) JAN 25 (2026) singable satire: 'DIETARY NOTES'

 ORIGINAL PARODY-LYRICS

MUSICAL UNDERPINNINGS: "Mairzy Doats", Drake, Hoffman, Livingston 1943. This children's song was  initially recorded by Al Trace, covered by Andrews Sisters, Sharon, Lois and Bram, and many others. 

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, September 2015, performed at the Corktown Ukulele Jam.

PARODY SONG-LINK:  To find ukulele and guitar chord-charts to help you accompany "DIETARY NOTES" on your favorite instrument, click HERE.

DIETARY NOTES

(to the tune of "Mairzy Doats")

My family thinks I’m nutty as a fruitcake
Have to hunt on menus, find what I can eat.
Some call it crazy
Others think it’s bravery,
They all should give up meat. Oh!

My family thinks I’m nutty as a fruitcake
Have to hunt on menus, find what I can eat.
Some call it crazy
Others think it’s bravery,   
They all should give up meat. Oh! 

Linezy dews and wolvezy dews
And cougarcubz grabb ambies
A kiddley tunterstew, wouldn’t you? Yes.
Linezy dews and wolvezy dews
And cougarcubz grabb ambies
A kiddley tunterstew, wouldn’t you? If the 

Words sound grim, go gripe to Uncle Jim, 
He’ll dress you in your camo
Cause lions eat ewes, but you can choose
A rifle and some ammo. Oh!

Linezy dews and wolves eat ewes
And cougar-cubs grab Bambis
A kid’ll eat hunter’s stew, wouldn’t you? Yes.
A kiddley tunterstew, wouldn’t you?

Scene from "The Elephant Show"

Weazly dens and foxy dens
Raccoonzan crosey chickies
A kiddley creecherstoo, wouldn’t you? Oh! 
Weazly dens and foxy dens
And little hoxy chickies
A kiddley creecherstoo, wouldn’t you? Now if the

Words sound grim, go gripe to Uncle Jim,
He’ll say, “Please be more plucky.
Cause weas’l eat hens, and fox eat hens
And we’ll go shoot some duckies.” Oh!

Weazly dens and foxy dens
Raccoons and crows eat chickies
A kid’ll eat creatures too, wouldn’t you? Yuk!
A kiddley creecherstoo, wouldn’t you?

Menny menny damanlam
Why lothers doton tofu
A kiddley mea-freatu, wouldn’t you? Yes.
Menny menny damanlam
Why lothers doton tofu
A kiddley mea-freatu, wouldn’t you? Now

Uncle Jim says, “Queer!” while chugging down a beer,
He’ll never understand it;
Some men snarf beef and ham and lamb
While some respect the planet.  

Many men eat ham and lamb
While others dote on tofu
A kid’ll eat meat-free too, shouldn’t you? Yes, a 
Kiddley mea-freatu, a 
Kiddley mea-freatu, a 
Kiddley mea-freatu, shouldn’t you?  Tofu!

Linezy dews and wolvezy dews
And cougarcubz grabb ambies
A kiddley tunterstew, wouldn’t you? Yes.
Linezy dews and wolvezy dews
And cougarcubz grabb ambies
A kiddley tunterstew, wouldn’t you? If the

If the words sound grim, go gripe to Uncle Jim,
He’ll dress you in your camo
Cause lions eat ewes, but you can choose
A rifle and some ammo. Oh!

Linezy dews and wolves eat ewes
And cougar-cubs grab Bambis
A kid’ll eat hunter’s stew, wouldn’t you? Yes.
A kiddley tunterstew, wouldn’t you?

Scene from “The Elephant Show”

Weazly dens and foxy dens
Raccoonzan crosey chickies
A kiddley creecherstoo, wouldn’t you? Oh!
Weazly dens and foxy dens
And little hoxy chickies
A kiddley creecherstoo, wouldn’t you? Now if the

Words sound grim, go gripe to Uncle Jim,
He’ll say, “Please be more plucky.
Cause weas’l eat hens, and fox eat hens
And we’ll go shoot some duckies.” Oh!

Weazly dens and foxy dens
Raccoons and crows eat chickies
A kid’ll eat creatures too, wouldn’t you? Yuk!
A kiddley creecherstoo, wouldn’t you?

