NOV 15 (2021): Variant Verses -- SPOOFS on the ICONIC NANTUCKET LIMERICKS [9]

Authors' Note:

Bay Stater: current official designation for a resident of the US state of Massachusetts   

Editor's Warning: You have to provide proof that you are more than 12 years in age to read the following two verses.

moose may be found at U. of T.
(the University of Toronto),
but not on Vancouver Island

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.

NOV 5 (2021): BASIC MEDICAL SCIENCE, part #2 [5]

  This post represents the continuation of a collection of verses about  BASIC MEDICAL SCIENCE. The original collection of six short poems was displayed on November 5, 2020, and then followed by others.

previous poetic posts

(part #1): autophagia, gamma rays, Haversian canals, Helicobacter pylori, hippocampus, homeostasis.

CURRENT CONTENTS: (#2 -- November 5, 2021)
Horseshoe kidney (congenital malformation)
Motor homunculi
Visual cortex
Hemi-anopsia (poetic half-insights) (3 stanzas, a 'brief saga')
Radiation exposure (4 stanzas, a 'brief saga')

  Authors' Note: Horseshoe kidney is a relatively common congenital malformation, occurring in 1/500 individuals. Also known as renal fusion, it results from the merging of two fetal kidneys in the pelvis during the stage of embryonic organ development and consequently failing to undertake their normal upward migration. Fortunately, health consequences are usually mild, if any; occasionally, one of the ureters becomes obstructed. The abnormal structure is often discovered incidentally during procedures, e.g. CT scanning or ultrasound, targeted at pelvic discomfort or unrelated symptoms (and of course, no normal kidneys are seen in their usual position).

Authors' Note:  The homunculi (Latin, for little persons) referred to here are the representations of the human body, well-known to anatomy students, that are mapped out on the "motor strip", symmetric areas of cortex on both sides of the brain that control voluntary movement on the contralateral side of the body. The motor homunculus on each side maps the primary motor cortex, located in the precentral gyrus (fold) of the frontal lobe; analogously, there is a similarly arranged sensory homunculus located nearby in the postcentral gyrus.

Authors' Note:  Korbinian Brodmann (1868–1918) was a German neurologist famous for his definition of 52 cerebral cortical areas based on their histological (tissue-architecture) characteristics. Functional correlates were defined for many of these areas, and the primary and subsidiary areas of visual interpretation are often described by their Brodmann numbers. 

   The primary visual cortex, straddling the calcarine (Latin: spur) sulcus (fissure or slit), is located on the inner surface of each cerebral hemisphere's occipital lobe, well protected from injury.

(Note that the three stanzas of this "brief saga" can be found with more photos and in more readily legible format on the blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense"; click HERE.) 

BEYOND CANALS: still more Magical Palindromes

With all this mental energy focusing backwards and forwards on palindromes, it has been hard to escape the subject of canals. A project close to our hearts was to take the standard palindromes about canals, (e.g. the well-known, A man a plan, a canal, Panama), and extend the adulation to a series of other canal sites. 
 - MAGICAL CANAL VERSES and PALINDROMES: the application of the magical palindrome construct to wordplay of geographic interest, specifically dealing with artificial waterways. Paris, Riga and Toronto (a surrogate for the Trent-Severn waterway) are honored here in both verse and wordplay.

 - UNPLANNED CANALS (More Magical Palindromes): This followup post expanded the involvement to 8 other world sites. For a few of these cities, e.g. Reno (Nevada), the existence of canals is apocryphal, but the relevant municipal administrations were co-opted as partners in the interest of wordplay. 
  The aim of the current blogpost is to extend these concepts beyond the constraint imposed by canal themes to more general world destinations; however the meticulous reader might notice the persistence of some elements of our canal hangup. And if you need help with the concept of magical palindromes, see the slide at the bottom of the post; it shows simple examples of magical palindromes which are unrelated to the geographical theme.

A man, a potato - Paris. Sir, a potato - Panama.


A cakery - Napa. A pan - Yreka CA.

A 'garden folly' at
Chateau de Bagatelle,
Paris, France

A man, a plan, if final - pagoda. A dog, a plan, if final - Panama.





Dr. of tarts - Oxford. Dr. of 'X' - O, Stratford!


A man, a plan, if final, Pat - Paros. So rapt a plan, if final - Panama.


No 'D'; no 'L' - Boston. Not (sob!) - London.


A man, a plan, if final, Pa - Lagos. So, gal! A plan, if final - Panama.


A rep. of Omaha. A ham of opera.


A man, a plan, if final, Pa - Niagara F. Far again, a plan, if final - Panama.


A girl, a panama. A man, a pal - Riga.


Wonders in Italy - Latin is asset. Tessa's in Italy - Latin is red now.


 A pan, a dog, a pal - LA. Pagoda - Napa.


A man, a pâté , feta, Parma ham. Rap! Ate feta - Panama.


 Zeus pees on a Toyota. A Toyota? No seep - Suez.


 A dog, a paw, a pan, a panama. A man, a pan, a paw, a pagoda.


A man, a plan, if final - Pristina. A nit, sir; plan if final - Panama.


 If I mouse - Canada CA. A cad, an ace - Suomi FI.


A girl, a Pa - Mar-a-lago. O gal, a ram, a pal - Riga. 


No 'D'; no 'L' - onion. No 'I'? - No London.

Check out the 'FIRST SET' of examples (#1-5) here. 

Check out the 'SECOND SET' of examples (#6-10) here.

