Limericks

Position: 41° 47′ 37”N, 87° 34′ 51”W

Back in June I mentioned my late father Kenneth’s love of humour and especially his love of limericks. At his memorial service in Chicago a couple of weeks ago I told one of his favorite jokes. Consisting of two limericks, it so amused Ted Cohen, a compatriot of Kenneth’s at the University of Chicago, that he included it in his book: Jokes, Philosophical Thoughts on Joking Matters. Before I spoke my stepmum pointed out a typo in each of the limericks as published. Here for the first time in digital print is my dad’s original version:

Skinner & Tupper

One day a Church of England reverend is visited in his rectory by one of his parishioners. “Reverend,” says the man, “recently I heard a very amusing story, I’d like to tell you, but it’s just a bit off color.”
“That’s no problem,” says the cleric, “For the sake of a good story I don’t mind a bit of ribaldry.”
“Good,” says the parishioner, “Now I must be careful, because I have some trouble remembering it exactly. I think this it:

There once was a young man named Skinner
Who had a young lady to dinner
They sat down to dine,
At a quarter til nine,
And by quarter to ten it was in her.”

“What was in her?” asked the churchman, “The dinner?”
“No, Reverend, it was Skinner. Skinner was in her.”
“Oh, my, yes,“ says the reverend, “Very amusing.”

A few weeks later the reverend is visited by his bishop, to whom, the reverend says, “Bishop, one of my flock told me a terribly amusing story that I’d be delighted to tell you if you don’t mind it’s being just a bit lewd.”
“Oh, no,” says the bishop, “It will do nicely if it is amusing.”
“Good,” says the reverend, “but I must be careful and go slowly, for I sometimes have trouble remembering. I think this is it:

There once was a young man named Tupper
Who had a young lady to supper
First they had tea
At a quarter till three
And by quarter to four it was up her.”

“Up her?” asked the bishop. “What was up her? The supper?”
“No, no, Bishop – actually it was a complete stranger named Skinner.”