Sunday, 15 January 2023

The frontier of poetry: PALINKUs (palindrome-enriched haiku verses) from the year 2022


A continuation of our previous posts summarizing the introductory phase of this new poetic concoction....
Go back to review palinkus from the year 2020 by clicking HERE, and the for the year 2021 by clicking HERE.


An additional point: Where do the original palindromes come from?
The majority are in the 'classic repertoire' of this constrained but nonsensical form of writing. The authors are proud to report that they have apparently concocted at least some of the remainder. 









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.







The enhanced second slide in the above pair shows the poetic content in the form of only two palindromic phrases -- these are both 'magical palindromes'; indeed they are lenthy , but they allow the synthesis of ideas that would not otherwise be possible with regular paindromes. You can get up to speed on this intriguing wordplay variation by clicking HERE.   


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You can continue this astounding journey, exploring our new poetic form. Click below for yearly collections of posted palinkus (one each month)as available on this blog-site.
2020: haiku, and the origin of the 'palinku'
2020: early palinkus, from August 2000
2024 -- pending.
  
(Alternatively, you could proceed to our related blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", where we have in a more casual manner, published these terse verses one-at-a-time, on the 17th day of each month.)


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 March 2024, there are over 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.






Tuesday, 10 January 2023

Review of 'brief sagas' from 2022

 

 A NOTE from the EDITORS: 

 As readers may have gathered, these blogs highlight several types of light, wistful and humorous reflections on current life, chief among them  short verses using the limerick format, more or less (see the blogpost "Limerick Variations"). But on occasion, we feel the urge to continue important themes through several stanzas worth of poetic ideas. So in this post, we highlight the previous years' offerings of 'lengthier' poems of at least 15 lines or 3 stanzas. We have been publishing these at the rate of once a month on "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", but as they are found mixed with shorter verses of 5 lines, i.e. standard limericks, or even 3 lines --palinku (palindromic haiku), you might have failed to notice and review them in their entirety. 

  This summary gives you a second chance to explore these lengthier creations that contain as many as 6 stanzas -- hardly lengthy enough to be considered a genuine saga, but we hope reflecting the authors' sagacity.  

  The compressed mode in which our 'sagas' are displayed may enhance your appreciation of the range of topics covered; if you prefer to enjoy the details in a larger and more readable font, you can quickly access the posts on this blog devoted uniquely to their stanza-by-stanza display (as well as notes, related photos and videos), by entering their title into the search lines provided. And from there, you can, of course, explore further to enjoy the multitude of shorter verses.  


CURRENT CONTENTS (from 2022)
Anglo-Latin             Apr
Attribution:
      Ogden Nash      Feb
Bequest                   Mar
Beri-beri                  Sep
Canada                    Jun
Careers                    Jul
Drug development  Jan
Echoic binomials     May
Hemianopsia           Dec
Mar-a-lago               Aug
Metabolic delirium  Oct
Palindrome workshop Nov






























 

For the curious reader's convenience, we have sorted our treasury of 'brief sagas' by the year of publication on this blog. Altogether, you will find more than 40 whimsical poems, that cover about 800 lines of verse. 

Click below, and enjoy!
2020
2021
2022


Thursday, 5 January 2023

More Buzzwords: INSECTS, part #2


A continuation of the post from August 15, 2020 "Buzzwords: VERSES about INSECTS"

prior post #1
beerbugs
bumblebees
clothes moths
cold adaptation
computer bugs
deer- and horse- flies
entomologists
fire ants

CURRENT CONTENTS:
Gnats
Gnat repellents
Insect repellents
Ladybug diner
Mosquitoes
Ricardo the dragonfly
Roaches (etymological approach)
Termites
(see below for continuation)



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.    





Authors' Note:  For several decades, there has been a prevalent belief that a particular bath oil product had the ancillary property of repelling attacks by swarms of gnats. However, objective testing by the American organization Consumers Union has debunked a special role for this product. 




Learn more about DEET at Wikipedia.











Authors' Note: Adult dragonflies are carnivores who hunt on the wing, consuming daily up to a fifth of their body-weight in various flying insects, mosquitoes being one of their favorites. 

