Conference thebay::joyoflex

    She sells sea-shells on the sea-shore (repeat quickly)

    re .0
    
    The tongue twister is actually
    
    "How much wood would a wood-chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck
    wood?"

    the full one:  
    
    "how much wood would a wood-chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck
    wood?  He'd chuck as much wood as a wood-chuck could if a wood-chuck
    could chuck wood..."
    
    also
    
    "the sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick"
    
    "unique New york" (ten times fast is well nigh unto impossible)
    
    "red leather yellow leather"
    
    "One smart boy, he felt smart...two smart boys, they both felt
    smart...three smart boys, they all felt smart"  (three guesses what
    that one turns into)
    
    "Around the rough and rugged rocks the ragged rascal ran"
    
    "I hate rotten writin' when it's written rotten"
    
    rubber baby buggy bumpers
    
    -Jody
    

    Here's a few I remember from my grandmother's days:
    
    
    "Round the rugged rocks the ragged rascal ran"
    
    "What noise annoys a noisy oyster most? A noisy noise annoys 
    a noisy oyster most!"
    
    "Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled pepper. If Peter Piper picked
    a peck of pickled pepper - where's the peck of pickled pepper Peter
    Piper picked?"  
    
    "If Moses supposes his toes are posies of roses, then Moses supposes
    erroneously. For nobody's toes are posies of roses as Moses supposes
    his toes to be." (with "toes" pronounced as "toses"!)
                                       
    Phew!
    
    Isabelle

    Two more:
    
    toy boat
    
    the sea ceaseth and sufficeth us

    Re .-1
    
    The version I know has a few more eths:
    
    The seething sea ceaseth and thus sufficeth us
    
    which reminds me of one that I could never make sense of (perhaps
    I heard it wrong):
    
    The Leith police dismisseth us
    
    b

    which witch was the witch who wished the wicked wish?
    
    
    and fun to say and picture, tho not too tangling, is
    "he ran from the Indes to the Andes in his undies"
    
    -Jody
    

    This is a game my dad used to play with us.  You say one line of the
    following; then the other person repeats it.  Then you add a line
    and the other person repeats it, each trying to say it faster. 
    By the end, you're saying the whole thing, as fast as possible.
    
    A little red hen.
    
    A couple of ducks.
    
    Three brown bears.
    
    Four running hares.
    
    Five fat females.
    
    Six simple simons sitting on a fence.
    
    Seven Sicilian sailors sailing the seven seas.
    
    Eight egotistical egotists echoing egotistical ecstasies.
    
    Nine Nubian nudes, nimbly nibbling knox, knuckles and nicotine.
    
    I'm not a fig plucker or a fig plucker's son, but I'll pluck figs
    till the fig plucker comes.
    
    
    
                     

    My fiance and I made this one up while waiting for someone outside
    a restaurant in Japantown (SF):
    
    Sununu eschewed Sue's shoeless stint at the pseudo-Shinto shrine.

    How about: "How high can a fly fly if a fly can fly high?"
    
    An alternative to the "sea shells" one I like is:
    
    "She sells sushi by the sea shore."
    
    re:.8
    
    That's very close to the Tibetan Memory trick originated by Jerry
    Lewis and handed down to many of us via Flo & Eddie. Unfortunately,
    I can't remember it all, but Dave Cantor can.
    
    --- jerry

      Yes, I can, but you don't expect me to do it HERE do you?

      See note 2837.3 in ILAVU::TRIVIA (*).
      
      Dave C.

    A long time ago (I forget when), someone (Dave Garroway, I think)
    decided that tongue twisters were causing an imbalance in the universe,
    so he invented _tongue pleasers_.  The only one I remember concerned
    Phoebe, the widow of a Mr Charles Beebe, who lived in Paducah, Kentucky
    on a pension.  In order to make money, Mrs Beebe built a canal on
    her land to connect two rivers.  The canal was very narrow and could
    accommodate only very small boats.  In fact, her only customers
    were trappers bringing pelts from the wilderness in their canoes.
    The tongue pleaser is:
    
    	Phoebe B. Beebe's Paducah new canoe canal.
    
