Friday 10 November 2023

DEFINING OPINIONS, fifth octet

 

previous poetic posts (see previous posts for the complete story..)
hormones
hors d'oeuvre
horticulturist
hose
hostile
hot
hourly
housewife

CURRENT CONTENTS  (fifth octet, WIP):

hover
Hoyle, Edmond (according to ... )
envision

other possibilities include homily, hominy, homonym, hot-headed, hot-blooded, holistic, hookworm















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Sunday 5 November 2023

BINOMIAL EXPRESSIONS, part #3

 

previously posted poems
(part #1 - December 5, 2021)
hale and hearty
hug and kiss
food and drink 
first and last
sin and redemption
down and out
betwixt and between
hem and haw
(part #2 - August 5, 2023) 
flotsam and jetsam
by hook or by crook
poop and scoop
bump and grind
birds and bees
flora and fauna
publish or perish
for better or for worse


CURRENT CONTENTS
Echoic binomials (a brief saga - 3 verses)



In the following collection, "bigger and bigger" exemplifies nicely the echoic binomial.



And, it doesn't take too much imagination to guess that the whole enterprise can be extended on occasion to three parallel words (nouns, verbs or adjective).




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Sunday 15 October 2023

DEFINING OPINIONS, fourth octet

previous poetic posts:
(first octet):
academically
crepuscular
envision
farce
hamuli
haunch
Haversian canals
hoard
hoarding
hoe
holdout
hole#1
hole #2
holler
hollow
homogenized milk
homunculus
hone
honey
honk
honorifics
hooey
hoot
hopeful

CURRENT CONTENTS (fourth octet):
Hormones
Hors d'oeuvre
Horticulturist
Hose
Hostile
Hot
Hourly
Housewife














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 appointedhour and happy hour. The derived adverb hourly shares this attribute.




 
For more "defining opinions", please proceed to the fifth octet by clicking HERE. (available after Nov 15, 2023)  


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Tuesday 10 October 2023

POEMS about POSTAL PLACES: CANADA

 DISCLOSURE: This effort got started a short time ago, when we resolved that we should write a brief verse about a town in every state in the USA. Shortly after the project's inception, we decided that we would extend the purview simultaneously to include the provinces and territories of Canada. The Canadian inception, with seven fun-packed verses, is presented here. (Click THIS LINK if you want to see how the American branch of the project is going.)


CURRENT CONTENTS:
Antigonish, NS
Deseronto, ON
Goose Bay (and Gander), NL
Grande Prairie, AB
La Tuque, QC
Red Deer, AB
Whistler, BC                    



Authors' Note: NS is the official abbreviation for the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, in which the town of Antigonish, population 4,700, is located on the shore of Northumberland Strait, a source of excellent local seafood.

Based on an aboriginal Mi'kmak name, the town was founded in 1784 by a land grant from the British crown. It is now the home of the annual Antigonish Highland Games, and of Sir Francis Xavier University, highly reputed on a national level for undergraduate teaching.



Authors' Note: ON is the official abbreviation for the Canadian province of Ontario, in which the village of Deseronto, population 1800, is situated 5 km (3 miles) south of Highway 401, a limited-access four-lane main route that leads from Toronto to Montreal.

Captain John Deseronto, a native Mohawk, fought in the British Military Forces during the American Revolutionary War. Until 1848, "Deseronto", a site along the northern shore of Lake Ontario, served as an indigenous reserve.

Incidentally, although many characters in American western movies said "Let's vamoose!", the Lone Ranger was better known for voicing, "Hi Yo Silver, away."





 Authors' Note: NL is the official abbreviation for the Canadian province comprised of the Atlantic island of Newfoundlandand Labrador — the sparsely populated section of mainland Canada that borders the Atlantic Ocean to its north.

Gander, population 12,000, located on the island north of the capital of St John's, had been founded in the 1930s as a refuelling stop for the expanding number of commercial transatlantic flights. It recently became famous as the recipient town for diverted passenger aircraft during the 9/11 debacle.

The town of Goose Bay, population 8,000, now administratively known as Happy Valley - Goose Bay, is the largest settlement in the icy northern portion of the province. Founded in 1941, it was selected for its potential as a military airbase, and served that function throughout World War Two.

A terse story about "dangerous": A recent novice visitor from France, flying overnight to Toronto, sleepily noted the key towns on the plane's route-map, and wondered why "Danger" was prominently displayed near the country's east coast.




Authors' Note: The above verse combines three disparate plot-elements: limericks about bar jokes, our verses on North America's postal places, and the approach of Hallowe'en.

