MAY 10 (2025): URBAN CONCERNS, part #2 [4]

CURRENT CONTENTS: (#2 -- October 15, 2024) 
In the distance
Old conservatory
Pre-stressed concrete
School districts and real estate

                                     

Authors' Note: We are fortunate to have moved into an apartment building just across the street from a public conservatory whose warm, humid, glass-roofed galleries offer the visitor views and dreams of escape to tropical floral environments. Visits are especially reinvigorating on dark and depressing winter days, and admission is free! Renovations are proceeding in the central palm-court, but the lateral greenhouse galleries remain open. 

You might also enjoy reviewing photo-enhanced poetry posts related to poinsettias, koi, red-eared sliders(turtles), Ontario cactuses, and Leda and the Swan at the same destination.

 

Authors' Note: Surveillance of tension cables in pre-stressed concrete is an arduous process, but is essential in older buildings, particularly in parking garages, although apartment towers may also be at risk. Sampling by drilling into the slabs only allows assessment of whether cables have failed, i.e. are broken, and are no longer under tension. Since the 1980s, the development of occlusive plastic fittings at attachment points has apparently reduced the possibility of corrosion due to moisture, a major cause of failure.

The author concedes a lack of professional knowledge concerning this problem. Please consult a structural engineer.

GENERAL DIRECTIONS FOR WEB-EXPLORERS: 

MAY 5 (2025): FUNNY BONES, fragment #2 [5]

This blogpost represents continuation of earlier posts, entitled (not surprisingly) 'FUNNY BONES, fragment #1', (displayed on May 5, 2024)., and  'FUNNY BONES, fragment #2', (displayed on May 5, 2025). 

previous poetic posts: (note that captions are available for poems displayed on "Daily Illustrated Nonsense" in slide format as of January, 2024).

(fragment #1)): background reading "Orthopedic Surgeon", comminuted frature, physiotherapy street, contortionists, Enid's ostopenia, heterotopic ossification. 

CURRENT CONTENTS: (fragment #2)

Fractured wrist (distal radius)

Scaphoid fracture

Anatomic snuffbox

Hook of the hamate

Olecranon ('funny bone')

(for continuation, see the link below)

Authors' Note: Injuries to the metacarpal bones, such as knuckle fractures, are most common in injuries occurring with the closed fist, e.g. a punch thrown in a fistfight. In fact, an isolated fracture of the head of the fifth ('pinky'-side) metacarpal is known as a boxer's fracture. 

  On the other hand, fractures of the wrist (including the distal ends of the radial and ulnar bones of the forearm and eight intrinsic small carpal bones) are most commonly caused by a fall on the outstretched hand. Of all of these, fractures of the distal radius, sustained when attempting to break a fall, are by far the most common.

Authors' Note:

AVN: medical initialism for avascular necrosis, lethal damage to bone tissue resulting from traumatic interruption of its blood supply; the scaphoid bone of the wrist is particularly susceptible. The human skeleton has two boat-shaped small bones, one each in the ankle (tarsal) and wrist (carpal) areas. The Latin-derived term navicular ('boat-like'), is applied to either bone, whereas its Greek-derived analogue scaphoid, particularly favored in recent decades, is applied only to the wrist bone. How did Eric know that it was his scaphoid that he had fractured? See the verse anatomical snuffbox.

Authors' Note: The hamate bone, one of eight small bones of the human wrist, has a prominent hook, or hamulus, that provides some protection to the ulnar nerve as it proceeds down the arm to supply the fourth and fifth fingers. A 'hairline fracture' of this bony process (outcropping), not an uncommon injury in golfers, baseball players and hockey slap-shooters, may result in continuing pain. Frequently, the injury is not detected on initial x-rays, but may show up on computed tomography (CT), a bone scan, or on follow-up wrist X-rays.

                                                                   

Authors' Note:

funner: a neologism for 'fun-seeker', as used here; also, a disputed equivalent to the comparative expression 'more fun’

  The olecranon is the boney process (extension) of the forearm's ulna that extends into the elbow joint. Fractures of the olecranon are moderately common, due to direct trauma (fall on the elbow), but even more so due to indirect trauma (transmission of intense force with a fall on the outstretched hand). Owing to the proximity of the ulnar nerve, a broken funny bone may be associated with numbness and tingling extending into the fingers.

  Such injuries have bedevilled joggers and elite athletes, but recently have become more common with the popularity of personal electric transport devices. Surgical treatment is generally required for these fractures that often have displaced bone fragments. 

                   

Here's a LIST OF LINKS to collections of intriguing poems (over 200 of these!) on medical/dental topics, updated to December 2024. 

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.

@ APR 25 (2025) singable satire: 'PEN OF RABBITS'

APR 15 (2025): progress in poetry, TERMINAL EXCLAMATIONS: final call #2 [7]

 

These blogposts will give you more understanding and some helpful examples related to a type of  limerick-variation indulged in by the authors. To see the whole spectrum of our efforts, you might want to take the time to review "A Corner of the Poet's World: LIMERICK VARIATIONS".

prior posted poems (final call #1)
ANYTHING BUT!, CAN'T COMPLAIN!, DON'T TOUCH!, EGAD!, HOLY MOLY!, I'M SOLD!.

CURRENT CONTENTS (final call #2)
KA-POW!
KER-PLUNK!
NO WAY!

OUT OF SIGHT!
OY, GEVALT!

YIKES!
YIPPEE!

 

Authors' Note: 

Ka-pow! (variant kerpow!): comic-book type interjection for a noise emitted when a blow is landed in a fight (often involving a super-hero)

Line 6: occasionally used sixth line of a limerick, unheard of in the early days of the modality, finding some currency among modern authors. See our poem on "Addendum-icitis" HERE. 

The limericks written by Edward Lear and his contemporaries a century ago often included repetition of the poem's key word at the end of the final line.

Authors' Note: Kerplunk is an onomatopoeic expression for the sound produced as a non-buoyant object suddenly sinks below the watery surface.

Authors' Note: The expletive "out of sight" seems to be disordinately used by the younger generation (even when the target of wonderment is well within view).

 trombenyk: Yiddish for a ne'er-do-well, often a braggart

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

Authors' Note: Yikes and its variant yoicks, are interjections expressing shock or alarm.

Authors' Note:  As shown by verses collected at OEDILF, the slang term chippy has a spectrum of slang meanings including 'prostitute/loose woman', 'argumentative' and 'fish-and-chips eatery'. Where we live, the first two uses are in effect. In the US, postal zip-codes roughly identify the location of one's residence.

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 through the summer of 2026. 

As of March, 2026, 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.

APR 10 (2025); DEATH and the afterlife #2 [5]

The current blogpost represents continuation of an earlier post, dealing with wider cardiologic issues, entitled  'DEATH and the AFTERLIFE, celestial #1'  displayed on April 10, 2024. and April 10, 2025. 

previous poetic posts 

(death, plus)#1: cardiac arrest, decease in the crease, dining in Heaven, end-of-life care, garbage in Heaven, giving up the ghost.

CURRENT CONTENTS: (#2 -- April 10, 2025)
Ghostbusters
Heavenly pie
Homes in Heaven (Shemayim)
Last breath
Leaving the planet

Authors' Note: My partner's sweet apple pie is 'to die for', and so is the strawberry pie pictured above..

Authors' Note: 

chutzpah (Yiddish): shameless audacity

Shemayim (Hebrew): heaven

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.

(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.) 

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.