# The Space Child's Mother Goose **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 10, 2006, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-space-childs-mother-goose/339275 "2006-01-10T04:34:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MaryEFoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MaryEFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryEFoo)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-space-childs-mother-goose/339275/1 "2006-01-10T04:34:43Z")
```auto There was a man in our town, An Astrophysicist, Who found a place In Hyperspace By just a twist of wrist But when he sought the Nearer Now And gave another twist, He found that he'd Become somehow A Cyberneticist. ``` From **The Space Child’s Mother Goose** , by Frederick Winsor ---
**Author:** ![MaryEFoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MaryEFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryEFoo)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-space-childs-mother-goose/339275/2 "2006-01-10T23:02:14Z")
There was an old woman with notions quite new, She never told children the things they should do. she hoisted the covers up over her head When people explained where her theories led. –ibid ---
**Author:** ![MaryEFoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MaryEFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryEFoo)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-space-childs-mother-goose/339275/3 "2006-01-10T23:15:53Z")
This is the way the Physicist rides: A quantum, a quantum, a quantum. This is the way the Agronomist rides: I plant 'em, I plant 'em, I plant 'em. This is the way the Philosopher rides: O Plato! O Plato! O Plato! This is the way the Rocketman rides: JATO! JATO!! JATO!!! Quantum: The _quantum_ is only a tittle or jot: On a little theory hangs a lot. ---
**Author:** ![MaryEFoo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@MaryEFoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaryEFoo)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2006, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-space-childs-mother-goose/339275/4 "2006-01-10T23:33:40Z")
These excerpts from The Space Child’s Mother Goose, by Frederick Winsor and Marian Parry, published by Simon and Schuster, are quoted under the rules allowing samples for review or other purposes. And because I like them. And hereinafter the beginning of another, longer, example: This is the Theory Jack built. This is the Flaw That lay in the Theory Jack built. This is the Mummery Hiding the Flaw That lay in the Theory Jack built. This is the Summary Based on the Mummery Hiding the Flaw That lay in the Theory Jack built. This is Constant K That saved the Summary Based on the Mummery Hiding the Flaw That lay in the Theory Jack Built. * * * Does anyone else recognize this? ---
**Author:** ![cwr-setec](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eb9ed0/32.png) [@cwr-setec](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cwr-setec)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2014, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-space-childs-mother-goose/339275/5 "2014-03-31T02:09:08Z")
Normal space is high and wide, Hyperspace is just outside. -Frederick Winsor It’s a great book. I found it through “A Random Walk in Science” by RL Weber. A new graduate student did a card catalog search on “Random Walk” in the university library. This was back in the 1980’s, on a terminal. He did a search on the title, and not the subject of “Random Walk”. He checked it out, brought it and several other books back to the physics department, and then got very confused when he tried to read Weber’s book. It starts with “When Does Jam become Marmalade?” He was expecting “Random Walk” and got humor. Sometimes, humor doesn’t translate well. “Random Walk” references Winsor’s book. And it’s a delight. ---
**Author:** ![Lasciel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/e79b87/32.png) [@Lasciel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lasciel)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2014, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-space-childs-mother-goose/339275/6 "2014-03-31T02:52:39Z")
I learned about it a few years ago, and managed to buy a used copy a while back, and I love it. It is trippy in the best way. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2014, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-space-childs-mother-goose/339275/7 "2014-03-31T06:30:05Z")
This book’s been around since the late 1950’s or early 1960’s, hasn’t it? I first saw it circa 1970. Here’s a page with the _complete_ text of _The Theory That Jack Built_ and a few others: [http://www.phy.duke.edu/~hsg/134/poems/space-childs-mother-goose.txt](http://www.phy.duke.edu/~hsg/134/poems/space-childs-mother-goose.txt) [Here’s a review of a more recent reprinting](http://news.slashdot.org/story/01/10/24/1454251/the-space-childs-mother-goose), mentioning that the book has become a classic, with earlier copies selling for $150 !!! > [@](#): > > In the mid-fifties, a poetry and science fiction fan teamed up with a pen illustrator to produce The Space Child’s Mother Goose. Decades later, enough people still remember this book fondly that existing copies sold for up to $150 apiece. Purple House Press, a small Texas publisher, continues to reprint influential books from that era. Their reprint of this classic doggerel (in the best sense of the word) will appeal to children of the 50s through the 00s. \*THE HYDROGEN DOG AND THE COBALT CAT The Hydrogen dog and the Cobalt cat, side by side in the armory sat. Nobody thought about fusion or fission. Everyone spoke of their peace time mission, till somebody came and opened the door. There they were, in a neutron fog. The Codrogen Cat And the Hybalt dog; they mushroomed up with a terrible roar, and nobody never was there no more.\*