Higgeldy Piggeldy,
James Carter, President;
Nonconfrontational
Man of good will.

Humanitarian,
Theophilanthropist,
Septuagenarian
Mentor of Bill.*

*Bill Clinton greatly admired President Carter. Would that his admiration had led to moral emulation.

Very nice, Jo! I hope we aren't upping the ante here such that we must have more than one 6-syllable word.

Chris, do you know if there are still competitions for DDs? I would like to enter a few of my favorites (mine, of course!) sometime. If you have read any of the previous posts here, you will have seen that I am a stickler for the meter. Therefore, I had 2 questions about yours, until I realized I was wrong. The first was in that sparkling one about Lord Chatterley; I first read "invalid" as "in-valid," rather than "invalid." Then in my very favorite one of yours about President Harrison, I realize that I pronounce "bronchopneumia" with 5 syllables, but it can be pronounced with 6, as "bronk-o-new-moan-ee-ah." I pronounce the last part as "moan-yah." Thanks, Chris, for your contributions!

Kalleh asks: Do you know if there are still competitions for DDs?

No regular contests that I know of. The New York Magazine Competition folded in 2000 after a 30-year run, during which there were about a half-dozen double dactyl contests. (The last was in 1997.)

The Washington Post Style Invitational Humor Contest asked for double dactyls in 1994. I entered that one. The results showed a surprising disregard/ignorance of the rules on the number of syllables and a lot of bad meter. Since 2000, I’ve been a regular Style contestant and have had a few double dactyls printed in contests that didn’t directly call for them. Here are my Style dd’s:

(1994) Week 79: Double dactyls about famous people.

Third runner-up:

Jiggery pokery
President Kennedy,
Murdered in Dallas by
Oswald alone?

Incontrovertible
Evidence implicates
Elvis and O.J., says
Oliver Stone.

(2001) Week LIX: Rhyming poems based on stories in that day’s paper.

Second runner-up:

Fannabis, cannabis
Columnist Weingarten
Interviews folks who would
Legalize grass.

Gene is reviving his
College persona: the
Reefer-maniacal
“Head of the class.”

(Gene Weingarten’s humor column was about an interview with a NORML rep.)

(2001) Week LXXV: Use ONLY the letters in a politician’s name to say something about that politician.

Winner:

JOHN FITZGERALD KENNEDY

Fiddledy diddledy
Johnny F. Kennedy
Hero at thirty-three,
Hat in the ring.

Idol, lothario,
Egalitarian
Rake or a leader?
Joker or king?

(2001) Week XCI: Poems about Osama bin Laden.

Honorable mention:

Higgledy piggledy
Saudi Arabia
Land of Osama bin
Laden, a thug.

Ultrafanatical
Killer of innocents
Soon to be spotted and
Squashed like a bug.

[Boy, was I ever wrong about THAT.]

(2002) Week CXIV: Take the first letters of the words of any of six given witticisms in sequence, and use them as the first letters of a brand-new witticism.

First runner-up:

(Original witticism: “Diplomacy is the art of saying ‘Nice doggie’ till you can find a rock.”)

Dinnerus innerus
Titus Andronicus
Overindulgences.
Sweetbreads nouvelle.

Dermatocranial
Turnovers yesterday.
Cannibal fricassees
Always repel.


(2003) Week CLVII: Late entries to any previous contest.

Third runner-up:

Viggery pokery
Nabokov, Vladimir,
Authors “Lolita,” a
Best-selling work.

Ode to a twelve-year-old
Kid who’s obsessing an
Overlibidinous
Voyeur and jerk.

[This poem is also an acrostic, in that the initial letters of each line spell out V. NABOKOV.]

I am so impressed, Chris....an acrostic, too!

The results showed a surprising disregard/ignorance of the rules on the number of syllables and a lot of bad meter.

I can't believe that! Double dactyls are so prescriptive that, to me, they are almost easier than verses that are freer, such as limericks. However, a big limiting factor of a DD, to me, is that the focus has to be on a person with a double dactyl meter.

How did you get into double dactyls?

Why did I say the Style Invitational double dactyl contest’s results showed a surprising disregard/ignorance of the rules on the number of syllables and a lot of bad meter?

Here are the winner and other runners-up from that contest.

Winner:

Chippety Choppety
Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Turned rather brutish but
Withstood the shock.

