Observing the planet called Saturn,
You see a remarkable pattern.
At first it appears
Like a head with two ears
But the pattern is flatter’n that ‘un.
This was another of the limericks elicited by John Goss from me and members of his Roanoke Valley Astronomical Society. He’s already put several into the club’s newsletter, including mine about the “Starlet of magnitude twenty / Who thought she had brightness aplenty / Was sore when she found / It’s the other way round. / The scale’s logawrongmical, ain’t ee?” The limerick form, forced into the service of astronomy, tends to be contorted. I’m not sure I’ll inflict them on you every day, but once the rhythm gets into one’s head it patters on like an echo.
Actually my limerick jag wasn’t started by John but a while earlier, by Madeline (who on her first birthday witnessed the great eclipse of 2017 August 21).
There was a young maiden called Madeline
Who liked to go swimmin’ and paddlin’.
She lay in the pool
Feeling happy and cool
And playing a tune on her mandolin.
Madeline has a stream down at the end of her garden in North Carolina, and has such a liking for frogs that her imaginary country is Frogland. (Is there a child who doesn’t have an imaginary country?) I’ve not yet gained a clear idea, from FaceTime sessions, of the geography and history of Frogland, but have made some guesses about it.
There once was a frog, name of Jenny,
Whose hind legs were longer than any.
She jumped from the pond
To a meadow beyond
And over three hills to Kilkenny.
There was a young tadpole named Eve
Who said “I can scarcely believe
We were born from those eggs
And will soon grow four legs
And as for our tails, they will leave.”
But I’m told that’s enough for one day. So, tomorrow.
__________
Sometimes I make improvements or corrections to a post after piblishing it. If you click on the title, rather than on ‘Read more’, I think you are sure to see the latest version.
This weblog maintains its right to be about astronomy or anything under the sun.
Leave it to me to make it dirty, but grabbing something by two ears,,,, well,,,, I’ll leave it up you all y’all with dirty minds to fill in the rest;
Wishing you all the merriest of Christmases. and Happy New Years.
If you’ll allow a couple more science-related limericks…
There once was a lady named Bright
Who could travel much faster than light.
She departed one day
(In a relative way)
And returned on the previous night!
My all-time favorite, found on someones door in a university chemistry department:
A mosquito was heard to complain
That a chemist had poisoned his brain.
The cause of his sorrow
Was paradichloro-
Diphenyltrichloroethane.
Is that a real name of a molecule?
Guy, that would be DDT !
Molecule of fairly bad name
Which killed the mosqueeet-
O, Malarial spreader
Rachel’s Spring was never the same!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DDT
DDT