OCT 10 (2022): Grandpa Greg's Advanced Grammar: OBJECTIONABLE ADJECTIVES [8]

CURRENT CONTENTS:
Efficacious
Flaccid
Fulsome
Forced (bulbs)

Estival and Hibernal
Histonomic

Floccular

Horrible

Authors' Note:  The author disavows overly blunt speech and writing, but finds the tendency to embellish disconcerting. Efficacious seems to be used disproportionately when effective or efficient would do nicely. Other words with inflated frequency of usage include symptomatology, methodology and, yes, even usage. 

Authors' Note:  Pretentiousness may be at work when the word fulsome is (ab)used by a writer or speaker who feels that full is not sufficiently impressive.

Authors' Note: In English there are fortunately many nouns that we can use as adjectives when the situation demands. In the opinion of this author, summer (adj.) and winter (adj.) are less cumbersome descriptors than estival and hibernal, despite the opinion of some lexicographers. 

                                                                                            withdrawn from OEDILF, June 2023

Authors' Note: Around the globe, hundreds of thousands of doctors have learned the microscopic appearance and function of tissues early in medical school through the study of histology. (The corresponding adjectival forms are histologic or histological.)

The role of histonomy, if any, as well as that of its adjectival derivatives, is considerably less certain.

                                                          

Authors' Note: 

ovine: adjective pertaining to sheep
ovular: adjective pertaining to egg

A broad spectrum of adjectives, many abstruse and pedantic, are based on Latin roots. A few of these, like bovine and regular, have been fully adopted into modern speech patterns. Others, such as the pair ovine and ovular, are a source of confusion. A minority, including the relatively obscure floccular, do rhyme with each other, providing a benefit only to poets. Is floccular snow falling? The author finds that use flaky.

Authors' Note:  Horrible (like its close cousins terrible and frightful) has become a difficult term to define. Originally meaning full of horror, or capable of engendering horror, it can now be applied in two opposing directions.

 This poem happens to fit fairly well with the scansion for a well-known song. So if you go back to the version on "Daily Illustrated Nonsense" (click HERE), you can see our suggestions for singing the lyrics.

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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 5 (2022): American Satire: PROLONGATION #1 [9]

EXPLANATION:

This post provides a follow-up to ...

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

Plus, there are three more linked posts in that group.

 But, it is now time to move on, we hope.

CURRENT CONTENTS (prolongation, #1)

Archival

Classified (Espionage Act)

Crasscracy

Criminal lying

Deceit, social

Defunding the FBI

Deserved (schadenfreude)

Disregard

Distortion

(for continuation, see the link below)

Authors' Note: In the United States, all documents and materials related to the conduct of business in the executive branch are deemed by law to remain the property of the federal government, particularly after a president and his staff leave office. The federal agency responsible for storing and archiving these documents is NARA (the National Archives and Records Administration).

Authors' Note: Lines written in August 2023, two-and-a-half years after the sad events of January 6, 2021. What more can I say?

Authors' Note: 

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

schadenfreude (SHA-den-froi-duh, or as here, sha-den-FROI-duh): loanword from German; taking delight in others' misfortune

MORE VERSES ON THIS TOPIC

We suspect that many readers have come to enjoy these newsworthy comments on the US political scene. So, at great effort and expense, we have prepared another collection of politically-tinged verses for you to enjoy. 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.

Wordplay Maps: EASTERN CANADIAN Scramble-towns #9-12

 

Who would ever have guessed? 

It turns out that an unparalleled word in generating anagrams, i.e. letter scrambles, is P-A-L-I-N-D-R-O-M-E-S. We have taken advantage of that discovery to create this unique series of wordplay maps of imaginary American (and Canadian) locales, each one completed by its official two-letter state (or provincial) abbreviation. 

For more Scramble-Town maps, click HERE.

To return to the original post in this series, 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.

SEP 15 (2022): viral verse: PANDEMIC POETRY, part #2 [5]

 

CURRENT CONTENTS: (#2 -- SEPTEMBER 5, 2021) 

The Infirm

Kermit's prediction

March sadness

Mother's day

Social distancing

 

Stay-at-home orders

What's not to like?

Back to normal

Frontline workers

Squid in the time of COVID (3 stanzas --  a 'brief saga')

SEP 10 (2022): GUIDE to the CINEMA [4]

CURRENT CONTENTS:
Gainless

Beaver Tales

Inspector Clouseau

When I'm cleaning windows

 

Authors' Note: Director Robert Altman had initially requested music for a single scene in the 1970 movie M*A*S*H; in keeping with the plot, this was to be "the stupidest song ever written". Having difficulty in completing the lyricist's task himself, Altman called on his 14-year-old son, who presumably finished the job in a few minutes. The music for "Suicide is Painless" went on to become highly popular as the principal theme for the movie and the TV series; the lyrics are not widely known, but earned the junior Altman large sums in royalties.

Authors' Note: This verse is a fantasy derived from my favorite gag in the Pink Panther films, which highlight exploits from the career of Inspector Jacques Clouseau. 

  The bumbling Inspector has major troubles in checking into hotels wherever he goes. Many scenes are set in Paris, where everyone speaks perfect English except the protagonist. Beset by a thick French accent, he has difficulty making himself understood, as when he negotiates with a hotel clerk to rent a "r~rheume" (room).

Authors' Note: Perhaps the best-known song by British singer, actor, comedian and ukulele artist George Formby, Jr. (1904–1961) was "When I'm Cleaning Windows." The song appeared in the 1936 film Keep Your Seats, Please. Initially banned by the BBC, the song was later revealed to be a favorite of the royal family. 

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. 

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.