) SEP 25 (2026) singable satire: 'STARTING POINT 1948'

MUSICAL UNDEPINNINGS: "Born Free", Matt Monro, 1966
ORIGINAL DOCUMENT: United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 1 , 1948. * 

PARODY COMPOSED: Giorgio Coniglio, January 2016.



* "All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood." 


STARTING POINT 1948

(to the tune of "Born Free" - these first 4 verses fit best with the melody of the 2nd and 3rd verse of the original)

All human beings are born free,

Of dignity worthy

And equal in basic fact.

Endowed with reason and goodness

A spirit of brotherhood

Should motivate their acts.

Tous les êtres humains naissent libres

En droits ils sont égaux

Ainsi qu’en dignité

Doués de conscience et de raison

Ils doivent se comporter dans

Un esprit de fraternité.

Todos los seres humanos nacen libres

En derechos están iguales

Y también en dignidad

Dotados de razón y conciencia

Deben comportarse

Con ánimo de hermandad.

Vse ljudi rozhdayutsya svobodnymi

Dostoyny uvazheniya

I ravnymi v osnovnykh pravakh

Nadelennyy prichine I dobra

Dukh bratstva

Mozhet vdokhnovit’ svoi deystviya.

(sing to verse#1 pattern of the original song, then continue )

Some schemed, six decades before us
Their voices implore us
Hold course until we’re all free.

Their world had huge imperfections

They craved free elections,
Disbanding of colonies.

East, West: great walls did divide them
And victims of apartheid -
Disparities so wide.

Dreamed free, they helped us to get there
Their efforts we’ll all share
‘Til we’re ‘born free’.

(Instrumental bridge)
They dreamed of our works-in-progress
Abuses to be redressed
Whatever race or sect.

They framed a great Declaration
To challenge each nation -
We’re all born free.

  _________________________________________________________________________

 

) SEP 20 (2026) singable satire: 'RE-DUPLICATIONS' (part #1, A to K)

 

ORIGINAL SONG: "The Elements", Tom Lehrer, 1959.

PARODY COMPOSED: Dr. G.H. and Giorgio Coniglio, 2015. This song is the seventh of nine in the series on Word-Pairs. You can find the links to the lyrics of the previous songs at the bottom of the post. 

EXPLANATION:  For a  discussion of reduplications, check an earlier post on this blog-site by clicking here. This post also honours our previous venture of Feb 15, 2017 entitled 'Abracadabra' to 'Zoom-zoom': possibly the world's largest compendium of reduplications'. 

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 and helpful performing suggestions. Click HERE to proceed to this site. 

This post is a follow-up to "The Reduplications: A Lesson"

  This collection of fascinating phrases has been modified somewhat since its original posting on the site AmIRight.com. Thanks are due to Al Silver, Becky Hurwitz and Uncle Paul for suggesting several examples which were incorporated into the current version. 

 WARNING!  Do not attempt to sing this lesson at the pace of a patter-song. The management of this blog will take no responsibility for any injuries sustained.

Many of these words have fascinating stories of their origin and subsequent use; the hotlinks highlight those with instructive or amusing information available on the web.

There’s achy-breaky, artsy-fartsy, bigwig, BB, and aye-aye
And bric-à-brac, abracadabra, boulder holder, and bye-bye
And beriberi, Bora Bora, (great) bees knees!, and (bad) boo-boo
And bonbon, buddy-buddy, bunga-bunga, can-can, and choo-choo.

There’s crackerjack, chin-chin, and chili, chugalug, couscous, cocoa
And clap-trap, culture vulture, chit-chat, chock-a-block, cluck-cluck, dodo
And dilly-dally, deadhead, dumb-dumb, dingle-dangle, and clip-clop
And easy-peasy, even Steven, fifty-fifty, and flip-flop.

There’s flim-flam, fiddle-faddle, fuddy-duddy, fat cat, funny mon-
-ey; folderol, and fender bender, flower power, honey-bun.
And four-door, ga-ga, goody-goody, golden-oldy, and hotshot
And gibber-jabber, Henny Penny, honky-tonk, go-go, or not!

There’s handy-dandy, harum-scarum, hanky-panky, hoi-polloi
And hoity-toity, hip-hop, heeby-jeebies, hari-kari, oy!
And helter-skelter, hokey-pokey, hotpot, hullaballoo, hobo
And hocus-pocus, holy moly! hurly-burly, and heigh-ho!

