) FEB 25 (2020) singable satire: 'PISA'S LEAN TRATTORIA'

 

MUSICAL UNDERPINNINGS: "Santa Lucia" was a traditional song in the Neapolitan language, describing the appeal of an evening boat trip on the harbor in the Borgo (district of) Santa Lucia of Naples; it became a popular song after its translation into Italian by Teodoro Cottrau in 1849; it was the first Neapolitan song to undergo such a change during early enthusiasm for Italian reunification. It has been performed and recorded (links to Youtube) by many operatic singers e.g. Caruso, Lanza, Pavarotti and Bocelli, and also by Elvis Presley.  

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, January, 2018. (The skeptical reader may surmise that the substituted lyrics are, in fact, about food intolerance), but the Italian setting and song make for a more enchanting experience.

In the original Italian song, lines are frequently repeated; for simplicity, the repetitions are not included here in the parody-lyrics.

UKULELE and GUITAR-FRIENDLY LINK: Our whole series of songs can be found in a friendly format for ukulele (and guitar)-players on our sister blog "SILLY SONGS and SATIRE" with chord-charts for both the parody and original song, as well as helpful performing suggestions. 

 find ukulele and guitar chord-charts to help you accompany "PISA'S LEAN TRATTORIA" on your favorite instrument, click HERE.  

WORDPLAY LINK: An expanded version of these lyrics, slightly modified to suit the format, form part of a poetic submission on our sister blog "Edifying Nonsense" entitled Limericks About Food Intolerance; as this offering told its novel story with four limerick verses, it has been designated 'a brief saga'.

filastrocca: Italian for "nursery rhyme', 'fable','doggerel', or 'rigmarole'.

filastrocca: THE LEAN TRATTORIA OF PISA

(to the tune of "Santa Lucia") 

CHORUS

Sul mare luccica, l’astro d’argento

Placida è l’onda, prospero il vento.

Venite all’agile, barchetta mia;

Santa Lucia! Santa Lucia!

Sneaking treats from his own gelateria,

Gino was suffering frank diarrhea,

“Flatus: such awful gas; gelati? I’d better pass."

Bought a bakery(a) , now lives lactose-free-a.

Reprise: Where is Gino? Let's look and see, ah!

Tasting dough in his pasticceria,

“Food-induced ills persist; physicians, they now insist 

I should call it quits, and .. exist gluten-free-a." 

Fat-free meals: Gino dreamed this fine idea

For his food enterprise number th(a)ree-a

(He had grown quite obese, once GI symptoms ceased) – 

Now he'd start up Pisa's 'Lean Trattoria'.

Repeat CHORUS.

Political palindromes: E - G

 Authors' Note: What you had all been waiting for: the king of palindromes.

From this point, you can proceed either forwards or backwards.

For FORWARD, proceed to the next set (H to J) of 'POLITICAL     PALINDROMES'. 
For BACKWARD, return to the previous set (A to D), the ORIGINAL POST on this topic.

Author's Note: The palindromes in this series have mostly been concocted recently. Some of them had first been displayed in one of our blogposts in 2017. Note that the author believes that wordplay derivations such as palindromes and anagrams are not 'invented', but merely 'reported' by canny observers, and some of today's offerings have been copied from others' reports as well as from the blog-author's earlier work. 

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.

FEB 15, 2020: SAVOIR-FAIRE -- vers francais, part #1 [5]

This blogpost is a representation of 'VERS FRANÇAIS', verses about saying things in French, as initially posted on this blog February 15, 2020. 

CURRENT CONTENTS:  (original posting -- February 15, 2020)
Avant-garde savant
Bilingual labelling
Corniches
Franglais
French enologists

Authors' Note: The present participle (participe présent) is used much less commonly in French than in English; the good news is that this form is regular for all but three verbs (to know, to have, to be). In contrast, infinitives are used more often, so 'knowing and doing' is described by savoir-faire.

Savant, an archaic form derived from savoir, is still in use as a noun for 'someone who knows' (a prodigy).

Avant looks as though it should be the present participle for avoir, but in fact it derives from the Latin preposition abante; but, as a loanword, e.g. avant-garde, it has become associated with the 'forefront' (ayant is in fact the present participle 'having').   

