Have you picked up any random hobbies during this pandemic? Here’s my newest pastime…
If stage one of quarantine is getting a mask, and stage two is baking bread, and stage three is stopping baking bread, and stage five is cutting bangs, and stage fifteen is following Connell’s Chain on Instagram, I’ve reached stage forty three.
Limericks.
You guys, I’ve become obsessed with writing limericks. It began this weekend, when my friend’s husband asked us to write one for her birthday. Suddenly I’ve found myself writing one for everyone I know. My kids are making so much fun of me, and Alex is being supportive but you can tell he’s kind of like, wait what is going on? ;)
Here are a few examples…
Alex:
There once was a writer from Brooklyn
Who loved his kids, ’60s rock and dry gin
To keep his wife cheery
He kept his beard beardy
A nicer guy there never has been
My mom:
There once was a mom with cold hands
Who wore silk shirts and black Capri pants
But her real secret skill
Comes when things go downhill
Have a worry? Jeannie understands
They’re ADDICTIVE. Want me to write one for you? Here goes…
These readers, so funny and smart,
Discuss Trader Joe’s, dating and art
Stinky cheese they adore —
And the smell of bookstores —
Our love for them is off the charts
And for very close readers:
A group of women who are literary
Wow us daily with smart commentary
These well-rounded folks
Have the best inside jokes
Like, shopping carts? Do it for Larry!
Omg, someone please stop me. Have you gotten into anything new/weird/random lately? If you want to, write your own limerick below! xo
P.S. More nerdiness, and readers show off their cozy spaces.
(Photo by Christine Han.)
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My new random COVID hobby has been researching the genealogy of my and my husband’s families on Ancestry. They could not be more different. And I’ve made so many surprising discoveries. The biggest blessing has been learning about my grandmother’s family and reconciling that some long held beliefs I had about her were misplaced.
In Crete, they are called mantinades! (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mantinada)
You inspired me! I have 11 written up for Christmas! I used a little poetic license — thank you all for some of the lines I ‘borrowed’.
Cheers to all the funny poets!
Are jigsaw puzzles a hobby? We did a couple at the beginning of this GD pandemic and I wasn’t that into it. But in October we started doing a puzzle while listening to ghost stories on podcasts. Over Thanksgiving, we did a puzzle while listening to an audiobook about the royals (we had just finished the crown). Over Christmas, I think we’ll listen to some of Ira Glass’ favorite episodes of This American Life (he just published his list!) while putting together a new winter-themed puzzle. I’m a bit tired of tv but still really love stories. So this has been a really fun way to be carried away by a story when my brain is too tired for a book.
There once was a shopper named Larry
Who in grocery store lots liked to tarry
He wished folks of all ages
Would use those nice cages
To return carts that accost folks unwary
In quarantine, I took up crochet
Even if it’ll never pay
Although there is a perk
It kills time while I work
And helps get me through the day
Crochet is brilliant for long commutes!
These are amazing!!!!! Also what a great gift idea to gather up a bunch of limericks for someone!
I haven’t seen my mom since quarantine started. It was her birthday recently so I bought us both the same paint by numbers. I am obsessed now! It is actually really relaxing and takes my mind off work and Covid.
I think of Larry all the time. I’ve told so many friends about that little story, and every time I’m in a store parking lot and I’m tempted to abandon my cart somewhere, I always think better of it and put it back.
Me too. Larry forever.
Larry Forever! <3
I am laughing so hard all over again thinking about Larry and the other amazing comments. I hope you make it an annual round up!
Ha! I think of Larry every time I’m in the Wegmans parking lot, separating the small carts from the big carts in the cart hut. How difficult is it to follow the clearly marked signs and return the carts accordingly? Even in Covid times, I can’t help myself!
Every time!
Love your limericks! One of my music theory teachers would give us credit for writing content relevant haiku on our exams. I loved it!
I started podcasting over isolation, and I’m a woman obsessed. I have TWO now, one of which is solo and the other with three lifelong friends. I never imagined I would be happy spending 6 hours a week refining audio and writing scripts/outlines, but I love producing this content SO much! It’s making me feel more connected in a time where I really need that.
Best to you and your family!
This is adorable and I am dying of cuteness. Thank you for sharing Jo! I’m definitely going to try this.
this is so funny and cute and random :)
I’ve started reading poetry regularly… Is that a hobby? (I’m counting it.) It all started with your rec of Kate Baer’s What Kind of Woman, which led me to Mary Oliver and Margaret Atwood and Billy Collins… I keep the books down by our fireplace and read them in the evenings while my sons play around me. It’s hard to read other material while they are around because of… well because they are children and they are around, but a poem or two fit perfectly and even make me feel recreational+ly productive with that weird time after the dishes are done but before bedtime. And now, I regularly text the poems to family and friends… so your recommendation is a gift that keeps on giving.
Oh my gosh I felt compelled to do one!
There once was a boy who wore dreadlocks
Who married a girl who loves rocks
The moved to the land of mountain rocks
And had three lovie kids with dirty socks
stop it.