Of returning to Haiti so
Tontonmacoutish
That now they are calling him
Reverend Doc.

First runner-up:

Bibbety Bobbety
Marion Barry and
John the aforementioned
Both came to grief.

Emasculation
Real or political
Isn’t irreparable
To their relief.

Second runner-up:

Higgledy Piggledy
Style Invitational
Yahdahdah Yahdahdah
ThisIsOneWord.

Yahdahdah Yahdahdah
Yahdahdah Yahdahdah,
I know this ain’t winning,
But can’t it be third?

Fourth runner-up:

Higgledy Piggledy
Jacqueline Kennedy
Wed Ari the Toad as
Prince of her dreams.

Mythopoetically
Hoping for fairy tales,
But sometimes a toad can be
Just what it seems.

Every ONE of these poems violates one or more of the dd rules.

How did I got into double dactyls?

Someone gave me the first Hollander/Hecht “Jiggery Pokery” in the early 1970s. In 1974 I was a math grad student and wrote an 80-line double dactylic poem about my professors. (Mathematics has a LOT of dactylic words.)

I got into word contests in 1977 and had my first dd printed in a 1979 New York Magazine comp:

Scottisher-Britisher
Neville Lord Chamberlain
Exchequer, chancellor.
Minister, prime.

Myopic diplomat:
Czechoslovakia
Sold out at Munich for
“Peace in our time.”

(I used my then boss’s name, Ben Gottlieb, as a pseudonym.)

In 1980 I entered a double dactyl contest in Games Magazine, had five printed (including the Wassermann poem), and was truly hooked. More New York Magazine contests followed. NYM was the major league of double-dactylia in those days. Their poems were uniformly great, with near-impeccable scansion, and often contained excellent puns or wordplay.

As an example, here’s a first-prize winner from an April 1981 comp. (It’s not mine.)

Higgledy piggledy
Jesus of Nazareth
(Parables, miracles,
All of that jazz.)

Came to us courtesy
Parthenogenesis.
Medical annals say
No one else has.

Alex Vaughn, Old Lyme, Conn.

I was hoping you'd share some of the winners. Oh...my...God! No understanding at all!

Higgledy Piggledy
Wordcrafter's Christopher
Doyle, not [our] CJ, your
Praises we sing.

Noncontroversially,
People respect all your
Talent, and therefore we
Crown you our King!

Note: I pronounce "Doyle" with 2 syllables; some of you may pronounce it with 1...thus the [our]. I used "respect" rather than "admire" because I pronounce the latter with 3 syllables, though I know others say it with 2.

Jo is our Queen, and we have been looking for a King!

Fightily Knightily
Aron C. Nimzowitsch,
Theoretician in
Chess...made the news.

Infuriatedly,
Jumped on the table, be-
Rated his rival; yelled,
"How can I lose?!"

This happened decades ago, but I thought it was funny. His actual statement was, "How can I lose to an idiot?!"

quote:

---

Originally posted by Chris Doyle:

As an example, here’s a first-prize winner from an April 1981 comp. (It’s not mine.)

Higgledy piggledy
Jesus of Nazareth
(Parables, miracles,
All of that jazz.)

Came to us courtesy
Parthenogenesis.
Medical annals say
No one else has.

Alex Vaughn, Old Lyme, Conn.

---

Ah, there's still hope for me, then. Compare here.

Nonetheless, I still say that Chris is the DD King. In fact, perhaps I should compose a DD to that effect.

Well, hic, the Joseph of Nazareth dd is great! I love the pun, which is of the wish-I’d-thought-of-that variety.

Here are a couple more of mine. Jessica was a co-worker’s daughter; Karen’s my wife. They were both first-prize winners. (NYM usually awarded three first prizes and three runners-up per contest.)

Eightily weightily
Catherine of Aragon
Seventh gestation and
Sonless again.

Fearing more failures in
Filiogeniture,
Henry enrolls in the
Heir Club for Men.

Jessica Allen, Gaithersburg, MD 1997 New York Magazine

Higgledy-piggledy
William the Conqueror
Sets out from Normandy
Looking for kicks.

Crosses the Channel, beats
Anglomaniacal
Harold at Hastings in
1066.

Karen Bracey, Burke, VA 1989 New York Magazine

Thanks for sharing your Prize Winners, Chris!

Here's my latest attempt at a DD.

