Since 2016, Giorgio Coniglio, site editor-in-chief and a registered pseudonym, has been bundling HUMOUR, PARODY, WORDPLAY, SONG-LYRICS, PHOTOGRAPHY and POETRY, with the sole aim of entertaining YOU with presentations at the rate of 4x per month. A related blog, "DAILY ILLUSTRATED NONSENSE", sends out items from these collections one-at-a-time. "SILLY SONGS AND SATIRE", features ukulele chords for songs whose lyrics are displayed here.
Sunday, 15 January 2023
Grandpa Greg's Advanced Grammar: NEOLOGISMS (personal)
Tuesday, 10 January 2023
GUIDE to the CINEMA
WHEN I'M CLEANING WINDOWS
Can get prurient views
Anytime that they choose:
As he tells it, that happens each session.
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online photo as displayed in "Ukulele Magazine" |
In his films, Formby portrayed a good-natured but incompetent little man from rural county Lancaster, with songs interspersed throughout in which Formby (his character "laced with shy ordinariness") sings, accompanying himself on ukulele or banjo. Apparently, the Beatles, particularly George Harrison, were influenced by Formby and his ukulele performances.
Thursday, 5 January 2023
Grandpa Greg's Advanced Grammar: (re)DUPLICATIONS
Authors' Note: The disparaging term gobbledegook was first used in 1944 by a Texas politician named Maverick (scion of the original staunchly independent thinker). Its meaning — pompous, overinflated language — gave rise a few year later to the equivalent bafflegab. These expressions, employing repetition of sounds, have a musical and amusing quality, as do their venerable synonyms --hogwash, poppycock, balderdash, bunkum and tommyrot, but only their close cousin claptrap (alternately clap-trap) -- would qualify as a reduplication.
fuddle-duddle: an infrequently used (re)duplication, voiced dismissively in dealing with opinions that the speaker rejects.
In 1971 Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, father of current PM Justin Trudeau, unleashed a minor scandal by using unparliamentary language in the Canadian House of Commons. A portion of the ensuing brouhaha, deftly sidestepped by Trudeau, revolved around whether he had actually spoken or merely mouthed the inappropriate words.
Web discussion:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuddle_duddle
rubba: rubber (American slang for condom), with typical non-rhotic pronunciation
hubba-hubba: intriguing (re)duplication, presumably originating in the US a century ago; an expression of approval voiced by males when viewing a sexually attractive chick
Web-search: https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2012/06/hubba-hubba.html
Be prepared, as a plebe, for this blow:
Hoi polloi (Greek) meant every John Doe,
Riff-raff, masses (unwashed);
But that use has been quashed,
By the upper crust now, you should know.
Authors' Note: The (re)duplication hoi polloi derives from the ancient Greek term for the many. This expression, tinged with disparagement, like its close cousin riff-raff, was used in English for some time. In a recent inexplicable twist, as described by speedysnail, hoi polloi has come to be used, in some circumstances, to mean the exact opposite.
SONGS about REDUPLICATIONS!