I considered Lake Tahoe, Syracuse, Wappingers Falls, and a few other places with too many syllables or no rhymes, then decided that our latest Limerick Game location would be Poughkeepsie, which is in Upstate New York along the Hudson River.

For those of you on the other sides of the ponds, that's pronounced po-KIP-see, with a long "o" on the first syllable.

Sorry, I haven't mastered thatIPA alphabet yet!

Send me your entries by PM by next Monday a.m., placing Poughkeepsie in the A-Rhyme position.

Wordmatic

Ah! The Hudson River School of Art. I foresee a thirteen-limerick set celebrating the sexual escapades of the river artists.

Or maybe just Gauguin again.

Number one is on its way.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Proofreader,

I don't think I know anyone from Poughkeepsie, but everyone I know from New York pronounces it puh, not p-long-o.

Not that it really matters.

It only matters if you're going to try to rhyme the entire word.

Good luck with that!

Gee, Val, I'm from Ohio, but I lived in Upstate NY for 15 years. Are your New Yawkehs Upstaters or Downstaters? 'sfine with me if you pronounce it puc-KIP-see. I'm not going to judge on accents, sho'nuff. Be not afeared.

I have three so far from Proofreader, one from Jerry, and one from Richard and...one from you, and you, and you?

Keep 'em coming, all ye poets!

Wordmatic

And now you have 2 more.

Yes, I do--Thanks!



WM

I'm not 100% sure but I believe the late, great Isaac Asimov, limericked this very place name in one of his splendid collections.

One of mine was a rerun from OEDILF. I sent Wordmatic the one I liked and not the stupid one that eventually got approved. It was one of those God awful workshops where the approved limerick was, in my opinion, much worse than the original. In the end I just gave in.

Self-plagiarization?

Is an eleventh hour submission OK? I couldn't figure out how to post to wordmatic so I have sent it via Kalleh, who will workshop it for me and pass it on, I hope!

Well, Stella, it's good to see you here! I will relay it, but we don't workshop here. I had just mentioned the OEDILF workshop because it was probably one of the most dreary workshops I've ever been involved with over there. Once the limericks are posted, I will post the one that eventually got approved. I am quite sure people will wonder where that came from!

Yep, it's self-plagiarism at its best, proofreader!

Yes, please send Stella's entry on to me--I only have the ones mentioned before, plus Kalleh's that came in just as I was posting that message.

Are there any others hovering out there? Bob? Arnie? Shu? Caterwauller? I was busy all weekend, but sometime before the middle of the week I'll post them all and name a winner!

Wordmatic

It's a very fun word.

I couldn't believe Stella's stellar limerick. It trumps mine, in spades, that's for sure. I send it forward, and it certainly didn't need any workshopping.

quote:

stellar limerick

Why do mine never merit such compliments?

Thanks, Kalleh. The comment about workshopping was tongue-in-cheek (apart from the spelling mistake).

I checked your ‘alcohol’ limerick and I totally agree with you on that one. Of course the OEDILF is a (semi) serious project rather than a free-for-all but some people do tend to take it all bit too seriously. Reading through your forum, I think you guys have more fun.

Your limericks are excellent IMO, Proofreader, and they have a lovely light-hearted looseness you don’t see so much at the OEDILF.

quote:

a lovely light-hearted looseness

That's the very first alliterative compliment I've ever received. So much better than the usual "Oh,no! Not another limerick."

Awww, poor Proofreader. I like yours too! I've told you that privately, haven't I? Now, you could work a little harder on those double dactyls...

For a short while, after I was with OEDILF for about a year or so, I thought I wrote good limericks. However, the more limericks of others that I read, the more I realized that mine will do in a pinch, and once in awhile they're even good, but in general they're just okay. In other words, I've kept my day job!

I know you've said it, but did I believe it? Especially after I re-read "Dorking" today and checked the meter again. ARGHHH!
Luckily, my day job is long past and I can waste my time any way my wife lets me.

quote:

they have a lovely light-hearted looseness you don’t see so much at the OEDILF.

