June 23, 2007

Additive denotation boogie

That was the subject line of the most poetic spam email to have made it through the filters into my inbox recently.

The body of the message was more uneven in quality:

bock borealis  bmw apace.  cesium coolheaded alcoa christoffel  bayda bagging.  adject champ baseboard  cooperate  calhoun damn   counsel  detector consignee.   brainchild  clapboard bruise  candlestick desicate  baud    calcutta.

After a metrically inspired start ("bock borealis bmw apace. cesium coolheaded alcoa christoffel"), there's an awkward stretch of trochaic banality ("bayda bagging. adject champ"). But the end is worthy of the beginning: "candlestick desicate  baud    calcutta."

Posted by Mark Liberman at June 23, 2007 10:46 AM