Notable Nobs Not Unpleasant To Know: Letters T Thru Z

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 in-
pleasant to know? Mr. Thomas.
     Dylan 
slipped off the plate short of forty.
     Wrong's who 
tells Dylan's cells were found squamous:
     boozing 
into his brain led its sortie.
     Though 'twas 
left unfulfilled (Dylan's promise),
     and his 
shirts fell well short of the sporty,
     he was 
pleasant to know, was young Thomas.
     (And, though 
small, was but rarely called "Shorty.")

     Not un-
pleasant to know: Mr. Tillstrom...*

     Not un-
pleasant to know: Mr. Thurber.* 
     Among 
satirists, few be superber. 
     Jim kids 
Parker** (though not Edna Ferber***: 
     Dot warns, 
"Don't, Jim; 'twould only disturb her...").
     When brisk 
breezes blow fresh off the curb, er-
     mine cha-
peaus don yer Basque 'n' yer Berber --
     as does 
pleasant-to-know Mr. Thurber: 
     What all 
three chiefly need...? Warmer fur! Br-r-r-r-r...
     * James Thurber

     Not un-
pleasant to know: Unamuno...

    Not un- 
pleasant to know: Mr. Vonnegut,* 
     ak- 
a alter eg(g)' Kilgore Trout. 
     Not at 
all a cashew nor pecan-y nut,
     Kurt tells 
tales folks should not go without.
     Of Swift 
satire, the sine qua non, he; what
     he writes, 
readers tres "read"ily tout.
     In a 
nutshell: non-nutjob Kurt Vonnegut
     is what 
sensible nonsense be 'bout.
     * Kurt Vonnegut

     Not un-
pleasant to know: G. Verbeek*…
     * Gustave Verbeek  

     Not un-
pleasant to know: Mr. West...*
     * Colin West

     Not un-
pleasant to know: Mr. Waters...*
     * John Waters 

     Not un-
pleasant to know: Mr. Zappa,* 
     playing
Pap to Moon Unit and Dweezil.** 
     Only 
jocks spelling 'crocks' with a kappa
     have not
heard how Frank's flesh by a weasel 
     was once
ripped,*** or that s'rrounding his yap, a-
     ppeared black
hairs: a goatee**** oiled with diesel
     had the
pleasant-to-know Mr. Zappa --
     also
rubbed with Dipsacus (or teasel).*****
    * Frank Zappa 
     ** Frank's children also includ Diva.
     *** The "Weasels Ripped My Flesh" album was released by Frank's Mothers of Invention.
     **** Actually a so-called Imperial 
     ***** An Old World herb

      Not un-
pleasant to know: Lou Zukovsky. 
     True: Lou
penned not "A Po'm Endin' 'A,'"*
     nor sub-
jectivist stuff** trolling Love's Key;***
     still, he's
tres de regueur -- in his day. 
     Lou's en-
dowment? When push comes to shove, "'Skee"****
     shall be
shunned (should his son have his way*****). 
     Shame! Shall
pleasant-to-know Lou Zukovsky,
     like those
snark hunters, "vanish away"?******
     (Footnotes to come)

Notable Nobs Not Unpleasant To Know: Letter S

In his nonsense verse “How pleasant to know Mr. Lear,” that 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 in-
pleasant to know? Mr. Shakespeare, 
     virtu-
oso of sonnet and play. 
     His dra-
matics have got what it takes. Peer?
     Will brooks
none --now, nor back in the day. 
     As for 
verses, his stuff takes the cake -- sheer
     inspire-
ation in lyric and lay
     shows my
pleasant-to-know William Shakespeare.
     (About 
Will I get carried away.)

     Not un-
pleasant to know: Mr. Sime.*  
     Though Sime's
pictures and rhymes, in this clime, 
     yahoos
slime, (though no friend to them I'm),
     in Sime's 
prime, critics thought Sime sublime. 
     At that 
time, Sime's stuff tinkled their chime. 
     Now, to
mine (or mime) Sime be no crime -- 
     as I've
done in my homage to Sime, 
     knowing
Sime'd love my internal rhyme. 
     * Sidney Sime

     Not-un-
pleasant Sin-Leqi-Unnini* 
     made the
Mesopotamian scene. He,
     though a
scribe, had the requisite geni-
     us to 
pen** Gilgamesh. Though no genie
     would ap-
pear, Gil,*** Enkidu,**** and meanie
     bad Hum-
baba,***** his principal three, nea-
     tly suf-
ficed for Sin-Leqi-Unnini --
     although 
not for Doyle's Adler (Irene).****** 
     ****** Several alternate last lines, appearing in various mss, are extant. Here are ten: 
(1) "...not so for Mother Cabrini." 
(2) "...not Benvenuto Cellini." 
(3) "...not G. Lorenzo Bernini." 
(4) "...not Federico Fellini." 
(5) "...not for TV's 'Time for Beany.'" 
(6) "...not so for James Gandolfini." 
(7) "... not for now dead Seamus Heaney." 
(8) "...not for that bastard Dick Cheney." 
(9) "...not so for 'I Dream of Jeannie.'" 
(10) "...not for the Trib's 'Teenie Weenie.'" 
Anybody aware of lines not listed here is urged to contact the editors.