Alas, any attempt at that would be stifled by the OEDILF's workshops.

quote:

Alas, any attempt at that would be stifled by the OEDILF's workshops.

There are a fair few authors who have upped and left simply because they can't take the workshopping, seeing it as a criticism of their "perfect" creation.

Fortunately such histrionics are rare and I feel that the project is better off without such drama queens. There is little that any one of us can create that isn't capable of improvement. I am pretty good at limericks and have submitted hundreds to OEDILF. Some have gone through as written but most have been significantly improved by the workshopping process.

I would think that "light-hearted looseness" would be quite acceptable providing the limerick did what it was supposed to do - define, by explanation or usage, a word in the current alphabetical range, while keeping to the rules, grammatical and other, of limericks.

In short, simply because some people disagree with some workshopping, I do not agree that the process is unfair or over-zealous. And, to pick up on Kalleh's point, any author has the right to disregard any suggestions - there is no need to "give in". If you don't agree with what's being said then you don't have to accept the suggestions. The limerick may, or may not, get approved as it stands.

quote:

I would think that "light-hearted looseness" would be quite acceptable

To you, maybe, Richard, but not to a lot of the workshoppers.

As the old proverb says, A camel is a horse designed by a committee. That is probably what you get when a limerick is workshopped. That may be OK if you like camels but not if you're a horse lover. I don't mind someone pointing out technical errors but when you change content . . .

quote:

There are a fair few authors who have upped and left simply because they can't take the workshopping, seeing it as a criticism of their "perfect" creation.

Richard, I disagree with that and think it's unfair to some of my favorites who have left OEDILF because of the workshopping. Some, I agree, never wanted any part of their limericks changed, and they don't belong there. However, others left because they wrote perfectly good limericks, were open to some workshoppers, but just couldn't take the scourge of others. I won't name them, but their names are on the tip of my tongue (not literally, of course! ) Just wait until I post the "approved" limerick that came from that Poughkeepsie one; even you may change your mind. I said, both in the workshop and privately, that I didn't like the limerick (I even thought it a bit bigoted, as did others), and I wanted it changed. I was told (since it eventually was duel-authored) that I could take my name off of it, but that it had to stay. I was not about to remove my name from a limerick that I had started in the first place!

Yes, situations like that are somewhat rare, but they do occur over there. Your response to arnie sounds like it is only the arrogant writers who think their limericks are perfect who leave because of the workshops. That's not the case. Indeed, several limericists from Wordcraft have left just for that reason. The workshops can get tedious, especially when it isn't your life to write limericks for OEDILF.

I know I sound jaded, and really don't mean to. Generally I like OEDILF, and I even recommended it to both Proofreader and Valentine, privately. However, this particular Poughkeepsie limerick brought back to me all the problems with OEDILF.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Kalleh,

quote:

As the old proverb says, A camel is a horse designed by a committee. That is probably what you get when a limerick is workshopped. That may be OK if you like camels but not if you're a horse lover. I don't mind someone pointing out technical errors but when you change content . . .

I fear I disagree. There have been many limericks that have been improved immeasurably by being workshopped. And what is actually wrong with a camel? It's a brilliant solution to a particular problem. So, it won't win the Derby - but that's not what it was designed to do.

Many of those who have left OEDILF have done so simply because they wouldn't accept a single change to their prized limericks. If the content of a limerick is wrong, then it's wrong - and those who are not prepared to accept that they can be wrong must accept that workshoppers will keep harping on the inaccuracies. A recent author submitted this:

It almost kills spiders and ants,
And aphids and beetles on plants.
But for bugs that are four-eyed,
Benzene hexachloride
Destroys 'em; they don't stand a chance.

A fine submission but with two significant factual errors. Firstly Benzene hexachloride kills all bugs, it doesn't "almost" kill them and secondly, it's not just those with four-eyes (are there any such?) that it kills.

The workshoppers made several suggestions as to how this could be improved (it was quite easy to think of alternatives) but the author wasn't having any of it; his work was perfect and he wanted nothing to do with any changes. So he stomped off and left the project rather than consider any of the well-meant suggestions.

Remember, the OEDILF,