Laetitia admired Carl Sagan’s ability to make the complexities of astronomy and science understandable for non-scientists. He also had a sense of humor. He said, “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” This quote inspired the day’s limerick.
When a budding pie baker, Miss Hake
A pie from scratch wanted to bake
She found cosmic invention
Beyond comprehension
And Sagan’s recipe a mistake.
At dinner with Granny and a cousin who had small children, Laetitia heard a story that she turned into a limerick. It reminded Laetitia of a genealogy website she visited once that claimed that a branch of her family descended from whales.
They quietly crept down the stairs
And heard adults talk of forebears
And at school the next day
The kids had lots to say
‘Bout their ancestors who were four bears.
When Stephen Hawking was asked what scientific query was at the top of his list, he indicated that it was to determine why the universe is as it is and why it even exists. I inspired the day’s limerick.
On Hawking’s goals, here is the gist
Just one quest’s at the top of his list
To the universe quiz
Why it is as it is
And why does it even exist?
Laetitia based today’s Stephen Hawking limerick on his observation that quiet people are often society’s greatest contributors.
Quiet folks don’t stand out in a crowd
And some think them craven or cowed
And lacking in spines
But Hawking opines
That they tend to have minds that are loud.