Wednesday 15 February 2023

DEATH and the AFTERLIFE #2

 This post is a continuation of "Death and the Afterlife #1", a blogpost from July 2020. 


Authors' Note: 

gonif (Yiddish): thief or crook.
Shemayim (Hebrew): heaven












Authors' Note: We were inspired, in studying the enigmatic final chapter of existence, to find that OEDILF, as of mid-2022, has about 150 submissions that deal with the subject of 'death'. That research shows that the spectre of death underscores many linguistic idioms.

getting off cheap: an idiom, perhaps further towards the slang end of the scale, in comparison with getting off easy
sick to death of: a cliché, only rarely entailing the imminent demise of the subject
to die in your sleep: a cliché, albeit puzzling biologically
survive to a ripe old age: a cliché; here also used as the basis of a pun




Authors' Note: The above verse was inspired by an essay by Mal Abrams, who named the eternally unsatisfactory restaurant 'Feh'.





 Author's Note:  Although the short forms 'Will' and 'Bill' may be casually interchanged as first names (short forms of ‘William’), the nouns 'will' (as in 'last will and testament') and 'bill' are generally used with more careful scrutiny. ‘Will’ and ‘testament’ being essentially synonyms, the expression is a prototypical example of the redundant binomial expressions that seem to be loved by lawyers.

    Subtle differences in the form of idioms may underwrite important differences in meaning. ‘At last’ and ‘at the last’ seem similar, but in fact their usage and meaning differs considerably.







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Friday 10 February 2023

Neoplastic verse: ONCOLOGY












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Sunday 5 February 2023

Another Angle: POETS' CORNER #3

Here are 6 more cogent poems on this topic, a continuation of 'Poets' Corner #1' (July 2021, 8 poems), and 'Poets' Corner #2' (October 2022, 5 poems) ...



CURRENT CONTENTS:
The problem of scansion
The philosophy of limericks
Rhotic-poet school
Satirical doggerel
Subtle editorial bullying
Wit's end

















Authors' Note: Used here in a loose sense, with no implications for ownership, cooperative refers to a group effort by like-minded individuals. Collaborative writing sites, such as the on-line dictionary OEDILF (nursery for many of Giorgio's concoctions), have the potential advantage to contributors of learning from peers, and ultimately higher rates of publication. Contributing editors ('eds'), however, may entertain estimations of their personal relevance and productivity that influence their editorial comments on others' work. Rarely, such notions are translated into malevolent actions by these poet-leaders.







Incidental Photo:


a snowy egret, fishing near the old bridge


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