Blogden Nash

A Prayer for Charitable Giving by Ogden Nash

2009-11-01T11:41:00.000-08:00

A good friend just gave me a history of of St. Andrews by the Sea in Rye Beach, NH. It contains an O.N. poem when he was a member of the Parish Committee, that no doubt engendered smiles and donations.

Saint Andrew was a fisher
In the Galilean Sea
He left his nets upon the shore
When his Lord said "Follow Me."

Saint Andrew went rejoicing
He served without regrets
But in his namesake parish
We sorely need his nets

All you who know Saint Andrew's
Now let your hearts be roused
The Church must be in order set
The Clergy must be housed

The parish we loved in summer
In winter we forget
And therefor with this message
Is cast Saint Andrew's net

The yearly cost grows greater
The yearly yield is small
Oh Lord who blessed Saint Andrew
Send us one shining haul.

1965

Ogden Nash Anecdotes and Unpublished Poems

2009-10-11T09:03:00.000-07:00

Do you have an Ogden Nash anecdote or unpublished Nash verse? The North Hampton Public Library is collecting stories about the versifier and his private poems for an upcoming exhibit. Susan Grant, the library's director, would welcome hearing what you have to share. Please call her at 603-964-6326 or send an e-mail.

Here are two recently submitted unpublished poems that Nash wrote for a Little Boars Head couple's anniversary and first grandchild:

Vernacular Lines For a Spectacular Occasion: A Belated Anniversicle

Let’s rise to toast divine Rebecca,
Matt’s own Episcopalian Mecca.
Small wonder, since at college, I’ll wager
She was a Matthewmatics major.
From top to toe, from lip to leg,
The Rector’s coddled like an egg;
Indeed at many a schoolboy session
He’s known as Mrs. Warren’s Profession.
This eulogy’s for his loving bride;
He gets to go just for the ride.

Many happy Matt’s Becky!
Ogden
June 12, 1965

Summering with Nash

2009-10-03T07:07:00.000-07:00

With the leaves poised to turn, it's time to review Nashian notes from the summer of '09:

The "Pocket Book of Ogden Nash" was on Oprah's Summer Reading List. While "The Best of Ogden Nash " was recommended by La Voz, The Voice of De Anza College in Cupertino as " the most intentionally funny poetry you'll read all year."

Over the 4th of July weekend Wino Sapien recommended Isabel Sauvignon blanc 2008 to combat the confluence of Swine flu, children, work and wine. In the "Adventures of Isabel", Nash's daughter and poetic heroine " met a troublesome doctor...who really shocked her... yet ultimately Isabel took the pills from the concoctor and cured the doctor. Here's the full stanza on the alternative remedy:

He punched and he poked till he really shocked her.
The doctor's talk was of coughs and chills
And the doctor's satchel bulged with pills.
The doctor said unto Isabel,
Swallow this, it will make you well.
Isabel, Isabel, didn't worry,
Isabel didn't scream or scurry.
She took those pills from the pill concoctor,
And Isabel calmly cured the doctor.

Feeling better and shifting into cocktail hour, Readable Watchable Edible Potable a blog about
Food and Drink in Books and Film, presented a collection of Ogden Nash's " witty observations on sundry liqueurs" including these excerpts:

Mint Julep:

There is something about a mint julep.
It is nectar imbibed in a dream,
As fresh as the bud of the tulip,
As cool as the bed of the stream...

Highball:

There is something they put in a highball
That awakens the torpidest brain,
That kindles a spark in the eyeball,
Gliding, singing through vein after vein...

The Old-Fashioned:

There is something about an old-fashioned
That kindles a cardiac glow;
It is soothing and soft and impassioned
As a lyric by Swinburne or Poe...

Full poems here.

One's passion for drink can sometimes runneth over as when Dorothy Parker wrote: "I'd Rather Have a Bottle in Front of Me Than a Frontal Lobotomy", a verse sometimes credited to Nash. However, Kari-Fuda on Flickr is not so inebriated as to attribute it properly.

On a more wholesome note, Nicole from Sydney was inspired to post Custard the Dragon for poetry month. Nicole then learned that it is also realio, trulio required reading for one of her younger readers during dessert.

Pun Intended: In their blog on travel tips Limerick Travel posted that "for every problem – adult or child, dental or mental, domesticated or wildlife, there is a Nash-ty solution."

Austin TX grad student 'Metal' used to devour Nash's books back in high school. He rediscovered Nash over the summer, finding Ogden Nash to be "the literary equivalent of having roasted peanuts between sips of beer" and " slices of humor between chunks of heavy reading" Metal is truly a voracious reader who may need a sandwich soon.

