Category Archives: humor

BOOK: “New Comic Limericks” ed. by Ivanette Dennis

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New Comic LimericksNew Comic Limericks by Ivanette Dennis
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This anthology consists of 63 pages of whimsical limericks with amusing cartoon illustrations by Louis Marak. There aren’t laugh-out-loud yucks to be had here, but the wordplay of these poems is clever and the limericks are more well-crafted than most. It should be pointed out that there is nothing risqué in the collection either. The most best-known limerick writers included are Ogden Nash, Edward Lear, Gelett Burgess, and Charles Barsotti. [Incidentally, the most famous writers included are Rudyard Kipling, Oliver Wendell Holmes Sr., and Robert Louis Stevenson.]

The pieces take a wide variety playful approaches to the limerick from eye rhymes, slant rhymes and the shape poetry of Charles Barsotti.

If you’re interested in limericks and wordplay, there is a lot to learn from the examples presented in this anthology.

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Dandelion [Limerick]

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“Spring has lined all roads with dandelions.”
 At this a young girl started cryin’
     You see, to her ear,
     ‘Twas rational fear,
 For she was afraid of Dandy Lions.

PROMPT: Underrated

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Daily writing prompt
Who are some underrated people in history?
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Alfred Krupa, Bernard Sadow, and Robert Plath, men whose inventions over thirty-three years during the late twentieth-century ushered in a new epoch in human history — the era of the wheeled suitcase.

Now, the fact that we didn’t figure out putting wheels on a suitcase until the late 20th century (and that when we did it took several long-fought permutations before wheeled suitcases were worth a damn) is a chilling testimony to how quickly General Artificial Intelligence will leave our species in the dust.

PROMPT: Productive

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Daily writing prompt
When do you feel most productive?
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Generally, I feel most productive when I’m in the act of producing something, but I have had some measure of success in tricking myself into feeling productive when I’m actually goofing off at high intensity.

PROMPT: Positive Thing

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Daily writing prompt
Describe a positive thing a family member has done for you.
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Not slapped me in my stupid face when I said or did something idiotic. (Or is that a “negative thing,” since it involved inaction, rather than action.) Anyhow, it always feels like a rather positive thing to me.

PROMPT: High School

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Daily writing prompt
Describe something you learned in high school.
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The one thing I learned in High School was that I really should have learned more than one thing in High School.

PROMPT: Pandemic

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Daily writing prompt
How have you adapted to the changes brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic?
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That’s so far in the rearview that I can’t remember. I’m thinking about the next one. It’ll be here before you know it.

I’m not quite sure what to do about it now that the CDC guidelines are to drink a shot of bleach each morning for the germs and take one bath in raw sewage before bedtime each evening for a robust immune system.

PROMPT: Laugh

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Daily writing prompt
What makes you laugh?
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Comedy… and select instances of tragedy.

Classing It Up [Lyric Poem]

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Photograph of "Le Toilet," a Mona Lisa-festooned Port-o-Potty in downtown Decatur, Georgia -- in front of the Old Courthouse.
One can't class up a Porta Potty
   With French or fancy works of art.
 For each is like a ghetto squatty
   Where one fears to sit... or even fart.

Patience [Senryū]

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Photograph of an Orb Weaver spider taken in Taroko Gorge, Taiwan.
Spider builds its web 
 line by line, and then waits;
  I watch for two minutes.