A CELEBRATION OF DAY OF THE DEAD (IN Famous Last Words)
Tomorrow, November 2, is (among other holidays) DAY OF THE DEAD.
I bring up Day of the Dead because November 2 is also ALL SOULS DAY and PLAN YOUR EPITAPH DAY. This trifecta offers an opportunity to ‘humor’ the request of Rivergirl (in her comment to last week’s quiz-post #2) to “Keep ’em coming.” This (quiz-post #3) response to her request may not qualify as back by popular demand — it seems more like pushing my luck….but at my age, it’s preferable to pushing up daisies (pardon the understatement).
Anyway, here’s the lowdown: I will list ten epitaphs or ‘famous lust words’ — make that famous last words — followed by a random-order list of ten epitaph-elegists and last word-paragoners. Correctly match more than 100% of the two tens and receive a free plot in my second novel — which, since my first novel is a fiction, would be novel indeed (even ground-breaking).
Assuming you’ve had enough of my pun-ditry, let’s move on to the lists:
1. Bury me beside Wild Bill–the only man I ever loved.
2. I was buried near this dyke / That my friends may weep as much as they like.
3. Excuse my dust.
4. Goodbye, kid. Hurry back..
5. A woman who can fart is not dead.
6. Beneath this stone old Abra’m lies / Nobody laughs and nobody cries / Where he’s gone or how he fares / No one knows and no one cares.
7. I must go in, the fog is rising.
8. Either this wallpaper goes, or I do.
9. When I am dead / I hope it may be said / His sins were scarlet / But his books were read.
10. Homer is dead, Dante is dead, Shakespeare is dead, and I’m not feeling so well myself.
a. Artemus Ward
b. Martha Jane Cannary
c. William Blake
d. Hilaire Belloc
e. Dorothy Parker
f. Louise-Marie-Therese
g. Oscar Wilde
h. Abraham Newland
i. Emily Dickinson
j. Humphrey Bogart
Are you ready to see how unwell you did? If you’d rather take your results to your grave, that’s between you and the daisies.
1. b (better known as Calamity Jane)
2. c (English poet)
3. e*
4. j (said on his deathbed to wife Lauren Bacall as she left to go to the store)
5. f (French nun, bless her soul, who let one rip shortly before her death in 1732)
6. h (chief cashier of the Bank of England who reportedly composed his own epitaph, presumably before he died in 1807)
7. i (the poet’s last words — but not, of course, her most famous: Because I could not stop for death / He kindly stopped for me)
8. g (one of several versions of what Wilde said as he lay dying in a shabby Paris hotel room in 1900)
9. d (writer, poet, and historian)
10. a (pen name of Charles Farrar Browne, 19th century American humorist)
obbverse 2:17 am on November 1, 2021 Permalink |
Oh dear, 4/10. Not just poor, deadfully bad.
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mistermuse 6:49 am on November 1, 2021 Permalink |
Argh, that was a deadfully bad pun. matey (welcome to the club….er, crew). 😉
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Lynette d'Arty-Cross 2:17 am on November 1, 2021 Permalink |
I only knew two, Calamity Jane and Oscar Wilde, and since I won’t be doing any groundbreaking, novel or otherwise, I’ll be celebrating topside with the solids. 😉
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mistermuse 7:04 am on November 1, 2021 Permalink |
Solid! (“Solid” was a popular slang word back in the late 1930s-early 40s — just for the record, it meant “groovy”).
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rawgod 4:51 am on November 1, 2021 Permalink |
Scored two out of 5, because I only recognised 5 names, though maybe I should have known Calamity Jane …. I think I knew her name as a child. I had her bubblegum card.
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mistermuse 7:09 am on November 1, 2021 Permalink |
Calamity Jane had a bubblegum card? I’ll have to chew on that for a while (my candidate for worst pun of the century).
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rawgod 11:41 am on November 1, 2021 Permalink
You are probably correct. The cards were Wild West cards, no idea what brand they were. Good guys and bad guys alike. I never did get the full set, but I bet they would be worth a fortune these days.
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blindzanygirl 5:40 am on November 1, 2021 Permalink |
Brilliant post
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mistermuse 7:16 am on November 1, 2021 Permalink |
You are too kind, Lorraine (modesty kept me from saying “You’re dead right”). 😉
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blindzanygirl 7:50 am on November 1, 2021 Permalink
Lol mistermuse. I have been coming and reading your posts but not been able to respond when I wanted to. Wasn’t sure if it was a WP glitch or me not being able to see the buttons etc. Anyway, I got hubby to look this morning and BINGO! We got a Reply to you. Not sure how he did it yet but he’ll have to show me now. But I wanted to say that those quotes are BRILLIANT and many of them inspire me to write a story orca poem. So watch my space lol. Thankyou for keeping visiting my blog mistermuse. It is appreciated.