If you want to know more about the Canadian province of Alberta, consult our verse on Red Deer, AB, or ask speedysnail, author of the OEDILFian poem Alberta.




Authors' Note:  QC is the official abbreviation for the Canadian province of Quebec, in which La Tuque, population 11,000, is situated beside the St-Maurice River, 170 km (105 miles) north of the Saint Lawrence. The town's iconically shaped low mountain, resulting in its name (Fr. tuque is a soft wool hat), was partly destroyed in construction of a hydro-electric installation 80 years ago.

In each of the Canadian provinces of Quebec and Ontario, administrative rearrangements resulted in a handful of "cities" and "regional municipalities" with extensive areas that had low population densities, contrary to the usual expectation for urban centres. In this regard La Tuque heads up the pack, its central town surrounded by a vast forested area of 28,000 km2 giving it a population density of 0.4/km2, compared to Montreal, QC, and Quebec City, QC, with densities of 2,700 and 1,600/km2 respectively.




Authors' Note: AB is the official abbreviation for the Canadian province of Alberta, in which the city of Red Deer, population 100,000, is located mid-way between the province's two main cities of Calgary and Edmonton.

Prior to the arrival of European settlers, aboriginals had called a local stream "Elk River". European settlers renamed it as "Red Deer River" after the more familiar Eurasian species, and founded a village there in 1894, at a river crossing used by Fort Normandeau, a stockade stronghold in the Northwest Rebellion of 1885. The town of Red Deer expanded dramatically during the 1940s owing to the discovery of major Albertan oil and natural gas reserves.





Authors' Note: BC is the official abbreviation for the Canadian province of British Columbia in which the resort-municipality of Whistler, permanent population 14,000, is located. Two million tourists visit Whistler annually for winter alpine sports, and for the summer pastimes of hiking and mountain biking.

Prior to European settlement, the site was the shared territory of the Squamish and Lil'wat First Nations. Trappers and prospectors were gradually attracted, but completion of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway in 1914 provided easy access from Vancouver, and brought logging and escalating tourism. The resort-city is named for the call of the hoary marmot, a ground squirrel dwelling at high elevations. The Whistler-Blackcomb area served as a major venue for "Vancouver 2010", the twenty-first Olympic Winter Games.



You can read more about the hoary marmot in another of our verses by clicking HERE.


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Thursday 5 October 2023

PATIENTS and their MALADIES, part #4


previous poetic posts (see previous posts for the complete story..)(part#3)

hemorrhoids
hives
hoarding disorder
hypertension
knee effusion
lichen sclerosus
male infertility
myocardial ischemia

CURRENT CONTENTS  (part #4):
-OMAs, (subdural hematoma, atheroma)
Torsade de pointes
Vitamin A deficiency
Vitreous detachment



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'.

  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.





Authors' Note: 
Torsade de pointes (tor-sad duh PWAnT), is an Anglo-French medical term for twisting of the peaks, named in 1966 by its French cardiologist discoverer. It is a pattern seen on the ECG (electrocardiogram), with 'twisting' or cycling of the height of the ventricular 'QRS' complexes, and is often associated with factors, inherited or acquired, that widen the 'Q-T' interval on the tracing. This pattern is associated with nasty ventricular arrhythmias and sudden death. If you are lucky, you have survived the initial episode and have correctable factors (e.g. electrolyte disorders, certain pharmaceuticals, etc.)
Flying straight is a casual metaphor associated with performing expected or routine function.


Authors' NoteAvitaminosis, an absence of vitamins, causes specific deficiency diseases, as discussed for some other vitamins by (Dr.) SheilaB, a prolific contributor to OEDILF.
  Avitaminosis A, i.e. absence of vitamin A, is the most common cause of childhood blindness in parts of Africa and South Asia, resulting in specific eye damage including corneal ulceration and retinal damage. Early symptoms include xerophthalmia (severely 'dry eyes') and loss of night vision, although, it is noted that in appropriately nourished populations (developed countries), these symptoms are due to other causes.
 

Authors' Note:  The near-spherical posterior chamber of the eye ('the vitreous') is filled with a translucent gel that shrinks with age, and becomes 'stringy'. Fibrous strands in this space leads to the appearance of floaters, a common symptom.
  Progressive shrinkage may result in more sudden vitreous detachment with a marked increase in floaters, but generally no harm to vision, and symptoms regress spontaneously over several months. Occasionally, the initial event is accompanied by detachment (tearing –TAIR) of a portion of the light-detecting retina, so careful initial assessment and follow-up are warranted.


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