Authors' Note: 

au verso (oh vehr-soh) French for 'on the reverse side'

Bilingual labelling, if you pay attention to it, produces some startling results. In Canada, pomegranates and their juice must be imported. But, in French-speaking parts of the country, we would refer to them as grenades, the modern French term for the fruit. In the circumstance under discussion, the particular juice-box was labelled on its French side as jus de grenade.

An archaic term for the tree and for the fruit, pomegranate derives from the Middle Ages, but seems to have gotten stuck in English as a sort of borrowed anachronism. On the other hand, we have grenadine syrup, a cocktail additive, putatively made from pomegranate juice, but in fact, often concocted from synthetic ingredients.

You can review verses on this topic in a wider context on our full-service blog 'Edifying Nonsense'. Check the post 'Vers Francais: Savoir-Faire' by clicking HERE.

Authors' Note:

en visite (ahn vee-ZEET): ‘while visiting'

les touristes (lay too-REEST):  'the tourists’

non-français (non frahn-SEH): ‘not French (speaking)’

ils causaient (eel koh-ZEH): 'they chatted‘

Québécois (kay-bay-KWAH): ‘resident of Quebec (province)’

franglais (frahn-GLEH): ‘Franglais, a mixed lingo’

FEB 10, 2020: Danger-Filled Verses, DOMESTIC HAZARDS [6]

CURRENT CONTENTS:

Domestic hazards (general)

Eavestroughs

Fatbergs

Kettles

Security System

Smoke Detectors

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio and Dr. GH, August 2019. These verses have also been web-published at OEDILF.com, an online humour dictionary that has accumulated over 110,000 carefully edited limerick verses.

SONGLINK: For those readers who like poetry set to music: You can find lots of singable limerick-medleys and other song formats on our sister blog "SILLY SONGS and SATIRE", such as this recent post. 

Learn more about this topic on the web at these sites:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatberg

https://www.thestar.com/vancouver/2018/08/01/researchers-break-up-dirty-fatberg-problem-with-new-technique-to-treat-fats-oil-and-grease.html

Learn more about this topic on the web at these sites:
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smoke_detector
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americium-241

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.

FEB 5, 2020: Poetic Parody, "AS WE NUKE IT"

                                                                                                                                                                                         

                    
POETIC PARODY (reprinted)

ORIGINAL POEM:  Jaques' Monologue, Act iii, Shakepeare's "As You Like It".

POETIC PARODY: Nucl Med Commun 2002 and Photon 2004; modified with permission of the author (G.A. Hurwitz).

SONGLINK: See also our sister blog "SILLY SONGS AND SATIRE", post #3, where this poem has been considerably modified and set to music ("The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald", 1976 by Gordon Lightfoot).

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, 2013.

AS WE NUKE IT (Poetic parody)

All the world's a scan,

And all its ins and outs are Nuclear’s patients.

They have their statics, and their cine-modes,

And each head which rotates views many parts;

The PACS lists their registrations.....At first the milkscan —

Pooling of puking in the basal lungs:

Then, refluxing schoolgirl for her cysto,

With brimming bladder bright, curling her toes

Unwillingly to void: and then the scrotal —

Orchitis like fire, or a wakened Uro

Scrubbed for his torted testis:  then a bleeder,

Full of tinned cells, blood labelled in the lab,

Nil found by scopes, yet suddenly maroon-stooling,

Seeking the blip extravasation

Anywhere from antrum south:  and then, shunt-study —

Tube blocked in belly, with good CT down,

His eyes rolled back, us free-of-latex gloved,

Hakim or Pudenz bulged with fluid clear;

And so we draw it off.....The next is slotted

For the diuretic renogram,

Nephrostomy in place and pouch on flank,

His useful side, well drained by frusemide

(as we Brits say), but his big kidney’s counts

Rising again and portending trouble, no peaks

Or downturns in its curve.....Last scan of all,

That aids nocturnal transplant surgery —

Cerebral countlessness, then world-matched-donoring,   

Bank organs, yank tubes, and thank certainty.