The Aged Aged Man

I'll tell thee everything I can;

There's little to relate.

I saw an aged aged man,

A-sitting on a gate.

"Who are you, aged man?" I said,

"And how is it you live?"

And his answer trickled through my head

Like water through a sieve.

I'm a birthday boy! Half-way to 70. Why not read one of my favourite absurd poems?

More like this

Happy birthday and many more! I read the poem.

Speaking of beads made from odd substances, I just read that crinoid stems are called St. Cuthbert's beads in some places because the fossil rings were polished and used as rosary beads.

Congratulations! Let´s celebrate with some heavy metal soundings next week!

Glad födelsedagen! (and that's the limit of my Swedish)

Many thanks everybody! I've celebrated the occasion by completing two grant applications. Now for some tea & cookies, and tonight I have a restaurant dinner with the wife & kids waiting for me.

Happy birthday.

By Mustafa Mond, FCD (not verified) on 04 Apr 2007 #permalink

Belated congratulations. May the beard of your enemies grow inwards and choke them!

Happy birthday.

Thank you for reminding me about Lewis Carol. I read Alice as a kid. Then at uni one of my lecturers brought in one of his poems and we (he) spent a class or two discussing it. The lecturer was a huge fan of Lewis Carol's, not for the literature content, but for the mathematics, the class _was_ second year pure maths. Unfortunantly I've forgotten most of what Brian had to say about it, and I think that somehow most of Carol's writting would make more sense if you either had a mathematics degree or were tripping on Victorian recreational drugs, or both.

BTW you asked recently for readers to say hey. I found your (old)site late last year as I was searching for info on Viking wire work trims used on clothing. I enjoy the posts on archaeology and also the modern social questions such as circumcision and nuclear power. I am a long time member of the SCA with particular interests in textiles/sewing/costume and cooking, I'm not sure if this is because of or inspite of a fairly feminist viewpoint and a very backwards, conservative and anti-feminist upbringing. I studied geology and pure maths many years ago, but never finished the degree, so you are talking to an educated layman here. Oh, and I'm pagan. I've got you on an rss feed so I read all your new posts eventually.