h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Entry: The Nonsense Rhyme Place - A51306103
Author: frankandsense - U9936362

I hope you all see this as a good idea.
Are there any new Edward Lears out there? I do hope so. No need to limit ourselves to limericks, either. Epic tales of strange beasts in stranger yet adventures would be very welcome. Any Lewis Carrolls out there? Roll up! roll up!

I am very fond of nonsense rhymes and I am sure there will be many others too - but I think you have come to the wrong place, , ie Peer Review. As I am 'new'* as well I can't tell you where is the correct place....or how to get there from here.

Shouts for assistance from experienced hootooer


*wonders how long being 'new' lasts for

I am so new I shine.

Oh well shining is better than which is my party piece,

were you thinking of making a new society sort of page? I have a feeling that you can do that by making an (unedited) Guide Entry, and then advertise it somewhere. Which is why I am having problems advising you - where are all the experienced members when you need them-

oops pressed post too quickly -
I am sure you will get help to sort this out tomorrow from a kind soul

Once they hear the good news they will flock to this wonderful spot, he says with mock confidence. Thank you for your support and interest lanzababy, I am sure I can chat to (say) Bob Stafford, or the like if things do not go well here. No rush on Hoo Too I believe. It all gets sorted out in good time.
fxx

You'll want to take this Entry out of Peer Review and put it in the Alternative Writing Workshop, most definitely.

The AWW (<./>Writing-Alternative</.&gt is where creative writers huddle, and the <./>UnderGuide</.> lot lurk, and I'm sure you'll receive suitable gasps of awe in there with this piece

The easiest way to move your Entry is to go the the PeerReview page and click on the little x beside the name of your Entry. You will then be asked if you want to remove it from Peer Review.

Yes, you do.

Once done, then go back to your Entry, you will probably be prompted to.

As you no doubt discovered you can 'Submit for Review'. Click this link at your Entry, then you'll come to page where you submit to different forums. You chose Peer Review from the drop down list last time, so came here.

You want to select the Alternative Writing Forum from the drop down list instead, to get this in the right place for better responses from the community

Thanks for posting in the wrong place Frankandsense

Matt's answer and the links let me find the 'other' guide !

I am a bit late getting started today....been cooking instead of writing, well, we all have to eat....thanks Matt for you help, and for your concern and your very clear instructions as to how I get myself out of this mess of my own making. I will certainly act on your advice.
I inadvertently seemed to have helped Not-so-bald-eagle, it seems.
Whether I do things right or wrong I pick up more friends as I bumble though life.

Hi, F&S! Are you still interested in this topic?

Well Alex__S, I seem to be the main contributor at the moment. I am certainly interested in the project and hope others will show an interest as well.
There was an old Radio catch phrase which ran, "These things take time to warm up..............". They were using valves in those days, of course. What Nonsense Frank!

It occurs to me that some users may not have actually seen any of the nonsense rhymes yet. To read them simply click on "Nonsense Rhyme" (this appears just underneath the thick black bar at the bottom of this page.) Am I trying to teach some smart grannies to suck eggs, I wonder?
fxx

Hi, F&S!
Tell me please, where are you (I mean - what is your local time, mine is GMT+3 at the moment) and if you are a native speaker (i.e if English is your mother tongue, mine is not)?

Now, there are several "types" of nonsense rhymes - with a proper grammar and vocabulary but with "distorted" sense (the words are used in a funny way). The other type is - proper grammar but invented ("strange") words (like in "Jabberwocky"). The sense is rather strange too of course . I can't remember any example of "broken" grammar, but from my mother tongue I know there may be some interesting ideas...
Actually you can achieve "distorted" sense using correct words and grammar as well in prose - like in Kafka's novels, for example. Every separate sentence is fine but the common sense is quite weird...
Over to you now

By the way, concerning this... (I wonder - is it possible to quote in h2g2 and use some HTML formatting?)

**************************************************************************************************************************************
There was an old Radio catch phrase which ran, "These things take time to warm up..............". They were using valves in those days, of course.
***************************************************************************************************************************************

I may tell you a real story from my life! Perhaps I already wrote about it somewhere in the LearningEnglish's "Community", but I can't find it...

I am in the South of England, Portsmouth to be precise. We are at present in "Summertime" meaning that we have put our clocks "forward" an hour for the summer months, an idea started in wartime I believe, to give more daylight for harvesting crops. We had "double Summertime" briefly, clocks went forward two hours. Some argue against shifting time in this manner because children go to school in the dark.

My time is much the same as "Greenwich Meantime", a universal standard time, now being superseded by "Central European Time".

Strange how time shifts round the globe, something our creator didn't think about, tee hee!

Your English is very good. If you have an offering please post it to
"Nonsense Rhymes", where it will receive nothing but our approval, disapproval being something we just don't allow.
All the best Alex from Frank.
fxx

I should add that I am a native English speaker, with only a tiny amount of German and hardly any school-learned French at my disposal.
fxx

"central European time" or "continental European time"? I think CET is the latter

We are spinning backwards into darkness.
And still Long Island Sound will offer Harkness;
Where dreamers pay dollar and a dime
To catch the sun and interrupt the time.
Two cents will buy you all the time and space.
Two more will turn the moon into a face.

If that makes no sense you have not yet visited "Nonsense Rhymes".
fxx

Thank you, Fxx for the answers and "approval"
I am an "owl" but I can see that you may read my message today which actually is still yesterday where you are Yes, the time is tricky. And despite we stick to the sunlight, we can breathe almost simultaneously around the Planet! But when we look up in the skies - in the bottomless darkness, we can see only the past! If we "discover" a new planet around a distant star, this planet at this very moment may not exist anymore! And we have no chance to know it during our lifetime....

I am Ukrainian (like Jack), but my mother tongue is Russian. If somebody tells you that his or her mother tongue is Ukrainian, ask this person to compose a nonsense rhyme or a pun joke in the native language... See what I mean?
Would you believe me if I tell you that Jabberwocky translated into Russian is even more nonsense than in English? Do you know why? Because of the grammar! Some nonsense lyrics may be excellent means for teaching grammar!

Many years ago (twenty or so...) my elder daughter came to me once and saw that old-fashioned valve radio... What is it? - she asked.
- Radio receiver...
- Switch it on.
I switched... The tuning shield turned bright (magic thing!)
- Why is it not speaking?
- It needs some time to warm up...
- To warm up???
You should have seen her surprise! It was so funny...

Exactly. Why warm up? Why not just warm? We would not say warm down. Why not? It would make just as much sense, or nonsense.
Children manage nonsense very easily and do not question it in their early game songs.
If we take the "Ring a ring o' roses" song. Historians will try to link it to "The Plague" but children never do so unless so prompted. They just like the ring of the words, the sounds and the way the words flow naturally from one to another. They do not need sense to get pleasure from the sound of the human voice. Thus children learn language with ease because it brings them such pleasure. Adults find it all much more difficult, and demand sense from what they learn, are delighted by grammatical rules, and are annoyed by irregularities.
Oh to have the ears of a child and the delight of nonsense they are born with but lose as they grow up.
Your English is very good. Oh to be able to speak Russian and really thrill to the Russian sense of the vagaries of humanity. Too late for this old fool to learn, I fear.
fxx