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Octopusses -- Simon Goodway

Guest poem sent in by Anustup Datta
(Poem #1428) Octopusses
 I don't know what the fuss is,
 Cooking's easy if you try.
 Just take two octopusses
 And you've got an octopi.
-- Simon Goodway
By rights, Nash should have written this. I had never heard of Simon Goodway
before I stumbled onto this little gem, and I still don't know anything
about him, but anyone who can bake an octopi out of octopusses in four lines
surely knows a thing or two about poetry. This bit of whimsy ranks way up
there with the best of Hein and Dahl - and as I had mentally promised myself
that this review should not exceed the poem, that's it. Just run it on a day
when you feel bluer than the sky.

Regards
Anustup

[Martin adds]

Don't worry, I'm not feeling blue - just thought I'd run it :)

Nash has (unsurprisingly) done something vaguely similar - see Poem #848.
And on octopi, Steven Pinker has this to say: "The -us in octopus is not the
Latin noun ending that switches to the -i in the plural, but the Greek pous
(foot). The etymologically defensible octopodes is not an improvement".

14 comments: ( or Leave a comment )

Amit Chakrabarti said...

* Sitara Miyer () [040113 17:58]:
> And on octopi, Steven Pinker has this to say: "The -us in octopus is not the
> Latin noun ending that switches to the -i in the plural, but the Greek pous
> (foot). The etymologically defensible octopodes is not an improvement".

And grand old man OED has this to say:

Pl. octopodes (ktpdiz), anglicized octopuses. [mod.L. octpus, a. Gr. ,
acc. - eight-footed, f. eight + , - foot.]

Not even a mention of "octopi". Way to go!

Sarah Casseday said...

Hope you don't feel bluer than the sky! How could you after this
delightful poem?

Property Rental Network said...

ONly a Goodway could write such a fine piece of poetry!
Regards
Chris Goodway
Adelaide Australia.

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