(Last line .. "WX" is their abbreviation for Weather. The form of that line was inspired by your "1066" ..


cumulus tumulus
vigilant weathermen
upward and skyward they're
craning their necks

heaping up knowledge of
meteorology
timely reporting of
WX

I am going to answer my own question here. I found this double dactyl contest on the Web if anyone is interested, though preference is give to DDs that relate to speculative fiction. I rather liked the one posted...as would Bob!

I am in the process of collecting all our DDs in a word document, as I eventually want to add a link on our Home Page to our Double Dactyl Archives. We have a very nice collection!

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

I have been collecting all our double dactyls as I indicated above, and I came across this February 2003 post by arnie, referring to a double dactyl of Chris Doyle's!

Chris, you were already famous on this board!

Of course, going through all those DDs encourages me to write one:

Willilly Billilly
Clinton, ex-President,
Lit'rally wondered what
"Is" really means!

Nymphomaniacal
Tootsies attract him, if
Only he knew he was
Not in his teens!

Now, I know that Bill Clinton is having heart surgery next week, and I surely don't mean to be disrespectful. However, because of his otherwise healthy state (and no myocardial infarction), they expect a full recovery. I wish him well! Oh, and for the record, I voted for him.

This was my first acrostic DD!

[edited "literally" to "lit'rally," as suggested by Chris Doyle. Thanks, Chris!]

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

YOur Clinton DD is first-rate, Kalleh. And only the second acrostic I've ever seen! I suggest you make a very slight modification to the third line so as to keep it explicitly dactylic:

Lit'rally wondered what

Here are a couple more of mine:

Drippity Droppity
Madame du Pompadour,
Heedless of thunderclouds,
Dabbed at her rouge.

Louis, who suffered from
Pluviaphobia,
Hollered, “Allons! Avant
Nous le deluge.”


Happerlich clapperlich
August von Wassermann,
Clown of the medical
College of Worms.

Taught a few courses in
Microbiology.
Opened his lectures with
“Frauen und germs …”

Chris,

Kalleh's DD acrostic is indeed superb. If you scan back over this thread you will also see that I have posted two or maybe three acrostic DDs. They are fun, aren't they.

Yours are marvelous, BTW.

Thanks, guys! Chris, again, yours are superb.

Here are a few other acrostic DDs:

Haberdasher

Nonsense
Numbledy Pumblety
Otto D Preminger
Never permitted his
Servants to fly.
Even the waterboy
Naturopathically
Seemed to resent when he
Even walked by.

Jerry

Acrostic
Allomorphologist
Cryptographologist
Reaching for syllables
Out of the blue

Starting initially
Thinking fallaciously
Inconsequentially
Catching a few

Internet
Iggledy friggledy
Nickie Copernicus
Telescope neophyte
E-mails this verse

Reviewing the heavens
Nongeocentrically
Earth is in orbit in
The universe

Tennies on?
Tennyson venison
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Nagged by the Monarch for
Notions in verse

Yelled "Enoch Arden" with
Sincere alacrity
Obsequiosity
Needing a nurse.

Jo

OEDILFER
Oxily Hoxily
Editor Christopher
Dove into limericks.
It all takes time.

Lexicographical
Format was chosen. The
English of Oxford is
Rendered in rhyme.

Acrostic
Argedly, bargeldy
Christopher Brosius
Researches perfumes and
Other good smells.

Stop your experiments!
Trychloroethylene
Isn't the compound you
Crave for your spells.


Apologies if I have forgotten anyone. I could have sworn CJ had written one, but I couldn't find it.

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

Higgledy piggledy
Dennis E. Hennessy
Setting up house plans for
Old Worcester, Mass,

Speaks to the public on
Urbanizational
Questions and topics and
Things of that class.

quote:

---

Originally posted by jerry thomas:
Higgledy piggledy
Dennis E Hennessy
Setting up house plans for
Old Worcester, Mass,

Speaks to the public on
Urbanizational
Questions and topics and
Things of that class.

---

...and two points extra for knowing the correct pronunciation of "Worcester." (quibble: the DD scansion would be a little more precise if it read "Worcester, in Mass".)

Quote: "and two points extra for knowing the correct pronunciation of 'Worcester.'"

Recall the familiar but clean limerick,

There once was a lady from Worcester
Who orscested to crow like a rorcester.
She orscested to climb
Seven trees at a time
(But her sirscester orscested to borcester).

