Since 2016 Giorgio Coniglio, registered pseudonym and editor-in-chief, has been bundling collections of POETRY, WORDPLAY and PHOTOGRAPHY, seasoned with humour and parody, with the sole aim of entertaining YOU with presentations at the rate of 5 times per month. The related blog "DAILY ILLUSTRATED NONSENSE" sends out items from these collections in somewhat random order one-at-a-time.
Sunday, 25 December 2022
Tuesday, 20 December 2022
Wordplay Maps: R-E-P-U-B-L-I-C-A-N-S in Canada (anagram maps #1-4)
Thursday, 15 December 2022
HIGHER CONNECTIONS
Monarchs
Various groups of strictly Orthodox or haredi Jews represent an expanding demographic in Israel, assembling in particular neighborhoods (such as the suburbs of Jerusalem) where they carry out their lifestyle, rejecting and disdaining the secular environment, preferring a world characterized by observance of laws derived from the Torah (Bible). Their traditional dress reflects the groups' roots in 19th century Ashkenazi religious communities in eastern Europe. The name (the plural noun form) originates from a biblical reference to those who tremble at the word of God.
With large families (averaging 7 children per female), these groups made up 4% of Israeli citizens in 1980, and 13% in 2021.
Authors' Note: Peer has two meanings that are in conflict with each other at times. (1) "equal in rank", the basis of the adjective peerless, meaning unparalleled in quality. (2) particularly in Britain, a member of the nobility, as in "peers and peeresses are members of the peerage". In this case, the wannabe imagines that all flatterers would be rewarded with aristocratic titles.
Saturday, 10 December 2022
Life in PALINDROME VALLEY, a poetic description
Palindromic signpost
Monday, 5 December 2022
For the Love of Greece: HELLENOPHILIA
CURRENT CONTENTS:
Greek Evzones
Cretan gorges
Approaching Santorini
Tipping on Thera
Santorini wines
Calamari on Heraklia
The Aegean cat (3 verses, a 'brief saga')
Cyclades (3 verses, a 'brief saga')
Dodecanese (4 verses, a 'brief saga')
Acropolis (3 verses, a 'brief saga')
Grand Change: a more elaborate version of the hourlychanging of the guard (taking place on Sunday morning at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in
Athens' Syntagma Square), providing a popular photo-op for locals and tourists
fustanella: kilt made from 30 meters of white cotton, supposedly with 400 pleats to represent the years of Ottoman occupation.
Friday, 25 November 2022
Sunday, 20 November 2022
Wordplay Maps: SCRAMBLE-TOWNS, postal supplement
Who would ever have guessed?
It turns out that an unparalleled word in generating anagrams, i.e. letter scrambles, is P-A-L-I-N-D-R-O-M-E-S. We have taken advantage of that discovery to create this unique series of wordplay maps of imaginary American (and Canadian) locales, each one completed by its official two-letter state (or provincial) abbreviation.
Canadians:
To return to the original post in this series, click HERE.
Tuesday, 15 November 2022
ORGANIC BRAIN POETRY
Brain disorders, organic
Authors' Note: A psychiatric workup for mental disorders starts with the separation of causality into two streams. In the first, brain function, thoughts and behavior may be altered by subtle or unusual manifestations of disease in body systems outside the brain — these are sometimes termed exogenous. In the second stream, manifestations are attributable to disorder of the brain itself (usually of unknown cause) in patterns reflective of neurosis, schizophrenia and depressive illness. In somewhat archaic, but still utilized descriptions, psychiatrists may refer to this distinction as indicating organic versus non-organic mental disorders.
Brain tumours account for only a small portion of patients suffering such neuropsychiatric symptoms; however, medical practitioners frequently hope that such a correctable cause may be discovered.
Authors' Note: A course of high-dose synthetic corticosteroids, e.g. dexamethasone, may be used to help bring under control a severe exacerbation of a chronic illness, e.g. asthma, inflammatory diseases, or an initial presentation, e.g. anaphylaxis, septic shock or brain swelling. Owing to the common side-effect of drug-induced euphoria/mania and other psychiatric issues, doctors attempt to taper the high doses as soon as possible.
Authors' Note: A chronic subdural hematoma is a space-occupying intracranial lesion resulting from the body's failure to resorb blood that collected between the dural membrane and the brain parenchyma, usually caused by traumatic head injury. Whereas an initial expanding clot presents as a neurosurgical emergency, smaller clots, with a tendency to absorb fluid and expand gradually, may be later suggested only by chronic neuropsychiatric symptoms. In jargon used in actual medical settings and in televised fictional series, the term for the lesion responsible may be shortened to subdural.
The operation of the feedback loop in relation to states of thyroid deficiency is discussed here.
Here's a LIST OF LINKS to collections of intriguing poems (over 200 of these!) on medical/dental topics, updated to December 2024.