For the starving fiancee, looking for a distinctive summer wedding Credit Crunch Bride recommended Ogden Nash's 'My Dream' as an alternative wedding reading to "1 Corinthians Chapter 13 and other patronizing lectures on how to have a good marriage, that don’t mention that sickening word ‘joy’ too much."

This is my dream,
It is my own dream,
I dreamt it.
I dreamt that my hair was kempt.
Then I dreamt that my true love unkempt it.

First Comes Marriage: Iron Chef Cat Cora gave birth to her 4th child with her wife Jennifer. CelebrityBabyScoop.com reports that Nash Cora is named for Ogden Nash and Nobel mathematician John Forbes Nash, (A Beautiful Mind). Sources confirm that he is specifically not named after jazz drummer Lewis Nash, NBA All-Star Steve Nash or CSNY legend Graham Nash.

Indian Summer Theater: The India Times reports that the play "When God Said Cheers" featuring a divine entity who quotes Ogden Nash, has been performed over 200 times in 7 years to appreciative Ahmedabadians. The 'cool' God takes "occasional sips from a pint of beer and nibbling on peanuts, has some very interesting things to say to the common man."

The versifier's works tend to be popular in the former english speaking dominions of PAX Brittanica.

Kentucky artist Ed Franklin launched his "A Doll A Day in June" adventure with a Nashian twist. Franklin posted the clue "811.52 N175b 2007 online. Sarabeth Brownrobie was the first to figure out that the caption was a Dewey Decimal System number. Franklin's doll was at the Lexington Public Library downtown — perched on a shelf in front of the book The Best of Ogden Nash.

During June graduation season in Jacksonville, Nash visited Scarlet at her old high school and gave her " A Word to Husbands" before her spouse turned on the light and told her to wake up.

Dinged Corners recreated "Lineup for Yesterday" with vintage images of Nash's baseball heroes.
'C' is for Cobb,
who grew spikes and not corn,
And made all the basemen
Wish they weren't born

From Ty to the Fly: A grandmother living in the Sierra Nevada's was being pestered by this winged devil until she smiled and remembered the first poem she ever learned was about this summer resident: "God in his wisdom made the fly / And then forgot to tell us why."

Machiavelli's Vacation Reading: American Thinker felt the anti-Democratic extremism of the summer was " ugly and unbecoming". He urged restraint, citing Nash as parable:

Pray, butcher, spare yon tender calf!
Accept my plea on his behalf;
He's but a babe, too young by far
To perish in the abattoir.
Oh, cruel butcher, let him feed
And gambol on the verdant mead;
Let clovertops and grassy banks
Fill out those childish ribs and flanks.
Then may we, at some future meal,
Pitch into beef, instead of veal.

For the record, Ogden Nash was a non-partisan political lampooner, who preferred to surgically take aim at unjust and hypocritical acts rather than take broadsides at Democrats or Republicans.

Celebrating Nash's Legacy in North Hampton

2009-08-31T05:07:00.000-07:00

Ogden Nash was recently featured in two special events in New Hampshire.

The tribute began with an early evening tour of Nash's former seaside estate, courtesy of owners Bob & Sherry Lauter. The house is beautifully situated on a rise overlooking the Atlantic and the rock dotted beach. According to his grandaughter Frances, Nash swam there daily from Memorial Day to Labor Day, irrespective of the cold temperatures.

As we walked through the house Bob related the Nash lore he's received from friends and Nash's family since they purchased the home a few years ago. Much of the character and features of the 1870's of mansard roofed house has been preserved. Although it's far from a stuffy Victorian. The front rooms have fantastic views. The second floor has 11 foot ceilings and wide plank floors. While the red Formica counter tops are gone, the original kitchen cabinets are still there and one can easily envision Nash looking for more barbecue sauce or a midnight snack.

The next event was " Home is Heaven: 32 Poems by Ogden Nash...an original staging of Nash poems which celebrate his family and their summers by the seashore", staged by M. Marguerite Mathews and Gregory Gathers of the Pontine Theatre Company.

The production animating Nash's poems about family life at the seashore made for superb synergy after the tour of his home. The day's events were the work of Susan Grant, Director of North Hampton's library. Susan and her staff and volunteers did an amazing job bringing everything together.

The Pontine players were brilliant in 'duet' form - reciting 'Apartment to Sublet'. 'Custard' and 'Tin Wedding Whistle' in the most endearing ways that brought out nuances of the poem that go unnoticed when reading it in a solo voice.