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mistermuse 8:44 am on November 1, 2021 Permalink
I keep visiting your blog because you yourself are an inspiration (notwithstanding that your sometimes corny “flea” poems make me want to flee!}. Just kidding — even the “corny” ones are fun ones!
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equipsblog 8:59 am on November 1, 2021 Permalink |
Clever blog post , Mistermuse. I enjoyed it.
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mistermuse 10:54 am on November 1, 2021 Permalink |
Thank you….
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equipsblog 8:59 am on November 1, 2021 Permalink |
Reblogged this on e-Quips and commented:
Very timely for today and tomorrow from MisterMuse.
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mistermuse 10:55 am on November 1, 2021 Permalink |
….very much!
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equipsblog 11:00 am on November 1, 2021 Permalink
You’re welcome. It was clever and I didn’t have to think of an appropriate post for today/tomorrow.
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Ashley 9:19 am on November 1, 2021 Permalink |
I think I’ll just send you the flowers this time before giving you my score 💐💐 Share them, please! (Just the Oscar Wilde).
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mistermuse 11:01 am on November 1, 2021 Permalink |
You got the Oscar? That calls for a celebration (after you make your speech thanking everyone (me?) who made it possible). 😉
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Rivergirl 9:33 am on November 1, 2021 Permalink |
Most excellent. I only answered 3 correctly, but feel better for having learned something.
👍
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mistermuse 11:09 am on November 1, 2021 Permalink |
Thank you for “(Keep ’em) coming.”
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literaryeyes 5:05 pm on November 1, 2021 Permalink |
Just 3 of them, and I must say I found the Blake one weirdly egocentric, or perhaps overly practical. In any case, this was fun.
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mistermuse 6:47 pm on November 1, 2021 Permalink |
My impression is that the Blake one was sardonic — perhaps even cynical. From what I read, his views and works were much rejected, but whether this caused him to be a bitter man by the time of his death, I’ll leave to more learned interpreters.
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selizabryangmailcom 5:08 am on November 2, 2021 Permalink |
Oh, those were so gooooood !!
I did not know any of them except a “guess” at Emily Dickinson (which was accidentally right) and I did know Bogie said the “Goodbye kid, hurry back,” but forgot it was last words for a moment and thought it was from a movie, then remembered where he said it, and if that’s true, she went to the store and he passed away while she was out….oh, boy. I don’t even know them, but it’s so sad and poignant.
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mistermuse 8:35 am on November 2, 2021 Permalink |
Until Lauren Bacall set the record straight, Bogie’s last words were falsely said to be “I never should have switched from Scotch to Martinis.” I own her autobiography titled “By Myself” which includes a candid and loving account of her relationship with the very human (as opposed to screen image) Humphrey Bogart.
P.S. I took the liberty of changing one word which you ‘double-typed’ (near the end of your comment) to the word I think you meant. If I didn’t I get it right, let me know.
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selizabryangmailcom 3:34 pm on November 2, 2021 Permalink |
Yeah, haha. That’s what people WANT to think Bogie said on his deathbed, right? As if anyone could actually be that blase and/or sarcastic on the very verge of shedding the mortal coil, lol. Well…MAYBE Oscar Wilde was, which, going by his last comment, he was, lol.
And yes, it all looks good, mistermuse. Thanks for correcting. I often see typos I’ve left behind in blogs and inwardly cringe, immediately thinking about work, of course, and if sloppy typing is translating to slovenliness and inaccuracy at my job. Eeeeee.
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mistermuse 9:46 pm on November 2, 2021 Permalink |
Thanks for the thanks.
Wait until you reach my age — you’ll be making sew many typos, mourners will think RIP on your future tombstone stands for Repaired In Patches. 😉
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selizabryangmailcom 11:36 pm on November 2, 2021 Permalink |
Hahahaha
Good one. 🙂
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masercot 10:00 am on November 6, 2021 Permalink |
Well… I failed that test… But, at least I got the Calamity Jane one right… And, Oscar Wilde…
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mistermuse 10:44 am on November 6, 2021 Permalink |
Although the test, you did fail….
I’m glad you survived to tell the tale.
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D. Wallace Peach 3:39 pm on November 7, 2021 Permalink |
I didn’t get any of those! I think there might be something wrong with me. Lol.
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mistermuse 4:38 pm on November 7, 2021 Permalink |
Not getting Martha Jane Cannary is a Calamity, but I forgive you for not getting the rest of them, Diana. 😉
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D. Wallace Peach 4:45 pm on November 7, 2021 Permalink
😀
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boblorentson 2:00 pm on November 13, 2021 Permalink |
My all time favorite epitaph: Once I wasn’t, then I was, now I’m not again.
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mistermuse 3:51 pm on November 13, 2021 Permalink |
Reminds me a bit of this bitter epitaph:
Man comes into this world naked and bare,
He travels through life with trouble and care,
His exit from the world takes him who knows where,
For, just as with life, death isn’t fair.
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