Friday, January 26, 2007

No Rhyme or Reason

Art in the blood is liable to take the strangest forms. Sherlock Holmes

Back in the day, around 1980 or so, there was a magazine called Omni. It was like the Wired of its day with lots of strange and wonderful things, but that's a subject for another day. What I want to talk about today is the Omni science limerick contest. They intended to publish the top ten or so best limericks on the subject of science and give a grand prize which I've forgotten. Anyhow, I composed some limericks for this contest, which I never submitted, and consequently I never won. So without further ado....

By the limerick bug I was bitten

and though I wrote it all at one sittin'
I tucked it away
until today
when I finally showed off what I'd written

Not some people might say that its terse
while others might even say worse
but in spite of the facts
and all that it lacks
I present my biological verse.


If amoebas are hard to envision
reproducing by cellular fission
the professors might bray
but its simpler to say
that they multiply by division

And now the second masterpiece...

There was a young fellow named Prince
whose gravitational field was intense
he collapsed on his soul
and became a black hole
on the subject of matter, he was dense

If there are any former editors of Omni out there, let me down easy, OK?



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