The play was received warmly by the audience. Many stayed long afterwards to chat with Marguerite and Greg and listen to their stories of producing the play and staging it all over NH. 'Home is Heaven' has been performed previously at Pontine Theatre - here is a detailed review by WireNH.

The evening was also the start of an effort to gather more Ogden Nash anecdotes from his North Hampton friends to include in a touring exhibit of his works. If you have any Nash stories to share, please send them to Susan Grant or post them here and I'll pass them on.

Ogden Nash Day in Little Boar's Head, NH

2009-08-17T13:14:00.000-07:00

On August 20th the town of North Hampton, NH is celebrating the anniversary of the poet's birth with two special events.

The Pontine Theatre group will stage a production of "Home is Heaven: POEMS BY OGDEN NASH" at 7 p.m. at North Hampton School, 201 Atlantic Ave. Pontine's co-artistic directors Marguerite Mathews and Greg Gathers will bring Nash's poems on family and summer to life with toy theater figures and puppets.

Prior to the production here will be a tour of Ogden Nash's former seaside home from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m., compliments of Bob and Sherry Lauter, the current owners. For more information contact the North Hampton Public Library at 603-964-6326.

Nash was born on August 19, 1902.

Visualizing Ogden Nash's Poems

2009-06-21T10:39:00.000-07:00

From Flickr :

A Texas student's reflection...

Hanging at The Bronx Zoo...

Reminder on the workbench...

Xbox commentary...

Poor Mrs. Twist...

A refreshing interpretation of Nash's most quoted poem ...

Shameless commerce in the Netherlands...

A maxim to wear...

They are writing about Llama's in public restrooms in Toronto...

A wedding program reminding the groom to employ silence at strategic intervals...

A Norway artist knew what the caption should be the instant she saw the photo....

All photos © by their respective owners. Click photo for more information.

Ogden Nash's Poem to Dorothy Parker

2009-06-09T17:27:00.000-07:00

Ogden Nash's "Candy is..."and Dorothy Parker's "Men seldom make passes..." are occasionaly attributed to the other in error. Perhaps the confusion is understandable given the many similarities between the Gotham based purveyors of witty and provocative verse.

As luminaries in the Manhattan literary world their lives would often intertwine. In one unlikely episode the junior Nash served as the editor of the eminent Ms. Parker's work at the New Yorker for a brief spell in 1931. Although Nash's most urgent mission was often trying to find Parker in New York's speakeasies and entering an 11th hour plea to complete her column before Friday's deadline.

Parker was known to have a rapier wit which she often used to shred sub-par works. However, Parker may have espied something of herself in Nash's early work. In what would be the first of many written and personal exchanges between the two, Parker sent him a rhyme of praise in the fall of 1930. Lamenting that while she used to 'dabble for a living in rhyme', she had since become derailed as a poet by "Racquet club members, players on two pianos, raconteurs and homosectuals." She wished Nash success in life and literature and wanted him to know that she was a "respectful admirer."

In Nash's reply you can sense the joy and awe he must have felt shortly after he opened the envelope with the Swiss postmark. While the twenty eight year old Nash's star was beginning to rise, as his poems were being published with increasing frequency, receiving a personal note from a member of the Algonquin roundtable was a whole other level of recognition.

Nash responded with an enthusiastic poem of his own. He later shared the exchange with his editor. The correspondence, dispensed from Simon & Shuster's 'Inner Sanctum' appeared in newspaper ads promoting the debut of Hard Lines, Nash's first collection. While Parker's letter to Nash has been published several times, I did not know of Nash's reply until Kevin Fitzgerald, President of the Dorothy Parker Society recently shared it with me.

Nash's reply to Parker brims with joy:

"I was more intoxicated by your enconium
Than at a beautiful chord played by a maestro on
an expensive harmonium
I would far rather have your laud
Than half interest in the business of Henry Faud"

Nash's speaking voice reflected his upbringing in 'society'. is phonetic treatment of lord and Ford as 'laud' and 'Faud', was probably close to Nash's actual pronunciation.

'Big Blonde' refers to Parker's highly acclaimed short story of 1929.

The Dorothy Parker Society stages Parkerfest every spring: A spirited celebration of the author's life and works.

Ogden Nash's Advice to the Graduating Class

2009-05-14T10:35:00.000-07:00

In the midst of preparation for this weekend's ceremonies, it's a good time to revisit Ogden Nash's address to his granddaughter Nell and her classmates at the Miss Porter's School commencement in 1970.

One can imagine a great deal of anticipation and speculation among the audience as to what the notable poet would say that May afternoon in CT. Would he quote wisdom from his works? Prepare a new poem for the occasion? Or perhaps talk about how he felt after his own graduation from St. Georges?

