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

[nineweaving.livejournal.com]

Io! Evoe!

Nine

[samhenderson.livejournal.com]

I wrote a song about a platypus once, of which I can only recall the chorus:

"Fair dinkum" cried he, and charged to the sea
what glory must being a platypus be

Yours is much better!

[teenybuffalo.livejournal.com]

By Gad, madam, I believe you've written a patter song. Flanders and Swann are applauding from their respective graves. I am delighted, myself.

There's a moment in George Macdonald Fraser's The Pyrates where one character says "She's imprisoned naked in a cage over a pool of ravenous giant octopi--" and another man puts in, "Not 'octopi.' Sorry to interrupt, but it's Greek, not Latin. Octopods, octopodES, take your choice, but not octopi." This is like the logical and lovely extension of that conversation.

A platypus patter song that also pops to mind:

http://wonderingminstrels.blogspot.com/2002/04/diplomatic-platypus-patrick-barrington.html

[aliseadae]

Is there a tune? Is this a patter song? It seems like it should be.

[sovay]

Is there a tune? Is this a patter song? It seems like it should be.

It indeed a patter song, which means the tune is not much and very fast.

Thank you!

[sovay]

"Fair dinkum" cried he, and charged to the sea
what glory must being a platypus be

That's adorable!

Yours is much better!

Heh. Thank you!

[sovay]

Io! Evoe!

*if I used smiley emoticons, one of those*

[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]

By Gad, madam, I believe you've written a patter song. Flanders and Swann are applauding from their respective graves. I am delighted, myself.

Thank you! I'm not sure there was any other form a song with that first line could have taken.

(My post title was almost "We're often asked how we write these songs. We're often asked why, if it comes to that," but I've had Tom Lehrer on the brain lately, probably because of Ronald Searle.)

A platypus patter song that also pops to mind

"The bitterness of failure was considerably mollified,
However, by the ease with which our platypus had qualified."

Yay.

[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!

[grimmwire.livejournal.com]

I was certain it would begin "We are the very model of a modern plural platypus..."

...the rest, of course, writes itself.

[timesygn.livejournal.com]

The first stanza is particularly charming when read aloud in the voice of Eric Cartman from South Park ...

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

***APPLAUSE****

Please find a way to share a tune for this so that we really can sing it.

Platypodes forever!

[shewhomust.livejournal.com]

I think it's the tongue twisting quality which makes it sing itself in my mind to the tune of 'What I want is a proper cup of coffee' (and now it won't be dislodged).

[strange-selkie.livejournal.com]

It doesn't go with the patter song, and mind I have had four hours of sleep and an argument with my neti pot, but:

Ornithorhynchus anatinus paddled very secure in its Latinness.

FIXED THAT FOR YOU.

[larryhammer]

*teasplort*

[larryhammer]

Oh most excellent. Brava!

[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.

[vr-trakowski.livejournal.com]

Perfect!! I'll never remember it all but I shall have to insert "platypodes" into a conversation as soon as humanly possible.

[sovay]

I think it's the tongue twisting quality which makes it sing itself in my mind to the tune of 'What I want is a proper cup of coffee' (and now it won't be dislodged).

I'm not sure it quite scans to the tune as I know it, but I'm flattered!

[sovay]

I was certain it would begin "We are the very model of a modern plural platypus..."

If you'd like to write it!

[sovay]

The first stanza is particularly charming when read aloud in the voice of Eric Cartman from South Park ...

I hope you won't stop talking to me when I tell you that I've seen exactly one episode of South Park. (It was the one with Mel Gibson . . .)

[sovay]

Platypodes forever!

Semper plat!

(I'll sing it for you at Arisia.)

[mrbelm.livejournal.com]

You need to find a tune that fits the words, I'd like to work it out on ukulele. I keep thinking of Tim Curry's performance of "The Zucchini Song (http://www.veoh.com/watch/v5822449wfP4atMK)."

[sovay]

Ornithorhynchus anatinus paddled very secure in its Latinness.

Clerihew! You win.

[sovay]

Brava!

Thank you!

(That is a great icon.)

[sovay]

I'll never remember it all but I shall have to insert "platypodes" into a conversation as soon as humanly possible.

I have made my mark!

[asakiyume.livejournal.com]

Someone will have to make a recording for me -_-

(work, finances, and reclusive tendencies will be keeping me from Arisia)

[sovay]

You need to find a tune that fits the words, I'd like to work it out on ukulele.

I'll demonstrate the next time I see you. It is true that all George Formby, Jr.'s repertoire needed was a song about a platypus.

I keep thinking of Tim Curry's performance of "The Zucchini Song."

I'd never seen that! Thank you.

[timesygn.livejournal.com]

I hope you won't stop talking to me when I tell you that I've seen exactly one episode of South Park.

Not at all.

I'm only familiar with it because my career as a high-school teacher coincided with the show's first decade. I recommend the Paris Hilton episode ("Stupid Spoiled Whore Video Playset").

[ladymondegreen.livejournal.com]

(I'll sing it for you at Arisia.)

I expect it would be a very big hit in the filk room as well. (says she who is running some part of open filk on Saturday and Sunday nights).

[sovay]

I expect it would be a very big hit in the filk room as well. (says she who is running some part of open filk on Saturday and Sunday nights).

So noted!

[margavriel.livejournal.com]

This is awesome. I totally should compose a tune to it. Pity that I haven't composed a good tune in over eight years.

[larryhammer]

Best author afterword avatar ever. (Kaoru Mori, Emma volume 1.)

---L.

[ashlyme.livejournal.com]

Heh. I'm tempted to dust down my omnichord and strum some accompaniment.

[sovay]

Pity that I haven't composed a good tune in over eight years.

You could give it a shot; it's very short.

[sovay]

I'm tempted to dust down my omnichord and strum some accompaniment.

You have my blessing!

[schreibergasse.livejournal.com]

Geekier icon? Or perhaps this?

[sovay]

Or perhaps this?

That rocks.

[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.

[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.

[sovay]

Heh, you should show it to greygirlbeast if you haven't already.

I'm on her friendlist, so I like to think she's seen it . . .

[selidor]

I have a sneaky desire for a third verse about puggles. (They get shown on the news every so often; Cutest Animal Ever, even beating baby sloths).

[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.)

[sovay]

I have a sneaky desire for a third verse about puggles.

Please feel free to write one! I endorse this idea!