New Lyrics for an Old Novelty Song: THUNDER BAY (not CONSTANTINOPLE)

PARODY LYRICS

ORIGINAL SONG: "Istanbul (not Constantinople)" a jazz-band style concoction recorded by The Four Lads in 1953. 

PARODY COMPOSED: Dr.G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, May 2023. 

SONGLINK: On our song-blog you can find the lyrics and chords for ukulele or guitar for our parody of the original song. Click HERE.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION:

In 1930, "Istanbul" was designated as the official name of the largest city in Türkiye (Turkey), known in earlier periods as Byzantium, Byzantion, Constantinople, and primarily as Istanbul since the fall of the Byzantine empire in 1453.

In 1949, Newfoundland joined Confederation as Canada's tenth and newest province; in 2001, the Canadian Constitution was amended to revise the province's name to "Newfoundland and Labrador" (the mainland area of Labrador includes less than 5% of the province's population, but the majority of its landmass). The island of Newfoundland (NEW-found-land) is known by its inhabitants as "the Rock". 

In 1953 (the 500th anniversary of the "fall of Constantinople"), the Four Lads, a Canadian singing quartet who had moved from Toronto to the United States, acquired their first gold record with the release of the jazz-band styled "Istanbul (not Constantinople)". Other hits by this group include "Standing on the Corner" and "Moments to Remember". 

In 1970, the city of Thunder Bay, Ontario (current population about 110,000), at the western end of Lake Superior was formed by the merger of the two smaller communities of Fort William and Port Arthur.  

THUNDER BAY (not CONSTANTINOPLE)

(Intro: mid-Eastern theme, on kazoo)

"The Lakehead" was Fort William and Port Arthur
Now it's Thunder Bay, not Willi-am and Arthur
It's a wondrous town with name that's far superior --
Like Turkish delight, on a stormy night.

Every dame today, 'round Lakehead way,
Stays in Thunder Bay, not with William or Arthur
A rainy date in Fort William or Port Arthur?
She'll be waiting in Thunder Bay.

Even old Newfoundland hooked up with Labrador.
Ask a Newfie, he might say,
"They thought, on the Rock, we'd like that more, eh?"

So, take me back: Fort William and Port Arthur
No, you can't go back in time, it's so much farther;
Been a long while past, since Willi-am and Arthur.
Why the name-change? Here's the crux:
It's no one's business but Canucks.

Thunder Bay. 

(kazoo, in Turkish-style melody)

Thunder Bay.

DIRECTION FOR WEB-TRAVELLERS: 

To resume 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 in the righthand margin, and check the daily offerings for any month in the years 2020 to the present. (As of September 2023, there are over 1200 unique entries available on the Daily blog, and most of these are also presented here on 'Edifying Nonsense' in topic-based collections.) The 'Daily' format has the advantage of including some videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.

CREATIVE ANACHRONISMS

Authors' Note: 

bud: shortened form of the word buddy (friend)

Roman poets Horace and Ovid are discussed in other verses on this site.
Roget's "Thesaurus" was initially published in 1852, although it had been compiled much earlier, in 1805.

Authors' Note: The origins of the Hippocratic Oath, as discussed in the above verse, join several others by the authors under the rubric "creative anachronism". Although little is known of classic Greek office routines, there is no confirmation that clerks transcribed dictated medical reports during that epoch. One has to wait to the modern era for the invention of the typo.

Hippocrates of Kos was putatively the author of many texts (the Hippocratic Corpus) deriving from the school of medicine on his native island, one of two that thrived in Greece during its classical period. Among early descriptions of diseases, symptoms and treatments were attributed comments on the humanistic basis of medical practice that were formalized centuries later into the assertion of medical ethics and professionalism that we know today.   

DIRECTION FOR WEB-TRAVELLERS: 

To resume 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 in the righthand margin, and check the daily offerings for any month in the years 2020 to the present. (As of September 2023, there are over 1200 unique entries available on the Daily blog, and most of these are also presented here on 'Edifying Nonsense' in topic-based collections.) The 'Daily' format also has the advantage of including some videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.

PAINTERLY POETRY

Authors' Note:  The above story, dating from France in the 1860s, and relating to the birth of Impressionism, is apocryphal.

DIRECTION FOR WEB-TRAVELLERS: 

To resume 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 in the righthand margin, and check the daily offerings for any month in the years 2020 to the present. (As of September 2023, there are over 1200 unique entries available on the Daily blog, and most of these are also presented here on 'Edifying Nonsense' in topic-based collections.) The 'Daily' format also has the advantage of including some videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.

PILL-POPPING POEMS (selected pharmaceuticals)

Authors' Note: Simethicone (simeticone), a silicon-based product, is the active ingredient in most current over-the-counter remedies to relieve abdominal distension and gaseous bloating. With coalescence of the offending small bubbles, the gas is dispersed by flatulence and belching.

Authors' Note: 

dex: jargony abbreviation for dexamethasone, a potent glucocorticosteroid medication (med), that is used intravenously in intensive care units (ICUs) and other medical settings

septic shock: a life-threatening complication of deep or widespread infection in which blood pressure drops to a dangerous level

  During the recent pandemic (COVID-19), the use of dexamethasone to specifically counter the complications of advanced COVID-19 infection received a lot of attention in the media. 

Author's Note: Hydroxychloroquine (Plaquenil), a drug developed to combat the infectious disease malaria, was found by happenstance to be of value in suppressing certain manifestations of SLE (systemic lupus erythematosus), an inflammatory disease, and retains a niche use for that secondary purpose.

  Recently, the drug has been advocated, without convincing evidence, to treat the severe lung involvement of COVID-19 pneumonia.

AND, HERE'S A LIST OF LINKS to collections of intriguing verses on other medical/dental topics that can now be found on various posts including:

Patients and their Maladies (parts #1, #2 and #3)

The Bottom Line of Medical Humour

Funny Bones (parts #1 and #2)
Doctors and their Practices (part #1 and #2)

To Clot or Not to Clot

The Scopes of Modern Medicine

Handbook of Medical Testing Statistics

Organic Brain Poetry

Pandemic Verses

Poetry of Healthcare

STD Poetry

Diagnostic Imaging (selected topics)

Toxic Vignettes

Sleek Greek Prefixes

Ecto-Parasites

Oncology

Dental Feelings

and in 'brief sagas' including:

Drug Development

Radiation Exposure

Methylated Spirits

The Gastro-Esophageal Junction

Workplace Pollution

Food Intolerance

Fluoridation

Metabolic Delirium

Alcohol and Beriberi

DIRECTION FOR WEB-TRAVELLERS: 

To resume 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 in the righthand margin, and check the daily offerings for any month in the years 2020 to the present. (As of September 2023, there are over 1200 unique entries available on the Daily blog, and most of these are also presented here on 'Edifying Nonsense' in topic-based collections.) The 'Daily' format has the advantage of including some videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.