Nash chose to share something more valuable to the young women off to college in the fall. He advocated for that they employ a sense of humor when addressing the inevitable challenges that lied ahead. He made a vigorous case for humor being "hope's companion in arms."

That Nash should find humor therapeutic and important is not surprising. Here was a man who wrote humor reflexively: As gifts to friends or simply to cheer himself up during an ordeal. As when he penned a verse to vent over his car being burglarized in Boston. Nash used light verse to stun, and suspend in a freeze frame, the abrasive elements of the world so he could lampoon and deflate them.

Here is an excerpt of Nash's graduation address, where he encourages the student's to view humor as their most valuable tool:

"It is not brash, it is not cheap, it is not heartless, Among other things I think humor is a shield, a weapon, a survival kit,

Not only has this brief span of ours been threatened by such perils not of our own making such as fire and flood, Tyrannosaurus Rex, the black death, and hurricanes named after chorus girls, but we have been most ingenious in devising means for destroying each other, a habit we haven't yet learned how to kick. So here we are, several billion of us, crowded into our global concentration camp for the duration, How are we to survive? Solemnity is not the answer, any more than witless and irresponsible frivolity is. I think our best chance lies in humor, which in this case means a wry acceptance of our predicament. We don't have to like it but we can at least recognize its ridiculous aspects, one of which is ourselves."

Not solemnity nor frivolity, but humor tempered with a wry acceptance of our predicament and a recognition that we are often a ridiculous race: A distinctive message for graduation day.

Brother, Can You Spare a Laugh?

2009-03-17T07:16:00.000-07:00

Is the question asked on Vanity Fair's April cover about new comedians. Lets hope the new crew can stave off barrel living during this downturn.

They might take heart in knowing that Ogden Nash's rapid career ascent occurred during the Great Depression. Nash's book "Hard Lines" was embraced by a nation in search of smiles during the 30's.

Similarly, in the 1940's overseas G.I.'s were laughing in their foxholes at specially printed collections of Nash's poems. These paperbacks were published by the War Department and shipped along with their canned rations.

Perhaps the Great Recession is the right time for an Ogden Nash renaissance.

The battered housing market is not keeping a real estate developer from tearing down one of Ogden Nash's favorite hangouts. New Hampshire's Portsmouth Herald reports that Rye Harbor Realty is proposing to tear down Saunders restaurant, a frequent summer dining venue of Ogden Nash, and replace it with eight condos.

The local board of adjustment has scheduled the vote for April 8th. The restaurant is expected to remain open for one more summer even if the developer prevails.

Saunders was founded in 1920 by a local fisherman and grew from fish market to lunch counter to a popular full service restaurant.

Moyers and Lithgow on Ogden Nash

2009-03-12T17:53:00.000-07:00

"...One of the reasons why I love Nash is, to the extent I write poetry at all, I write daffy doggerel for little children. But Ogden Nash is kind of my patron saint. " Said John Lithgow on a recent episode of Bill Moyers Journal .

Moyers also wonders aloud what it would be like to have Nash and Shakespeare together:

BILL MOYERS: I've often-I've wondered sometimes if Shakespeare might, where ever the great poets gather, be sitting on a corner with Ogden Nash. Comparing their almost mischievous view of life that reflects itself in different...(Lithgow cuts him off )

Clearly Moyers holds Nash in high regard.

While Lithgow reveres Shakespeare, surprisingly he characterizes Nash's work as 'doggerel'. and presumptively places himself on par with Nash as a poet. Me thinks the actor doth presume too much. Lithgow closes the Nash segment with a garrulous interpretation of "No Doctors Today, Thank You."

"They tell me that euphoria is the feeling of feeling wonderful, well,
today, I feel euphorian,
Today I have the agility of a Greek god and the appetite of a Victorian.
Yes, today I may even go forth without my galoshes,
Today, I am a swashbuckler, would anybody like me to buckle any
swashes?
This is my euphorian day,
I will ring welkins and before anybody answers I will run away.
I will tame me a caribou
And bedeck it with marabou.
I will pen me my memoirs.
Ah youth, youth! What euphorian days them was!
I wasn't much of a hand for the boudoirs,
I was generally to be found where the food was.
Does anybody want any flotsam?
I've gotsam.
Does anybody want any jetsam?
I can getsam.
I can play chopsticks on the Wurlitzer,
I can speak Portuguese like a Berlitzer.
I can don or doff my shoes without tying or untying the laces because I
am wearing moccasins,
And I practically know the difference between serums and antitoccasins.
Kind people, don't think me purse-proud, don't set me down as
vainglorious,
I'm just a little euphorious."