This summer, we literally drove through Limerick, in Ireland (where we are living right now), on my husband’s birthday. The kids had some epic birthday poetry battles in the car and our family to took part too, texting limericks back and forth across the world. It made the car ride feel more like a family hang out in our living room! x
Crossword puzzles! I subscribed to the NY Times Crossword app and I can’t stop!!! I don’t think I ever completed a crossword puzzle before a couple months ago and now I can’t go to bed if I haven’t finished the daily.
Oh my gosh same!! I am loving the NYTimes crossword app!
Love the mini every night and spelling bee first thing in the morning. Sacrosanct
Me too!!!!!
Me too. Every single day!
This is so weird. I LOVE IT!!
I am obsessed with trying to reach the Genius level every day on the NYT Spelling Bee game. I don’t always make it, but I don’t let myself stop til I get to “Amazing.”
I’m not sure that this counts as a hobby but I’ve started using way too much soap in the shower and it is MAGICAL. Sometimes I mix whatever random bottles we have laying around together – it’s all just stuff from the drugstore. But it’s an excess that’s cheap, easy, fun… it really brightens my day to feel so clean and smell so great.
I love this so much!! I used to be into writing limericks in high school (that was decades ago – ha!) you’ve inspired me to begin again…
I wrote these for my family. I think I’ll read them aloud on christmas morning. :)
there once was an urbanite from b-town
who liked to read books (like notes from the underground)
to keep his boys cheery
he walked them ‘til weary
my love for this man is profound
***
oh, teddy: you’re so funny and smart
you play restaurant, watch snoopy, like crafting and art
you keep us in stitches
with all the personas and sing-songy pitches
your excitement for life fills with joy our home & hearts
***
little leo: your stormy blue eyes
seem to say you are loving and wise
it’s so cute how you shake your head no
(which mirrors my feelings on the speed that you grow)
I’m not sure how we survived before your cute, chubby thighs
***
happy christmas to my sweet crew of four
you are all of my dreams for a family and more
you bring joy to my days,
accept all my ways
hours of laughing leave my cheeks oh so sore
so much love overflowing out my heart it does pour
… i am grateful this holiday, even more than before
Love this, Anna.
Love it! And I literally think of Larry EVERY time I return my shopping cart. Just when I think it’s cold and my car is too far from the store, that little voice inside of me says… but you have to do it, for Larry!
Also, I called to inquire about Jason Suran this past weekend and told his booking agent I heard about him on CoJ, had they ever heard of it? And he said oh yes, Joanna put us on the map! After the first CoJ post when he was mentioned, he got over 500 inquiries in 3 days. The power of this community is strong!
I glared at someone who didn’t put their cart away the other day. (I was already leaving or would have) I channeled my inner Larry.
I have been working on my very own “millow” as my pandemic hobby, inspired by your grandmother’s beautiful and prolific collection. It’s slow going in my hands.
Dear Joanna,
I love your limericks!
This year was my 70th birthday.
My oldest daughter and her husband, (they have 3 kids) teased me upon receiving it, telling me I had too much time on my hands. I burst into laughter!
The following is the limerick I sent to my two daughters.Be my guest
Be my guest
Put my service to the test
Tie your mask around your face, cherie
And I’ll provide the rest
Turning seventy
With integrity
How? I live with lots of levity!
Even though I’m hard of hearing
And my thoughts, keep disappearing!
Quarantined
Type to enter text
We’re a pod
And for that we can applaud
And a dinner here is never second best
Go on unfold your menu
Take a glance and then you’ll
Be my guest
Oui, my guest
Be my guest
Lots of food
A soiree
Cake and candles en flambe
I’ll prepare and serve with flair
A culinary cabaret
Driving far
Or close by
We will gather and fly high
No one’s gloomy or complaining
Why? We’re all so entertaining!
We’ll eat knish
No whitefish!
Blow the candles, make a wish
And its all in perfect taste that you can bet
Come on and lift your glass
You’ve got a family pass
To be my guest
If you are stressed
Its fine dining I suggest
Be my guest
Be my guest
Be my guest!
Lindsey, Happy Birthday! I LOVE your take on Be Our Guest. So perfect!
Allison, when walking the streets of my small downtown area, I pull weeds! Rarely do I see any trash, but especially in the spring the weeds growing in the cracks and curbs really disturb me. I literally vary my walking paths each day so I can pull them all before they set and disperse seed (and make more weeds!). My husband jokes I should be in the payroll of the City’s Maintenance crew. I just think of it as giving back.
I think this is wonderful! I started doing a (somewhat) daily haiku when all this kicked off in March. Limerick are more fun, but as someone who thinks out loud and over explains everything, it’s a good exercise in brevity. I think my best one was:
Usually jasmine;
This year, Lysol permeates.
Inauspicious deal
I live in the Bay Area and the night blooming jasmine is one of my favorite things about Spring here.
Your freckles are the cutest miss Jo.