Menny menny damanlam
Why lothers doton tofu
A kiddley mea-freatu, wouldn’t you? Yes.
Menny menny damanlam
Why lothers doton tofu
A kiddley mea-freatu, wouldn’t you? Now

Uncle Jim says, “Queer!” while chugging down a beer,
He’ll never understand it;
Some men snarf beef and ham and lamb
While some respect the planet.

Many men eat ham and lamb
While others dote on tofu
A kid’ll eat meat-free too, shouldn’t you? Yes, a
Kiddley mea-freatu, a
Kiddley mea-freatu, a
Kiddley mea-freatu, shouldn’t you? Tofu!

Scene from "The Elephant Show"

 ___________________________________________________________

JAN 15, 2026: Anthropomorphic and Human BAR-FAUNA, third round [2]

 

 This post is a continuation of 'BAR-FAUNA, as posted on this blog January 15, 2024 (round 1) and January 15, 2025 (round 2).

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

(first round): ark's bar, FUBAR/snafu), Gary the gator, Hamlet's ghostly dream, lack of enlightment, lizards' lair.

(second round): medical watering-hole, monster-bar, mule, organic bar, slyly, sober October.

CURRENT CONTENTS (#3)

Underground bar

Unscheduled flight (loon's)

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.

JAN 10, 2026: Poems about POSTAL PLACES: USA [6]

DISCLOSURE: Our aim here is to tell a story in brief verse about a town in every state of the USA, using its name and two-letter state-postal-abbreviation, as would be used in addressing a letter. Obviously, we still have a very long way to go.

What is the origin of this project? 

                                              

In a much earlier effort, we concocted various anagram swarms, armadas of anagrams of various political buzzwords, e.g. C-O-N-S-T-I-T-U-T-I-O-N)  displayed on wordplay maps of the US. The display and readability of these maps was eased by omitting the standardized comma that separates the town and state, i.e. Total Suction, IN == > Total Suction IN. Some readers expressed concern about this shortcut, fearing that we were involved in an insurrection against the international postal standard. Hence we later adopted a scheme for a rigidly defined limerick, as shown in the examples below, that could be used to versify various postal entities (real and imaginary) while highlighting and honoring the standard postal format.  

As this project got started, we decided that we should also include Canada (so stay tuned to check our first Canadian efforts that will be available shortly).

CURRENT CONTENTS

Baton Rouge, LA

Champaign, IL
Hoboken, NJ
Fargo, ND
Duluth, MN
Green Bay, WI

Authors' Note: 

LA is the official abbreviation for the American state of Louisiana, whose capital, Baton Rouge, with population 230,000, is situated 100 miles (160km) upriver from New Orleans.

The original site, protected from flooding by its situation on bluffs along the east side of the Mississippi, had originally been noted by exploring Europeans for a pole marking the dividing-line between two aboriginal territories. It was designated as the state capital in 1846, replacing New Orleans in that role, and with extension, its port became the tenth busiest in the US. The city hosts the flagship campuses of Louisiana State university and Southern University.

In recent decades, the Republican party acquired a strangle-hold on almost all local, state, and federal officials elected in Louisiana. Although Louisiana is otherwise agreed as being one of the locales on the planet most affected by climate change, coastal erosion and other negative results of human activity, resistance to that realization seems strongly entrenched locally.

Authors' Note: 

Chicagoan: resident of Chicago, IL

urbane: sophisticated, elegant, worldly

No banana!: slang for 'not prize-winning'

No pain, no gain: slang phrase indicating hard work as a requirement for advancement.

IL is the official abbreviation for the American state of Illinois, in which two neighboring towns, Champaign, population 88,000 and Urbana, population 38,000, make up the metropolitan area of Champaign-Urbana, located 135 miles (215 km) south of the megalopolis of Chicago. The names of both towns, dating from the nineteenth century, relate to earlier settlements in the nearby state of Ohio.

Champaign-Urbana, IL is home to the flagship campus of the University of Illinois, and offers an appropriate spectrum of cultural opportunities. Surrounded by an extensive, flat, mid-west farming district, it is on occasion, as here, disparaged by residents of Chicago for its lack of "urbanity".

   

poetry lyrics:/ Sven recounted a tale from his youth/ He was raised in the town of Duluth,/ MN: "Wish we'd washed; Local record we quashed,/ When friends crowded a telephone booth."   

