This week I've been fortunate enough to come across a couple of nuggets of brilliance (both thanks to the people on Public Address), and feel compelled to link to them.
Firstly, the Holy Tango, an anthology by Francis Heaney of what poets and playwrights would have written had they produced works that were anagrams of their names (in case you hadn't spotted it, "holy tango" is itself an an anagram of anthology).
It's all brilliant, but the ones I enjoyed most on first reading were Robert Burns "Robber Runts", a tale told in Scots brogue of pint-sized thieves; Oscar Wilde's "IRS Law Code", a brittle comedy of manners about a visit by the tax man; and Allen Ginsberg's "Bangles Linger" - "Howl" turned into a lament about cheesy 80s pop music. You don't even need to have read the artist in question - despite being totally ignorant of Greek drama, I loved Euripides "I Reuse Dip", which is based on a well-known Seinfeld episode. Rare genius.
An even rarer and funnier gem is this document from 1674, apparently printed in the January edition of Harpers, the Women's Petition Against Coffee. It's almost too good to be true, but definitely seems to be genuine. If you thought that Candace Bushnell invented chick sex-crit, think again. Also note that these women had a superior sense of humour and command of the language. Whew, that Restoration era must have been a fun time, if you could have lived with the plumbing.
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