EDIFYING NONSENSE : June 2022

Monday, 20 June 2022

Wordplay maps: AMERICAN SCRAMBLE-TOWNS #21 (final)

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 property 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.

LINKS:

Let's get on to the CANADIAN VERSION, eh? (stay tuned!)

Back to U.S.A. map #19

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 these key elements of our work are assembled here on "Edifying Nonsense" in topic-based collections.
The "Daily" format, a formidable mix of genres has the advantage of including song-lyrics, videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.

Wednesday, 15 June 2022

VEGGIES

CURRENT CONTENTS:

Corn on the cob

Organic veggie-stand

Peas

Zucchini

A recipe

Authors' Note: 'Sweet corn', eaten directly off the cob, is considered a vegetable. Originating in Mexico thousands of years ago, the plant was widely distributed to the rest of the world in the sixteenth century. As a grain, it is known in most countries and contexts by its original name "maize", and is now globally the world's most widely grown cereal crop.

The author is a skinny guy, but delights, as does Rob, in consuming corn on the cob when it's available in the late summer. An ear of corn (unbuttered) provides 50 to 100 calories, so normal consumption is not a major contributor to obesity.

TODAY'S POEM (senryu *)

great sandwich filling:
mashed chickpeas, onion, lemon, oil --
tunas breathe easy.

Giorgio Coniglio

* learn more HERE about senryu, a lesser-known Japanese short poem that shares the physical characteristics of haiku (nominally 17 'on' / syllables in three non-rhyming lines), but deals in a satiric or humorous way with human foibles rather than with Nature.

Friday, 10 June 2022

WATERFOWL, third flocking

PHOTOS: Unless otherwise noted (by pale blue acknowledgment plaques), embedded photographs were taken with and transferred from Giorgio's cellphone. Following submission of the poems to OEDILF, the slides collages we present here were formatted using Powerpoint software on a vintage 2000-era PC computer. No photographic subjects were reimbursed for participating in this undertaking, and OEDILF has no involvement in the pictorial portion of this presentation.

American white ibis, Carolina lowcountry marsh at sunset

This post is a continuation of a collection of verses about WATERFOWL', as posted on this blog on June 10, 2020 (flocking#1), June 10, 2021 (flocking#2), and June 10, 2022 (flocking#3).

previous poetic posts

(flocking#1): American white ibis, anhinga, awkward great auk, birder, black-capped night heron, black skimmer.

(flocking#2): brown pelican (Caribbean), brown pelican (revisited), Canada goose, double-crested cormorant, Egyptian goose, feral ducks.

CURRENT CONTENTS (#3):

Flightless seabird

Gallinule (marsh-hen)

Great blue heron

Great egret

Habitat

Hooded merganser

For more illustrated poems about waterfowl, please proceed to the fourth flocking by clicking HERE.

Bird-watchers, academic ornithologists, wordplay enthusiasts, wildlife photographers, Giorgio's relatives, and just everyday folks have united in their demand for still more illustrated doggerel on this topic!

So, please follow this link to the fourth collection!

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.

(sextet#3): flightless seabirds, gallinule (marsh hen), great blue heron, great egret, habitat, hooded merganser.

NUMBERS and COUNTING, part #2

Sunday, 5 June 2022

Reversing Verse: PANAMA PALINDROME PARODIES (classic and novel)

This post provides a continuation of five wordplay collections displayed on December 5, 2020, through December 15, 2021. In these, classic palindromes (phrases and sentences whose letters are ordered identically when they are read either forwards or backwards) were described and extolled in verse by the team of Dr. G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio. The contents of the most recent post (August 2021) included these illustrated verses:

33. Racecar
34. No left felon
35. A man, a plan, a canal -- Panama
36. No left felon
37. Leigh Mercer's Palindrome Workshop, a brief saga

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For your review, here's Giorgio's verse about 'the IPP' (designated above as #36):

CURRENT CONTENTS

Please note that, continuing the convention adopted in the previous posts, there will be an exclusive correlation between green italicized font and palindromes. Not all of the palindromes displayed within these verses' lines are in the 'classic repertoire'; some are recent concoctions by the authors. But of course, all the poems highlighting the wordplay are verses written jointly by Dr. G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio (registered pseudonym).

1. Classic spoof on the IPP: A man, a potato -- Panama.
2. Classic spoof on the IPP: A man, a plan, a cat, a hat, a canal -- Panama.
3. Classic spoof on the IPP: Sir, a plan, a canal -- Paris.
4. Classic spoof on the IPP: A dog, a plan, a canal -- pagoda.
5. Classic spoof on the IPP: Amen, a pit -- Ipanema.
6. Novel concoction: One man, a plan, a canal -- panameño.
7. Novel concoction: A girl, a plan, a canal, pal -- Riga.
8. Novel concoction: A man, a Pan -- a panama. (hats)
9. Novel concoction: A man, a plan, if final -- Panama.

Authors' Note:

pizzazz: an American neologism, first used in the 1930s, for vitality, sparkle or flashiness

Carioca is a long-established nickname for the city and the residents of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Ipanema is a section of that city, known for it's bossa nova music, and for its iconic beach.

As explained in the verse, we have the classic palindrome (reminiscent of the Panama concoction):
Amen, a pit — Ipanema, and its many variants.

Newer variants include: Amen, a pizza, jazz — Ipanema, and
Amen, a piece — Ipanema.

Readers who wish to continue their palindromic journey are advised to proceed in the direction of a followup post entitled "Life in Palindrome Valley". Click HERE.