Wordplay maps: AMERICAN SCRAMBLE-TOWNS #17-20

 

 LINKS: 

Forward to USA map #19

Back to USA map #15

Let's skip all this stuff and get on to the Canadian version, eh? 

 

Forward to U.S.A. map #21 (final American version)

Back up to U.S.A. map #17

Naughtiness in the Landscape: GARDEN INTRUDERS

The development of the private garden as an important element of the sophisticated home reaches its apex in the "Charleston Garden", praise for which is expressed poetically in our previous post. The current collection features elements of the downside of investment of time, effort, hope and dollars in the private gardening enterprise.    

CURRENT CONTENTS:
Stinkhorn fungus

Glossy privet

Lantana spp.

Papyrus

Common moles

Deer (agricultural fencing)

Squirrels in the garden

Leaf-blowers

Garden gnomes 

  

Authors' Note: Clathrus ruber is a startlingly shaped species of saprophytic fungus that resembles an orange plastic toy ball. Its interior surfaces are coated with a foul-smelling slime that attracts flies, which then disperse the fungal spores. The characteristic fetid odor of the fungus resembles that of rotting meat. Other common names include latticed stinkhorn, red cage (fungus), and basket stinkhorn. 

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.

                                                                                                 

 

Authors' Note:

specs: frequently used jargon for specifications

  The specs for deer fencing, also known as deer fence, agricultural fencing or deer exclusion fencing, include a height of eight feet (250 cm), with no sharp protuberances that might injure the deer.

Authors' Note:  The authors bemoan the ongoing arbitrary depredations of the human garden by these untutored rodents. Although they have not personally participated in violence against squirrels, they reluctantly admit that they sympathize with other human victims who are drawn in that direction. Where are the hawks when we need them?

urban-dwelling squirrel in a Canadian tree

                                                                                                                    

DIRECTION FOR WEB-TRAVELLERS: 

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 September 2023, there are over 1200 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 also has the advantage of including some videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.

SOURCE-VERSE: Limericks About ETYMOLOGY #1

SATIRE COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio,  2018. The involved verses have also been published at OEDILF.com, an online humour dictionary that has accumulated over 100,000 carefully edited limericks. Owing to the considerable number of verses, this theme is continued in later posts. 

SONGLINK: For those readers who like poetry set to music: You can find lots of singable limerick medleys on our sister blog "SILLY SONGS and SATIRE". 

By the way, to find more limericks, or any other search target on either of these 2 blogs, use the SEARCH-FUNCTION found at the top of the righthand margin.

CURRENT CONTENTS:

 Cockroach

 Dog

 Dollar

 Domestic

 George (Giorgio)

 Gizzard

 Haven

See more verses about the derivation of words at post #119 ('More Verses about Word Origin').

MAMMALIAN WILDLIFE, part #2

This post is a continuation of "MAMMALIAN WILDLIFE part#1", posted for your entertainment on this blog on June 15, 2021.

previously posted poems (part #1)

angwantibo

bats

beaver

buffalo

California sea lion

coyotes, plastic

Cretan goat ("kri-kri")

(upsetting) gnus 

CURRENT CONTENTS:
Gorilla (Gorilla gorilla gorilla)

Hippopotami / hippopotamuses

Hoary marmots

Horsing around

Marine mammal madness

Mongolian gerbils

(concupiscent) Rabbits

Raccoons in the city

(for continuation, see the link below)

Authors' Note:  The above is iambic verse, unlike most of what we post here, which is anapestic (limerick-based); therefore this brief doggerel scans like this: 

'MOST of US to QUELL the FUSSes'

PreSUME we're HIPpoPOTaMUSes'.

Authors' Note: Living in the US Pacific Northwest, generally in sites 2500m (8,000 feet) or more above sea-level, and at lower elevations as well in British Columbia and Alaska, North America's largest ground squirrel (a relative of the prairie dog and woodchuck) lives an apparently idyllic life. An herbivore, it emerges to survey the mountain views while dining on vegetation, and spends its morning sun-bathing on the rocks. It avoids the inhospitable part of the year by hibernating in communal well-hidden burrows for seven months. The downside is provided by several predators, most notably golden eagles; unfortunately, its characteristic high-pitched alarm call (underlying nicknames like "whistle-pig") does not give complete protection when these dangers are present.

Whistler, BC, is a destination whose name is linked to this local mammalian resident. You can check out an illustrated verse about this town by clicking HERE (link available at the end of November 2023). 

Authors' Note: Despite the suggestive name, sea-lions are members neither of the family of felines (domestic cats, lions, tigers, etc.), nor of the cetaceans (dolphins, porpoises and whales), but are carnivorous, blubbery, finned marine mammals (pinnipeds) in the family of eared seals. Therefore they are not covered by the iconic classic palindrome Senile felines; wannabe-phrases such as A ride? Pinniped, Ira! are barely worthy of serious proposal.

The above verse was perpetrated with no purpose other than the promulgation of nonsense.

Authors' Note:

Honest Herb(ie), a westponder, concedes that pronouncing the herbal 'H' in Britain and Australia may be the norm there, but he prefers the more common North American way to say it with the 'H' silent, as in 'hour', and 'honest'.  In fact, language detectives may correctly intuit that Herb is a Canadian, as he spells offence with a 'c', rather than the 's' used by Americans.

The Mongolian gerbil, Meriones unguiculatus, a hardy small herbivorous rodent  has become a popular pet. Originally a resident of Asia transported for use as a research subject, it was introduced from the US to the UK in 1964; its pronunciation preferences currently remain unrecorded.

Authors' Note: For a somewhat different take on concupiscence, check out the illustrated verse 'Horny Rhino' by clicking HERE. 

Authors' Note: In the last century, raccoons have readapted themselves as urban denizens, often relatively unnoticed, but sometimes disturbing their neighbours. And be sure to review our subsequent illustrated poem with respect to their role as nest robbers. 

Requests from many armchair naturalists, and career zoologic scientists have come to fruition; there is now a follow-up post  (part #3), that continues this theme; you can easily access it by clicking HERE! 

GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR WEB-EXPLORERS: 

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 about 1400 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 also has the advantage of including some song-lyrics, videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.

Authors' Note:  A falling birth rate due to 'nutritional stress' in females (along with ongoing hunting) has been proposed as a principal factor in the decline in the last century of Pacific Ocean populations of the Steller sea lion, Eumetopias jubatus. Although wanton polygamy has, to be honest, always been an option for females of this species of magnificent marine mammals, the particular efforts of concerned individuals like our heroine Bella may have contributed to a recent recovery.

   Current ecological terminology denotes a species whose population is stable in the wild and not threatened as of 'lesser concern'. In 2013, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) took the Steller sea lion off its US Endangered Species List.

DIRECTION FOR WEB-TRAVELLERS: 

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 September 2023, there are over 1200 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 also has the advantage of including some videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.