lim•er•ick (n.)

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The WORDmeister Notes: The WORD returns refreshed from his hiatus at St. Mumbles Home for the Terminally Verbose, only to find the world much as he left it. So it goes. Somehow, trampling the pristine fields of a brand new year with limericks seems fitting. The pristine will quickly turn messier. As Tiny Tim once observed, “God help us, every one!” Happy New Year.

   
There once was a man from Nantucket . . . 

In news that may or may not be important to WORDsters in a troubled world comes a story about Chris Strolin, an apparently sane man in Belleville, Illinois, who has spent the last 13 years defining the world through limericks.

“He started with the word ‘a’ — ‘It’s used with a noun to convey/ A singular notion/ Like “a duck” or “a potion”’ . . .  

“The Omnificent English Dictionary in Limerick Form (OEDILF) has published more than 97,000 rhyming definitions since Strolin started it in 2004. The retired Air Force radio operator . . . says his project is on track to publish its 100,000th limerick in the coming year.”

—Russ Bynum, reporter, “Definition mission: A rhyming limerick for each English word,” Associated Press, Dec. 28, 2017.

• Editorial Comment: Oy.


PeezPix by Ted Pease

Man and His Muse Confront a New Year












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Ted Pease, Professor of Interesting Stuff, Trinidad, California. (Be)Friend The WORD

“I don’t think writers are sacred, but words are. They deserve respect. If you get the right ones, in the right order, you can nudge the world a little.” —Tom Stoppard