ASCII symbol ..."poems?"

The following   uh...   *item* was forwarded to me yesterday
by my pal Adam T.   It did Evil Things to my mind, and made
me pass it on.   heh heh heh

  ~~~~~~~~ Begin Included Message ~~~~~~~~

 The following poem appeared recently in INFOCUS magazine.  The
 original authors were Fred Bremmer and Steve Kroese of Calvin
 College & Seminary of Grand Rapids, MI.

 A poll conducted among INFOCUS readers had established "waka" as
 the proper pronunciation for the angle-bracket characters < and
 >, though some readers held out resolutely for "norkies."

 The text of the poem follows:

         <> !*''#
         ^"' $$-          (The ' in this line is *supposed* to be a 
         !*=@$_            backward "tick," or apostrophe, sort of a
         %*<> ~#4          teeny \, but my keyboard hasn't that, so
         &[]../            imagine it, okay?    MQS)
         |{,,SYSTEM HALTED 

 The poem can only be appreciated by reading it aloud, to wit:

         Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash,
         Caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash,
         Bang splat equal at dollar under-score,
         Percent splat waka waka tilde number four,
         Ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash,
         Vertical-bar curly-bracket comma comma CRASH.


  ~~~~~~~~ End Included Message ~~~~~~~~  

It sorta seems to me that if "<" is "waka," then ">" should
be "back-waka."   I think I will call it that.

It also seems to me that if you combine these ASCII-symbol
translation "words" with two-line ASCII "art,"  you
could *really* have something.

    Like...

          < < ~ /
                __
          >   _|==|_

          { ! -
                  ~     ^ ^
          ppp A  | |   >*x*<  

     Which would be, of course:

          Waka waka tilde slash
          Back-waka hat,
          Curly-bracket bang dash
          "P's" a pi  cat!
          (Pizza pie)

  [ In honor of Natasha Katski, Rose-Toes, Crazy Jennie, & Amazing
    Gracie, who really *like*   pppA.   :)  ] 

Hmmmmm   ... sounds a little like those "poems" that Kliban
used to construct.     


 "I'm Noko Marie.  Don't mess with me."
     - B. ("Hap") Kliban   (r.i.p.)


 - M.Q.S., "Official Bimbo" for Baltimore; (SCOoF)
     AKA  C'mell;  AKA The Lilac Fairy

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