as a true fraction; e.g. 60% is good, 30% is bad.

Authors' Note: 

Authors' Note: For physiologists and physicians, the understanding of homeostatic mechanisms such as feedback loops, and how they get overwhelmed in disease, is critical. An example discussed here previously is regulation of thyroid hormone levels. Knowledge in this area has also expanded into the field of IT.

Authors' Note: Horseshoe kidney is a relatively common congenital malformation, occurring in 1/500 individuals. Also known as renal fusion, it results from the merging of two fetal kidneys in the pelvis during the stage of embryonic organ development and consequently failing to undertake their normal upward migration. Fortunately, health consequences are usually mild, if any; occasionally, one of the ureters becomes obstructed. The abnormal structure is often discovered incidentally during procedures, e.g. CT scanning or ultrasound, targeted at pelvic discomfort or unrelated symptoms (and of course, no normal kidneys are seen in their usual position).

GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR WEB-EXPLORERS: 

To resume the sequence of daily titillations on our related blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", click HERE. Once you arrive, you can select your time frame of interest from the calendar-based listings at the bottom of the page, and check the daily offerings for any month from the start of 2020 until December 2024. 

As of December 2024, there are 1800 unique entries available on the daily blog, displaying individual poems (often illustrated) and wordplay, but also with some photo-collages and parody song-lyrics. Most of their key elements are also presented here on "Edifying Nonsense" in topic-based collections, such as this one. The "Daily" format also has the advantage of including some song-lyrics, videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.

Verse and anagrams: election fraud

After discussing the reshufflings on these maps with my nephew M.H., I am embarrassed to have to admit that I neglected to include the name of the high-profile California performing entity 'If-Loner Duet CA'. Sorry about that oversight!

To review the entries in a recent National Anagram Contest that used the phrase 'ELECTION FRAUD' as the target for letter-scrambles, check this blog-link. 

If you would like to see the complete 'anagram swarm' based on A VERY STABLE GENIUS, check this post.

You can find more anagram swarms in a follow-up post by clicking here!

If you want to resume daily titillations on our blog 'Daily Illustrated Nonsense', click HERE. Once you arrive, you can select your time frame of interest from the calendar-based listings in the righthand margin, and check the daily offerings for any week in the years 2020 and 2021. (There are now over 600 daily entries on the Daily blog, and most of these are also presented here on 'Edifying Nonsense' in topic-based collections.)

Reversing Verse: Limericks About CLASSIC PALINDROMES, part #4

 This post provides a continuation of previous wordplay collections displayed on December 5, 2020, January 5, 2021, and February 5, 2021. In those earlier posts, classic palindromes (phrases and sentences whose letters are ordered identically when they are read either forwards or backwards) were described and extolled in verse; the topics of discussion, eight in each post, were as follows: 

1. Dennis sinned            

2. Drawn onward

3. Gnu dung

4. Yreka bakery

5. Lonely Tylenol

6. UFO tofu

7. Too hot to hoot

8. Never odd or even 

9. Sex at noon taxes

10. No 'X' in Nixon.

11. A Santa at NASA

12. T. Eliot's toilet

13. Madam, I'm Adam

14. Sex of foxes

15. Able ere Elba

16. A Toyota's a Toyota

17. Mr. Owl ate my metal worm

18. Emil's lime

19. Critique of palindromes, To idiot: 

20. A dim or fond 'No!' from Ida

21. No lemon, no melon (fruitless)

22. 'Contrived' (saw- and see- lines)

23. Flee to me, remote elf

24. No sir, prison (Roger Stone)

CURRENT CONTENTS

Please note that, continuing the convention adopted in the previous posts, there will be an exclusive correlation between green italicized font and palindromes. But not all of the palindromes displayed within the verses' lines are in the 'classic repertoire'. Some are recent concoctions by the authors. 

25. Zeus sees Suez (canals)

26. Step on no pets  

27. Do geese see God?  

28. No 'D'; No 'L' -- London (negation)

29. Dogma? I am God

30. Mix a maxim

31. Egad! no bondage

32. Go hang a salami..... 

                                                                    #120749, approved May 2023

Authors' Note: It is unclear why Max finds the maxim more worthy of indulgence than the tenet; the latter, it is noted is a palindrome. And so are Egad! an adage, and Mix a maxim, delightful phrases that may be found in lists of classic palindromes.

 Authors' Note: The author apologizes that the above verse conjures a nightmare of sado-masochistic behavior. It must be admitted, however, that the sensitive dominatrix and the vengeful masochist do not fit the stereotypes (see the relevant poem by SheilaB.)

Egad, no bondage! and Egad, a bad age! are found in lists of classic palindromic phrases.

Authors' Note: Hanging a salami is an easily accomplished, but important step in the process of dry curing this meat product.

'Go hang a salami; I'm a lasagna hog' is a frequently cited palindrome of relatively recent origin. It has been variously attributed to Jon Agee, a cartoonist and children's writer, and Baby Gramps, a musician and wordplay guru. A lesser known variant of this phrase, possibly primally inspirational, is 'Yo, bang a salami. I'm a lasagna boy.'

The second palindrome cited in this verse is of limited longevity and suboptimal quality, as admitted by our protagonist, little Bobby; it is a brief variant of a classic phrase of unknown origin, usually cited as 'God, a red nugget: a fat egg under a dog.'

Web-resources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Gramps

https://jonagee.com/

Stay tuned for further posts that will bring you poetic discussion of more classic palindromes:

Scheduled for December 15, 2021: 

33. Racecar

34. No left felon 

35. A man, a plan, a canal -- Panama

36. The Dacha: palindrome-enhanced American satire, a brief saga

37. Leigh Mercer's Palindrome Workshop, a brief saga

GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR WEB-EXPLORERS: 

To resume the sequence of daily titillations on our related blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", click HERE. Once you arrive, you can select your time frame of interest from the calendar-based listings at the bottom of the page, and check the daily offerings for any month from the start of 2020 until December 2024. 

As of December 2024, there are 1800 unique entries available on the daily blog, displaying individual poems (often illustrated) and wordplay, but also with some photo-collages and parody song-lyrics. Most of their key elements are also presented here on "Edifying Nonsense" in topic-based collections, such as this one. The "Daily" format also has the advantage of including some song-lyrics, videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.