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Originally posted by ironweed
When I was in grad school I briefly dated a marine biology PhD candidate who was writing her dissertation on plankton. We broke up, on relatively amicable terms, shortly before Thanksgiving. For Thanksgiving, I didn't go home, but rather had two friends from the English Department over for a fabulous, if I say so myself, shrimp marinara (Hi Fringey!). We got really drunk and started gossiping about people, including my ex, who was a college friend of one of my guests. At some point we started mocking her dissertation topic by substituting the word plankton for key words in every title or line of prose or poetry we could think of. You know --

The Sound and the Plankton,
Call me plankton;
Ask not for whom the plankton tolls, it tolls for thee;
It is a truth universally acknowledged that a man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of plankton;
All happy plankton are alike;
Margaret are you grieving over Planktongrove unleaving;
Gather ye plankton while ye may;
Shall I compare thee to a summer's plankton, though art more lovely and more temperate;
Things fall apart, the plankton cannot hold; ...


And on and on and on. Having taken the English Literature GRE only about a year before, we were still loaded up with quotes to use. And every time we thought of another one, we laughed so hard we nearly cried. There were even moments were we were hitting the floor with our hands. Mind you, we were wasted. But still, even in our wasted state, there was one moment, rather suddenly, where hilarity no longer ensued, and we ceased.

Ancient zen koan #481:

Who is the greater fool: he who posts stupid fucking post with a recycled schtick or he who responds to stupid fucking post with a recycled retort?