Authors' Note: MN is the official abbreviation for the American state of Minnesota, in which Duluth, a town with population 90,000 is situated. At the western end of lake Superior, the town was transiently, at the beginning of the 1900s, the busiest port in the United States.

The town's unusual name derives from the area's first known European explorer, the French soldier Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut. Duluth is now home to the annual "Magic Smelt Parade" and the University of Minnesota Duluth. Despite the region's French connection, the largest immigrant group in Minnesota has hailed from Scandinavia, accounting for the Swedish name of the verse's protagonist.

"Telephone-booth stuffing" was a short-lived global craze among college-age kids in the 1950s. Of interest, in the UK the activity was known as "telephone-booth squash", and the "rules" required that a phone-call be made from the overcrowded booth.

Authors' Note: ND is the official abbreviation for the American state of North Dakota, whose largest city is Fargo with a population of 126,000. Located on the floodplain of the Red River, the city was named after William Fargo, director of the Northern Pacific Railway and honcho of Wells Fargo Express.

Authors' Note: WI is the official abbreviation for the American state of Wisconsin, in which the city of Green Bay, population 110,000, is situated. Founded in 1634 as a French trading post, this settlement on the northern part of Lake Michigan was known in its earlier days as La Baie Verte. Today it is best known as the home of the football team "Green Bay Packers"; activities of the city's priesthood are described in Chuck Folkers' poem Holy Communion.

Authors' Note:  NJ is the official abbreviation for the American state of New Jersey, in which Hoboken, a town with population of about 60,000, is situated, commuting distance from New York City.

The town was first settled by Europeans in the 17th century as part of the New Netherland colony. Following the Dutch era, it became known as the site of the first recorded game of baseball, and as the birthplace (1915) and hometown of Frank Sinatra. 

FOLLOW-UP (Canadian, eh?)

You can sneak a peak at our efforts in Canada 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 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.

JAN 5, 2026: Grandpa Greg's Advanced Grammar: PLURALIA TANTUM [5]

CURRENT CONTENTS:
Ceremonial events

Eruptions (rashes)

Cooking ingredients

Condolences

Backwoods

Authors' Note: Plurale tantum, meaning plural only, is a Latin-derived term (with plural form pluralia tantum), for a noun that has no, or only a minimally used singular form, e.g. alms, auspices, and dregs. There are over one hundred of these in English. In other languages, such forms are commonly used to refer to ceremonial time-points on life's journey, but in English we have only the relatively archaic terms banns, nuptials, obsequies and remains, also last rites and final respects. Bryce's attempt to help his audience is incorrect, as these peculiarly plural nouns generally are paired with a plural verb-form.

nuptials by the lake

Authors' Note: Eruption is a venerable medical term for a skin rash, in use since an earlier era when practitioners paid careful attention to characteristic skin lesions and various symptoms, but knew little of disease causality such as viral infection and allergy. Traditional names for medical symptoms and diseases in general are often based on lay vernacular terms dating from a much earlier time. Shingles is also known as herpes zoster, the second term referring to the belt-like distribution of lesions.

Authors' Note: 

clunky: slang for 'awkward'

Our disappointed grammar-buff is right: a lot of grammar is not derived from logical principles. All languages face the problem of characterizing masses and groups of undistinguished small objects as singular or plural. This dilemma seems to reach its peak with items that are the basis of cooking. Despite an attempt to find rules, there is no dependency on particle size.

Nouns used only, or principally in the plural form are known as pluralia tantum; those used excusively in the singular form are known as singularia tantum. This usage varies from one language to another. We find some foreign uses 'incomprehensible', as in the general Hebrew plural form mayim for 'water', despite the fact that, on occasion, "Still waters run deep."

\

Authors' Note: The above verse provides several further examples of the grammatical phenomenon pluralia tantum. An idiom associated with providing condolences for the family and friends of a single deceased person is to 'pay one's final respects'.

Authors' Note:   

Urals: The Ural Mountains, a discrete range running north and south, separates old Russian from more sparsely populated Siberia, and is considered as the boundary between the continents of Europe and Asia.

 The above verses provide further examples of the grammatical phenomenon pluralia tantum. 

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.