June 2005

Scam vs scam

Submitted by Virge on Thu, Jun 30, 2005 - 04:44
in

Teresa at Making Light "actually managed to come up with a poem so bad that the International Library of Poetry ... neither declared it to be a semifinalist in one of their contests, nor offered to publish it in one of their pricey yet unreadable anthologies."

How? By sending one example of spammy scam as a poetry submission to the poetry.com scammers. I know it's possible that it was automatic spam blocking that blocked her submission, and that her poem could have otherwise won critical acclaim and been featured in one of their prestigious publications, but to manage to get any verse rejected in any way is an achievement.

Inspired by Teresa's efforts I wondered if I could summarize her "poem" in a double-dactyl.

Scammily-spammily
Miriam Abacha,
Widow of former
Nigerian chief,

Seeks your assistance to
Pseudofiducially
Hold thirty mil for her
Family's relief.

June 2005

Submitted by Virge on Fri, Jun 24, 2005 - 07:28
in

Hello Kitty 40K
Taliban

Lord of the Flies

Submitted by Virge on Tue, Jun 14, 2005 - 04:02
in

Cross-posted from PhaWRONGula: Learning to Fly.

Pharyngula: Well, maybe another catch is if getting up close and personal with flies makes you squeamish…

You want Dipteran smut? Here's the website, uncut:
Anatomical Atlas of Flies.
You'll need, for inspection, a broadband connection
Because of its gigabyte size.
So shrug off your shyness and feast on the flyness
Expressed in high-res for your eye.
Come hug the homology, munch the morphology;
Have to agree, "Pretty fly!"

Flyting

Submitted by Virge on Fri, Jun 3, 2005 - 09:26
in

I picked up a word I didn't know from a Pharyngula commenter.

From Merriam-Webster:

flyting:  a dispute or exchange of personal abuse in verse form.

From Wikipedia:

In Norse and Germanic cultures, flyting is a contest of insults, either as a prelude to battle or as a form of combat in its own right. The exchange is regular, if not ritualized, and the insults usually center on accusations of cowardice or sexual impropriety or perversion.

I like the word. It reminds me of old limerick battles.