# Double Dactyls, the Higgledy Piggledy Poetry Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 18, 2003, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dactyls-the-higgledy-piggledy-poetry-thread/189418 "2003-07-18T16:12:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![misling](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/3ab097/32.png) [@misling](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/misling)\ **Post date:** [August 14, 2013, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dactyls-the-higgledy-piggledy-poetry-thread/189418/21 "2013-08-14T20:51:13Z")
Several good ones over here: [Double dactyl - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_dactyl) including my favorite about Saint Athenaseus, from Face in the Frost. ---
**Author:** ![MacSpon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@MacSpon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacSpon)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dactyls-the-higgledy-piggledy-poetry-thread/189418/22 "2013-08-15T00:01:53Z")
Not about anyone famous, but at work, when I learned that a local manager was leaving and heading overseas, I came up with this: Rustonus, bustonus, Timothy Duston is leaving New Zealand and heading to France. Now that we know of his Zealandophobia he’d better get out while he has the chance. ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dactyls-the-higgledy-piggledy-poetry-thread/189418/23 "2013-08-15T00:29:30Z")
Higgledy Piggledy, Romeo Montague, Thought his love dead and so Poisoned himself. Juliet, hasty but Eschatological, Died lest she leave him a- Lone on the shelf. –Mary Ann Madden, New York Magazine ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dactyls-the-higgledy-piggledy-poetry-thread/189418/24 "2013-08-15T00:32:30Z")
Higgledy Piggledy Yale University Gave up misogyny Opened its door. Coeducational Extracurricular Heterosexual Fun is in store. –Fred Rodell, winner of New Yorker double-dactyl competition Higgledy Piggledy Oedipus Tyrannos Murdered his father, used Mother for sex. This mad debauch, not so Incomprehensibly, Left poor Jocasta and Oepidus wrecks. –Joan Munkacsi, New Yorker competion ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dactyls-the-higgledy-piggledy-poetry-thread/189418/25 "2013-08-15T12:35:13Z")
History, blistery, Antique-land traveller Finds a stone pedestal: “Mighty, beware!” While round the legs and head Ozymandiacal Stretch the lone, level sands Boundless and bare. ---
**Author:** ![Streetsinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/0ea827/32.png) [@Streetsinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Streetsinger)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dactyls-the-higgledy-piggledy-poetry-thread/189418/26 "2013-08-15T15:31:00Z")
Musicat, that’s one of my all-time favorites. I just heard Beethoven’s Fifth symphony at a concert a few days ago, so I was able to recite it to my friends. One of my father’s best efforts was deemed unprintable when the book came out, for obvious reasons, but I hope it’s OK to quote it here: Pocketa-pocketa, Jesus of Nazareth, Tell me, I beg of you, How you were made. Mother declares it was Parthenogenisis. I rather think that she Must have got laid. ---
**Author:** ![Antonius\_Block](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/51bf81/32.png) [@Antonius\_Block](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antonius_Block)\ **Post date:** [August 15, 2013, 9:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dactyls-the-higgledy-piggledy-poetry-thread/189418/27 "2013-08-15T21:05:53Z")
For what it’s worth, we had some purpose-built thread-related double dactyls in [this thread](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=300970&page=2) resurrected in 2011, starting with [Colophon’s post #86](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showpost.php?p=14252845&postcount=86). ---
**Author:** ![SteveG23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3da27b/32.png) [@SteveG23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SteveG23)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dactyls-the-higgledy-piggledy-poetry-thread/189418/28 "2013-08-18T01:38:49Z")
“Prof. Pepperwinkle” offers examples from “New Yorker” Magazine. Actually it was New York Magazine, whose great columnist Mary Ann Madden presented monthly write-in competitions well known for the wit of the competitors. See the delightful collections “Thank You for the Giant Sea Tortoise” (one of the winning entries for greeting cards for unlikely occasions), “Maybe He’s Dead” (from the “What you said/What you should have said” competition), and of course “Son of Giant Seat Tortoise.” ---
**Author:** ![Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/prof.pepperwinkle/32/13627_2.png) [@Prof.Pepperwinkle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Prof.Pepperwinkle)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dactyls-the-higgledy-piggledy-poetry-thread/189418/29 "2013-08-18T02:41:58Z")
Just so, Steve! One more from Thank You… Hurkimy Lurkimy Anton von Leeuwenhoek, Grinding his spectacles, Found they were strange, Thought he’d originate Microbiology, Which he invented by Changing the range. –S. Maguire ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dactyls-the-higgledy-piggledy-poetry-thread/189418/30 "2013-08-18T05:15:43Z")
I just remembered another one: Higgledy Piggledy President Jefferson Gave up the ghost on the Fourth of July. So did John Adams, which Shows that such patriots Propagandistically Know how to die. ---
