[Marion Shore]

John, that's great!

We do have an eponymous Jane, of sorts...

[Roger Slater]

My Vote

So many Johns in history,
from Kennedy to Keats,
from Maynard Keynes to Stuart Mills,
prove history repeats

and that the glory of the name
of John will never cease,
yet who's the greatest? Milton? Donne?
To me it's clear: John Cleese.

*

[Terese Coe]

Originally Posted by Roger Slater

My Vote

So many Johns in history,
from Kennedy to Keats,
from Maynard Keynes to Stuart Mills,
prove history repeats

and that the glory of the name
of John will never cease,
yet who's the greatest? Milton? Donne?
To me it's clear: John Cleese.

*

Dare I believe my eyes? Has it been my great good fortune to happen upon an actual misstatement by Raj, that is, before anyone else spotted it? Well I'd better snatch this opportunity pronto b/c it won't come knocking again any time soon!

Raj, it's "Mill" (you must have been thinking of Hayley). Good poem, though! Even if I prefer Lennon to Cleese. (I won't try to classify the unclassifiable Whitworth. He's beyond all this.)

[Terese Coe]

John,

LOL "most of the bloody Plantagenets had trouble signing their own names." I think I laugh more at your throwaway lines than at anything else in these threads...It's amazing what people learn at Oxbridge, isn't it?

Originally Posted by Chris O'Carroll

Here's a link to the winning entries. Check out the wordplay gem in Bill Greenwell's poem, the bit that you will at first mistake for a typo.

http://www.spectator.co.uk/wit-and-w...petition.thtml

Well, there are a number of typos:

"Who wears a smile..."? Since "you" is understood, "Who wear a smile..."? [Correct me if I'm wrong, John W.]

"uish"? I dunno, maybe it means something.

"exting": that's gotta be the wordplay Chris refers to. But why the hyphen after it?

Still, nice work y'all, and the Greenwell is still the Great.

—The Scrivener

[Roger Slater]

Thanks, Terese. But a typo is not the same as a misstatement, is it? But yes, a rare typo.

[John Whitworth]

I didn't learn about King John's library from Oxford. I learned about it from the great novelist Jim Carr (J.L. Carr). He was a headmaster at a Primary School and he really DID know pretty well everything.

[Terese Coe]

Originally Posted by Roger Slater

Thanks, Terese. But a typo is not the same as a misstatement, is it? But yes, a rare typo.

I thought "misstatement" sounded kinder. But on second thought, maybe not. So yes, typo. Rare indeed for you, Raj.

John, then I'm envious of your primary school. But more to the point, where did you happen to pick up your sense of humor?

[Julie Steiner]

"uish"? I dunno, maybe it means something.

"exting": that's gotta be the wordplay Chris refers to. But why the hyphen after it?

Some assembly required. Put them together, Terese!

[Mary Meriam]

Julie, please reveal the secret for the slower ones among us, such as yours truly.

[Roger Slater]

But Julie, uishexting doesn't mean thingany.