You’re in good company! I caption almost all of my instagram posts with haikus.
A few favorites:
Today they observe
National siblings day by
Plotting a jailbreak
(Image of my 3 sons conspiring in the youngest’s crib)
Adulting is when
You pay for a sitter and
Walk two houses down
(Image of wine glasses and the bachelorette playing in the background)
The magic kingdom:
The monorail was worth the
Price of admission
(Image of my son pressed against the glass peering excitedly out of the monorail at disney)
Love your limericks but also here to say I fully support Stage 15. Paul Mescal. 😍
Ahhh this brings back memories. Some friends and I had a class we disliked but attendance was mandatory, so we started writing collaborative poems to amuse ourselves. This was the beginning of my favorite:
There once was a chicken named Lars
Who got on a shuttle to Mars.
He went into a store
and squawked (in horror)
“Why don’t they sell pickles in jars?”
As he said this, a passing young Martian
said, dragging his limbs with exhaustion,
“Instead of jars, we
use iron bars, see –
We approach our pickles with caution!”
Poor Lars was taken aback,
and he exclaimed, “Alas and alack!
On Earth orange zest
will cause civil unrest,
but veggies are only a snack.”
My husband and I are in a limerick zoom group with 3 other couples. We are given a theme to write about and then we have to come up with 4 or 5 limericks each. We meet once a month and read them out loud while we enjoy cocktails. They can get fairly bawdy and it’s just hilarious! Political themes have been particularly entertaining this year.
Give me a couple of more weeks, and I think I will hit Limerick writing stage during the tundra like conditions of a Minnesota winter, aha. But I have gotten into some serious needlepointing and bad piano playing since the start. And when I say bad piano playing, I mean abdominal..but I have fun! hahaha :)
abdominal piano playing is possibly better than abominable piano playing ;) ;)
Fun! Love a rhyme
AMAZING! I am in the midst of a poetry unit with my grade 9s and will share these limericks as examples for their “structured poems”. The cutest hobby :)
With foodstuffs, I like to play
So opted for DIY Tempeh
It needs an inoculum spore
And results in furry gore
Maybe I should go back to clay.
My ode to 2020:
There once was a girl who was married
Of her, her husband did love and adore
Then along came another
With whom her hubby climbed ‘neath the cover
And then she was married no more.
that is beautiful and sad; sending many thoughts your way; I remember once Meryl Streep said: “take your broken heart and make it into heart”, and you did that so beautifully.
Oh my god, JESS! I am so so so sorry if this is autobiographical but you’re hilarious. That idiot didn’t deserve you anyway.
Oh, Jess, I’m so sorry. I’ve been through this and know how brutal it is. Please feel free to reach out through the message system on my blog (I’ll put the link in my name) if you need someone to talk to or want book or blog recommendations for people who’ve been through this. Thinking of you and sending you light and strength.
Omg, I *also* enjoy writing limericks! It’s so fun. The habit runs in my family. My grandpa used to love traveling to Ireland and he would write limericks while riding on the tour bus. And my aunt did the same when she traveled with him. I have to share these hilarious verses my grandpa wrote on a trip to Limerick one year (warning, they’re X-rated!): https://www.instagram.com/p/rS4OQEQ-NW/
I got into jigsaw puzzles a few years ago, but it was a contained pastime – a couple at the cottage over the summer, one at Christmas. Since March I have done a ridiculous number of puzzles. It’s so soothing to have a problem that I can fix. Even if it’s difficult, even if it takes time, there is always an answer and only one right way to get there. I get a weird hit of confidence with every piece that fits, and that confidence has helped me keep my head up in 2020.
I am into puzzles too….although no as fully committed as you. I love how I forget all my troubles when I focus on puzzle fitting. It is a low stress time to put down my burdens and lose myself. I love the puzzles made by Remarks: compilations of smaller pictures to make a large collage. I have done doorways of NYC, famous book titles, movie titles, etc. I got over the impossible to solve-all-one color or landscapes with tons of sky or water. Life is too short to not enjoy a puzzle!
Yes, jigsaw puzzles were Always part of a family holiday. A holiday was never complete without a few new puzzles. Now I am So into ipad/tablet jigsaw puzzle’s. Rather addictive. I love the idea that i can do them in bed at night, so calming. Also brilliant for commutes.
Ohh, I’m so pleased to be in on the “Do it for Larry” joke. What a sweet, sweet thing!
Omg!!! I love them ❤️
I was inspired by “Hunt for the Wildepeople” to write a Haiku last week! I sent it to a close friend along with some GIGANTIC acorns from our new backyard, at her request. The topic of the haiku was, obviously, acorns. I am quite sure I haven’t written any form of poetry since grade school.
Yes Haiku are my favorite!
Rounding out 2020 with my anxiety at an all-time high.
Writing this helped :)
There once was a girl filled with do-goods
Who cared a lot more than she ought-should
Her family grew wary
Of every cautionary
She said she relax if she just could.
she’d relax*
Love this one!
This feels oddly familiar to my own life! *hugs*