     Not un-
pleasant to know: Serafini*… 
     * Luigi Serafini  

     Not un-
pleasant to know: Smithe-Magee,* 
     nor's that
blog he calls "Plays Well With Letters," 
     wherein's 
fashioned much verse ABC
     which bur-
lesques les bon mots of his betters. 
     Dare to 
download this doggerel key,
     thus un-
fastening psyche-forged fetters
     so dis-
paraged by N. Smithe-Magee,
     who shouts, 
"All musketeers -- ALL -- shall get the'rs!"
     * Sgt. N. (“Jim”)  Smithe-Magee (the N stands for 'Nonsense')

(i)

     Not un-
pleasant to know? Stevie Smith,
    who was 
nicknamed -- though not christened -- Stevie. 
     That she 
was christened so? Merely myth
     spread by 
George Orwell. Who could believe he
     might at 
all "thtutter thumething like thith"?
     Such as-
sertions would seem so-o-o-o pet-peavey
     to the 
sadly eccentric Ms. Smith.
     (Glenda 
Jackson played Stevie -- on TV.)

(ii)

     Not un-
pleasant to know: Stevie Smith,
     a past 
mistress of serio-clowning.
     Though Ms. 
Smith's no poetical Sith*,
     she was 
found more than frequently frowning.
     She, when 
quizzed, "Where's your pulp? Where's your pith?"
     might re-
spond, "Not at Number 10 Downing" --
     might the 
variegated Ms. Smith,
     self-con-
fessed as "not waving but drowning."

     Not un-
pleasant to know: Dave Sedaris.* 
     Every 
word David's heard while in Paris  
     ('ligne 
claire' is one; one 'debonnaire' is; 
     one is 
'pere', one the nom 'Moliere' is;
     'c'est la 
gare's one, another 'ma mere' is): 
     put to
use fast and loose by Sedaris -- 
     though he'd
never endeavor to 'mbarrass.
     * David Sedaris

     Not un-
pleasant to know: Dr. Swift.* 
     I quite
like him, though’d not wish to've been him.
     Dr. 
Swift grants to humans short shrift,
     i.e., 
hates 'em -- preferring the Houyhnhnm. 
     Though of
Travels he's made us a gift,
     hold on,
mate, please to wait just one minim:
     although
pleasant to know, Doctor Swift
    fails to
undo the Yahoo within him.
     * Jonathan Swift

     Not un-
pleasant to know? Mr. Sellers...* 
     * Peter Sellers 

     Not un-
pleasant to know? Mr Secombe...*
     * Harry Secombe

     Not un-
pleasant to know: Mr. Snicket…
     * Lemony Snicket

     Not un-
pleasant to know: E. Satie,* 
     who com-
posed his Gymnopedies three.
     In his 
first, the subdominant G
     sounds, re-
ciprocally, with the D. 
     Orches-
trations? By Claude Debussy.
    Once, when 
visiting Erik's crib, he**
    hung a-
round, dug Sat's sound, and took tea.
     They, though 
flawed, suited Claude to a T --
     all but 
"Two": he preferred "One" and "Three"
     so he 
skipped "Number Two"***: c'est la vie!" 
     As for 
pleasant-to-know M Satie,
     he dug 
minimalism...like me!)
     * Eric Satie

     Not un-
pleasant to know: Mr. Sandberg...* 
     * Carl Sandberg

     Not un- 
pleasant to know: Mr. Sterne...* 
     * Laurence Sterne 

     Not un- 
pleasant to know: Gertrude Stein,
     who bought
art, but just top of the line
     paintings --
upwards of seventy-nine.
     (Gert's Pi-
cassos? Especially fine.
     His "The 
Architect's Table"? Divine!).
     But Gert's
poetry? Less than benign,
     like when
pleasant-to-know Gertrude Stein
     penned, "Blush
wine be blush wine be blush wine..."*

     * Here the editor offers his own riff on a famous Stein line -- one he apparently misremembers as "A rosé is a rosé is a rosé." 

     Not un-
pleasant to know: Mr. Sokol...* 
     * Alan Sokol

Notable Nobs Not Unpleasant To Know: Letters Q & R

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 un-
pleasant to know.? Ray Queneau,*
     our ou-
vroir de potentielle fons.**
     Were each 
stich of this lyric sans 'o,'     
     'twould make 
lays*** to which Ray’s group responds.***
     As one 
sees, though, here 'o's overflow,
     bursting 
lipogrammatical bonds.
     One feels 
sorrow for narrow Queneau:
     lack of 
'o's just aren’t sine qua nons. 
     * Raymond Queneau 
     ** Short for Ouvroir de literature potentielle, which is long for Oulipo, the clearing house for creators of so-called constrained writing. ‘Fons’ is short for fons et origo -- i.e., source and origin. 
     *** Queneau and his pals are fond of lipograms, one form of constrained writing.
     **** Some mss show 'hay' here. but only in clement weather.

     Not un-
pleasant to know: Rabelais,* 
     sire to
Pantagruel...and to Gargantua. 
     (He was
born near Chiron -- so they say --
     which ex-
plains why he weren't born near Mantua.) 
     You may
read his best efforts some day. 
     But be
warned: don't bite more than you can chew: a 
     bit of
Rabelais goes a long way...
     and oft-
times smells not unlike a Cannes sewer. 
     * Francois Rabelais 

     Not un-
pleasant to know: Mr Ray...  
     * Sukumar Ray

     Not un-
pleasant to know: Mr. Raine…
     * Craig Raine

     Not un-
pleasant to know: Mr. Reid... 
     * Christopher Reid

     Not un-
pleasant to know: Mister Ron...  
     * Ron Evry

     Not un-
pleasant to know? Monsieur Remi,* 
     he who 
brings us jeune journalist Tintin.
     Georges a 
Nazi? Nope, not even demi-,
     (though Le 
Soir Herge did do a stint in). 
     Nonethe-
less, even Eva Braun's hem he
     would have 
fled before fing'ring the lint in. 
     Inks no 
ligne claire swastiks does Remi,
     nor risks 
rides in doomed airship -burg (Hinden-).
     * M Georges Prosper Remi aka Herge