The gist of the quote is that mothers (or mother's, if you prefer) are overworked. If blacksoul thought something like "Hmm, mothers are overworked. In a way, you could say they were handicapped, because they don't have enough hands to do all the work they need to do. And that's actually amusing because it's normal to have two hands! I know, I'll make that into a poeme!" then he would have independently invented something.

But he obviously didn't think that. It would be a coincidence of bum-like proportions if that were the case. He just regurgitated a well known quote, virtually verbatim, with the only discrepancies being utterly inconsequential. If you're going to insist he has contributed his own unique slant on the idea, then you leave me no choice but to conclude that your brain has been severely damaged by an overwhelming barrage of flattery radiation, oozing daily from jroday and blacksoul's hobo-pores.

As for the gross spacing: I can't see indentations on any of my comments. I never indent, because poemeranker doesn't seem to allow spaces at the beginning of a comment line (at least on my browser, which is Internet Explorer v6). Either you don't know what an indent is, or something is tits-up with poemeranker, or your browser, or mine.

lol, only knew the 'gist'? What fucking more is there to know? Oh I see, he should have said "physically handicapped", and shouldn't have incorrectly inserted an apostrophe in "mothers". Nice one - not only is he a plagiarist, he's incompetent as well. All he did was remember a well known quote THAT WAS NOT HIS OWN, write it down as best he could, then PASS IT OFF AS IF HE WROTE IT. And you don't think that's plagiarism? All the work in this poeme has been done by the original author of the quote. All blacksoul has contributed is incompetence.

And as for the indentations: I don't know what you're talking about -10-

You buffoon. If any rewording did take place, it almost certainly happened because he just didn't remember the original quote accurately. And besides, the only difference between this poeme, and the Tanguy quote (which, as I said, is just one example), is that he has removed the word "physically" and incorrectly inserted an apostrophe in "mothers". What a stroke of genius.

You're being quite, quite silly about this whole thing, Dovina. Every time I read something that means something to me, which happens pretty much every time I read something I like, does that mean it isn't plagiarism to replicate it almost to the word, post it as a poeme, then pass it off as my own?

Who said they weren't different?

Look the point is it's not an original quote. It's smeared all over the internet, for starters. Then there's the fact that you've also heard it before. The Tanguy link was just one example. Are you seriously suggesting blacksoul independently invented it?

I don't not dislike it.

Having a handicapped father I can tolerate. But plagiarism? Now that's another matter.

For the love of Christ learn how to click on the 'Reply' button.

Whom, and what, do you disagree with?

"I can't speak for a car mechanic or a truck driver, but I see no reason for them not to be able to write poetry."

I can think of lots of reasons. For example, they are likely to be poorly educated, uncouth luddites. Mechanics work with their hands, not their brains. What little intelligence they do posses will probably be concentrated in the Cockney Song Department, rather than the Super Literacy Bassoon. Of course truck drivers would have to be semi-literate so they could read sign posts, but that's hardly sufficient qualification to consider soiling with world with your stultifyingly ill-conceived attempts at poetry. In my experience mechanics, truck drivers and builders are brash, unintellectual drones, and if they ever do write something, it will almost certainly be obscenely childish, and scrawled in crayon. I'm sorry but that's just the way I feel.

Ah but the title of his poeme was "Vegetable Poeme", not "Vegetables Poeme". 'twould be folly indeede to expect more than one vegetable in a "Vegetable Poeme"... unless by "Vegetable" he means "Vegetable, as an abstract concept" :(

The difference between you as a mathematician, and Van Guff as a painter, is that Van Guff was an excellent painter, who painted all the time, whereas you are an appalling mathematician, who has done very little mathematics.

"don't confuse numbers with maths"

And yet an Gentleman may write an poeme about an carrot. And is he not entitled to call it "Vegetable Poeme"? No, no, I suppose he isn't.

"Some clearly can"

Do you know any good maths poemes? The only one I can think of is this little gem by Lewis Carroll (who was a Mathematics Lecturer at Christ Church, Oxford):

And what mean all these mysteries to me
Whose life is full of indicies and surds?
x^2 + 7x + 53
= 11/3

Would that it were.

Are you referring to Iraq, and Bush's bum-crushingly idiotic description of its liberation as "a crusade"? It may be an irony, but if we are successful in Iraq it will be as much a victory for secularism as anything else, just as deposing the Taliban was a victory for secularism in Afghanistan.