Mother, Superior
On page 11 of his autobiography, Joe Biden recalls his mother confronting a seventh-grade nun
who mocked him for stuttering: She “walked over in front of the nun and said,
‘If you ever speak to my son like that again, I’ll come back and rip that bonnet off your head.
Do you understand me?’”
Nunnery punnery,
Catherine Finnegan
said, “Your behavior is
shameful at most.
Can it, or I’ll be your
disciplinarian.
Either way, sister, your
habit is toast!”
Prime Time
In 2018, Forbes reported that Jeff Bezos had surpassed a net worth of $100 billion,
becoming the world’s first centibillionaire.
Lickety-splitally,
Jeffrey P. Jorgensen
sped past a milestone that
stands for all time,
though it now seems that the
ur-centibillionaire
still hadn’t entered his
Amazon Prime.
Book Reviews
I
Tippety toppety
Absalom, Absalom!,
crucible into which
Faulkner compressed
multiple narratives
nonchronologically,
may be his Absolute,
Absolute best.
II
Notable quotable
Illness as Metaphor
shouldn’t be read when your
health isn’t good;
dealing with illnesses
unmetaphorically
causes the text to be
ill-understood.
III
Priggery triggery
Tropic of Capricorn,
seen as offensive, was
censored at birth.
Later it rallied and,
counteroffensively
claiming its latitude,
circled the earth.