DISCUSSION — May 2018 75-Word Writing Challenge

[The Judge]

However I'd never heard of the purple cow poems. Sadly, if I've understood my googling right, the author threatens to kill you if you quote them. In his case this would be from beyond the grave. I'm not about to risk it.

Those are they!

 

[Ursa major]

who else knows the two "purple cow" verses

I'll get back to you: the lines are only gradually surfacing, and only one word at a time (and not necessarily in the correct order).

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Three of us know it!

Next up, who else knows the two "purple cow" verses?! (No connection at all with the fleas one, and a wholly different level of daft!)

Oi! indeed. Make that four.

Embarrassingly, I'd have said, off the top of my head, that both the fleas and the cow were Ogden Nash, and it turns out neither one was. Sigh.

I do have a purple cow, though. I'll add a picture.

 

[Graymalkin]

Chris, I was going to quote that verse, too -- we're probably the only two people on Chrons who knew it!

Oh you've done it right and proper. I'm five.

 

[The Judge]

Goodness, who'd have thought so many of us would be knowledgeable about ad infinitum fleas! (Six so far, since we mustn't forget Hugh in our counting.)

 

[Phyrebrat]

Congratulations CC. A steaming victory

In case it gets brought up, I was playing yang to your yin this month so my zero votes counts as a win

pH

 

[TheDustyZebra]

This was from a diner somewhere in New Mexico (obviously), where my mother and I stopped on our travels. They were on the tables, and also sold in the gift shop to prevent enamored folks such as us from stealing them off the tables. It’s for cream, in case that’s not evident. I, of course, was heavily taken by the poem at that age, and had to have one. And so I do.

 

[The Judge]

Words fail me!

(I've wanted a cow creamer since reading about them in a Bertie Wooster story, but the ones I'm lusting after are more like this Creamer (vessel) - Wikipedia or silver.)

 

[M. Robert Gibson]

we're probably the only two people on Chrons who knew it

You can add me to the offended list!

To be fair, I would think a site such as this which attracts more than its fair share of literary types is bound to have a high percentage of folks familiar with such quotes. Maybe we should start a new thread trying to outwit one another with obscure quotes and their authors.

As a taster, here's one that's stuck with me for years:
A peculiar bird is the pelican
Its beak can hold more than its belly can

I've just looked it up, and it is slightly misquoted and I would have put money on the author being Milligan or Lear. Nope!

 

[The Judge]

It can hold in its beak
Enough food for a week
But I'm damned if I know how the hell it can!

 

[TheDustyZebra]

Yet another fine Ogden Nash poem that isn't. Gahhhhh.

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Thank you Shyrka, thank you Phryebrat. I'm sure you're right about the yin and yang of it, pH - I just know it's rare when my vote fu defeats you.

 

[chrispenycate]

Well, I obviously didn't know it all that well; apparently it's:
Siphonaptera by the mathematician Augustus De Morgan,

Big fleas have little fleas upon their backs to bite 'em,
And little fleas have lesser fleas, and so, ad infinitum.
And the great fleas, themselves, in turn, have greater fleas to go on;
While these again have greater still, and greater still, and so on. ​

and taken from Jonathan Swift's 'On Poetry: a Rhapsody':​

The vermin only teaze and pinch
Their foes superior by an inch.
So, naturalists observe, a flea
Has smaller fleas that on him prey;
And these have smaller still to bite 'em,
And so proceed ad infinitum.
Thus every poet, in his kind,
Is bit by him that comes behind

Don't know about purple cows, though.

 

[The Judge]

I've never seen a purple cow
I hope I never see one.
But I can tell you anyhow
I'd rather see than be one.

Which goes double for the one TDZ possesses!

 

[Parson]

Hey, I knew the Purple Cow one. But like TDZ I would have sworn it was Ogden Nash. One I'm sure is his, from memory only:

It rainth on the just
and on the unjust (fella)
but chiefly (mostly) on the just
For the unjust steals
The Just's umbrella

( I then looked it up and the parenthesis marks my errors, one I failed to get in and I don't know why because it's rhyme appealed to me, and the other was a wrong word.)

When we lived in the Detroit metro area we would sometimes have an ice cream treat at a store called "The Purple Cow" in the Meijer's in Royal Oak.

And thanks for giving me an itchy head.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Congratulations on a fine victory!

 

[Starbeast]

@Cat's Cradle - my condolences for the lose of your beloved pet. God be with you and your family.


Purple Cow?

 

[Cat's Cradle]

Thanks, Victoria. And thank you, Starbeast, for your kind thoughts, CC

 

[mosaix]

Thanks for the mentions / short lists @Hugh, @Parson, @nixie, @Cat's Cradle and @chrispenycate.

A special thanks to @M. Robert Gibson and @Ursa major for the votes.

 

[Parson]

@Cat's Cradle - my condolences for the lose of your beloved pet. God be with you and your family.


Purple Cow?

I had no idea that this was a chain! You learn something everyday on Chrons.