Hell’s bells! there’s heyday, holus-bolus, hootchie-kootch, hobnob, hoo-haw
Hush-hush, knock-knock, New York, New York (its zip is fixed twixt MA and PA),
Ill will, and itsy-bitsy, heyday, juju, ass-backward blackjack
And jingle-jangle, jeepers-creepers, kow-tow, kiwi, and knick-knack.

Ta-Dah !!!

Press enter or click to view image in full size

Many of these words and phrases have fascinating stories of their origin and subsequent use; the hotlinks highlight those with instructive or amusing information available on the web, as follows:

achy-breaky, artsy-fartsy, bigwig, BB, aye-aye, abracadabra, bric-a-brac, boulder holder, Bora Bora, beriberi, bees knees!, bonbon, buddy-buddy, bunga-bunga, can-can, crackerjack, couscous, chugalug, chin-chin, cocoa
clap-trap, chit-chat, chock-a-block, dodo, dum(b)-dum(b), fifty-fifty, flip-flop, flim-flam, fuddy-duddy, funny money, folderol, fender bender, flower power, goody-goody, honky-tonk, harum-scarum, hanky-panky, hoi-polloi, hobo, heigh-ho, Hell’s bells! holus-bolus, hootchie-kootch, knock-knock, New York, NewYork, jeepers-creepers, kow-tow, knick-knack.

Ta-Dah !!!

Be sure to continue with “Reduplications, part #2 (L to Z)”

SEP 15, 2026: Cardiologic Tracings, AT HEART, thump #2 [4]

Readers might like to start off by reading about a particular group of heart disorders known as the cardiac arrhythmias, dealing with abormalities in the frequency of heartbeats. You can review that collection (syncopated verses about cardiac arrhythmias) by clicking HERE.

The current blogpost represents continuation of an earlier post, dealing with wider cardiologic issues, entitled  'AT HEART: thump #1' displayed on September 5, 2025. 

prior posted poems

(thump #1): arteriopath, bypass grafts, dipyridamole stress, dobutamine stress.

CURRENT CONTENTS: (#2 -- September 15, 2026) 

Ejection fraction

Hyperlipidemia
Hypertension
Myocardial ischemia

Authors' Note:  In disease states, including those producing congestive heart failure, the ejection fraction of the left ventricle, a measure indicating the strength of contraction, provides important information concerning prognosis (potential outcome) and the need for treatment. 

   The ejection fraction can be measured by echocardiography, magnetic resonance imaging, or several different nuclear (radio-isotope) techniques. These techniques measure the volume of the ventricle at the end of diastolic (relaxation) and systolic (contraction) phases of the cardiac cycle. Despite the name, the change during systole is generally given in medical jargon as the percent relative change, rather than as a true fraction; e.g. 60% is good, 30% is bad.

Authors' Note: Jealousy at the flight of birds has apparently resulted in expressions suggesting that human social responsibility is analogous to having one's wings clipped, or flying straight, as here.

Hyperlipemia (also known in America as hyperlipidemia), is a medical condition in which high blood levels of fats (lipids), particularly cholesterol, portend cardiac disease, including deadly heart attacks. Hyperlipemia is one of a number of such asymptomatic risk factors including hypertension and diabetes. Fortunately, changes in lifestyle including diet and exercise, and judicious prescription of pharmaceutical drugs, such as statins, can reduce risk.

 Authors' Note: High blood pressure, or hypertension, a chronic condition generally of unknown cause, is one of the major cardiovascular risk factors playing a role in the development of adult heart disease. It is also of particular importance in the causation of stroke, accounting for up to 50% of the risk for that condition. 

Authors' Note: There is variability in patients' response to the development of blockages in the coronary arteries. Part of this is due to the gradual development of collateral arteries or side branches, which may mitigate the effect of the obstructions to produce chronic symptoms or acute severe damage to heart muscle. The net impact on flow can be assessed through imaging showing blood flow to heart muscle at rest and stress, with nuclear or other studies of myocardial perfusion (‘gated SPECT’).

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 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.

SEP 10, 2026: INSECTS, buzzwords #4 [5]

    This post is part of a continuing collection of poems about 'INSECTS', as previously as displayed on this blog on September 10, 2023 (buzzword #1), September 10, 2024 (buzzword #2), and September 10, 2025 (buzzword #3). 

