I don't like people to get the idea that I have to do this for a living

[sovay]

fleurdelis28 said on Facebook, "Today's tongue-twister: 'Proper platypus plural.'"

I said, "'All I want is a proper plural platypus . . .'"

She said, "I think this may need to be a song."

That was on Wednesday.

I walked home tonight from Lexington Center.

By the time I was turning up my street, I had nearly six lines out of ten and all the end-rhymes for the following:

All I want is a proper plural platypus
Keep your platypuses and your platypi
Let the monotreme decrying
Pseudo-Latin multiply in
Graeco-scientific equanimity

All I want is a proper plural platypus
It's that Hellenistic etymology
Disregard hypercorrection
Give a shout-out to inflection
Platypodes are the only things for me!

I need a geekier icon even than Hakkai. I'd have worked in "Ornithorhynchus anatinus," but I couldn't make it scan.

Comments

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

This is wonderful. Hurrah for platypodes, and songs about them! Speaking of which, I'd love to hear this sung, if you've a tune for it.

I'd have worked in "Ornithorhynchus anatinus," but I couldn't make it scan.

I'm thinking I first heard said bit of Linnaean nomenclature as a small child, when it was used during an episode of Mr. Rodgers' Neighbourhood. Is this true, I wonder, or is it something my subconscious concocted? Or is it a sign that I did spend part of my childhood in an alternate universe?

[sovay]

Hurrah for platypodes, and songs about them! Speaking of which, I'd love to hear this sung, if you've a tune for it.

Thank you! See above: there is a tune, but it's mostly just there to give me something to do with the words.

Is this true, I wonder, or is it something my subconscious concocted? Or is it a sign that I did spend part of my childhood in an alternate universe?

I have no idea. I don't know where I learned the platypus' scientific name!

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Thank you! See above: there is a tune, but it's mostly just there to give me something to do with the words.

Well, I'd still like to hear it. If you ever make a recording, I'd be grateful if you pointed me in the direction of it.

I don't know where I learned the platypus' scientific name!

Interesting. Maybe you did learn it from Mr. Rodgers, also--it sounds as if the episode in question wasn't new when I saw it, so it likely would have aired in your childhood as well.

[vr-trakowski.livejournal.com]

Nope, this universe. See the Platypus Family section here. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neighborhood_of_Make-Believe) The daughter's name was Ornithorhynchus Anatinus but she went by Ana.

[ap-aelfwine.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I'm rather relieved to know that the Platypus Family weren't simply something my subconscious invented. I didn't think I remembered enough dirigibles or steam cars from my young childhood to have actually lived in an alternate universe.

[vr-trakowski.livejournal.com]

No problem! I used to go watch Make-Believe long after I got bored with the rest of the show, and I vaguely remember the Platypodes' mound. (Hah! A chance to use it already.)