Dials

My clever son made these from re-cycled biscuit tins. I just thought I'd share it with you. Its for his "A" level art project.

The Penguin Book of Comic and Curious Verse

The Penguin Book of Comic and Curious Verse isn’t exactly an attention grabbing title. Nor is the cover very exciting, although for we older readers the distinctive pattern does bring a waft of nostalgia. And if you ignore this book you won’t actually be in peril. But this collection of poems selected by J.M.Cohen, and its younger sister, Yet More Comic and Curious Verse, is a veritable treasure chest of chuckles, an Aladdin’s Cave of comicality, a cornucopia of pleasure and er… well… it’s full of good stuff, Much of it comic and the rest, well, at the very least, curious.

There are limericks:
There was a young lady from Wantage
Of whom the town clerk took advantage
Said the borough surveyor:
Indeed you must pay ’er.
You’ve totally altered her frontage!”

Treats from Ogden Nash:
I think that I shall never see
A billboard lovely as a tree
Perhaps, unless the billboards fall,
I’ll never see a tree at all.

There are famous parodies such as Father William by Lewis Carroll:
“You are old, Father William,” the young man said,
“And your hair has become very white;
And yet you incessantly stand on your head –
Do you think at your age, it is right?”
So famous is this spoof, of course, that these days it is much better known than the original.

And poems by the Grandfather of the Pun, Thomas Hood (1789 – 1845):Ben Battle was a soldier bold,
And used to war’s alarms;
But a cannon-ball took off his legs,
So he laid down his arms.

The Penguin Book of Comic and Curious Verse lives on a shelf by my bed and I often dip into it before (never after) turning out the light. The book was published in 1952 – and my version reprinted in 1958. Next time you are passing a second hand book shop, pop in, see if you can find a copy and treat yourself. Mine cost a pound from just such an establishment which I think is amazing value.

The 25th

Christmas is Really Fantastic

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aNOtHEr fIlLEt fROm ThE mAGpIE cOLlEctiVe.

Have a Beatley Crimble!

and a Proposterous New Year to all my blogging chums!

The Twelve Days of Christmas Lament

On the twelve days of Christmas my true-love gave to me

some very nice presents but now it’s February

and the twelve drummers drumming are driving me insane

and the neighbours keep complaining and I've got an aching brain

but at least the leaping lords have gone, they leapt over the wall

and my true-love’s presents would be fine if my house was not so small

We've only got two bedrooms and the drummers sleep in one

In the other are the dancing girls which sounds like lots of fun

but I have to share under the stairs with the milkmaids and the hoover

and what with the urns and the cow and all, there’s not much room to manoeuvre

At least they’re up at the crack of dawn and a few winks I can steal

Until the geese start cackling. Goose eggs for every meal?

And we can’t coax the partridge down from the pear tree – Lord, we’ve tried

and the constant drumming upset the doves who commited suicide

and the swans swam off, well who can blame them? Lord what a palava!

The calling birds and hens were freed by a man in a balaclava

The best present was the five gold rings which I sold for quite a lot.

Next year I'd like something useful, please.

Like a holiday somewhere hot.

by Roger Stevens

A Feast of Posters

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aNOtHEr dIp INtO ThE mAGpIE mEMOrY pOOoL.

A Feast of Posters

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aNOtHEr drIp INtO ThE mIldEw pIDdLe.

A Feast of Posters

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aNOtHEr dIp INtO ThE mAGpIE mEMOrY pOOoL.

I have Never Seen a Straight Banana

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aNOtHEr dIp INtO ThE mURkEy MudDLe.