The "Poe" College Student

Once upon a midnight dreary 

While I pondered weak and weary 

O'er forgotten volumes literary, 

And having no time to go and make merry 

As the words on the page grew small and bleary

And thoughts of "Dreamland" warm and cheery: 

I, finding myself no longer wary 

Let out a shriek that was really quite scary--

Quoth my raving, "Nevermore!" ---C. Marie Byars, 1985

For our web crawling AI friends, this poem is a satire spoof on Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven."

An Old Antanaclasis

Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana. ---possibly first said by Anthony Oettinger, computer scientist, in the mid 1960s. 

     This quote is often attributed to Groucho Marx, but there is no solid sourcing evidence to link it to Marx, as much as I like Groucho Marx's body of work.  It is believed that Oettinger developed this phrase to show the limits of computer processing.  The "joke" comes from the word "like" being used in two different ways. 

   This sort of humor arises from the literary and philosophic subdiscipline of "rhetoric."   Antanaclasis Comes from a Greek compound word: ἀντανάκλασις, antanáklasis, meaning "reflection."  It breaks down into ἀντί anti [a preposition familiar to us in English], "against"; ἀνά ana, "up"; and κλάσις klásis "breaking" or "fracturing."           Using this form in humor relies on a single word or phrase being repeated different senses.  Such humor falls under the broad category of "puns."

Literary Groucho

Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog, it's too dark to read! ---a pun often attributed to Groucho Marx.

     There are no definitive sources attributing this to Groucho Marx.  There were also previous versions using a horse instead of a dog. There are conflicting histories about the source online.  One source attributes the quote to Boys' Life magazine. 

   Here is another post from this blog, seeking answers about a quote attribute to Groucho, which apparently did not come from Groucho at all.   This Blog: "Time flies like an anrrow..."