Copyright © by Linell Nash Smith and Isabel Nash Eberstadt.

BILL MOYERS: Oh, I love that. Euphorious. A word without meaning, but which is invested with feeling. You get it, even if you don't get it, right?
JOHN LITHGOW: Yeah. He just loved music. He loved to almost caricature language.

You can watch the entire episode and read the transcript here . The poem is read at about the 15 minute mark of the second half of the video.

Timeless Threads of Ogden Nash

2009-02-14T12:12:00.000-08:00

Here's an eclectic smörgåsbord of recent Nash news and blog bytes:

"I claim there ain't
Another Saint
As great as Valentine."

The City of Akron used this Nash quip to advise that Judge Stubbs-Williams would be open Saturday, Feb 14 for those wishing to tie the knot. The litigation weary Judge noted that "I don’t mind opening our court on a weekend. It’s so rare we get to deal with anything joyous"

The world's most famous matchmaker received somewhat harsher treatment in 270 when he was beheaded by the Romans.

Another Nashian Valentine was noted by Debby from the Germany-Holland border:

"To My Valentine"

More than a catbird hates a cat,
Or a criminal hates a clue,
Or the Axis hates the United States
That's how much I love you...
Read the rest here

Moving on to the puzzlesphere, two readers of Rex Parker's NY Times Crossword blog credit their long term memory of Ogden Nash's AXOLOTL for solving the January 30th puzzle. Many cite Nash's works as the best remembered from the classroom. "I've never met an Axolotl, but Harvard has one in a bottle " certainly has a mnemonic quality.

Similarly, AnnaMaria De Mars of Santa Monica remembered that she once created a poetry writing computer program based on Nash's The Hippopotamus. Dr. De Mars has "achieved success in business, sports and academics without ever actually having grown up". Or as Nash observed:

Film student Nimisha Saikia of Ahmedabad shared Nash's 'A Word on Wind' as one of her favorites...

Cows go around saying Moo,
But the wind goes around saying Woo,
Ghosts say Woooo to you too,
And sometimes they say boo to you too,
But everybody has heard the wind but a few people have heard the ghost,
So it is commonly supposed the wind says wooo the most....
Read the rest here

The Sante Fe New Mexican and other pubs noted the recently departed John Updike's connections to Nash as New Yorker contributor and, in his early years, light versifier.

The Ukiah Daily Journal featured a column on popular culture being interwoven into California Supreme Court opinions. It noted that a Nash poem was part of the court's rationale in a 1980 opinion. It doesn't say which poem. Ogden Nash lags Bob Dylan who has been cited for support in 22 bench rulings.

Nash's lyrics are frequently brought to life in Saint-Saens' 'Carnival of the Animals'. But it's a rare to find a detailed review like San Bernardino Symphony Delights Children at Family Concert :

" Especially delightful, Edoardo Ponti's sassy reading of the Ogden Nash verses in Carnival gave spark to the work, and pianists Nancy Bricard and Juliane Song expressed everything from a lion's roar to a hopping kangaroo to a sliding fish... Saint-Saens' "Le Carnaval Des Animaux" (The Carnival of the Animals), although eschewed by the composer during his lifetime, further illuminated serious music and the colors and characteristics of the instruments... In the most familiar of the pieces, "The Swan" in Carnival, principal cello Ana Maria Maldonado delivered a particularly sensuous, poignant picture of a lovely swan gliding silently over the smooth water."

Sounds like it was a beautiful rendering of the verses. 'Carnival' was also performed recently at the Metropolitan Museum of Modern Art in New York.

"Hope is dope." is the lead quote in suburban Chicago's Daily Herald article on the U.S. fiscal crisis. The writer cites this ten letter Nash poem as one of the English language's shortest. Could there be a published poem less than ten letters long?

In his influential blog JP Rangaswami of the UK included Blogden among good examples of putting your passion on the web.

All of the above threads woven into contemporary life are a testament to the poet's enduring relevance.

Ogden Nash poems copyright © by Linell Nash Smith and Isabel Nash Eberstadt

Interview with Ogden Nash Biographer

2009-02-07T13:46:00.001-08:00

A transcript of the 2005 PBS interview with Douglas Parker about Ogden Nash can be found here. Parker's discussion with ThinkTank's Ben Wattenberg provides a nice oral history of the stories behind many of Nash's most famous poems. These include his first published poem, about the self-righteous and hypocritical Senator Smoot.

Invocation
(SMOOT PLANS TARIFF BAN ON IMPROPER BOOKS )

Senator Smoot (Republican, Ut.)

Is planning a ban on smut.

Oh rooti-ti-toot for Smoot of Ut.

