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Friday, April 23, 2021

Asking The Answer Dude, Episode 42 (Unpub)

     Ms. Query Person: 

     So, Mister Answer Dude, can you tell me the real story in  
back of all those holes I see -- six rows of three alternating 
with four rows of two -- punctuating the pair of my saltines...?

     Mr. Answer Dude: 

     Those microscopic dimples displayed in elegant array 
across the face of your standard double cracker total 26 -- 
prior to the whole being crumbled into some soup or other. 
The 26 holes deliver silent reminder of all the differing 
iterations of bouillons and borschts, of gumbos and gruels 
into which you could find yourself executing a crumble.

Soup's On!


 


Thursday, April 1, 2021

Hola, Holoalpha! (Unpub)

'Pix* of zombie Jew knockin' in lead run
very quick puts an end to the game' 
mimics 'rhombicubocta-(Ben)-hedron.' 
(Both bazorgt be, to pangrams proclaim.)
 
     * Both the sentence and the word 
contained within single quotes above are 
pangramatic in that each contains all 
26 letters of the alphabet.

Uly Poe holding his own 26-sided
Archimedean solid shabbily constructed
using old copy paper, masking tape,
pencils and a chemical marker.



Monday, March 29, 2021

Wolaly One > Ten: A Jump Rope Rhyme (Unpub)

     There's always more than one way to get there. 

One's but one. One stands alone.
Two's an ore. At heart, it's stone.
Three's an ort, a scrap of meat.
Four's an oat, the grain I eat. 
Five...? Five sat -- a moment's rest
Six...? "The sun set in the west." 
Seven -- see...? They're seven seas. 
Eight's a fee. Just pay it, please! 
Nine's a fen. It's land...? All wet.
Ten's a ten. The best...? You bet!

Wednesday, March 24, 2021

Canonagrams or Books They Might Have Written (Unpub)

Jane Austin: Injun At Sea
Samuel Beckett: Let 'Em Back...? Es tu...?
Joseph Conrad: Corpse on Hadj
Don DeLillo: No Deli, Doll!
Ralph Waldo Emerson: Howl, Demon! Rape, Pals! 
William Faulkner: Lawn Milk...? Failure!
Graham Greene: Her Garage, Men!
Ernest Hemingway: He's Wearing My Net!
Eugene Ionesco: No, No... I Cue Geese!
Henry James: My Jeans; Her _______
Rudyard Kipling: I Play'd Kurd "Ring"
C. S. Lewis: Swel! (Sic)
Philip Larkin: Pink Hair Pill
Herman Melville: Leave Mr. M____ In Hell!
Vladimir Nabokov: Mr. A, Invalid (Book V)
Eugene O’Neill: I (NĂ© Lee) Lounge
Harold Pinter: In Her Old Part
Quintilian: I Quilt, Nina
Salman Rushdie: Sure, Man: Al's Hid![JH1] 
William Shakespeare: I'll Share a Peek, Swami!
Mark Twain: Mink at War!
Sigrid Undset: I Git ‘Undress’d’
Jules Verne: Le Jeu” (vers N)
Virginia Woolf: Living for Iowa
Xenephon: "Open Hen 'X'!”
William Butler Yeats: Yes, I Will, Ma...but Later!
Emile Zola: I'm Loleeza
 

 [JH1]

Monday, March 22, 2021

Constrained Celebrity: An Alphabet (in progress)

"Absolute zero's one get-go,* albeit a bleak..."  
specs Alexis,** who's married with children and swears, "Yeah, I’m Greek.”   
     * Possibly the so-called Great Get-Go, 
often confused with the Big Bang.
     ** Zorba (AZ)
 
"Be yourself! (HO* whom else would you be…?" asks (rhetoric'lly) Boris.**  
"To be anyone else might cause Mother*** some serious tsoris."
     * Russian Cyrillics for 'but' and pronounced
(roughly) 'noh.'
     * Yeltsin (BY)
     *** Mother Russia, of course.
 
"Contemn xenophobes! Contemn..." Rhumba King Cugat* repeats.  
(Just as he would be treated, each stranger this vir bonus** treats.)  
     * Xavier (CX (reverso))
     ** What the good man does is always right –
or so (someplace) suggest the Brothers Grimm.
 
"Dwithout! Pledge thy pounds to the poor," warbles Dionne* (a song bird),  
though 'tis Bacharach (Burt) who will best teach her right word from wrong word.
     * Warwick (DW)  
 
"’Every valley exalted shall be; every rough place made plain...’:   
I would dance thee that text," Edward* vows, "but in Balanchine vein."
     * Villella (EV)  
 
"I’m fed up! UFOs, URLs, UXBs..." fumes our Felix.*
"In the end, all they yield is some abecedarial helix."
     * Unger (FU) 
 
"Gin and tonic plus juice of one lime: pour the lot over ice..." 
prescribes Gene.* "Good advice," echoes Gene.** "To: innocuous vice!" 
     * Tierney (GT) 
     ** Tunney (GT)
 
"He v she…? The distinction's ambiguous," challenges Holly.* 
So (s)he's Shlomo. Still, what's in a name…? 'So long, Sol; hello, Dolly.'
     * Sweet (HS) 
 
"IRobot, rest my case," in tones Rumpolean
roars Irene.* "I'd rap it, were I Rock 'n' Rollean."
     * Ryan (IR) 
 
