Friday, 20 September 2024

TARGETED PALINDROMES A to D (a showcase for our 'palindrome-pals')



 










GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR WEB-EXPLORERS: 
To resume your review of 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 July 2025. 
As of July 20, 2025, there are 2,000 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 the key elements, such as this one, are also assembled here on "Edifying Nonsense" in topic-based collections.
The "Daily" format, a formidable mix of genres, also has the advantage of including song-lyrics, videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.





Sunday, 15 September 2024

Poems About Avian Life: BIRDLORE, part #3

 previous poetic posts

(part #1)
American goldfinches
birdfeeders
bird droppings
boat-tailed grackles
California scrub-jays
cattle egrets
cedar waxwings
dawn chorus
de-snooding (domestic turkeys)
eagles and eaglets
eastern towhees
house finches
pigeons
red-tailed hawks
red-winged blackbirds
robins


CURRENT CONTENTS:
Toucans
Tufted tit(mouse)
Turkey lovers 
Avian digestion (6 stanzas; a 'brief saga')
Domestic turkeys (3 stanzas; a 'brief saga')



Authors' Note:   This is a true story. I very recently received from friends vacationing in Costa Rica an e-mail with a marvellous attached video closeup of toucans shot with a cellphone camera. I felt compelled to pass the photo on to others.

  In fact, no toucans make a sound that would be described as a 'tweet'. With respect to sound production, members of the more than forty species comprising the family are divided into 'yelpers' and 'croakers'. The social networking entity, Twitter, on the other hand, highlights in words and with their logo the tweetiness of short, chirping birdsong communication.

   The bird-photo above was kindly contributed by Dr. Betsy Crosswell.

                     this verse has been approved for publication at OEDILF #128209

Authors' Note: The tufted titmouse, Baeolophus bicolor, a small cute bird that inhabits the eastern part of North America is named for the crest of feathers on his head, and for old English words for "little bird". Other species of Baeopholus are found in North America, and there are related genera of songbirds known as "titmice" in Europe. The archaic suffix "-mouse" currently adds little to the description of this perky visitor, so he is often known simply as a "tufted tit".

Check out a brief video (live photo) of the tufted titmouse HERE









(Note that the three stanzas of this "brief saga" can be found in more readily legible format on the blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense"; click HERE.) 
And as a later development, we put words to music. You can now sing along with the song "DOMESTIC TURKEY" by proceeding to our blog "Silly Songs and Satire". Click HERE. 



Note that the six stanzas of this "brief saga" can be found in more readily legible format on the blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense"; click HERE.
And as a later development, we put words to music. You can now sing along with the song "AVIAN DIGESTION" by proceeding to our blog "Silly Songs and Satire". Click HERE (link under construction)

(Ed. note) If you enjoyed these illustrated verses about landbirds, you might also want to work your way through our collection of some forty illustrated short poems about waterfowl. Proceed to "Immersible Verse: Limericks about Waterfowl", here on our full-service blog "Edifying Nonsense"

GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR WEB-EXPLORERS: 
To resume your review of 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 July 2025. 
As of July 20, 2025, there are 2,000 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 the key elements, such as this one, are also assembled here on "Edifying Nonsense" in topic-based collections.
The "Daily" format, a formidable mix of genres, also has the advantage of including song-lyrics, videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.







Tuesday, 10 September 2024

Cardiologic Tracings: AT HEART

Readers might like to start off by reading about a particular group of heart disorders known as the cardiac arrhythmias. You can review that collection (syncopated verses about cardiac arrhythmias) by clicking HERE.


CURRENT CONTENTS
Arteriopath
Bypass Grafts
Dipyridamole stress
Dobutamine stress
Ejection fraction
Hyperlipidemia
Hypertension
Myocardial ischemia








Authors' NoteStatins are drugs in frequent use for patients with arterial disease that reduce the body's manufacture of cholesterol. A small proportion of patients are intolerant of this class of oral medication, most commonly due to muscle cramps.
The most common site of symptomatic arterial blockage is the coronary arteries, which provide nutrient blood flow to the heart muscle. Surgical bypass grafting of multiple sites of obstruction is a common treatment for this disease. Following such surgery, patients such as Jack need to remain attentive to risk factors including dietary fats.