Yes, but there the parodied pronunciation is "-orces-" = oo-as-in-cool, whereas the Massachusetts sound is as in "foot." (Any PJWodehouse devotes here? Remember Bertie Wooster? That's the more usual spelling, viz. Wooster, Ohio.)

And, as with many New England names, there is a Worcester, England as well as a Worcester, Mass, so the elisions are less likely to be confusing among the British than here.

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

Now that I think of it, how did the name of Dennis E. Hennessy ever get to Kehena Beach, Hawaii, to catch your eye? !

quote:

---

... .. . how did the name of Dennis E. Hennessy ever get to Kehena Beach, Hawaii, to catch your eye? !

---

Being obsessively alert for double-dactyl names, I saw "Dennis Hennessy" in some news story. I ran it through Google, then supplied the Essential middle initial and crafted the verse to fit.

Quote "...(Any PJWodehouse devotes here? Remember Bertie Wooster? That's the more usual spelling, viz. Wooster, Ohio.)..."

P G (Plum) Wodehouse was one of the finest writers of English of all time. Unfortunately, because his work was almost exclusively light-hearted, it is often rejected as ephemera by those who haven't bothered to read it.

And Wooster is very rarely seen in the UK outside of a Wodehouse novel. Worcester, though, is a common name whose pronunciation is no more difficult than is that of, say, Bicester, Gloucester or Featherstonehaw.

Or Cholmond(e)ley.

Double-dactyls are where you find them...

Being obsessively alert for double-dactyl names, I saw "Dennis Hennessy" in some news story. I ran it through Google, then supplied the Essential middle initial and crafted the verse to fit.

Excuse me, Your Majesty, for taking of the liberty, but...

Being obsessively
'Lert for dub-dactyls I
Saw Dennis Hennessy's
News-story name

Ran it through Google, sup-
PliedtheEssentialin-
Itial and crafted the
Verse for the game...

(If this were a contest, I'd be losing - or at any rate, getting the verse to fit.)

Inside every block of marble is a lovely statue waiting to be let out.

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

Gratefully fatefully
Thanks, Haberdasher, you
Sculptor of verses, you
Jolly young elf.

Your skill is outstandiing,
Agglutinatively.
Couldn't have written it
Better myself.

I knew Jerry was hooked when I met him and, before introducing me to his friend (I don't recall his name now), Jerry confided to me that his friend's name was a perfect double dactyl name. Of course, Jerry and I were so jealous!

Of course, then there was the time when I glanced at the obituary page and let Shu know that someone with a perfect double dactyl name had died. Shu, of course, thinks I am nuts!

quote:

---

before introducing me to his friend (I don't recall his name now), Jerry confided to me that his friend's name was a perfect double dactyl name. Of course, Jerry and I were so jealous! Wink

---

My friend Werner Van Heidendahl says it's ok for me to post his name here ...... so here it is. (Perhaps his ancient paternal ancestors came from the Valley Where The Heather Grows.)

It just fails to fit a DD, but the name of the author of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette piece cited by Jerry is impressive in its own right: Bronislaus B. Kush.

Weathery feathery
Makers of featherbeds,
Coats, down-filled comforters,
All over town:

With our apology
Workhazardology
Includes paralysis
From the waste down. (sic sic sic!)

Higgamous Hoggamous
Doctor Hippocrates
Studied the ways of the
Body primate.

Some of his patients were
Hypochondriacal
But with his oath they got
Treatment first rate.

Topical tropical
Windswept peninsula
Florida's getting a
Big hurricane.

Meanwhile the weathermen
Characteristically
Forecast additional
Inches of rain.

Hmmm, this must be another of those pronunciation differences. I say "Florida" with 2 syllables. Do some of you say it with 3?

BTW, Asa mentioned the word "peripatetic, and I thought "peripatetically" would be a great 6-syllable word, somehow using it with Aristotle, but I can't figure out how...yet!

I'm shocked, Kalleh!

If you pronounce Florida with two syllables, then I respectfully suggest that your pronunciation is flawed. How about florid?

Originally posted by Kalleh:

..."peripatetically" would be a great 6-syllable word, somehow using it with Aristotle, but I can't figure out how...yet!