In the photo by GC, shot in the Muskoka region of Ontario, the insect temporarily has lighted (with wings typically spread) on a tiger lily, presumably to seek as prey the pollen-seeking insects attracted there. 




Authors' Note

cucaracha: Spanish for cockroach, presumably giving rise in the early 17th century to the English name for the insect

cockroach: adjectival form for the common insect (of thousands of species, only four are characterized as pests; cockroachlike might also be used in appropriate instances)   In the 1830s, Victorians adopted the shortened form roach to avoid the sexual connotations of the insect's name.






Requests from many entomologists, armchair nature enthusiasts, pest control professionals, buggers, and just ordinary folks have come to fruition; there is now a follow-up post continuing this theme (BUGS!), that you can easily access by clicking HERE



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.






Grandpa Greg's Advanced Grammar: (re)DUPLICATIONS, part #1


CURRENT CONTENTS

Clap-trap
Cootchie-(cootchie-)coo
Dilly-dally
Fuddle-duddle
Fuddy-duddy
Hanky-panky
Harum-scarum
Helter-skelter
(for continuation, see the link below)


Authors' Note:  Reduplications as they are best known, sometimes also called duplications, are language forms (morphs), usually for nouns, in which an element of the word is repeated with little or no change; they figure prominently among the most musical elements in English and in other languages. To this author, the more commonly used term seems redundant. 

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 --hogwashpoppycockbalderdashbunkum and tommyrot, but only their close cousin claptrap (alternately clap-trap) -- would qualify as a reduplication.




Authors' NoteCootchie coo, sometimes cootchie cootchie coo, with its many spelling variants, has evolved as a (re)duplication voiced when tickling a baby, or possibly other targets, as described [[47817:here]]. Bloviation, and the blowhard are described in other verses.




Authors' Note: The essential appended line (L6) of this verse is acknowledged by the author to have a puzzling rhyming scheme, although the latter is partly offset by the action taking place near the palpitatingly iconic Palindrome Valley. Another redeeming feature is that, unlike the other half-dozen or so other poems on this topic at the collaborative online site OEDILF, it is gratifyingly concordant with the normal conversational stressing of DIL-ly-dal-ly on its first syllable.

Another view of wordplay competitions in Palindrome Valley can be found HERE.




Authors' Note: (usually, FUD-uhl-dud-uhl, or with a French lilt, as here, fud-uhl-DUD-uhl)

fuddle-duddle: 
an infrequently used (re)duplication, voiced dismissively in dealing with opinions that the speaker rejects.

In 1971 Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, father of current PM Justin Trudeau, unleashed a minor scandal by using unparliamentary language in the Canadian House of Commons (parliament). A portion of the ensuing brouhaha, deftly sidestepped by Trudeau, revolved around whether he had actually spoken or merely mouthed the inappropriate words.

Web discussion:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuddle_duddle



Authors' Note: 

(FUD-ee-dud-ee, or as a possibility here, fud-ee-DUD-ee). Another example of a (re)duplication.




Authors' Note: Reduplications as they are best known, sometimes also called duplications, are language forms (morphs), usually for nouns, in which an element of the word is repeated with little or no change; they figure prominently among the most musical elements in English and in other languages. To this author, the more commonly used term seems redundant. Many other examples begin with the letter 'h', e.g. harum-scarum, helter-skelter, higgeldy-piggeldyhillbilly, and hubba-hubba.








SONGS about REDUPLICATIONS!

The authors of the above poetic verses got so enthused about reduplications that they composed a series of patter-songs (in the style of Tom Lehr) dealing with this intriguing linguistic curiosity. If you follow along these links you can learn more grammar, and see dozens of surprising and enlightening examples of this phenomenon. Grab your ukulele, your guitar, or just your larynx, and enjoy singing along!
1)  Lyrics for Singable Satire: "A LESSON ABOUT REDUPLICATIONS


For more intriguing verses about "(re)DUPLICATIONS", please proceed to part #2 by clicking HERE. 


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 has the advantage of including some videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.