[Jerome Betts]

Surprised this item hasn't been snapped up as a competition by one of the three weird setters.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/10/wo...es-tagine.html


Don't Begin The Tagine

(For Susan de Sola)

Dear Hollande, to escape PR trammels
Avoid Malians bearing young mammals.
Should you try to refuse
They end up in stews
And you're saddled with shame and more camels.

[Susan d.S.]

Thanks for this, Jerome! My favorite line in the article is:

“As soon as we heard of this, we quickly replaced it with a bigger and better-looking camel,” an official in Timbuktu told the Reuters news agency.

It's like something out of a Waugh novel, but you cannot make this stuff up.

[John Whitworth]

Where's the Competition then, Jerome?

[Douglas G. Brown]

"A car in every garage ... a camel in every pot."

-Hollande campaign slogan

[Royston Vasey]

Casanova's Flashback

A Lothario knows when decrepitude shows
Then to switch from Begin the Beguine
For something more fitting, perhaps done whilst sitting -
So why not Begin the Tagine?

It's not all plain sailing when romance is failing
A Romeo whose solace is food,
For a grub-driven vice extracts heavy a price:
Libido is often what's stewed.

When, the next time you see an old fat man and he
Has a faraway look in his eye,
Then there's always the chance that it's yesterday's Dance
On his mind, then dismissed with a sigh.

.

[Susan d.S.]

And the Beguine had nun.

Don't put a gift camel in the mouth.

[Jerome Betts]

Too much beguining ends in keening?

Don't know, John. I'm sure a word from you in one of the six shell-likes would do the trick.

[Graham King]

Originally Posted by Royston Vasey

Casanova's Flashback

A Lothario knows when decrepitude shows
Then to switch from Begin the Beguine
For something more fitting, perhaps done whilst sitting -
So why not Begin the Tagine?

It's not all plain sailing when romance is failing
A Romeo whose solace is food,
For a grub-driven vice extracts heavy a price:
Libido is often what's stewed.

When, the next time you see an old fat man and he
Has a faraway look in his eye,
Then there's always the chance that it's yesterday's Dance
On his mind, then dismissed with a sigh.

.

Very lyrical, Royston, and pleasantly poignant/nostalgic. I daresay 'tis truth, that concluding stanza.