Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/12/84; site mit-hermes.ARPA Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!bonnie!akgua!sdcsvax!sdcrdcf!hplabs!hao!seismo!harvard!godot!mit-eddie!mit-hermes!jpexg From: jpexg@mit-hermes.ARPA (John Purbrick) Newsgroups: net.jokes Subject: Re: Re: Some limericks (A.T. please read) Message-ID: <2249@mit-hermes.ARPA> Date: Mon, 10-Dec-84 15:28:37 EST Article-I.D.: mit-herm.2249 Posted: Mon Dec 10 15:28:37 1984 Date-Received: Thu, 13-Dec-84 01:48:50 EST References: <1548@pur-phy.UUCP>, <2245@mit-hermes.ARPA> <157@ahuta.UUCP> Organization: The MIT AI Lab, Cambridge, MA Lines: 45 > REFERENCES: <1548@pur-phy.UUCP>, <2245@mit-hermes.ARPA> > > It's hardly fair to criticize A.T. for "his" meter in "his" limericks--the > limericks he posted have been around since I was in high school! (That's > 1964-1968, folks!) > > Evelyn C. Leeper > ==> Note new net address: ...ihnp4!ahuta!ecl > (Mail sent to my old address will be forwarded temporarily.) >> There was once a fellow named Fisk >> Whose fencing was exceedingly brisk >> So fast was his action >> That the Fitzgerald contraction >> Reduced his rapier to a disk. >> There once was a fellow named Lancelot, >> Upon whom the neighbors looked askance a lot, It's absolutely fair. You're right, both of these are classics, but he mutilated them. Doesn't a miswritten verse scream out when you try to read it? The first limerick ought to read: There once was a fellow named Fisk Whose fencing was terribly brisk; So fast was his action, Fitzgerald contraction Foreshortened his foil to a disk. And the second limerick should begin: "There once was a fellow named Lancelot, Whom people all looked at askance a lot" Please don't say it doesn't make any difference! Just try reading A.T.'s versions out loud. This one isn't original: I'm sorry to say there's a man Whose limericks never quite scan. He can never complete Any poem with feet-- He said "The trouble is that I always try to get as many words into the last line as I possibly can!"