I wonder on what basis you say that, Patrick.

I am generous to a fault. It's just that I'd have preferred it if she'd
asked _how much for a shag?_

I am never forget is a quote. Yes. It is so embedded in the patois of one
of my speech communities, a very small one, I almost forget.

You need bad Russian accent -- in the style of Tom Lehrer -- he, I
believe, who said he was giving up satire when Kissinger got the Nobel
Peace Prize

It was a song about how to plagiarise

I have just grabbed the entire routine from the net

In the spirit of the song

It was half spoken half sung

quote

For many years now, Mr. Danny Kaye, who has been my particular idol since
childbirth, has been doing a routine about the great Russian director
Stanislavsky and the secret of success in the acting profession. And I
thought it would be interesting to stea... to adapt this idea to the field
of mathematics. I always like to make explicit the fact that before I went
off not too long ago to fight in the trenches, I was a mathematician by
profession. I don't like people to get the idea that I have to do this for
a living. I mean, it isn't as though I had to do this, you know, I could
be making, oh, 3000 dollars a year just teaching.

 Be that as it may, some of you may have had occasion to run into
mathematicians and to wonder therefore how they got that way, and here,
in partial explanation perhaps, is the story of the great Russian
mathematician Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky.

 Who made me the genius I am today,
 The mathematician that others all quote,
 Who's the professor that made me that way?
 The greatest that ever got chalk on his coat.

 One man deserves the credit,
 One man deserves the blame,
 And Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky is his name.
 Hi!
 Nicolai Ivanovich Lobach-

 I am never forget the day I first meet the great Lobachevsky.
 In one word he told me secret of success in mathematics:
 Plagiarize!

 Plagiarize,
 Let no one else's work evade your eyes,
 Remember why the good Lord made your eyes,
 So don't shade your eyes,
 But plagiarize, plagiarize, plagiarize -
 Only be sure always to call it please 'research'.

 And ever since I meet this man
 My life is not the same,
 And Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky is his name.
 Hi!
 Nicolai Ivanovich Lobach-

 I am never forget the day I am given first original paper
 to write. It was on analytic and algebraic topology of
 locally Euclidean parameterization of infinitely differentiable
 Riemannian manifold.
 Bozhe moi!
 This I know from nothing.
 What-i'm going-to do.
 But I think of great Lobachevsky and get idea - ahah!

 I have a friend in Minsk,
 Who has a friend in Pinsk,
 Whose friend in Omsk
 Has friend in Tomsk
 With friend in Akmolinsk.
 His friend in Alexandrovsk
 Has friend in Petropavlovsk,
 Whose friend somehow
 Is solving now
 The problem in Dnepropetrovsk.

 And when his work is done -
 Ha ha! - begins the fun.
 From Dnepropetrovsk
 To Petropavlovsk,
 By way of Iliysk,
 And Novorossiysk,
 To Alexandrovsk to Akmolinsk
 To Tomsk to Omsk
 To Pinsk to Minsk
 To me the news will run,
 Yes, to me the news will run!

 And then I write
 By morning, night,
 And afternoon,
 And pretty soon
 My name in Dnepropetrovsk is cursed,
 When he finds out I publish first!

 And who made me a big success
 And brought me wealth and fame?
 Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky is his name.
 Hi!
 Nicolai Ivanovich Lobach -

 I am never forget the day my first book is published.
 Every chapter I stole from somewhere else.
 Index I copy from old Vladivostok telephone directory.
 This book was sensational!
 Pravda - well, Pravda - Pravda said: "Zhil-bil korol kogda-to, pree nyom
blokha zhila"[1] It stinks.
 But Izvestia! Izvestia said: "Ya idoo kuda sam czar idyot peshkom!"[2]
 It stinks.
 Metro-Goldwyn-Moskva buys movie rights for six million rubles,
 Changing title to 'The Eternal Triangle',
 With Brigitte Bardot playing part of hypotenuse.

 And who deserves the credit?
 And who deserves the blame?
 Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky is his name.
 Hi!

unquote

Now reading it again it may be that humour changes
but, and you will understand this better than I, Patrick, some decades ago
life was terribly miserable and we grabbed at anything

also, more seriously, it is a reworking of an existing (forgotten I
believe ) routine

Lehrer is good to listen to still. I am playing some in my head. Recommended


On Wed, February 1, 2012 13:10, Patrick McManus wrote:
> Yes to try and get a drink off L she must have been desperate
> Later-Not sure if it is yours or her incompetence -please clarify
> P
> Ps
> 'I am never forget a woman in a bar in Athens-' has a ring about it is it
> a quote P concerned
> Actually Diana is very intelligent and has to play it down for insecure
> old poets!
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Lawrence Upton
> Sent: 01 February 2012 12:41
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: received poem
>
>
> She gets around
>
>
> She says she's in Australia  but has an email in Italy under someone
> else's name. You'd think I wasn't busy! but I had a look at the header. The
> first IP address is unknown, the message just materialised, the second was
> in Ukraine
>
> I thought of saying I have a soccer of my own and we could watch it
> together. All sorts of nonsense. But what's the point.
>
> But I do like the incompetence which is why I posted it. One would have
> to be rather desperate to believe it though.
>
> I am never forget a woman in a bar in Athens trying to get a drink and
> wallet off me saying English? I like English. I will come to England with
> you. I'd been on a ferry sleeping on deck for nearly 50 hours and just
> wanted to be a little drunk and had to endure that nonsense
>
> 100 thousand years of fast track mental evolution and now VLSI Very Large
>  Scale Idiocy
>
>
> Must work
>
>
> L
>
>
> On Wed, February 1, 2012 12:28, Patrick McManus wrote:
>
>> Ah yes she visited me last year had wonderful time P
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Poetryetc: poetry and poetics [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
>>  Behalf Of Lawrence Upton
>> Sent: 01 February 2012 11:59
>> To: [log in to unmask]
>> Subject: received poem
>>
>>
>>
>> Hello Mr.!
>> I know that my letter will a surprising for you. I will try to explain
>> to you. I asked the agency to find a man for a serious relationship. They
>> gave me email address. And so I write. My name is Diana. I am 27 years
>> old. I was born in Poland. But now I live in Sydney. I'm a lawyer in the
>> economic. I work for a big company. I like my job, but I don't have time
>> for relationship. A little about me: I am very communicative girl. My
>> friends say about me that I talk too much. But I love to speak. I like
>> to read books. Every day I play tennis and golf.
>> I like watching a soccer and snooker. My weight 55 kg. My height 178 cm.
>>  My hair color-light brown. My eye color - brown.
>> Now you know a little about me. If you are interested please contact me
>> on my personal mail. I'll have a vacation for a month. And I plan to
>> visit UK. To me interesting
>> to know all about UK. I would love to see your letter and pictures.
>> Please
>> tell me about yourself. I'm curious to know all about you. Have a nice
>> day. Diana
>>