Sunday, 15 October 2023

DEFINING OPINIONS, fourth octet

previous posted poems:
(first octet):
academically
birdlife
bupkes
crepuscular
cruddy
diaphoretic
envision
expertise
hamuli
haunch
heinous
hoarding
hod
holdout
hole#1
hole #2
holler
hollow
homogenized milk
hone
honey
honk
honorifics
hooey

CURRENT CONTENTS (fourth octet):
Hoot
Hopeful
Hormones
Hors d'oeuvre
Hose
Hostility
Hot
Hourly
(For continuation, see the link below)















Authors' Note  As the hour is one of the most commonly used measure of time, fitting well with the time-frame of daily human activities, it is used more often in a general than in a scientific or precise sense. Examples of this usage include the appointed hour and happy hour. The derived adverb hourly shares this attribute.





DIRECTION FOR WEB-TRAVELLERS: 
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Tuesday, 10 October 2023

Gift Suggestions: NOVEL COMMERCIAL PRODUCTS




Authors' Note The gecko, a non-threatening species of lizard imported accidentally into the United States (with range expanding in the last few decades), has entered the popular consciousness due to advertisements by GEICO (acronym for the Government Employees Insurance Co.) which feature a British-accented lizard, who gives advice on purchasing auto and other insurance.

   Voice-activated assistance (for humans) on Apple cellphones is provided by a persona known as ‘Siri’. As saurian is a synonym for reptilian, (and the suffix ‘-saur’ is well-known in regard to current and ancient lizard species), you won’t be surprised that we have developed an assistant named ‘Sauri’ for the high-tech gecko community. 




Authors' Note: This verse deals with a nonsensical 'tall tale' prevalent in the author's family. Our children grew up in the 1980s in a universe in which 'remotes' (remote controllers) miraculously helped manage elements of their computerized daily lives. With its expandable dimensions and the ability to either hide or display, the Cyber Box offered a digitized but imaginary solution to logistic problems, worthy of attribution to Aladdin. Unfortunately, no one could ever find the misplaced 'remote' for the mythical device.



Authors' Note:  The principal ingredients and other details of Dust, the indispensable furniture protector, are left to the reader's imagination.



Authors' Note A garden gnome is an ersatz creature, often assumed to be of below average intelligence and technical sophistication. Here the author reimagines the garden gnome as a technically adept home protection device, suited to the western American setting.



Authors' Note: The male turkey's facial snood is an erectile caruncle that plays an important role in his ability to attract females. Unfortunately for domestic toms, commercial turkey breeders see it as advantageous to remove these facial appendages at an early age. The process of desnooding, and its devastating effect on turkey romance, have been versified by the author previously. Commercial development of a prosthesis to assist males in adult life, as described in this verse, is apocryphal.




Authors' Note:  Sault Ste Marie, Ontario, on the St. Mary River, is known casually by its English-speaking inhabitants and visitors as ‘the Sault’ (pronounced SOO). (A smaller town, similarly named, is also present on the American side of the river). French colonists had referred to the rapids on the river as les saults de Ste Marie (SOH).

   A classic limerick, dating from 1902, concerns family economics and stressful relationships of a resident of the island of Nantucket in the state of Massachusetts:
     There once was a man from Nantucket ...
   A series of limericks by the present author provides satirical variations on this iconic tale. 

   The technically advanced bucket and safe combination imagined in the above verse might have been of use to the famous Nantucket protagonist.



Authors' Note: Shotgun-wielding hunter Elmer Fudd was the cartoon-world nemesis of the beloved character Bugs Bunny. Elmer was notable for his lisping speech, for his hatred of 'wascally wabbits', for his oversized weaponry and, fortunately for Bugs, for his rather poor eyesight and aim.
   Currently (2017), weapons can be legally web-purchased by residents of the U.S.,without  prior background checks of the purchasers.




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.)







Thursday, 5 October 2023

PATIENTS and their MALADIES, part #3

This post is a continuation of 'PATIENTS and their MALADIES, part #1', as posted on this blog March 2021 and February 2022.

previous poetic posts (see previous posts for the complete story..)
(part#2)
eye discharge
flu-like symptoms
ganglion cysts
gluten sensitivity
Graves disease
gynophobia
hemorrhoids
hemiplegia

CURRENT CONTENTS:
Hives
Hoarding disorder
Knee effusion
Lichen sclerosus
Male infertility
Nervous bladder
-OMAs
(non-tumorous)
Polyps (colonic)
(for continuation, see the link below)


Authors' Note: Hives, known medically as urticaria, is a symptomatic skin condition attributed to the release of the immune mediator histamine, and manifesting at some point in up to 20% of people. Allergy is a common underlying instigator, with drug reactions being causative in some cases. The onset, with progressive randomly distributed spread of batches of reddish raised lesions, is often acute, but the condition may be repetitive and "chronic", (i.e. on-again, off-again), as is the case with Yves' experience.

Formulation of the above poem required the use of binomial phrases, as indicated by italics.



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. 
  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" .



Authors' Note: This verse resulted from the author’s personal experience (as patient).
  Following trauma, standard X-rays taken in the Emergency Department show most fractures where the bone fragments are displaced. They can not, however, diagnose many undisplaced fractures, particularly in elderly patients with reduced bone density. 
  Nonspecific swelling with evidence of leaking of fluid into the adjacent joint space (joint effusion) is particularly common in injuries about the knee, and is easily discerned on visual inspection and X-rays. Follow up radiographs after another 3 weeks sometimes display an initially missed healing fracture. In cases where instability, ongoing pain, or persistent effusion are prominent, injury to ligaments may be suspected. 



                                     final acceptance at OEDILF: #123098, November '2023.
Authors' Note
dermatosis: general term for a skin condition
Lichen sclerosus, a chronic skin malady of unknown cause, with lesions affecting primarily the genital areas, is most often a scourge of women, but men sometimes become sufferers. Caring for sensitive skin areas by avoiding scratching and restrictive clothing is a necessary lifestyle change. Lifelong use of potent steroid creams has been shown to reduce the chances of malignant transformation.



Authors' Note:  In medical parlance, ejaculate is pronounced differently as noun (n.) or verb (v.) As a patient in the process of fertility testing, you will undoubtedly be asked to contribute (v.) a sample (n.), to assess sperm quality and cell count.



Authors' Note: Final requests have also been discussed here by OEDILF poet-editor speedysnail.




Authors' Note  Well, yes.
  With advancing age, life becomes a minefield of unexpected diseases; for several of these, the suffix -oma, implying growth or swelling, is used although an underlying neoplastic process is not present.

  In the elderly, subdural hematomas or intracranial bleeds (within the envelope of membranes surrounding the brain) may occur with minimal trauma or even spontaneously, particularly if anticoagulants have been used. 
  The patchy process of atherosclerosis may involves the left main coronary artery or its major division, the left anterior descending artery. In such cases, sudden clotting with blockage of the artery may occur at the site of atheroma, and cause a severe heart attack with cardiac arrest, a major cause of sudden death in the middle-aged and elderly population.
  This verse is a companion piece to others by the author dealing with malignant tumors and benign tumors; these are found in the collection of 'Oncologic Verses'.





Requests from many health professionals, and layfolks as well, have come to fruition; there is now another followup post continuing this theme that you can easily access.  Click HERE for part #4 of 'Patients and their Maladies'.

Here's a LIST OF LINKS to collections of intriguing poems (over 160 of these!) on medical/dental topics that can now be found on various posts. 


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.