**Author:** ![AppallingGael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9bd4f/32.png) [@AppallingGael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AppallingGael)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dactyls-the-higgledy-piggledy-poetry-thread/189418/31 "2013-08-18T08:14:10Z")
As an exercise, I figured I’d do the first name or two from the Celebrity Register of 1959 that had the right meter. As it happened, the first was Marian Anderson, and I’ve done her. So… Higgledy Piggledy [Robert B. Anderson](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_B._Anderson) Now you’re the Trezh Sec. So What does it mean? “Staying on course while e- Vading the traps with my Eisenhoverian Eye for the green.” And… Jiggery Pokery [William R. Anderson\*](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_R._Anderson) Sailed his sub under the North pole because Nucleonautical Strategy hinges on Whether or not there’s a Sanity clause. - The Wikipedia article omits the middle initial. Nice to see you here, Streetsinger. I think we exchanged e-mails once a few internet identities ago. ---
**Author:** ![BobArrgh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobarrgh/32/2881_2.png) [@BobArrgh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobArrgh)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dactyls-the-higgledy-piggledy-poetry-thread/189418/32 "2013-08-19T02:45:13Z")
Higgledy piggledy Ben Shalom Bernanke Running the Federal Reserve Bank today. Isn’t that much of a Keynesian follower; Iconoclastically Following Che. ---
**Author:** ![BobArrgh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobarrgh/32/2881_2.png) [@BobArrgh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobArrgh)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 2:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dactyls-the-higgledy-piggledy-poetry-thread/189418/33 "2013-08-19T02:59:30Z")
Spockery mockery Stephanie Zimbalist Opened the agency “Remington Steele”. Pierce Brosnan carried it Rom-com-dramatically, But he was a con man, A cad and a heel. ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 10:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dactyls-the-higgledy-piggledy-poetry-thread/189418/34 "2013-08-19T10:49:42Z")
Squatchelty, batchelty, Old Roger Patterson Caught on film, something In darkest NorCal; Subject’s identity, None have established it – Predictability Says, no-one e’er shall. ---
**Author:** ![vontsira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/51bf81/32.png) [@vontsira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vontsira)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 12:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dactyls-the-higgledy-piggledy-poetry-thread/189418/35 "2013-08-19T12:37:45Z")
Thinking about “abominable snowmen and associated stuff”, suggested another one. Himmalay, wimmalay, Sir Edmund Hillary With Tensing, climbed Everest, That venturesome pair; Asked why they’d done this thing, Ed replied breezily, “Self-evidentially, 'Cos it was there !” ---
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [August 19, 2013, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dactyls-the-higgledy-piggledy-poetry-thread/189418/36 "2013-08-19T14:18:09Z")
Two from years past, the first one’s really dated: Tiddley quiddley Edward M. Kennedy Quite unaccountably Drove in a stream. Pleas of amnesia Incomprehensible Possibly shattered Political dream. Chivalry, shmivalry! Roger the thief has a Method he uses for Sneaky attacks. Those who are reading are Quite unaccountably Always forgetting to Guard their own ba… ---
**Author:** ![Streetsinger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/0ea827/32.png) [@Streetsinger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Streetsinger)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dactyls-the-higgledy-piggledy-poetry-thread/189418/37 "2013-08-20T03:13:22Z")
I was sorry to read in the _New York Times_ today that John Hollander, who co-wrote the first book of double dactyls, has just died. It would be nice to write a commemorative double dactyl in his honor–it’s too bad his first name wasn’t really Jonathan. Jonathan Hollander would have made a fine double dactyl. Still, he had a PhD, so I suppose he qualifies as “Dr. John Hollander.” P.S.–Hi, AppallingGael ---
**Author:** ![BobArrgh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobarrgh/32/2881_2.png) [@BobArrgh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobArrgh)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dactyls-the-higgledy-piggledy-poetry-thread/189418/38 "2013-08-20T03:42:32Z")
Morning time, mourning time “Doctor John Hollander,” (He of the dactylic Poetry fame) – Someone said, grievously, “Passed away recently.” Quite unashamedly: Drink to his name! ---
**Author:** ![MonkeyMensch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@MonkeyMensch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMensch)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 3:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dactyls-the-higgledy-piggledy-poetry-thread/189418/39 "2013-08-20T03:56:34Z")
Colander, Bolander Jonathan Hollander Incomprehensibly Just passed away. Even, though alien, Sesquipedalian Poets will guide us and Show us the way. ---
**Author:** ![MacSpon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/34f0e0/32.png) [@MacSpon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacSpon)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2013, 4:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dactyls-the-higgledy-piggledy-poetry-thread/189418/40 "2013-08-20T04:00:52Z")
> [@Malacandra](#): > > History, blistery, > Antique-land traveller > Finds a stone pedestal: > “Mighty, beware!” > > While round the legs and head > Ozymandiacal > Stretch the lone, level sands > Boundless and bare. Nice! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dactyls-the-higgledy-piggledy-poetry-thread/189418.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/double-dactyls-the-higgledy-piggledy-poetry-thread/189418.md?page=3)