HELD pending PUBLICATION

UPDATED SHAKESPEARIAN SENRYU  *

 To be; not to be; 
These options nail the question, 
"Why bear Fortune's woes?"

Lead samurai-SEALS 
Against Hokusai's "Great Wave", 
Or halt tsunamis?

Death curtails REM-sleep,
Avoids defibrillation, 
Cures anginal bouts.

The consummation?
End ills that flesh is heir to; 
Devoutly that's wished.

Make your quietus --
Bare bodkins, available,
Provide an off-ramp.

(A few may prefer
The rite of harakiri,
Per Clavell's "Shogun").

Otherwise, why bear
Badly sung karaoke,   
Life's weary fardels, 

Whips and scorns of time,
Head honcho's contumely,
The crowded onsen, 

Smart-alec geishas,
Lawsuits' judicial delay,
And long-lived phone-queues?

Die, sleep; dreams might loom, 
When mortal coil's shuffled off,
As grim show-stopper. 

Post-mortem --  we dread 
Puzzling lack of videos, 
Cancelled return flights.

Un-Googled country --
Dubious travel ratings,
Makes wimps of us all.

Currents turned awry,
Even pithy enterprise 
Scares off investors. 

 Author's Note: These verses fit with SENRYU, a lesser-known variant of haiku that shares certain physical characteristics (nominally three non-rhyming lines, with a 7-5-7 pattern for the number of syllables in each line). Several of the other rules differ, and particularly, the topic of senryu deals most often in a humorous or satiric way with man's foibles. We have used this format personally for dozens of verses appearing recently on our blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", and remotely in a 2003 medical journal presentation entitled, "Seventeen haiku verses ... " You can read more about senryu HERE.

Readers might also enjoy our illustrated poems "Hamlet at the pub", and "Hamlet's fardels", and our earlier parody song-lyrics "The Play's A Sting" and "The Wreck of the Danish Royalty". 

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ADVENTURES OF LINGUIST LESLIE MOORE

compact summary:

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Authors' Note: The Greek myth of Pandora addresses the question of why there is evil in the world. Zeus had Pandora created as the first human female. She was given a jar (misinterpreted millenia later as a box) that contained all of life's evils, with careful direction to guard them. She opened the jar out of curiosity, releasing most of its regrettable contents, thereby infesting subsequent generations of humanity. But one item — hope — was kept inside.

In various ethnic superstitions, apotropaic (protective) magic is invoked to counter a malevolent spiritual force that takes away human good fortune if it is celebrated too loudly. This influence presumably underlies the popular Yiddish expression keyn ay(i)n horah (corrupted to keneinahora or kinahora, even KH in Anglo-Yiddish) translated directly as "no evil eye"; this expression is often invoked when a praiseworthy person or attribute is mentioned.

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Authors' Note: The conclusion of this imaginary placebo-controlled trial of magic in the prevention and treatment of ILLS can be stated as follows:

Parenteral administration of a low dose (1 gram) was found uniformly effective in prevention. For oral treatment of later established cases, the dosage requirement was found to be higher by a factor of 16 times (95% confidence interval: 9 — 25).

The above conclusion could, with inherent limitations of proportionality, be converted back to older units: "An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure."

 

FINAL EDITORIAL NOTICE

 

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.

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

Readers will likely have read the notice that as of July  2025, "Daily Illustrated Nonsense" will be converted to archive-mode, i.e. some polishing of presented posts will go on in the background, but there will generally be no brand-new material presented.  

Regrettably, for the same reasons, further regular posting of new material on the current topic-based blog will also be drawing to a close , with sporadic exceptions. There will be some polishing and rearranging going on in the background (we have a few 'postholes' to fill in). Hence, it may still be worth your while to return and explore, to satisfy your yearning for funky humor and erudition. Thanks for your indulgence!

As time goes on, our creative impulses will be directed primarily at the song-lyric blog "Silly Songs and Satire". It already offers about 100 songs with parody-lyrics, and accompanying chord suggestions for stringed instruments such as ukulele. 

See y'all there! 

American Satire: CABINET CONFIRMATION

CURRENT CONTENTS

a. Director of D.O.G.E.? Trade Sheriff?

b. Attorney-General

c. Secretary of Defense

d. Secretary of Health and Human Services

e. FBI Director

f. Director of National Intelligence

g. Director of OMB (Office of Management and Budget). 

h. Secretary of Education

 Authors' Note: The particular nominee we had in mind is discussed at Wikipedia HERE; he had no role in government until the ad hoc formation of the Department of Government Efficiency.

Embargos so grab me is found in most lists of classic palindromes. A newer entry, Elon, olé !, is suggested, but unfortunately could not be worked into the above verse.

Authors' Note: The particular nominee we had in mind is discussed on Wikipedia HERE.