"John Quincey ain't the seventh Chief Exec," corrects Jose.*
"He's sixth, post James Monroe…but what the heck!" (More: what the 
hey!!)
     * Quintero (JQ) 
 
"Key personnel…? Kevin…? Paul…? Rajon…? Ray…?" Kendrick* wonders.
Then Perk's traded, which trade shall yet prove one of Bean Town's big blunders. 
     * Perkins (KP)
 
Leigh/Olivier,* Lunt/Fontaine. Which duo's dropp’d from the list
of great thespian pairs…? Jolie/Pitt…? LOL! THEY'D be miss'd…?
     * (LO) 
 
"Mach'avellian, not to say cynical: 'twas just her way..." 
muses Mike,* as he pegs one-time partner, the late Elaine May.
     * Nichols (MN) 
 
"Not much!" mutters Norman,* when asked if he liked married life. 
 "Good when naked, but less good when deadmuch depends on the wife."
     * Mailer (NM) 
 
Ozymandias: "Look on my burg, Mr. Big, and despair!"
(Or Orlando*: "Give ear to my music...or not: I don't care.") 
     * Lasso (OL)
 
[PK: Percy Kilbride]
[QJ: Quincy Jones]
[RI: Robert Ingersoll]
[SH: Sam Houston]
[TG: Theodor Geisel]
[UF: Ugo Foscolo]                    
[VE: V. Emmanuel]
[WD: W. Demarest]
[XC: Claudio Ximenes (reverso)]                  
[YB: Yul Brynner or Yogi Berra]
[ZA: Zufer Avdija (NBA power forward 
and father of current Wizards player 
Deni Avdija]

Rat Dance: Chemical Paint Aerosol Sprayed Through Paper Stencil Onto Painted Salvaged Lumber For Miniature Decorated Baltimore Salt Box



7" x 3 1/4"


Monday, March 15, 2021

A Quintet Of 'Oscar Wilde' Anagrams

     Oscar Wilde
Oscar party games would play.
“Pick any card, sir,” Oscar'd say,
devoid of all frivolity.
“On each be writ the quality
Dame Destiny ascribes to you.
Scoff not, my friend. Her cards speak true."
(Young Aubrey Beardsley drew ‘precocial.’
Ross drew ‘loyal.’ Wilde 
     drew ‘social.’)

     Oscar Wilde 
Says O, "I'm mad for skinny lads.
'Mongst linguists, lean's oft barr'd:
wi' Chomsky's girth's pack'd meager mirth,
as is 
     wi' Eco's lard."

     Oscar Wilde
O to Doctor Fauci: "Doc, could I have overheard
your asking Ronny Jackson if with Debra he's conferr'd
to determine posilutely if immunity's gone herd...?
(And if, within Drumpf's Oval bin, Don asks, 
     'Is 'cel' a word...?')...?"

      Oscar Wilde
"Proof Olympus hugs spinoffs 
of Parkinson's law...? 
Search no further," shrugs Oscar, "than 
      Io's red claw."

     Oscar Wilde
O's green cuisine 
commands the prize.
He's Edna Lewis, 
     col'ard-wise.

Sunday, March 14, 2021

Another 'Oscar Wilde' Anagram

      Oscar Wilde 
Wilde courted the Muses. ('Tis said
Oscar even took Thalia to bed.)
Euterpe was pleased. Terpsichore...? Teased.
But Erato and 
     Clio saw red.

Tuesday, March 2, 2021

Anagrams Around "The Railway Children" (Unpub)

     E. Nesbit:
With footballer Billy a surname she shares.
But Bill: he ain't E., though -- agree…?
As those Nesbits do, Cummingses name-share as well.
('Tis bene:
     B.* isn’t ee.)

    * The actor (that's Bob aka Robert) must never 
be confused with the famous lower-case-initialed 
poet lest cultural chaos ensue -- agree...?

Saturday, February 27, 2021

Crossbreeds: a Halfabet

The Allimony   The Babbit   The Cassowole   The Dingoebary   The Efterveasant
The Fleabertyjivet   The Gob'legook   The Hedgemone   The Inchubator
The Jack'l-a-box   The Kahuna   The Lampreydusa   The Mackaroon   
The Nar-do-welle   The Orang-jul'yess   The Pandamonium
The Qualifying Rhound   The Ringmarole   The Sardsporilla   The Thigmajig
The Undiewear   The Voleswagon   The Whippoorsnaptor   The Xylophrone
The Yakeedoodle   The Zoobeeyak 



Wednesday, February 24, 2021

First...Then...: An Alfabot

At first a little 
then alot 
upon his wienie, 
on his Brät.
At first avec- 
then sans-culotte. 
At first she can 
then she cannot 
treat MASD -- 
or dry rot –
in Binghamton 
or Endicott.
What flowers first 
in a flower pot 
may migrate 
to a garden spot
where mornings chilly 
soon grow hot.
Amin an Einstein...? 
No he's not. 
But nor's he 
not an Idi-ot.
At first Bahama 
then Grande Jatte. 
At first taekwond- 
but then karat-. 
At first unsnarl'd 
then in a knot.
At first Methus'lah; 
later Lot.
At first de Sade 
but then Marat. 

(a work in progress)

Litany Chanted Over Schrödinger's Box

Is he dead yet...? 'Yes' or 'No'...?  All'd 'God Bless!' if 'Yes,' you know.  Is he dead yet...? Don...