Notables Not Unpleasant to Know: Letters E and F

In his nonsense verse “How pleasant to know Mr. Lear” the popularizer of the limerick makes amusing observations about himself. In the octaves below readers are urged to discover equally intriguing characters who, it’s hoped, will prove just as amusing and, in the end, just as “not unpleasant to know.”


Not unpleasant to know? Mr. Eliot,*
for whose love songs folk failed to make beelines 
(“Prufrock” pruvin' confrusin' [sic]) till he at-
tempts his yack about practical felines.
After Cats – notwithstanding Tom's smelly at-
tire (he'd died) -- all applauded the work
of the pleasant-to-know Mr. Eliot --
though he'd driven his missus berserk.

     * T. S. Eliot (1888-1965)

Also pleasant to know: Mr. Eggers,*

sired by Lasiocampidae-Moth**
out of Cancer-Ward-Victim*** (poor beggars!)
Less had wrought any lesser man wroth.
Megan Abbott’s, “Dave’s stoic…” shows Meg**** errs:
There's much angst in A Heartbreaking Work…
and in pleasant-to-know Mr. Eggers.
(That's no smile: just Dave’s strife-induced smirk.)

     * Dave Eggers (1970-    )

     ** The Lasiocampidae are a family of moths also known as eggars.

     *** Both Dave's parents suffered cancer-related deaths.

     **** Author, journalist and blogger Megan Abbott

Not unpleasant to know? Mr. Fford,*

he who authored The Well of Lost Plots.**
Does the name 'Thursday Next'*** strike no chord?
For this heroine, who’s got no hots? 
Though Fforde now plays with sorc'ry and sword,
It’s his Thursday I like. How much? Lots!
Her and pleasant-to-know Mr. Fforde:
The pair ties me in "Ffordean" knots.

     * Jasper Fford 

     ** One of his most popular novels 

     *** The protagonist in Well and other novels

Also pleasant to know's Flann (O'Brien).*

His At Swim-Two-Birds Ms. Filipova**
translates (unless my Google be lyin')
as "Plavashtite Chavki." [Jee--hovah!!]
Dare one hope folks don't feel one's a fly in
storied oint when we point to the tipple
as what silenced once-pleasant O'Brien?
That...and cancer...and Dublin: banes triple!

     * One pseudonym of Brian O'Nolan

     ** Filipina Filipova is a Bulgarian-to-English translator

Not unpleasant to know? David Frishberg!

Though Dave's spinet piano sounds dandy,
David finds himself making this wish: "Erg-
onomicly plann'd ones: more handy?
If I play'd one, those sizeable fissures G-
od forbodes in my modes operandi
I’d avoid. Sigmund Freud!” raves Dave Frishberg.
(My advice? Buy a nice concert grand, D!)