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. |
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".
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