While primarily known as a poet and translator of Dante’s Divine Comedy, he also wrote several volumes of children’s poetry and contributed to the Saturday Review as a columnist and long-time poetry editor. I could continue with all of his accomplishments but they are endless. In 1981 he co-authored a book, LIMERICKS, with his friend Isaac Asimov. It was called a “War of Words (limericks)” and makes for a great read. Two utterly famous men who absolutely loved writing limericks just for fun.
I’d like to introduce to you Mr. Edward Lear. He was a prolific writer of hundreds of limericks in the early days. They are much milder in content than what we are currently seeing. Enjoy!
I pride myself on having a huge and varied collection of limericks as you well know. Most of them are very old with the identity of the writers long forgotten. For the next two weeks I’ll be highlighting some of the more famous limerick writers with samples of their work. Most were well known poets, writers, and authors. Some of their limericks will be off-color and a bit sexual so I recommend that younger children be monitored. Over the next two weeks you’ll be introduced to some of histories best limerick authors. I hope you enjoy them as much as I have.
The first thing I’d like to do is give you a short history lesson on limericks because they’ve been around a lot longer than you might think. The first known limericks appeared in the early 18th century and they just happened to be written in French (and they weren’t called limericks then). Around that same time the Irish Brigade was serving in France (1691 to 1780). The short poems were eventually imported to Limerick, Ireland where their current name originated. Edward Lear 1812-1888, initially wrote many rather mild limericks. It wasn’t until the Victorian Era that the citizenry seized upon the limerick as a way to vent as many four-letter words as possible, much to the delight of young schoolboys. It seems that the bawdiest limericks of that time tended to be written by the British. A few samples of Lear’s tamer limericks will be featured in my next post in two days.
Here is a sample a moderately bawdy limerick of the era:
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Said a widow whose singular vice
Was to keep her dead husband on ice,
“It’s been hard since I lost him.
I’ll never defrost him,
Cold comfort, but cheap at the price.”
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My next post will be an introduction to Edward Lear who authored many limericks over many years.
As some of you will remember, I search constantly to find and purchase old books. I recently received one of the strangest books I’ve ever seen. The book is titled BIZARRE BOOKS – A COMPENDIUM OF CLASSIC ODDITIES. As we all know almost anyone can write a book. Some become famous and sell millions of copies but then there are these others. This book is a collection of nothing but book titles going back hundreds of years and to say some are strange is an understatement as you will see. I’ll be posting on more of these titles in the future after I finish reading the book. Todays topic concerns 15 book titles containing blatant Double Entendre. Here goes northing . . .
Just another cold and crappy day in Maine and if you want live here you’d better learn to love this insane winter weather. I seem to run a bit slower when it’s cold and nasty and my desire to post long and involved articles has disappeared. Today will be another “mish/mosh” of interesting and sometimes strange facts you may not be familiar with. Here we go . . . .
The continent with the highest literacy rate is Antarctica.
The country of Saudi Arabia really does import a better quality sand to make glass.
The Smithsonian archives allegedly hold a jar containing a rubber mold of John Dillinger’s penis.
The United States bought Alaska from Russia for a price that equated to under two cents per acre.
Soviet scientists once tried to create a human/chimpanzee hybrid. It failed.
Confederate general Robert E. Lee didn’t own slaves, but Union general Ulysses S. Grant did.
People in the Roman Empire actually used human urine as mouthwash.
Adolph Hitler had a nephew, William Hitler, AKA William Stuart-Houston, who served in the U.S Navy during the war.
The kazoo was invented by a gentleman named Alabama Vest.
During WW1 Americans referred to sauerkraut as “liberty cabbage”.
❤️MY FAV❤️
The male Argonaut Octopus mates by detaching it’s sex organ and flinging it towards the female.
We’re three days into the new year which naturally demands a fresh batch of cute and bawdy limericks. These might be considered unacceptable for the younger children so DON’T LET THEM READ THEM. I’d rate them as “PG”, so consider yourself warned. Here we go . . .
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There was a young sailor named Bates
Who did the fandango on skates.
He fell on his cutlass
Which rendered him nutless
And practically useless on dates.
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I lost my arm in the army,
I lost my leg in the navy,
I lost my balls
Over Niagra Falls,
And I lost my cock in a lady.
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A lady both athletic and handsome
Got wedged in her bedrooms transom.
When she offered much gold
For release, she was told
That the view was worth more than the ransom.