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

(first buzzwords) (#1): beerbugs, bumblebees, clothes moths, cold adaptation, computer bugs.

(second buzzwords) (#2): deer- and horse-flies, entomologists, fire ants, gnats, gnat repellents. 

(third buzzwords) (#3); insect repellents, ladybug diner, mosquitoes, Ricardo the dragonfly, roaches (etymological approach).

CURRENT CONTENTS: (#4 -- September 10, 2026)

Termites

Toothpick grasshoppers

Woollybear caterpillars

Yellow jackets

Clothes moths (3 stanzas, a 'brief saga')

 

Authors' Note: 

bello, bella: Italian (male, female forms) for fine, handsome or beautiful

  The best-known name for this common North American insect derives from the larval form, the banded woolly bear. The caterpillar, with reddish-brown midsection and vertically demarcated black front and rear ends, is often seen in the autumn, appears playful to children, and is non-toxic. There is no easily appreciated visual difference between the genders for either larval or adult stages. Several small locales in the United States celebrate these cute caterpillars with fall 'woollybear' festivals.

Authors' Note: A million Emergency Room (ER) visits per year in the United States are caused by concern over stings from insects of the order Hymenoptera; stings can result in significant local reactions and even anaphylaxis. Many people attribute these incidents, without differentiation, to 'bees'. In fact, the common honeybees and bumblebees are considerably less aggressive than yellow jackets, such as Vespula maculifrons; these pesty wasps make us miserable in the summer and early fall, particularly at fairs and other outdoor events, by their relentless search for sugar-containing foods. Vespine is the adjective relating to wasps.

Note that the three stanzas of this "brief saga" can be found in a more readily legible format on the blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense"; click HERE. 

And as a later development, we put words to music. You can now sing along with the song "CLOTHES MOTHS s by proceeding to our blog "Silly Songs and Satire". Click HERE.

Armchair entomologists with a sense of adventure might wish to continue their travels by proceeding to a subsequent blogpost dealing with "A Selection of PARASITES".    

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.

SEP 5, 2026: MAMMALIAN WILDLIFE, pack #5 [3]

 

    This post is part of a continuing collection of poems about 'MAMMALIAN WILDLIFE', as previously displayed on this blog on September 5, 2022 (pack #1), September 5, 2023 (pack #2), September 5, 2024 (pack #3), and September 5, 2025 (pack #4)

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

(pack #1): angwantibos, bats, beaver, buffalo, California sea lions.

(pack #2): coyotes, cretan goats (kri-kri), gnus, gorillas, hippopotami.

(pack #3): hoary marmots, horses, marine mammals, mongolian gerbils, rabbits, raccoons in the city.

(pack #4): raccoons in the swamp, rat-trap, selfie with bison, skunks, star-nosed moles.

CURRENT CONTENTS: (#5 -- September 5, 2026)

Steller sea lions

Woodchucks
Aegean cats (3 stanzas, a 'brief saga')

Additional Note:  A falling birth rate due to 'nutritional stress' in females (along with ongoing hunting) has been proposed as a principal factor in the decline in the last century of Pacific Ocean populations of the Steller sea lion, Eumetopias jubatus. Although wanton polygamy has, to be honest, always been an option for females of this species of magnificent marine mammals, the particular efforts of concerned individuals like our heroine Bella may have contributed to a recent recovery.

    Current ecological terminology denotes a species whose population is stable in the wild and not threatened as of 'lesser concern'. In 2013, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) took the Steller sea lion off its US Endangered Species List.

Authors' Note:  The woodchuck or groundhog is a large squirrel-like animal

best know for its extensive tunneling. Although herbivorous, it is not normally interested in eating or tossing wood, the latter being an activity for which 

it is poorly physically adapted. 

   Apparently, the name woodchuck is a corruption of the Algonquian word wejack; the name also is responsible for the American tongue-twister: 

How much wood would a woodchuck chuck, if a woodchuck could chuck wood?

Note that the three stanzas of this "brief saga" can be found in more readily legible format on the blog "Daily Illustrated Nonsense"; click HERE.

And as a later development, we put words to music. You can now sing along with the song "The AEGEAN CAT" by proceeding to our blog "Silly Songs and Satire". 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 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.