Topic of the Day:
THE PRIME OF LIFE by Issac Asimov, 1966
It was, in truth, an eager youth
Who halted me one day.
He gazed in bliss at me, and this
Is what he had to say:
"Why, mazel tov, it's Asimov,
A blessing on your head!
For many a year, I've lived in fear
That you were long since dead.
Or if alive, one fifty-five
Cold years had passed you by,
And left you weak, with poor physique,
Thin hair and rheumy eye.
For sure enough, I've read your stuff
Since I was but a lad
And couldn't spell or hardly tell
The good yarns from the bad.
My father, too, was reading you
Before he met my Ma.
For you he earned, once he had learned
About you from _his_ Pa.
Since time began, you wondrous man,
My ansestors did love
That s.f. dean and writing machine
The aged Asimov."
I'd had my fill. I said: "Be still!
I've kept my old-time spark.
My step is light, my eye is bright,
My hair is thick and dark."
His smile, in brief, spelled disbelief,
So this is what I did;
I scowled, you know, and with one blow,
I killed that rotten kid.
Author's remark: "Mazel tov" is a Hebrew phrase meaning "good fortune" and it is used by Jews as a joyful greeting on jubilant occasions - as a meeting with me should surely be.And I found this bit o' info:
Asimov wrote a poem ("The Prime of Life") in which he rhymed his surname with "stars above"; someone else suggested amending the poem to rhyme it with "mazel tov", which he thought an improvement.
