Silverback 142, Rhymeswithplague 142

It isn’t a football score or a basketball score or, Heaven help us, a baseball score. It isn’t the number of blog followers.

Ian of Leeds/Sebring a.k.a Silverback, not to be confused with either the Ian who shoots parrots or the Ian who has Lord Pudding for a papa, posted the other day that he has had visitors from 142 countries, the most recent one having been Réunion. I commented that I had kept track of my little flags too and that my blog had received visitors from 141 countries, the most recent one having been Fiji.

Advantage, Silverback.

Now, happily, I can report that we are tied at 142. This week I had a first-time visitor from Cambodia.

Deuce.

What a perfect time to foist on show you a poem I wrote a long time ago with the unlikely title of “The Ogden Nash Travel Agency”:


The Ogden Nash Travel Agency
by Robert H. Brague

The next time you go to Cambodia,
Be sure that you see Angkor Wat;
The Khmer Rouge will all say hellodia,
But some other natives may not.
Avoid controversial discussion
In the capital city, Phnom Penh;
Prefer Chinese cooking to Russian --
You may want to go there agenh.

When sailing upon the Aegean,
Remark on the dullness of Crete.
To do otherwise is plebian;
’Twill help make your visit complete.
Don’t make the mistake in the Bosphorus
Of calling the place Dardanelles;
A slip here could mean total losphorus:
We’d be laughed at from here to Seychelles.

While backpacking through Micronesia,
You’ll have, we expect, a real ball!
The folk there go all out to plesia;
Some natives wear nothing atoll.
They’ll know that you’re not a wahine (“wah-heeny”)
If you don’t sport an all-over tan.
For modesty, take a bikini;
It’s called the American plan.

A weekend in Mesopotamia
Or one on the coast of Brazil?
Do both! Go on, splurge! We don’t blamia
For wanting to have a real thrill!
So float down the mighty Kaskaskia
Or tour Vladivostok by bus;
Just one little thing we would askia:
Please purchase your tickets from us.


This is now the third time I have included this particular poem on my blog but it is the first time it has included illustrative links. It also appeared once on Billy Ray Barnwell’s blog, but that is neither here nor there. Well, actually, it is there. The most notable customers ever to avail themselves of the services provided by the Ogden Nash Travel Agency are none other than our old friends Lord and Lady Pudding, who are currently touring in the Pacific.