So is "Aristotelian," if that helps any. But I don't recall him wandering very much...

then I respectfully suggest that your pronunciation is flawed

Flawed it is. Damn! I am not perfect, after all.

Higgledy Piggledy
Clara A. Lovering
Married a murderer;
Isn't that rare?

Serial killer, Holmes,
Intimidatedly,
Lured all his prey at Chi-
Cago's World Fair.

I couldn't resist this name in the book I am reading, Larson's "The Devil in the White City." Obviously, Holmes was the devil!

Obviously it's not a question about your perfection, Kalleh. You are as close to perfect as anyone I know.

There are probably millions of people who join you in believing that Florida has two syllables instead of three.

I am not one of them, nor is Sheldon Harnick, who wrote and published "The Merry Minuet".

"They're rioting in Africa
They're starving in Spain
There's hurricanes in Florida
And Texas needs rain"
--Sheldon Harnick ©1958

Mr. Harnick was born and raised in Chicago, and I understand that you came from Wisconsin. Maybe that's what makes the difference.

Mr. Harnick was born and raised in Chicago, and I understand that you came from Wisconsin. Maybe that's what makes the difference.

Sometimes I think it is more a matter of the definition of syllables. I had always thought of myself as saying "world" with 2 syllables, and Bob quite adamantly said that it has 1 syllable. So, I thought I really pronounced it differently from Bob. Yet, when I met him, we said it very similarly. The same goes for "fire." So, perhaps if you heard me say "Florida," I wouldn't be saying it that differently from you. I just hear it as 2 syllables.

Higgeldy Piggeldy
Member of Parliament
Gave all his speeches in
Very strange form.

Abecedarian
Parliamentarian.
Words of six syllables--
All were his norm.

Re peripatetic and Aristotelian:

Higgledy piggledy
Jesus of Nazareth
Proffered his followers
Candid advice.

"Peripatetical
Perigrinations on
Water are practical
Only on ice."

Roberta Pamnani, NYC
New York Magazine, no date

Higgledy piggledy
Laurence Olivier
England's great thespian,
Loves plays complex,

Aristotelian
Rather than Shavian,
Scorning plays present for
Oedipus Rex.

John R. Nierenberg, Pittsburgh, Pa.
New York Magazine, July 1979

Those are great, Chris! Also, I like yours Jo. Hmmm, "abecedarian" belongs on OEDILF, too!

I constructed an abecedarian limerick to define the word.

Here 'tis...

A poem that's abecedarius
Begins every line with the various
Clever renditions
Defining conditions,
Enjoyable but rarely hillarious.

Krochery, Mockery
Ronald McDonald House,
Home for the parents of
Kids that are sick.

Corporate policy's,
Humanitarian.
But, are they ill from the
Nuggets of chick?

We had been talking about McDonald's in another thread...so I couldn't resist this!

I had to try one:

Appledy Dappledy
Jonathan, Mackintosh
picking those apples in
orchards so sweet

Lovely Fall breezes so
Environmentalish
bake a great pie that's de-
Licious to eat!

There are few things in that world that can compare with a beautiful Fall day in Ohio.

Oh...tell me that's not your first! It is excellent, and much better than my first 20. I am totally impressed!

I have to admit I had some gentle editing help from a friend before I was brave enough to post it.

Still, it was quite good!

Chatterly Caterly
Wordcrafter's Caterwaull,
New to our forum, we
Welcome you here!

Prolific poster you,
Incomprehensibly,
Might be the winner of
Numbers, I fear!

[Just kidding! I love all your posts, of course! ]

Chokily Blokily
Cubs of Chicagoans
Blew their post-season hopes,
Breaking our hearts!

Pardon my English, but,
Exasperatedly,
I am not happy with
Those little farts!

Sorry, people, but do they have to do this every year?

Giggley Wiggley
Kalleh Calliope
thank you for being so
open and kind.

All of the crafters here
Uncategorically
keep me in laughter both
in voice and mind.

Well, thank you, Caterwauller! Another good one! The second line might need a bit of tweaking (and in the last line you just have to stress the 'in'), but other than that...good!

BTW, in my Cubs one I thought in the phrase "post-season" that it is pronounced 'post season,' but every time I read that DD it doesn't sound right. I think it is pronounced 'post season.' Oh, well. So, now we all know that I am not perfect!

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

We have another thread talking about naughty limericks. Is there a slew of naughty Double Dactyls, too?