    You may repeat it as rapidly as you wish without danger of
    misstatement.
    
    Bernie  

And then there was the Unix programmer who quit Bell Labs and went into the 
custom software marketing business.  She moved to Florida and set up shop on
the beach at Ft. Lauderdale.  Just so people could say... 

	___ _____ _-______ ____ __ ___ ___ _____.

(Fill in the blanks)

Larry

      I'm stumped at the 4-letter word.  Can I buy a vowel?  How
      about an 'E'?
      
      Dave C.

    re .6
         
>    which reminds me of one that I could never make sense of (perhaps
>    I heard it wrong):
>    
>    The Leith police dismisseth us

    I seem to remember that this was a phrase you were required to say
    by the police in Leith to prove that you were not drunk. Leith,
    for those who do not know, is a part of Edinburgh where the docks
    are situated.
    
    It may well be rubbish, but that's what my mum told me years ago.
    
    
    Ian.

    
    re: .12
    
    	This reminds me of a poem I once read. It was published in the
    1930's, and was authored by a Colonel Stoopnagle. I forget the 
    title. The poem was "Phoebe B. Beebe and her new canoe canal",
    and the only line I can remember is:
    
    	Phoebe B. Beebe and her new canoe canal
    	in Saugatuck, near Nauguatuck, Connecticut
    
    - Glinch.

    Re .16 (Glinch):
    
    >	This reminds me of a poem I once read. It was published in the
    >1930's, and was authored by a Colonel Stoopnagle.
     
    Ah, the cruelty of time!  "Colonel" Lemuel P. Stoopnagle was a
    (primarily radio) comedian of the 1930s and 1940s.  He loved to
    play with words, and originated such phrases as, ""Look at the haircut
    I need."
    
    The world needs more like him.
    
    Steve Kallis, Jr.

                  There was a flea and a fly in a flue.
                  Said the flea, "Let us fly."
                  "Let us flee", said the fly.
                  So they flew through a flaw in the flue.

    Re:  The wood-chucking wood chuck.
    
    Since a wood chuck is also known as a ground hog [Remember Feb.2 was 
    Ground Hog Day!], I have heard a parody on the original:
    
    "How much ground can a ground hog hog if a ground hog could hog
    ground?"
    
    An another old favorite that used to get us kids in trouble...
    
    "I slit the sheet.  The sheet I slit.  And on that slit sheet I
    sit!"   (10 times fast ought to do it!)
    
    And for purely vocal amazement, see if you can find a Swedish friend
    who can tell you (in Swedish), "There were seventy-seven sea-sick
    sailors."

    
    	re: Moses' toeses
    
    	I heard it like this: (from a tongue twister card in a drinking
    	game.  If you mess up saying what's on the card you picked,
    	you take another drink...)
    
    	Moses supposes his toeses are roses but Moses supposes erroneously.
    	For what Moses supposes are roses aren't roses but merely are
    	Moses' toeses.
    
    
    	And try this one out:
    
    	real rear wheel.
    
    	I thought of this one as I was replacing the temporary "donut"
    	spare in my car with a real tire.
    
    
    	Joe Oppelt

    I'm not a pheasant plucker, I'm a pheasant plucker's son
    
    and re the Leith police...
    
    The other part of the test for driver intoxication was to walk along
    a white line painted on the police station floor, without deviation.
    
    Both difficult when the driver is, understandably, anxious.
    
    Nick

    How much work would a network net if a network could net work?
    
    Stephen

    She stood on the balcony inexplicably mimicing him hiccupping while
    amacably welcoming him in.
    
    (Sorry about the spelling)
    

Not really a toungue-twister but it doesn't really make much sense if you're
hearing it instead of reading it. It may not even be completely correct as I 
learned it when I was about 8 (thirty years ago). Does anyone else remember it?


Mr. Shott and Mr. Nott agreed to fight a duel.
Nott was shot and Shott was not, so it is better to be Shott than Nott.
Shott and not Nott shot the shot that shot Nott.
If the shot that Shott shot Shott and not Nott,
Shott and not Nott would be shot and Nott would not.