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There was a young maid from Madras
Who had a magnificent ass;
Not rounded and pink,
As you’d probably think –
It was gray, had long ears, and ate grass.
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And here’s a fav from a long-term recovering Catholic.
Now that Christmas has come and gone once again, things can get back to abnormal. The holidays are always stressful no matter how well you prepare and I discovered early in life that bringing a group of family members together is fraught with danger and the likelihood of old personality disputes’ becoming a real possibility. Fortunately this year we successfully avoided that sort of nonsense. My better-half and I are now kicking back and trying to relax a little as I’m sure you are as well. Todays post is just what this blog is all about – EVERYUSELESSTHING. This is an easy way for me to relax, collect my thoughts, and continue on to the next holiday, on that never-ending list of #@%!*% holidays. Welcome to my post-Christmas MISH/MOSH.
Former Beatles drummer, Ringo Starr, was the original narrator of the children’s television show, Thomas the Tank Engine.
During mating season, lions can have sex dozens of time every day. (I’m so jealous.)
Beavers’ butts taste like vanilla, “Kinda sorta”, since their anal glands secret a substance used in the manufacture of artificial vanilla flavorings. (Yum!)
An ostrich can easily kick a human to death.
Catherine the Great had an entire room in her palace that contained erotic furniture emblazoned with penises and vaginas. (My queen!)
The lighter was invented before the match. It was created in 1823 and called Dobereiner’s Lamp. Friction matches were not invented until 1826.
When you perform an action, neurons fire in your brain. Those same neurons fire when you’re watching someone perform the same action.
The Heimlich Maneuver wasn’t invented until the 1970’s. Henry Heimlich published the first paper on it in 1974.
Phobophobia is suffered by a person who is afraid of fear.
Pope Gregory IX once declared black cats to be the incarnation of Satan resulting in the killing of an unknown number of cats. Unfortunately they weren’t available to then help control the rat population which may have contributed to the spread of the Black Death. (Religious zealot: My opinion)
I’ve always been a huge fan of westerns especially those starring John Wayne and Clint Eastwood. The western genre has also been exported to the entire planet making it possible to see many fans wearing boots and cowboy hats even in Japan. We’re in the final days leading up to the holiday and what better way to relax from all of the Christmas insanity, than to take a short mental trip to the Old West by way of limericks. These should be considered “PG”. Enjoy . . . Partner!
Here are a few random trivia facts to start off your weekend.
The Bryan Adams” famous song “Summer of 69” is named after the sex act, not the year.
The very first television commercial was for watches and aired in 1941.
Actor Jim Caviezel was struck by lightning while portraying Jesus in the movie Passion of the Christ.
The word “Fuck” was once said 935 times in a movie: Swearnet, The Movie.
Steven Spielberg submitted the movie, Schindler’s List as his final project for film school.
President John Adams had a dog named Satan.
It has been estimated that in1939, the first televised football was watched by approximately 1,000 viewers.
The objects humans have sent to space include pictures of human sex organs, sea urchin sperm, a pizza, the remains of the man who discovered Pluto, and Elon Musk’s Tesla car.
When a worker bee mates with the queen his penis explodes.
The capital of Nevada is actually west of Los Angeles.
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And here’s one that hits close to home.
Marijuana and the hops in beer come from the same plant family.
I’ve been posting quite a few quizzes in recent months with some truly difficult answers. Todays quiz is a general knowledge quiz from the 1960’s and the answers should be somewhat easier to remember unless you were a teenager during that time. Drugs will do that to anyone’s memory. As always the answers will be listed below.
Which Academy-Award winning film about two misfits was originally rated X?
What Nobel Prize winning author shot himself to death in 1961?
What animal did the Yippies run for president in 1968?
What disastrous military maneuver did the US back in 1961?
What was the center piece of the Seattle World Fair?
TWIGGY
What London street rose to prominence in the fashion conscious 60’s?
Which member of the Kennedy family survived the crash of a small plane?
What was the better-known name of the decades most famous model, Lesley Hornby?
What was the fourth nation to detonate a nuclear bomb?
Complete this anti-war chant, Hell, no . . .”
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🥎My Required Baseball Item🥎
Name the two Yankee baseball players who chased Babe Ruth’s homerun record in 1961?
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Answers
Midnight Cowboy, Ernest Hemingway, A Pig, The Bay of Pigs invasion, The Space Needle, Carnaby, Ted Kennedy, Twiggy, China, . . . we won’t go!, Roger Maris & Mickey Mantle.
everyuselessthing.com 