Wednesday, October 18, 2006

The One-Elle Lama

This Is Going From Verse To Worse

I actually meant to add this to my blog before I flew out of Melbourne. Those of you who saw the post `Of The Peepul, By The Peepul, For The Peepul', featuring the three great photographs of the Shwedagon Temple by Nirmal Ghosh, would know exactly the thought process that led me to add this afterthought. Nirmal's picture of the two monks reminded me of the great rhyme by Ogden Nash. Which rhyme? This rhyme ... ``The one-l lama, he's a priest.The two-l llama, he's a beast. And I will bet a silk pajama, There isn't any three-l lllama.'' Of course, if Ogden Nash were Aussie, he would surely have written a second verse, about Elle Macpherson, beginning: ``The One-Elle Lama ....''
Postscript: I once read somewhere that Nash - who loved a pun or two - also wrote a footnote to this poem. In typical whimsical style, he wrote something along the lines of: ``The author's attention has been called to a type of conflagration known as a three-alarmer.''

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