The Feed-At-The-Trough Law is a 'rule' of natural law, by which those routinely rewarded have boundless will to please those who feed them; in the political arena, it would normally account for the approval of almost any nominee, but in this case, even that line was crossed.

The detailed story of a flawed appointee for leadership of the US Department of Justice (DOJ), i.e. the Attorney General, is presented at OEDILF here.

Authors' Note: The particular nominee we had in mind is discussed on Wikipedia HERE.

 Authors' Note: The particular nominee we had in mind is discussed HERE.

Sure! Despite the current emphasis on 'efficiency', let's review yet again whether the long-disproven possibility that vaccines cause autism and other major diseases. 

 Authors' Note: The particular nominee we had in mind is discussed HERE.

"Government Gangsters" is a 2023 book by Kash Patel about the perceived deep state in US politics; the same author produced a children's picture book entitled "The Plot Against the King" (the protagonist is King Donald).

Bill Barr (Republican) and Merrick Garland (Democrat) were Attorneys General in the 2017 and 2021 administrations respectively.

Authors' Note: The particular nominee we had in mind is discussed HERE.

Authors' Note: The particular nominee we had in mind is discussed HERE.

Authors' Note: The particular nominee we had in mind is discussed HERE.

A recent New York Times article was subtitled, "Linda McMahon, whose résumé mainly rests on running World Wrestling Entertainment, has faced questions for years over whether she is suitable for important education posts."

The president, who employed her in his first term as director of the Small Business Administration, nominated her in 2024 as Secretary of Education, but has repeatedly indicated that he would like to eventually eliminate the Department.

The 8 nominations specified above trumpet the belief that, to some,  loyalty may be a more important virtue than experience or expertise. This mistaken belief has been discussed here in an earlier verse.

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.

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O Canada! STAND on GUARD (D.T.)

 These verses, previously languishing in incomplete form, were brought to fruition in late January 2025. We had the good fortune to find a suitable software-space to stick this assemblage, before our blog closed down at the end of 2024, so please excuse the minor anachronism involved in the posting on this early date (some of the ideas herein were only expressed after the US presidential inauguration on January 20, 2025). 

CURRENT CONTENTS
Fifty-first state
Canadian bacon 
Inadmissible
Dual citizenship
Honoured
Tariff terror

Authors' Note:  The Canadian author regrets the unapologetic tone of this diatribe (see borrow). He does point out, however, that the verse constitutes a trio of timely diplomatic nonsense along with Panama Canal Zone and Greenland.

Authors' Note: 

Authors' Note:  In Canada, a longstanding rule decrees a candidate for entry (visitor or immigrant) "inadmissible" if they have a criminal record elsewhere.  Over 30 other countries have such rules, although generally less harsh and better specified, dependent on length of incarceration, etc. The European Union ('Schengen-countries') will activate new regulations in mid-2025, likely more severe than previous versions. The government of Italy undertakes policing functions for the small, enclosed, but otherwise independent Vatican City.

Incidentally,  the current US President, Joe Biden, had been scheduled to visit Pope Francis in Rome on January 11th to present him with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. The visit was postponed due to the California wildfires. 

Authors' Note: The reasons are not clear, but in Canada, compared to the US, a much smaller proportion of place-names are copies of names used geographically in the 'Old World'. The same also seems to be true for Australia and New Zealand. Just saying.

In the US, any proposed name-change would have to be reviewed by protocols of the Board of Geographic Names.

Mount Denali, at 6190m (20,310 feet), the loftiest peak in the United States, is discussed at OEDILF by SheilaB.

And, just in case you wanted to know for comparison, the loftiest peak in Canada is Mount Logan, at 5960m (19,550 feet).     

Authors' Note: In the US recently, there has been a concerted effort to pin many of society's putative ills on immigrants. In Canada, on the other hand, the significant portion of citizens who hold two passports is honoured. Commonly, through training programs and other personal initiatives (e.g., marriage), the US is the second country involved.

As a feature left over from earlier times, when there were fewer global immigrants, the expression dual citizen, or even more curtly dual, is assumed by Canadians to imply, failing further specification, a person who holds citizenship in both the US and Canada.

The verb subdue, and its derivatives seem to derive from a different linguistic root.

Authors' Note: 

The above verse gives an apocryphal Canadian response to tongue-in-cheek proposals made in January 2025 for the liberal-leaning New England states to secede from the US.

Readers might also enjoy the three sets of verses collected under the rubric "Canadiana". Start 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.

Unprecedented doggerel: PRESIDENTIAL PALINKUs

CURRENT CONTENTS
Politics
Global warming
45th prez #1
45th prez #2
45th prez #3
45th prez #4
45th prez #5
45th prez #6
45th prez #7

Click below for collections of posted palinkus, as available uniquely on our blogs (most recently for the period of January to August 2024).

2024:

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 July 2025, there are 2000 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.