The Pour At Four Score

Michael, On the occasion of your birthday I attempted to compose eight limericks, one for each of your decades. Instead, I ended up with eight lamericks. Whatever: Limericks, lamericks, don’t count on ten when your clock strikes 100 ticks. Happy Birthday.

Jerry

The Martini Trilogy

Solid Education

There once was a boy from Cohoes,
Who yearned to learn all he could know,
So off he went to Holy Cross,
Where studies weren’t a total loss,
For today from his hand Nobel martinis flow.

          Catching Up? (Hah!)

There once was a scholar named Michael,
Whose smarts were thought to be frightful,
But over the years as the seasons passed,
His genius seemed less scary, less fast,
Which made shared martinis more delightful.

The Meaning in Sage Hall (or not at all)

Of grad students, some thought Michael a meanie.
A grad student was I, and remember that meanie as teeny, if eeny.
Or perhaps I’ve simply forgotten,
How the times they were a rotten,
So ginned and grinned since I’ve been by his mean martinis.

Desultory Ditties

          Some Guys Concept of Something, or If Not His, Someone Else’s

There once was one who wrote Sagely of ethos.
True, about its origins he admitted some loss,
Yet oft-cited is he nonetheless,
Even if about Aristotle he had made a guess,
At 37, today, his essay is still boss.

The Weight on His Shoulders

Quite smart, is that boy from Cohoes.
Many wonder just how much he knows.
Half-shared, I bet has been his store;
Rhetoric, yes, but so much more.
Such the burden, that brain, that mind –
From which so much flows!

AI, Minus the I

One afternoon Michael and I grilled his new Alexa.
Simple things; nothing intended to tax her.
But she struggled with all, with every rudi call.
Each question we asked was beyond her, all,
Such that in time Michael concluded, as only he could have,
That more aptly Alexa would be named Perplexa.

 

Git Up and Hoe Down

Formerly, a world-class sneezer,
Now eighty, but not (yet) a geezer.
Eight decades gone and no sign of let up.
For opera, mead, and friends he still as his get up.
If steps he’s dropped, his jig is still a pleaser.

The Kids Are Alright

His progeny eminent – Miller, Clark, Katz, Sullivan, Harris, Wright – a few.
Advancing rhetoric, to his students all remain true.
Whether Cole, Crick, or the park at Saratoga,
To the ancient techne Michael has learned us like Yoda:
“Look where you will, and see rhetoric’s force is with you.”