And his reverend occiput.

Smite, Smoot, smite for Ut.,

Grit your molars and do your dut.,

Gird up your l__ns,

Smite h_p and th_gh,

We'll all be Kansas

By and by...

...Senator Smoot is an institute

Not to be bribed with pelf;

He guards our homes from erotic tomes

By reading them all himself.

Read the full poem here

Ogden Nash poems copyright © by Linell Nash Smith and Isabel Nash Eberstadt

Origins of the Banking Crisis

2009-01-24T06:38:00.001-08:00

Pundits routinely trace the roots of the financial system's current tailspin to the sub-prime mortgage boom of the past several years.

Ogden Nash foresaw elements of this crisis germinating over a half century ago. Bankers were a favorite Nash target. In a 1956 issue of the New Yorker, Nash lampooned the banking industry for transforming themselves from sage pillars of savings into financial hucksters.

Business Day in Australia's entitles it's article bemoaning the growth of financial derivatives, with the first two lines of Nash's poem 'Anybody for Money? Or Just Bring Your Own Basket'

Consider the banker
He was once a financial anchor...

Nash goes on to sternly admonish bankers for acting like car salesman, before concluding with:

In Nash's eyes bankers transformed themselves from cornerstones of financial common sense to "behaving so provocatively robbable." As the credit card lending crisis begins to share headlines with the mortgage crisis, we are reminded that Main Street's bank branches were the storefronts for Wall Steet's back rooms: Places where the high velocity, mind blurring complexity of the financial derivatives and securitization market melted into the toxic asset dump that Kate Jennings derides in Business Day.

There has long been a cyclical, good times, bad times pattern in banking: The 90% stock margin lending of the roaring 20's followed by the credit drought of the 1930's. The real estate boom of the 1980's and the ensuing S&L crisis.

As banking's cultural pendulum swings back to prudence, Nash, the former bond salesman, deserves credit for his prescient parody that, like so much of his work, used humor to gain attention for his genuine concern for society's wellbeing.

Ogden Nash: Obama Advisor

2009-01-21T08:44:00.000-08:00

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue's newest resident has received much advice. He's acted swiftly on Nash's chief recommendations: "If you want a friend in Washington, get a dog" and “Dogs are upright as a steeple, And much more loyal than people.”

According to Examiner.com the Obamas have been to the pound but the choice "has been tougher than finding a commerce secretary." Front runners are the Labradoodle and Portuguese Water Dog.

Presumably the Secret Service will be managing Nash's quip that "A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of."

Ogden Nash poems copyright © by Linell Nash Smith and Isabel Nash Eberstadt

Ogden Nash 's Dogs

2009-01-13T19:43:00.000-08:00

In his twenties, Ogden Nash was a restless advertising copywriter who eventually struck out on his own. Yet his craft continued to display a knack for penning phrases that resonated and became part of the American lexicon.

"A dog is man's best friend" is one that continues to resonate. Nash's views on dogs have had a long lasting impact on others.

According to WTHR, Indianapolis, Ogden Nash was the first to characterize a dog as "man's best friend." It is in fact the first line of "An Introduction to Dogs". Annie Hillard, the Solitary Walker, shares her story of long term affinity with this poem in a recent post. Liesel's Garden Party features a fine picture collage to accompany these verses.

Nash wrote a lot about dogs, I won't try to capture all the verses here, but here are some lesser known ones first published in the New Yorker:

January 08, 1949

For a Good Dog
My little dog ten years ago…

August 21, 1948

Two dogs have I
For years we've had a little dog…

September 19, 1942

Please pass the biscuit
I have a little dog…

October 22, 1949
Poetry

Love me but Leave my Dog Alone
Once there was a handsome man named Mr. Beamington and he…

July 21, 1951

Roll Over And Play Alive Or, Who Says You Can't Teach An Old Dog Tiresome Old Tricks
Brooks are often called rippling, but rivers are really…

October 12, 1957

Fellow-Creatures, Tray and Outre
The truth I do not stretch or shove…

More than Twelve Days of Christmas

2008-12-29T05:05:00.000-08:00

In an effort to stimulate the 1939 economy FDR extended the Christmas shopping season a full week by moving Thanksgiving to the third Thursday of November. As recently noted by the National Archives , the Crossville, TN Chronicle and Jennifer Howard in D.C., Ogden Nash basted Roosevelt for his judgment:

Thanksgiving, like Ambassadors,
Cabinet officers and
others smeared with political ointment,
Depends for its existence on
Presidential appointment.

- Ogden Nash

Most Americans agreed and Turkey Day was restored to the last Thursday in 1942.

