TARGETED PALINDROMES E to H (the showcase continues)

Editors' Note: Fans of palindromes might note that a lengthy series of posts entitled "Submitted Palindromes" has disappeared from this blog. They might be delighted to disover that this change is only administrative -- the 'missing' blogposts, 59 in all, have been transferred to "Daily Illustrated Nonsense", and can be found HERE.

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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.

 

OCT 15 (2024): (Re)DUPLICATIONS, second claptrap [5]

 This post represents the continuation of a collection of verses about the grammatical device, REDUPLICATIONS, as displayed on this blog on October 15, 2023 (claptrap #1), and October 15, 2024 (claptrap #2).

previous poetic posts (Note that captions are available for poems displayed on "Daily Illustrated Nonsense" as of 2024).

(claptrap #1): cootchie-(cootchie-)coo, claptrap, dilly-dally, fuddle-duddle, fuddy-duddy.  

CURRENT CONTENTS: (#2 -- October 15, 2024) 
Hanky-panky
Harum-scarum
Helter-skelter
Higgledy-piggledy
Hillbilly

 Authors' Note:  Reduplications as they are best known, sometimes also called duplications, are language forms (morphs), usually for nouns, in which an element of the word is repeated with little or no change; they figure prominently among the most musical elements in English and in other languages. To this author, the more commonly used term seems redundant. Many other examples begin with the letter 'h', e.g. harum-scarum, helter-skelter, higgledy-piggledy, hillbilly, and hubba-hubba.

Authors' Note: This (re)duplication has elements of impulsiveness, thoughtlessness and randomness in common with harum-scarum, pell-mell and hodge-podge.

 

Authors' Note: Higgledy-piggledy is yet another (re)duplication relating to disorder and impetuousness whose meaning overlaps with helter-skelter, and harum-scarum.

Authors' Note: It sure warn't easy to pack the whole bunch of neighbors and pals into a single verse. Sad to say, I had to leave out the following:  bumpkins, crackers, chawbacons, clodhoppers, good-ol'- boys, hayseeds,  and yokels; although the names are intriguing, few of these would quaify as redupications. (Perhaps I'll include 'em next time! 

CURRENT CONTENTS

Hobo

Hocus-pocus

Hodge-podge 

Hoi-polloi

Holus-bolus

Hubba-hubba

Authors' Note: The (re)duplication hoi polloi derives from the ancient Greek term for 'the many'. This expression, like its close cousin riff-raff (also a reduplication), has been used in class-conscious England for severlal centuries; similar expressions, tinged with disparagement include plebeian, and the great unwashed.  In a recent inexplicable twist, as described by speedysnail, hoi polloi has come to be used, in some circumstances, to mean the exact opposite.

Web-search: https://www.grammarphobia.com/blog/2012/06/hubba-hubba.html

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 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.

OCT 10 (2024): Survey Course in ENGLISH LITERATURE, first peek [5]

CURRENT CONTENTS:
Pass/fail(getting by)

"Hamlet, Prince of Denmark"

"La Belle Dame Sans Merci"

"The Raven"

"Diary of Samuel Pepys"

Authors' Note:  During the author's stint as a university science major, a modicum of knowledge of the liberal arts was putatively assured by subjecting students to pass/fail survey courses. "Getting by", as in the above described English class, seemed to be the modus operandi of students, and occasionally of teaching staff.

Authors' Note: 

bard: archaic term for a Celtic poet or wandering minstrel, currently applied primarily to the ‘Bard of Avon’, i.e. William Shakespeare

bodkin: a pointed instrument or pin, with archaic use to indicate a stiletto or other dagger

A question asked in Hamlet's most famous soliloquy is … 

 "Who would fardels bear?" 

Fardel is derived from fardeau, the French word for “burden”.

Authors' Note: 

rêverie (rehv-uh-REE): French for ‘dream, daydream’

grotesque: term adopted from French for an ancient Roman decorative artform rediscovered in Rome in the 15th century. Grotesques depict fantastical scenes and figures; the related adjective highlights the bizarre and even frightening nature of the images

grot: poetic variant of ‘grotto’ 

merci (mehr-SEE): French for mercy, forgiveness

   The usual critical view is that the protagonist of the poem, transfixed by the 'faery's child', has been trapped and victimized. However, Keats' description in his poem written in 1819 (but taking place in a mythical medieval past), leaves little doubt that the 'Belle Dame' is underage. The societal view of what constitutes child molestation / statutory rape seems to have changed over time.

Authors' Note:   Edgar Allan Poe wrote his best-known poem, "The Raven", in 1845. "The lost Lenore", and “quoth the Raven, ‘nevermore’ ” are famous phrases repeated in the poem. 

   An established classic, the poem will likely remain in the pantheon of poems ad infinitum (evermore).

 

OCT 5 (2024): American Satire, PROLONGATION #3 [10]

previous posted poems (prolongation #1)

archival

classified (Espionage Act)

criminal lying

crasscracy

deceit, social

defunding the FBI

deserved (schadenfreude)

distortion

previous posted poems (prolongation #2)

electoral count

FBIer

felony

gov by dopes

grift

hokum (election denial)
home schooling

CURRENT CONTENTS: (prolongation #3)

Honest Truth

Legal precedence

MAGAciousness

National pique

Obstruction of justice

Special master

Stupidest coup

Taking the Fifth

Unhinged

Voting from abroad

Author's Note: In 2023, the US was looking forward to televized trials of certain national figures. Television cameras are not allowed in trials in the federal system, and one has to rely on the renderings by artists; certain states, e.g. Georgia, do allow the transmission from the courtroom; currently, an important process related to the overturning of state election laws is pending. One hopes that, in that circumstance, each member of the public can easily cut through the veneer of righteousness conveyed by persons whose careers have been built on longstanding deception.

Authors' Note: The 'Mitt' in the above verse is  allegorical, unrelated to any real current person or long-serving Republican US senator.

Authors' Note: The reasons are not clear, but in Canada, compared to the US, a much smaller proportion of place-names are copies of names used geographically in the 'Old World'. The same also seems to be true for Australia and New Zealand. Just saying.

Folly Beach (name derived from an old English word for dense vegetation) is a seaside resort suburb of Charleston, South Carolina.

In the US, any proposed name-change would have to be reviewed by protocols of the Board of Geographic Names.

Mount Denali, at 6190m (20,310 feet), the loftiest peak in the United States, is discussed by the prodigious limericist SheilaB on the OEDILF website.

And, just in case you wanted to know for comparison, the loftiest peak in Canada is Mount Logan, at 5960m (19,550 feet).       

And for more views by Canadians on current related issues, poems in the series "Stand on Guard" can be viewed HERE.

Author's Note: 

A.G.: Attorney General, a political appointee heading the US Department of Justice   

prez: casual term for president, used in lightweight discussion of the American political situation

Forty-Five: a sequential numbering system is used in the United States for successive holders of the elected office of President; we are currently on number Forty-Six (Joe Biden)

capo: 'head', or 'boss' in Italian, frequently used in connection with the Cosa Nostra (Mafia)

 

Readers who desire more of this tomfoolery might proceed to our collection  "American satire: cabinet confirmation" by clicking 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 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.