Authors' Note
 (dye-puh-RIH-duh-mawl)
(Puhr-SANT-in)

Tests of myocardial flow in the Nuclear laboratory, e.g. gated SPECT, require a stimulus so that the specific radiotracer can be injected at peak blood flow to image the state of heart muscle. Ideally, exercise stress, as with a submaximal treadmill procedure, provides this stimulus, with a high attained heart rate reflecting success. As a backup in those unable to exercise sufficiently, (musculoskeletal or breathing problems, reduced fitness), pharmacologic stress may be used. Dipyridamole, tradename Persantine, is a commonly used agent for this purpose, increasing blood flow optimally, but with little change in heart rate or blood pressure. 



Authors' Note:   The verse above is a companion verse to ”dipyridamole”. 

When doctors want to check whether all areas of heart muscle can increase their blood flow appropriately, they may use certain drugs as helpers; this is particularly true when the patient is unable to perform a submaximal exercise test, often called a Bruce treadmill test, after its inventor. Dobutamine (doh-BYOO-ta-meen), relative of adrenaline, raises heart rate and blood pressure. It's the only drug available for tests which use echocardiography to picture the heart while it is 'under stress', but is a second-choice drug for the nuclear imaging test called gated SPECT. The preferred drug for those tests is one whose primary effect is to dilate arterial blood vessels, increasing the flow to normal heart muscle. Such drugs include dipyridamole and adenosine.


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: Jealousy at the flight of birds has apparently resulted in expressions suggesting that human social responsibility is analogous to having one's wings clipped, or flying straight, as here.

Hyperlipemia (also known in America as hyperlipidemia), is a medical condition in which high blood levels of fats (lipids), particularly cholesterol, portend cardiac disease, including deadly heart attacks. Hyperlipemia is one of a number of such asymptomatic risk factors including hypertension and diabetes. Fortunately, change in lifestyle including diet and exercise, and judicious prescription of pharmaceutical drugs, such as statins, can reduce risk.



 Authors' NoteHigh blood pressure, or hypertension, a chronic condition generally of unknown cause, is one of the major cardiovascular risk factors playing a role in the development of adult heart disease. It is also of particular importance in the causation of stroke, accounting for up to 50% of the risk for that condition. 






Authors' Note: There is variability in patients' response to the development of blockages in the coronary arteries. Part of this is due to the gradual development of collateral arteries or side branches, which may mitigate the effect of the obstructions to produce chronic symptoms or acute severe damage to heart muscle. The net impact on flow can be assessed through imaging showing blood flow to heart muscle at rest and stress, with nuclear or other studies of myocardial perfusion (‘gated SPECT).

               


Here's a LIST OF LINKS to collections of intriguing poems (over 200 of these!) on medical/dental topics, updated to December 2024. 


GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR WEB-EXPLORERS: 
To resume your review of 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 July 2025. 
As of July 20, 2025, there are 2,000 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 the key elements, such as this one, are also assembled here on "Edifying Nonsense" in topic-based collections.
The "Daily" format, a formidable mix of genres, also has the advantage of including song-lyrics, videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.




Thursday, 5 September 2024

Another Angle: POETS' CORNER #3


prior poetic posts (part #1)
addiction to limerick writing 
authorly skill
blogosphere
bold-faced / bald-faced
cans and Can'ts (argumentively)
collaboration
creative writing W-I-P
depressed limericist
prior poetic posts (part #2)
doggerel (brief sagas)
editorial balking
editorial state: "Held"
(the poet's) Family
free verse
gender-neutral language
inventiveness (palinkus)

CURRENT CONTENTS:
Noun-Verb Contractions
Philosophy of limericks
Satirical doggerel
Subtle editorial bullying
Summary
Wit's end




Authors' Note: In the above limerick verse, seven noun-verb contractions, each characteristically joining its two elements (a pronoun or noun, and a verb) with an apostrophe, are italicized in blue. But, don't be misled: other types of contractions also use the apostrophe, and these are flagged in red font. Aren't is of course a negative contraction, and one's is a possessive form. 












Authors' Note: Used here in a loose sense, with no implications for ownership, cooperative refers to a group effort by like-minded individuals. Collaborative writing sites, such as the on-line dictionary OEDILF (nursery for many of Giorgio's concoctions), have the potential advantage to contributors of learning from peers, and ultimately higher rates of publication. Contributing editors ('eds'), however, may entertain estimations of their personal relevance and productivity that influence their editorial comments on others' work. Rarely, such notions are translated into malevolent actions by these poet-leaders.













Incidental Photo:


a snowy egret, fishing near the old bridge


GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR WEB-EXPLORERS: 
To resume your review of 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 July 2025. 
As of July 20, 2025, there are 2,000 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 the key elements, such as this one, are also assembled here on "Edifying Nonsense" in topic-based collections.
The "Daily" format, a formidable mix of genres, also has the advantage of including song-lyrics, videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.