On Sat, 21 Feb 2009 12:30:06 +0000, Bill Pragnell wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
>> On Sat, 21 Feb 2009 00:49:19 +0000, Bill Pragnell wrote:
>> 
>>> Jim Henderson wrote:
>>>> On Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:51:57 +0000, Invisible wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>>> ...and now I'm thinking about the "Ode to a lump of putty I found
>>>>>>> in my left armpit". :-S
>>>>>> A most excellent poem. :-)
>>>>> It excells - but at *what*??
>>>> Being a piece of Vogon poetry, of course. :-)
>>> I thought that was one from the pen of Grunthos the Flatulent?
>> 
>> D'oh!  I must now go and hang my head in shame for goofing that up.
>> 
>> Of course, you are correct.  Grunthos' poetry was deemed the second
>> worst in the history of the universe.
>> 
>> Who can name the first?  (Vogons were third)
> 
> Ah, well, that depends on which version you're most familiar with... I
> think he changed the name from the radio series because of threatened
> legal action!

I'm not sure if it was threatened legal action or just that he was 
advised to not use a real name for the books - but you are correct, there 
were two different people who received the honour of "worst poetry of 
all" - originally it was "Paul Neil Milne Johnstone of Redbridge", but 
later this was changed to Paula Nancy Milstone Jennings.

> PS RIP Grunthos... death by intestinal brain throttling.

Yes, gruesome way to go. :-)

I should mention as well, though, that Invis didn't use the proper name 
of Grunthos' poem, either.  It is in fact "Ode to a small lump of green 
putty I found in my armpit one midsummer's morning" IIRC (don't have my 
copy of the scripts handy and I should know this from memory anyways, as 
frequently as I've listened to the original series).

My brother and I used to fall asleep listening to episodes of the radio 
series, and we'd quiz each other on the finer details.  Clearly I've lost 
my touch a little bit. ;-)

Jim

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