The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #5340   Message #30602
Posted By: judy
12-Jun-98 - 12:46 PM
Thread Name: poem calling out for a tune
Subject: poem calling out for a tune
I just got this in my mailbox today and I thought the poem was just crying out for a tune. Any takers?

occiput (OK-suh-put, -puht) noun [plural occipita (ok-SIP-i-tah) or occiputs].

The back part of the head or skull.

[Middle English, from Latin occiput, occipit- : ob-, against. + caput, head.] "The action calls to mind Ogden Nash's delicious tribute to a Senate smut-basher of yesteryear, the same Sen. Reed Smoot of Utah who gave us the Hawley-Smoot tariff: Senator Smoot (Republican Ut.) is planning a ban on smut. Oh root-ti-toot for Smoot of Ut. and his reverent occiput. Smite, Smoot, smite for Ut. Grit your molars and do your dut..." Edwin Yoder; The Urge to Purge High-Tech Smut, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, 23 Jun 1995. This week's theme: words with offbeat pluralizations. ........................................................................... Leadership is getting someone to do what they don't want to do in order to achieve what they want to achieve. -Tom Landry Wish to share your love of words with a family member or a friend? You can send a gift subscription of AWAD at http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/gift.html . Before you sign-up anyone, please make sure s/he will appreciate your gesture.