by Iris Herriot

Tony Bennett, 1926-2023

He charmed the lounge, the club, the disco:
He kept the music scene delighted;
He left his heart in San Francisco.
Let’s hope they’ve now been reunited.

by Stephen Gold

“Hundreds of Arctic tern chicks killed by ‘avian flu’”
—The Times

Avian flu is a curse,
And its progress is hard to reverse.
In the Northern UK,
I am sorry to say,
Things have taken some terns for the worse.

by Ruth S. Baker

“A sea otter is stealing surfboards near Santa Cruz, California”
—The New York Times

(To the tune of “Surfin’ USA“)

If every seafront had an otter
Whose flippers worked OK,
Then there’d be no one else surfin’
In Californ-i-a;
You’d see it bitin’ that surfboard,
That angry surfer too,
Or simply ridin’ those breakers,
Just as good as you.

You’d catch that otter at Swami’s,
Or up in Santa Cruz,
Or showin’ off its fur wetsuit
Across the evenin’ news;
Sacramento to Fresno,
Whiskers gleamin’ with spray:
It’s an otter gone surfin’,
Surfin’ USA!

by Steven Kent

“US meteorologists harassed for reporting on climate crisis”
—The Guardian

Your global warming plot will not deceive—we stand together!
Who cares about the climate? We just want to hear the weather.

by Dan Campion

“Underground Heat Is Shifting Chicago’s Foundations
Basements and train tunnels constantly leak heat, causing the land to sink
and straining building foundations. Scientists call it ‘underground climate change.'”
—The New York Times

Sweet Home Chicago, my hometown,
You’re sinking from waste heat?
Wright, Sullivan, and Mies bow down
As Adler sighs defeat.

But though your architects may swoon,
You’ve always got a grift,
A poem, a trick, a catchy tune.
Your ground was made to shift!

So take a Windy City spin,
My “City on the Make”:
For Daniel Burnham’s sake, pipe in
Chill breezes from the lake.

by Iris Herriot

“[A]n algorithm has come up with the ‘best’ expletive ever”
—The Guardian

An algorithm’s vilest curseword,
When run through an extensive test,
Was “BER.” Can you conceive a worse word?—
Ha! Something humans still do best!

by Marshall Begel

“Elephants’ Giant Hot Testicles Might Be the Reason They Get Less Cancer…
[scientist Fritz Vollrath hypothesizes] in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution…”
—Scientific American

Newsflash to journals like
Trends in Ecology,
Publishing findings of
Fritz and his cronies:

Anyone dealing with
Human oncology
Knows fighting cancer takes
Massive cojones!

by Julia Griffin

“United flight to Amsterdam reportedly diverted to Chicago over meal choice
An unruly passenger was allegedly upset about the menu and raised a stink after plane
took off from Houston”
—The Guardian

Just off the ground, the pilot was alerted:
“Unruly type, allegedly upset!”
The plane was then reportedly diverted.
(The other passengers were not, I’d bet.)

by Stephen Gold

“Brad, Angelina and the grapes of wrath
The actress’s lawyers claim that her ex-husband’s interest
in viniculture is an affectation.”
—The Times

In old Provence, there’s been a stink,
And things are far from in the pink.
The ground resounds with vintage whines,
Alleging venal deeds with vines.

What is fermenting such ill will?
The truth is easy to distill,
For once we’ve siphoned off the glitz,
We see what’s left. It’s just the Pitts.

by Clyde Always

“‘No-Quit’ Notice In McDonald’s Forbidding Employees From Quitting Sparks Angry Debate…”
—Yahoo! News

“I’ve banned the act of quitting,”
one franchisee explains.
“How terribly befitting,”
cry those who work in chains.

by Nora Jay

“Pornhub is blocking access from users in Mississippi, Virginia and Utah,
which have recently passed laws that require age verification to access adult websites. …
If you try to navigate to Pornhub… you’ll see adult star Cherie DeVille explain
these risks in a safe-for-work video.”
—TechCrunch

“When You Try to Watch Pornhub in Utah, You See Me Instead. Here’s Why… writes… Cherie DeVille”
—Rolling Stone

When you try to watch Pornhub in Utah,
You see me instead. Here is why:
The State wants to hack your computah—
To snoop, to invade, and to spy.

The problem, reduced to its core/nub,
Is ignorance, rife in UT.
That’s why, when you try to watch Pornhub,
You see, but don’t really see, me.

by Alex Steelsmith

“[D]ivers and snorkelers listened to an underwater concert that advocated coral reef protection
Saturday in the Florida Keys. … [Water-themed popular songs were] piped undersea through
waterproof speakers suspended… above the reef.”
—AP News

Merrily, merrily,
popular melodies,
flowing through tropical
waters with ease,

seem to be layered with
polytonality,
playing in tune with the
Florida Keys.

Teemingly, streamingly,
coral reef denizens
gladly accompany
numbers like these,

consorts of fishes and
foraminifera
singing, with polyps, a
coral reprise.

by Brian Allgar

“Carrie and Boris Johnson have announced the birth of their third child…
Frank Alfred Odysseus Johnson.”
—The Guardian

After so many lies, corrupt and rank,
At last there is a Johnson who is Frank.

by Laura J. Bobrow

“Massive dust cloud heading toward US may dim the sky this weekend.”
—Accuweather

I have been known to mop and dust,
though only when I really must.
If company is coming, there
is not a dustball anywhere.
But now I hear, to my delight,
A huge dust cloud is in our sight.
It soon will turn the skies opaque.
It’s not my fault, for heaven’s sake,
but now, for once, I’m dusting-free.
Why go and waste my energy?
My guests will have to understand,
this dust is just Sahara sand.

by Ruth S. Baker

“Hachiko: the world’s most loyal dog turns 100”
—BBC News

Drop in on Tokyo,
And everywhere
You’ll hear nostalgic cheers

For Good Dog Hachiko,
Still standing there
After 100 years.