Limerick[s] (reply to Joel)

[Jonathan Lighter]

"Pat Geoghan" (gaygin) rhymes with "bacon" and "makin'."

Fun.

JL

On Fri, Nov 13, 2009 at 11:15 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:

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> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Joel S. Berson" <Berson at ATT.NET>
> Subject:      Re: Limerick[s] (reply to Joel)
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>
> At 11/13/2009 07:56 AM, Stephen Goranson wrote:
> ...
> >>[Quoting Joel:]
> >>6)  A limerick from Limerick:
> >>
> >>The Sporting Times [London], 1895 October 25, p. 6.
> >>
> >>An Irish contractor, Pat Googahan,
> >>Supplies us with Limerick beogahan,
> >>    It's true that the pork
> >>    Come chiefly from Cork;
> >>But thousands, they tell me, he's meogahan.
> >>
> >>[So here we have Limerick, a limerick, and the Sporting Times all
> >>together -- but it's a bit late, and naturally doesn't tell us that
> >>such rhymes are called "limericks".]
> >>[I could also use a translation.]
> >>
> >>7)  A puzzle, essentially a rebus.  For example, between the text
> >>"The Soil is equally sui-" and "for grazing and for" is a picture of
> >>a table.  The puzzle is titled "Limerick" -- but it is about the
> >>county of Limerick.
> >>
> >>Joel
> >
> >Thanks very much Joel. Your #6--I'd call it a Limerick *mentioning*
> Limerick
> >rather than *from* Limerick
>
> Since I don't know what "Limerick beogahan" is, I couldn't tell
> whether this limerick is "from" or simply "mentions" Limerick.  :-)
> And is *anyone* going to give me a translation?!  I assume "beogahan"
> and "meogahan" are humorous misspellings of somethings, but I don't know
> what.
>
> >--is interesting, even if not as early as Legman
> >guessed. (We have explicit use of the Limerick poem name earlier in 1895.)
> >It
> >adds to the accumulation of texts that suggest knowledge that the verse
> >form is
> >called Limerick, even if not explicitly saying so.
> >
> >About #7 (undated?) did you mean *not* titled Limerick but about Limerick?
>
> No, the puzzle is titled "Limerick" as well as being about the
> county.  But I assume the title simply refers to the subject, the
> county, not that rebuses are called "Limericks".  And there is no
> element of the limerick rhyme.
>
> Joel
>
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