Ogden Nash poems copyright © by Linell Nash Smith and Isabel Nash Eberstadt

Before Heading to the Altar...

2008-12-17T07:46:00.000-08:00

... thoughts of Ogden Nash:

The most exciting happiness is the happiness generated by forces beyond your control.

Ogden Nash

Marriage was one of Nash's favorite topics for verse. This bride to be from Florida expands the O.N. matrimonial archive via an enlightened application of a Nash observation.

Post Election Gripes

2008-12-17T05:58:00.000-08:00

The Santa Barbara Independent & Montrose, CO Daily Press remind us that in Nash's view, if you didn't vote, you have no right to complain. They incorporated his poem, Election Day is a Holiday in a pre-election editorial on why voting matters. Some excerpts followed by a link to the full poem:

People on whom I do not bother to dote
Are people who do not bother to vote...

They have such refined and delicate palates
That they can discover no one worthy of their ballots,
And then when someone terrible gets elected
They say There, that’s just what I expected!

And they go around for four years spouting discontented criticisms
And contented witticisms....

And they have discovered that if you don’t take time out to go to the polls
You can manage very nicely to get through thirty-six holes.
Oh let us cover these clever people very conspicuously with loathing,
For they are un-citizens in citizens’ clothing.

They attempt to justify their negligence
On the ground that no candidate appeals to people of their intelligence,
But I am quite sure that if Abraham Lincoln (Rep.) ran against Thomas Jefferson (Dem.),
Neither man would be appealing enough to squeeze a vote out of them.

Election Day is a Holiday

If Nash's eloquence failed to motivate you to scale back your Election Day outing to 18 holes, your patriotic significant other may have bad news for you...

Ogden Nash Online Contest Draws a Crowd

2008-11-22T04:05:00.000-08:00

John Tierney's blog on the New York Times site recently asked readers to add a stanza to Nash's oft quoted work, Reflections on Ice Breaking.

The competition was launched to draw attention to the new scientific research touting that "Pyschologists report in Science that you’re more likely to think warmly of someone else if you’re holding something warm in your hand like a mug of coffee or tea." Tierney posits " At long last, we have scientific guidance regarding that great question of social lubrication: Should you ask someone to meet for a drink or a cup of coffee?"

Nash often serves as 'contextual color' for journalists and Reflections may be the most memorized poem in the English language:

Candy is dandy,
But liquor is quicker

The event drew 231 responses, far exceeding the average number of comments for this blog that seeks to validate new research with common experience. The ardent response to a 1931 poem from a science forum points to the universal appeal and cultural staying power of Mr. Nash's work.

My favorite entry in the contest:

Darjeeling’s
Appealing

Espresso
No less so.

No word on the winner yet...

Local Nash: East & West, Young & Old

2008-11-19T17:05:00.000-08:00

Ogden Nash's work was featured in a couple events I think he would have enjoyed attending himself.

The Parent- Child book club of San Diego's Rancho Peñasquitos Library met to discuss “The Tale of Custard the Dragon”. Nash's passion for writing about and for children likely inspired a stimulating and humorous conversation.

On the other side of the country and the life continuum...

In Portsmouth NH , a group of local writers and musicians presented an afternoon of poetry and music to seniors in retirement communities. The review "Surprised by Joy" featured the work of Ogden Nash, Shakespeare & Frost was conceived by Elizabeth Knies, Portsmouth's Poet Laureate. Elizabeth is seated in the back row second from left and looks fairly joy-infused, as does her troupe. Which was no doubt a contagious delight for their venerable audience. The poems reflected the stages of life from childhood to maturity. The readings were augmented by the "beautiful," "haunting," and "charming" cello compositions of Kristin Miller.

Ogden Nash's Last Verse

2008-11-08T17:30:00.000-08:00

"Frances, I love you" was not a rhyme but a simple truth for Nash since he met Frances in his early 20's.* Mrs. Nash went on to live another 23 years, active in volunteer work and enjoying her daughters and grandchildren. The Nash family plot in North Hampton, NH is shared by their long time servant, Clarence Collins. Frances and Ogden share a gravestone flanked by Isabelle and Clarence.

I'm very grateful to Amy Kane, for sharing these recently captured scenes of the Nash grave site within Little River Cemetery. Amy's beautiful words and pictures about coastal NH can be found on Atlantic Avenue. Click on the pictures to enlarge the details.

Photos Copyright Amy Kane 2008. Used with Permission.

*Last words according to his biographer Douglas M. Parker. The book 'Loving Letters from Ogden Nash' leaves little doubt as to Nash's passionate feelings for Frances over 5 decades.

