My faith in humanity has been repeatedly buoyed over the years by observing the extraordinary creativity and resourcefulness of people in trying economic circumstances. I reflected upon this life lesson during a recent trip through some of the poorest towns in Peru.
In towns without a paint store were astonishingly beautiful murals. Talented locals created lush pigments from local plants, brushes from animal hair, and wonderful images from their minds. Local doctors had poor access to medicine, but were remarkably resourceful in harnessing the power of therapeutic plants to do their healing work. But the Peruvian who impressed me the most was an extremely old man I met who was renowned for his ability to care for llamas.
In my broken Spanish, I was able to gather that the llama was central to life in the town, particularly for the transport of foodstuffs and crafts for trade. It was thus a significant problem that a local bird known as the malchiste had taken to nesting in the warm, thick manes of the llamas during the winter months. The noisy birds irritated the animals, disrupted their sleep and inflicted scratches that sometimes became infected.
In a wealthy country, the llamas would simply have been stabled in a tightly fenced enclosure, but that was beyond the means of the poor people of the village. So the inventive old man suggested rubbing baker’s yeast all over the llamas to repel the birds. Stunningly, it worked.
I asked him how he ever came up with such a strange but effective idea. He responded that he long ago learned that
Yeast is yeast and nest is nest and never the mane shall tweet.
Keith, preceding this post is one titled “Weekend Film Recommendation: …etc.”
When you do this to us, I think you should be required to use the title “Weekend Groan: …etc.”
Hail, peerless Pun! thou last and best,
Most rare and excellent bequest
Of dying idiot to the wit
He died of, rat-like, in a pit!
Thyself disguised, in many a way
Thou let’st thy sudden splendor play,
Adorning all where’er it turns,
As the revealing bull’s-eye burns,
Of the dim thief, and plays its trick
Upon the lock he means to pick.
Yet sometimes, too, thou dost appear
As boldly as a brigadier
Tricked out with marks and signs, all o’er,
Of rank, brigade, division, corps,
To show by every means he can
An officer is not a man;
Or naked, with a lordly swagger,
Proud as a cur without a wagger,
Who says: “See simple worth prevail-
All dog, sir-not a bit of tail!”
‘T is then men give thee loudest welcome,
As if thou wert a soul from Hell come.
O obvious Pun! thou hast the grace
Of skeleton clock without a case-
With all its boweling displayed,
And all its organs on parade.
Dear Pun, you’re common ground of bliss,
Where _Punch_ and I can meet and kiss;
Than thee my wit can stoop no low’r-
No higher his does ever soar.
- Ambrose Bierce
Love it!
Normally I can spot you going into a setup but you caught me today. And without coffee. Argh!!!
Exactly the same here. I’ve even had a number of false positives.
But it’s been long enough since the last similar post that I had been lulled into complacency. Argh!!!
I actually dropped a hint in this one with “malchiste”…
that rather depends on one’s Spanish! Perhaps this will be the final indignity to finally get me taking classes again.
I always love these unexpected puns. Thank you for making the Internet a little more light-hearted during these depressing times.
TWO points for the Mother Teresa shaggy dog setup tone, and ONE for making us click below the fold to, in a way, PUNish our own selves.
What’s the actual category for the humor here. Shaggy dog, with ‘play on words’ punch line? “Never the mane shall tweet” is pun-esque, but not really a pun, is it?
Spoonerism?
Roonerspism?
Oonerspism
“Never the mane shall tweet” fills the spoonerism bill, but the rest of the punch line doesn’t.
I want a WORD for this comedy situation. Buggin’ me man.
Spin out a shaggy dog set up, then use words from that setup to create a somewhat sensible punch line whose words merely rhyme with the words of a well-known phrase/aphorism/saying. Needs a word.
The funny part of a shaggy dog is being gulled into investing some time into a story; slipping into the belief that you’re about to get a satisfying conclusion, then only getting a wet noodle. The punch line can’t be silence, it has to be at least a wet noodle. But it can be as little as little can be, to riff off Ed Grimley.
Shortest shaggy dog I know of:
“Hey, guess what?”
“What?”
“Poopy butt.”
ferd,
The Wikipedia entry for the old BBC program My Word! links to another entry for a shaggy-dog set-up with a PUNchline: a Feghoot. But we COULD just call it a “Harumphreys” and be done with it:)
-TP
A former word pun champion’s funny, erudite, and provocative exploration of puns, the people who make them, and this derided wordplay’s remarkable impact on history.
The Pun Also Rises: How the Humble Pun Revolutionized Language, Changed History, and Made Wordplay More Than Some Antics
Keith, you would surely enjoy the BBC’s documentary Welcome to Lagos. It’s on YouTube.
Let me ruin a few more:
I left my harp in Sam Clam’s Disco.
These are the tines the fry men’s sole.
“Don’t hatchet your count before he chickens” is pretty stale.
As is, “Leave no tern unstoned.”
But then there’s “Knick-knack, Patty Wack, give the frog a loan. His old man’s a Rolling Stone.”
“The tines that fry men’s sole” is new to me. I love it.
Already used a close cousin of that one
https://thesamefacts.com/2012/11/woolgathering/the-hole-in-my-sole/
Or “I left my art in Sam Frank’s disco”
Chess nuts boasting in an open foyer…
Never put all your Basques in one exit…
It’s a long way to tip a Rary…
Silly rabbi - kicks are for Trids!
These are the beers that made Milt Famie walk us!
For the old-timers: “Pardon me Roy, is that the cat that chewed yer new boots?”
‘new shoes’, I think (to run parallel to ‘choo choo’)
People have been shot for less than that, you know.
There could scarcely be a greater crime.
A goose to the brain’s behind.
Hanging is too good for such people.
They should be drawn and quoted.
the llama was central to life in the town
I presume we are talking 2-L llamas here.
I didn’t even know that llamas went to law school.
Sure they do.
That’s how they get to be beasts of bardom.
It requires an LL.M.
Oh, my - Saturday delight for sure!
and ‘I have come to seize your berry, not to praise it’