Historical News Limerick Game

You’re listening to A Way with Words, the show about language and how we use it. I’m Martha Barnette.

And I’m Grant Barrett, and on the line is our quiz guide, John Chaneski. Hello, John.

Hi, Grant. Hi, Martha. I’m back again.

Welcome back. You got a quiz for us? Something fun?

I do have a quiz for you, yes. You know, I was going to do another one of those roundups of recent news stories in limerick form.

Yeah.

But you know what? No way. Not this year.

Not this news.

Not the times we’ve had lately, no.

So instead, here are the top historical news stories in limerick form.

Oh, boy.

Oh, wow.

Let’s see how this goes.

News stories through history.

I’ll give you everything but the last word, of course, which you must supply.

And, of course, this does include my rather limited style of poetry.

So here we go.

Here’s the first one.

The Senate had thought him too wild, so his abdication was filed.

Napoleon then said goodbye to his men, and to Elba the dude was…

Exiled.

Exiled.

Yes.

That was in 1814, by the way.

So here’s the next one.

Speaking of exile, while in exile, this monarch stayed steady and returned amid cheers and confetti.

The noble said, Mac, we’re inviting you back.

Thus the return of Ethelred the…

Unready.

Unready, yes.

Back in 1014.

By the way, you do learn things here.

Yeah, yeah.

I’m just saying, pay attention.

If you don’t know things, you will know things when we’re done.

Here’s the next one.

John Smith was obnoxious and pompous, told tall tales of that there’s no contest.

No romance was played with an Indian maid.

It was John Rolfe who wed Pocahontas.

Pocahontas, yes.

What did you rhyme with pompous, contest?

Pompous and contest, Pocahontas.

Got it.

Got it.

I take liberties.

I take all the liberties.

Here’s the next one.

Britain’s parliament offered their gratitude and a prize of 10,000 pounds magnitude if you’d take a trip on a sailing ship and accurately determine its latitude.

Not latitude.

What? Attitude?

No, the other one.

Altitude? Longitude.

Longitude.

Wait.

That is a rhyme.

That’s close enough.

That was a trap.

That was a trap.

Find me one rhyme for longitude.

That was a trap.

I’m going to look about this.

I haven’t read that book by David Sobel.

So did I.

Isn’t that a great book?

Dog.

It’s a wonderful book.

Yes.

Right.

That was 1714, by the way.

Here’s the next one.

By now Copernicus was finally done, writing Comentellarius, which he had begun, years before.

In this outline, he begins to opine that the center of things is the sun.

Sun.

Yes.

That was 1514, by the way.

Here’s the last one.

Here we go.

This is 1914.

On St. Patrick’s Day of this year, a club in the Bronx gave a cheer.

Dr. Tom Curtin came round and debuted to the town the very first pint of green beer.

Yes, Dr. Tom Curtin debuted green beer in 1914.

And that’s the historical story I’m going with.

That’s wonderful.

How exciting.

Green beer.

John, thank you for your poesy.

Thank you so much.

You’re welcome.

Thanks, John.

Really appreciate it.

Talk to you next week.

See you next week.

Bye-bye.

And if you want to talk with us about any aspect of language whatsoever, call us 877-929-9673 or send your comments and email to words@waywordradio.org.

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