Come off the money (= get off the dime?)

[Laurence Horn]

A little google research confirms the prevalence of the quatrain as
we have it, but with a slight preference for a different connective:

Here I sit
Broken-hearted
Tried to shit
BUT only farted.

(At least) one entry did try to regularize the metrical scheme by
presenting the second line as

All broken-hearted.

L

At 9:53 AM -0400 4/16/02, Drew Danielson wrote:
>the / ' ' shit / scheme appears to need another stanza to complete
>it.... I am not well-enough versed in meter to say what's going on here,
>but that's the sense I get from it....
>
>I have only ever heard 'and only farted', but then we aren't as
>sophisticated in our bathroom humor out here in the provinces as yinz
>Nooyawkahs are....
>
>
>
>Laurence Horn wrote:
>>
>>  At 9:21 AM -0400 4/16/02, Benjamin Fortson wrote:
>>  >  > >     Here I sit,
>>  >>  >     broken-hearted
>>  >>  >     paid my dime
>>  >>  >     and only farted
>>  >
>>  >Isn't the third line normally "had a shit"?
>>
>>  "tried to shit".  Your version makes no sense in the context, does
>>  it?  The "tried to shit" version may well (for all I know) be an
>>  adaptation that serves to retain this immortal verse for a generation
>>  postdating the demise of pay toilets.
>>
>>  Larry
>
>--
>•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
>•          D r e w  D a n i e l s o n         •
>•          <andrew.danielson at cmu.edu>         •
>• Admin for Krogh, Gabriel, Fedder & Rajkumar •
>• Carnegie Mellon University • ECE Department •
>• 5000 Forbes Avenue  •  Pittsburgh, PA 15213 •
>• +1 412 268-2188 Voice • +1 412 268-3890 Fax •
>•        http://www.ece.cmu.edu/~dmunk        •
>•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••
>  Never worry about theory as long as the
>  machinery does what it's supposed to do.
>  -- Robert A. Heinlein