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Saturday, March 19, 2022

Gals, Guys & Gigs

     Professor of Barrier Reef Ecology:
Beulah Goone

     Teddy Roosevelt Biographer
Carrie A. Biggs-Dick: 

     Logistics Specialist
Moe d'Zopperandy

     Stand Up Comic
Liev M. Laphin: 

     Former Chinese Ambassador to France
Ho ("Ralph") Wa

Thursday, March 10, 2022

'-od's 'n' '-en's: 3/13ths of an ABC (11)

Arthropod as word ends ‘-od’; 

as bug, it's flaw'd 'cuz shodd'ly shod. 

Bogeymen as word ends ‘-en’; 

as trolls, they're less-than-pleasant men.

Cattle prod as word ends ‘-od’; 

as used, 'twill bruise a bovine's bod. 

Denizen as word ends '-en’; 

as citizen, was alien.

Emerod as word ends '-od';

as sore, it's more an act of God.

Foramen as word ends '-en';

as cut, it's...but that, fratr,' were then...

Sunday, March 6, 2022

Makin' You-Know-What (11)

Whoopee!, a musical produced by Flo Ziegfeld and

Sam Goldwyn and featuring the song "Makin' Whoopee,"

opened at the New Amsterdam, Broadway's oldest theatre,

in 1928. Three years later Emma Harris, Whoopi Goldberg's

mother, was born.


Within Savannah's vast savanna 

roosts the grus americana 

aka the whooping crane. 

For years, that plain proves crane’s domain. 


One year land ships. Sick souls slip off. 

(It seems same suffer whooping cough.) 

They hack. And honk. And then they “whoop!” 

(Flo Ziegfeld croons, “They’ve got the croup.”)

 

Said Ziegfeld, Goldwyn – Flo ‘n’ Sam -- 

in Times Square’s old New Amsterdam, 

near 1928 (or so), 

make Whoopee! -- does same Sam ‘n’ Flo.

 

(What else, in 1928, 

makes '28 again so great...? 

A company call’d Berwick Cake 

brands Whoopie Pies, for heaven’s sake.)

 

It twice three half-years later when 

is Emma Harris (years from then 

who births one Whoopi (different spelling))

born. [Excuse my tell: I’m kvelling.]


Ancient Romes and Middle Ages

flatulence find "all the rages." 

Whoopee cushions, farty bags 

and pootin' blasters* -- many tags --

 

...monopolize the fart-joke scene...

till Jared “Whoopee!” Kushner’s seen 

to 'surp their spot. So: “whoop-dee-do!”...? 

Says I, “big whoop!”’s more like. Don't you...?


* That the pootin' blaster bears any relationship

to the dear leader of Russia remains unverified.

Thursday, March 3, 2022

Merry in March! (11)

Put Christ back into Christmas!
Then complete the double play:
Remove Don from Donner!
Now, enjoy your holiday!

Wednesday, March 2, 2022

Lines Alter'd, Lines Dropp'd (11)

     From William Wordsworth's poem "Daffodils" 
originally entitled "Daffy Dilys: Indentured Char"  

I wandered lonely as a cloud
who'd launder'd only Massa's shroud...

     From Walt Whitman's book of verse "Drum Taps" 
originally entitled "Bum Raps: Wrongfully Jailed Florae" 

When lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed
then lied back, cast into the boneyard -- doom'd...

Christmas Day: A Mare Egg...

     "A Mare Egg, Her Wrist, "Miss Two 'U'"