Thursday, 20 October 2022

Wordplay Maps: EASTERN CANADIAN Scramble-towns #13-16

 

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. 






For more Scramble-Town maps, click HERE.

To return to the original post in this series, click HERE.


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.


Saturday, 15 October 2022

OCT 15 (2022): Exemplary EXEMPLIFICATION, initial lists [4]

 This blogpost represents the collection of poems 'Exemplary EXEMPLIFICATION) as displayed initially on this blog October 15, 2022).

  Some poets at OEDILF (the Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form) sustain the idealistic belief that most English words could be defined by a standard 5-line limerick verse. The authors of this blog, although they are active contributors at OEDILF, hold the more limited view that such verses, with room for only 30 words, can be primarily used for exemplification, bypassing the complexities of inclusive and exclusive definition. 
  (Despite the above contention, some of our colleagues fall in with the march of this 'urban myth' and make claims that they have conclusively defined some words or phrases with a few lines of a limerick. We have recorded dozens of such attempts, and you can review them on the blogpost "Defining Opinions".)   


CURRENT CONTENTS: (#1)
Fauna
Hillbilly
Hooligan
House






Authors' Note: It sure warn't easy to pack the whole bunch of neighbors and pals into a single verse. Sad to say, I had to leave out the following: bumpkins, crackers, chawbacons, clodhoppers, good ol' boys, hayseeds, and yokels. I'll include 'em next time! 









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.

Monday, 10 October 2022

OCT 10 (2022): Grandpa Greg's Advanced Grammar: OBJECTIONABLE ADJECTIVES [8]


CURRENT CONTENTS:
Efficacious
Flaccid
Fulsome
Forced (bulbs)
Estival and Hibernal
Histonomic
Floccular
Horrible

Authors' Note:  The author disavows overly blunt speech and writing, but finds the tendency to embellish disconcerting. Efficacious seems to be used disproportionately when effective or efficient would do nicely. Other words with inflated frequency of usage include symptomatology, methodology and, yes, even usage. 






Authors' Note:  Pretentiousness may be at work when the word fulsome is (ab)used by a writer or speaker who feels that full is not sufficiently impressive.







Authors' Note: In English there are fortunately many nouns that we can use as adjectives when the situation demands. In the opinion of this author, summer (adj.) and winter (adj.) are less cumbersome descriptors than estival and hibernal, despite the opinion of some lexicographers. 



                                                                                            withdrawn from OEDILF, June 2023

Authors' Note: Around the globe, hundreds of thousands of doctors have learned the microscopic appearance and function of tissues early in medical school through the study of histology. (The corresponding adjectival forms are histologic or histological.)

The role of histonomy, if any, as well as that of its adjectival derivatives, is considerably less certain.



                                                          
Authors' Note: 
ovine: adjective pertaining to sheep
ovular: adjective pertaining to egg
A broad spectrum of adjectives, many abstruse and pedantic, are based on Latin roots. A few of these, like bovine and regular, have been fully adopted into modern speech patterns. Others, such as the pair ovine and ovular, are a source of confusion. A minority, including the relatively obscure floccular, do rhyme with each other, providing a benefit only to poets. Is floccular snow falling? The author finds that use flaky.






Authors' Note:  Horrible (like its close cousins terrible and frightful) has become a difficult term to define. Originally meaning full of horror, or capable of engendering horror, it can now be applied in two opposing directions.
 This poem happens to fit fairly well with the scansion for a well-known song. So if you go back to the version on "Daily Illustrated Nonsense" (click HERE), you can see our suggestions for singing the lyrics.

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.


Wednesday, 5 October 2022

OCT 5 (2022): American Satire: PROLONGATION #1 [9]

EXPLANATION:


This post provides a follow-up to ...
"AMERICAN SATIRE  -- A Term of Endirement" (Note that the first collection of poems, #1, gives helpful suggestions on how to SING these intriguing lyrics.)
Plus, there are three more linked posts in that group.

 But, it is now time to move on, we hope.

CURRENT CONTENTS (prolongation, #1)
Archival
Classified (Espionage Act)
Crasscracy
Criminal lying
Deceit, social
Defunding the FBI
Deserved (schadenfreude)
Disregard
Distortion
(for continuation, see the link below)







Authors' Note: In the United States, all documents and materials related to the conduct of business in the executive branch are deemed by law to remain the property of the federal government, particularly after a president and his staff leave office. The federal agency responsible for storing and archiving these documents is NARA (the National Archives and Records Administration).





Authors' Note: Lines written in August 2023, two-and-a-half years after the sad events of January 6, 2021. What more can I say?









Authors' Note: 

oy gevalt (oy-guh-VULT): phrase borrowed from Yiddish; an exclamation expressing shock, surprise or disapproval

schadenfreude (SHA-den-froi-duh, or as here, sha-den-FROI-duh): loanword from German; taking delight in others' misfortune








MORE VERSES ON THIS TOPIC
We suspect that many readers have come to enjoy these newsworthy comments on the US political scene. So, at great effort and expense, we have prepared another collection of politically-tinged verses for you to enjoy. Click HERE!

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.