Octopusses
I don't know what the fuss is,
Cooking's easy if you try.
Just take two octopusses
And you've got an octopi.
Commentary
By rights, Nash should have written this. I had never heard of Simon Goodway before I stumbled onto this little gem, and I still don’t know anything about him, but anyone who can bake an octopi out of octopusses in four lines surely knows a thing or two about poetry. This bit of whimsy ranks way up there with the best of Hein and Dahl - and as I had mentally promised myself that this review should not exceed the poem, that’s it. Just run it on a day when you feel bluer than the sky.
Regards
Anustup
Martin adds
Don’t worry, I’m not feeling blue - just thought I’d run it :)
Nash has (unsurprisingly) done something vaguely similar - see Poem #848. And on octopi, Steven Pinker has this to say: “The -us in octopus is not the Latin noun ending that switches to the -i in the plural, but the Greek pous (foot). The etymologically defensible octopodes is not an improvement”.
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From the Wondering Minstrels mailing list, 1999–2008.
Sarah Casseday · 13 January 2004
Hope you don’t feel bluer than the sky! How could you after this delightful poem?
Amit Chakrabarti · 13 January 2004
* Sitara Miyer () [040113 17:58]:
And grand old man OED has this to say:
Pl. octopodes (ktpdiz), anglicized octopuses. [mod.L. octpus, a. Gr. , acc. - eight-footed, f. eight + , - foot.]
Not even a mention of “octopi”. Way to go!
Property Rental Network · 16 February 2004
ONly a Goodway could write such a fine piece of poetry! Regards
Chris Goodway
Adelaide Australia.