Word: asimov
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...prize was a mere $50, but when Connecticut's Mohegan Community College called for a competition, 12,000 limericks arrived from every state and a couple of foreign countries. The absurdly prolific science writer Isaac Asimov, who numbers three volumes of Lecherous Limericks among his 180 or so published books, volunteered to be the judge...
...could he refuse? After Robert Rue, president of Mohegan, and Creative Writing Teacher Jim Coleman had decided on the contest, Rue sent Asimov a communiqu...
...service story, brought the limericks rolling in. "The limerick," explained Rue, "is a non-threatening art form. People will write a limerick when poetry would scare the hell out of them." Members of the Mohegan community got together for one ten-hour limericking marathon to choose 86 finalists for Asimov...
Although the limerick form appears in few prosody handbooks, Asimov followed strict, traditional rules. Limericks must have five lines. The first, second and fifth lines must all rhyme, while the third and fourth follow another rhyme (a,a,b,b,a). There are 13 feet, or stressed syllables, to the limerick-no more, no less. The typical foot is an anapest, that is, two unstressed syllables preceding an accented one (da-da-DAH), or sometimes an iamb...
...complete story must be told in 34 to 49 syllables. Asimov likes them to be not only clever but also a bit vulgar. "Clean limericks lack flavor-like vanilla ice cream or pound cake," he claims. "They are perfectly edible but, to my taste, are tame, flat and unsatisfying." Nonetheless, Asimov awarded first prize to this limerick by George Vaill, retired secretary of Yale University...