Literary Contest Where Ogden Nash Wrote

2008-10-16T15:10:00.000-07:00

The Portsmouth Antheneum will launch a literary version of 'American Idol' on as part of the upcoming Portsmouth Literary Festival. Writers will read their best short fiction before a live audience and judges. The Festival, now in it's 20th year, runs from October 23rd - 24th.

Legend has it that Ogden Nash would seek out its cozy nooks to write during his summer's there. In 1962 Nash extended his residency to 6 months out of the year when he purchased an Atlantic Avenue home big enough for his daughters and their families.

Not that Nash necessarily needed a quiet oasis to write his humor. Visitors to his Little Boar's Head home were surprised to see that Nash was comfortable versifying for publication in the midst of chaotic child's play!

Ogden Nash and the '69 Mets

2008-10-14T19:05:00.000-07:00

I remember New York City in the summer of 1969 as an electric time. Neil Armstrong touched moon dirt on July 25th. In mid-August, Up the Thruway in the Catskills, there was a revolutionary music festival at Yasgur's farm.

Six weeks later, the Mets won the Eastern division after being in last place for much of the first half of the year.

Bypassing Woodstock & Apollo 13, Ogden Nash chose to memorialize the 'Amazin's. Nash, like many New Yorker's viewed the Mets as the National League successors to the turncoat Giants and Dodgers. Upon learning of their victory Nash penned the following thank you to Joan Payson, the Mets owner, and sent it to the New York Times.

A Poem

Whence camest thou, Mrs. Payson, dear?
Out of nowhere into the here.
At last thy patient, loyal clients
Can forget the Dodgers and the Giants.
Then what about O'Malley and Stoneham?
De mortius nihil nisi bonum.

Ogden Nash September 24, 1969

As a fan of both the Orioles and the Mets, Nash must have enjoyed the ensuing World Series immensely.

In a 1957 New Yorker poem, Nash expressed the following about the Giants moving to San Francisco:

Lines to be Carved on Coogan's Bluff

The candle's out, the game is up;
Who has heart for a stirrup cup?
Farewell Giants and Horace Stoneham
De mortius nihil nisi bonum.

Preparing for Flu Season with Ogden Nash

2008-10-13T07:59:00.000-07:00

Nash persevered with his writing and lecturing despite many stomach related health issues throughout his career. By lampooning the challenges and foibles of every day life, Nash made them easier to face. The Germ, was quoted this week by Eleanor from Malaysia in her blog:

The Germ

A mighty creature is the germ

Though smaller than the pachyderm

His customary dwelling place

Is deep within the human race

His childish pride he often pleases

By giving people strange diseases

Do you, my poppet, feel infirm?

You probably contain a germ.

Ogden Nash Says Thonx to the Bronx

2008-10-13T06:28:00.000-07:00

Geographical Reflection from Hard Lines in 1931 is oft quoted.

Lesser known is the 1964 story featuring Nash from the New York Times:

Contrite Poet Gives A Cheer for Bronx On Golden Jubilee

Give the Bronx their due,
Say the poet, with rue.

That was more or less the posture assumed yesterday by Ogden Nash.

Back in 1931, Mr. Nash recalled, a "line popped into my head for no reason." It was bought by The New Yorker, which penetrates to New York's northernmost borough, where some residents were consternated by the couplet:

The Bronx?
No Thonx.

The lines lingered on the fringes of Bronx lore for many years. Dr. Abraham Tauber, dean of the faculty at the Bronx Community College, remembered it recently.

Dean Tauber is a Bronx booster. He wants the borough's golden jubilee, currently being celebrated, to be a success. The Community College, a unit of the City University of New York, will even offer a course next fall in the history of the Bronx.

The dean wrote Mr, Nash, recalling the couplet, and asked if the poet would not "consider writing a little piece in your inimitable style, not to make amends but to help us smile over our own foibles and yet to walk, with head held high and quickened step, the streets in the place in which so many fine people live and work and play."

Back came this reply from Mr. Nash:

Dear Dean Tauber,
I can't seem to escape the
sins of my smart-alec youth;
Here are my amends.

I wrote those lines, "The Bronx?
No thonx";
I shudder to confess them.

Now I'm an older, wiser man
I cry, "The Bronx? God bless
them!"

Contritely yours,
Ogden Nash.

- New York Times, May 25, 1964

As excerpted from If Fun is Fun, isn't that Enough? Nash sought to educate audiences to what extent a poet's license could go in generating smiles:

"They'll sell their birthright every time.
To make a point or turn a rhyme.
This motto, child, is my bequest:
There's many a false word spoken in jest."