If you still need a fix of more palindromic fun, go to "Gratingly American: THIRTY-ODD POLITICALLY-TAINTED PALINDROMES". 

-----------------------

SONGLINK: "A man, a plan, a canal - Panama"
Readers who are particularly interested in musical wordplay might also enjoy a fantastical discussion on the development of this famous palindrome by Leigh Mercer, in this blogpost of our lyrics blog (SILLY SONGS and SATIRE)  ...
"Leigh Mercer's Palindrome Workshop" .

OCT !5 '(2021): Poems for Hallowe'en: GRUESOME VERSE (10)

CURRENT CONTENTS:
By halves (autophagia)

Cimetiere

Concealed carry

Dispatch

Grisly / grizzly

Hidey-hole

Horripilation

Scary upshot

Untimely demise

Zombie uprising

Authors' Note: The term autophagia or autophagy  may refer to a rare psychiatric disorder, but is more commonly used to describe an intracellular process in the realm of cell biology, as described by the author HERE.

Authors' Note: There is also a verse on "concealed weapon" that you can find in a blogpost entitled "The Poetry of Gun Control".

Authors' Note: Goose bumps or goose pimples are a common transient physiological change produced by stimulation of the skin's small and widely distributed arrector pili, tiny muscles at the base of each hair follicle. Their appearance may be provoked by physical conditions (such as a cold environment) or emotional factors, including embarassment, a sexual turn-on, or fear. The latter, accompanied by profound anxiety (the heebie-jeebies), and "hair standing on end" (piloerection or horripilation) is a reaction scaled down from that found in the animal kingdom, e.g. porcupines throwing their quills to put off predators. 

  Heebie-jeebies is gramatically another of those appealing (re) duplications, like helter-skelter and hocus-pocus, and represents a topic appropriate for discussion on Hallowe'en.

Authors' Note: Each year at Hallowe'en, all (living) persons, in addition to honoring tradition, must decide if they are ready to combat the zombie revolution.

OVERLAPPING THEMES:

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.

OCT 10 (2021): American Satire: A TERM OF ENDIREMENT, #3 [8]

This post provides a follow-up to ...

"AMERICAN SATIRE (A Term of Endirement) #1"(Note that this first collection of poems gives helpful suggestions on how to SING these intriguing lyrics.)

prior posted poems (#1)

make-believe 2016 (convention)

Vladimir's hope

anagrams (D-O-N-A-L-D etc.)

Hillary pilloried

impulse control

laying blame

borscht

Humpty-Dumpty (nursery rhyme)

prior posted poems (#2)

bilateral anagrams

disingenuous Don

intelligence

revision of NAFTA

covfefe

pardoning 'Sheriff Joe'

Sharpie-gate

'The Mooch'

CURRENT CONTENTS:

Conspiracy theories

Shutdown

'It is what it is'

Impeachment hearing

Tweetstorm

Twitter-ban

Georgia voters
Fraudulent

for continuation, see the link below

Author's Note:  The verse imagines an advisor or supporter picking up on an assertion by the contentious 45th US president. The latter had remained steadfast in demanding budgeting for a southern border wall with Mexico (putatively to decrease the unregulated influx of refugees), and was prepared to take the credit/blame for the pending global shutdown of government financing should it occur.

A venous cutdown is a maneuver to provide reliable access for fluids and drugs during a medical emergency. 

Authors' Note:  In August, 2020, “It is what it is” became a key U.S. presidential comment on deaths due to the coronavirus that were downplayed in the rush to 'reopen' the country. Subsequently, various explanations for the excess were squirmingly offered by the Executive branch of the U.S. government. It was purported, for example, that some doctors were rewarded by their hospitals for inflating the number of death certificates indicating COVID-19 as the apparent cause of death.

Authors' Note: Readers might want to check out prior posts, including that of Feb 9, entitled "Anagrammatic tribute to a Senator", and many prior posts, dealing with great egrets. The photos of birds were obtained from Giorgio Coniglio's personal collection, whereas those of political leaders were obtained from readily available online sources.

Authors' Note:  The fiefdoms of major American political parties are frequently identified on political posters and maps by color coding, Republicans being depicted as red, and Democrats as blue. The relatively conservative southern state of Georgia had traditionally voted Republican in federal presidential elections for several decades until, in November 2020, Joe Biden beat Donald Trump by a relatively small increment of twelve thousand votes statewide, a difference of less than 1%.

  After the 2020 election, the transcript of a phone call between the President and his lawyers and Georgia's Secretary of State (the state official in charge of elections) was obtained by the media. In the phone call, the federal parties derided the state's procedures, suggesting that a significant number of Democrat votes had been cast by dead persons. They asked that this unfair situation be redressed by "finding" just enough previously unrecorded Red votes to alter the outcome.

Authors' Note: The above verse reflects the workings of democracy as perceived by a vocal minority, sometimes labeled 'conspiracy theorists', following the 2020 US presidential election. 

FOLLOW-UP

Owing to intense demand for more verses of this type, we have worked hard to accommodate your wishes; in fact there are now four such collections! So, you can view another collection of these philosophically-charged limericks by clicking this link !

GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR WEB-EXPLORERS: 

To resume 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 December 2024. 

As of December 2024, there are 1800 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 their key elements are also presented here on "Edifying Nonsense" in topic-based collections, such as this one. The "Daily" format also has the advantage of including some song-lyrics, videos and other material that are not shown here on this topic-based blog.