1. Comment #24790 by Linda_K on March 8, 2007 at 2:52 pm

Happy birthday, Mr. Myers!

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2. Comment #24792 by Winckle on March 8, 2007 at 3:07 pm

Many happy returns of the day, Mr Myers!

And a charming little verse from the prof.

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3. Comment #24794 by cheshirecat on March 8, 2007 at 3:26 pm

Proof of reincarnation. William Mcgonagall lives again in the body of Richard Dawkins.

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4. Comment #24797 by Robert Maynard on March 8, 2007 at 4:05 pm

Hah.. coolness.

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5. Comment #24798 by Greg Laden on March 8, 2007 at 4:08 pm

There once was a dragon from Morris,
Who's fiery breadth was our chorus
Intelligent designers, god simps and whiners
all burned to a crisp right before us.

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6. Comment #24800 by J-Dog on March 8, 2007 at 4:26 pm

Well, Happy Birthday young man... My BD message of course will not be as classy as Dr. Dawkins', but what Colonial could possibly sound more distinguished?

Roses are red
Violets are blue
You've taught us to read
and be skeptical too.

Happy Birthday!

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7. Comment #24801 by MIND_REBEL on March 8, 2007 at 4:32 pm

Happy Birthday,

It's wonderful to see some REAL scientists stand up for the truth. This is the beginning of a new era, and we're all playing a huge role.

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8. Comment #24807 by cyan on March 8, 2007 at 4:55 pm

Happy birthday, PZ: so glad that you exist. Please continue your existence for a lo-o-o-o-ong time. (And Richard: you, too, absolutely)

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9. Comment #24809 by Zaphod on March 8, 2007 at 4:55 pm

Haha a poem from Dawkins. Cool. Happy birthday PZ.

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10. Comment #24814 by Ophelia Benson on March 8, 2007 at 5:53 pm

Oh, honestly, PZ - I mean happy birthday and everything, but honestly, I'm so jealous I could spit. Even though I did inspire a Jesus and Mo once, which was the high point of my life, and you were kind enough to be jealous of that - but all the same. Honestly. I'm such an unbecoming shade of green.

Happy birthday, ya bastid.

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11. Comment #24822 by neander on March 8, 2007 at 6:29 pm

Happy Birthday PZ!

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12. Comment #24823 by Ursa Majy on March 8, 2007 at 6:32 pm

Happy Happy! Thank you for all you've taught me. Richard too of course.

Majy

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13. Comment #24837 by EverLastingGodStopper on March 8, 2007 at 7:48 pm

Pharyngula is one of the few science blogs I read regularly. Happy Birthday PZ, and thanks to Richard for the poem (and audio).

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14. Comment #24850 by MelM on March 8, 2007 at 9:40 pm

Happy Birthday PZ! If we escape a new Dark Age, you'll be one of the reasons. Maybe you'll get a statue or something in a few hundred years. Or, perhaps your face on a coin. Ok?

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15. Comment #24860 by ExitB on March 8, 2007 at 11:44 pm

Happy birthday! I'm pleased to have discovered you and your blog through this thread. I especially enjoyed the Mad Professor story
http://citypages.com/databank/26/1303/article13908.asp
and post of Creation Science 101
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIwiPsgRrOs

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16. Comment #24874 by AbstractMonkey on March 9, 2007 at 2:22 am

Many happy returns of the day Mr. Myers.

Here's to avoiding the return of the Inquisition.

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17. Comment #24878 by Russell Blackford on March 9, 2007 at 2:49 am

Myers is nearly halfway through his life,
But strong enough to make the wingnuts cry
When battle's drawn, with cursing, anger, strife,
And fierce debunking of the ID lie.

Throw in some well-formed anti-theist sneers,
Stir in a little mockery (well-deserved),
Spice it with cheers for Dawkins and his peers,
And that is Myers' blogging being served.

His hide is thick as any alligator's;
His mind is sharp from problems that it's solved;
His stinging tail will pierce the godly haters;
His attributes are strikingly evolved.

So here's to more years of Pharyngula,
The blog that Dawkins finds so syngula!

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18. Comment #24879 by Russell Blackford on March 9, 2007 at 2:54 am

Hmmmm, I don't like the second rhyme in the second quatrain of my sonnet all that much, but it'll have to do. I plead that it is rhyming the sound "zerved" with "served", if you listen to it, which is sort of acceptable.

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19. Comment #24885 by Logicel on March 9, 2007 at 3:33 am

Wonderful little present for Meyers. Well done, Richard.

Happy Birthday, PZ!

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20. Comment #24899 by CJ on March 9, 2007 at 5:11 am

Another good blog to add to the favourites list.

Happy Birthday PZ!

Regards CJ

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21. Comment #24902 by goldmineguttd on March 9, 2007 at 5:31 am

Did Richard coin the term "faith-head"? Is it like crack-head? I like it either way.

Happy Birthday, PZ!

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22. Comment #24909 by Skeptyk on March 9, 2007 at 6:59 am

Happy Birthday, Pee Zed!
I wrote you a poem, posted over at your home blog (#132).
Skal!

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23. Comment #25086 by Richard Dawkins on March 10, 2007 at 3:25 am

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Comment #24794 by cheshirecat: "William Mcgonagall lives again in the body of Richard Dawkins."
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William Topaz McGonagall (1825-1902) was a Scottish poet, whose most famous poem, the Tay Bridge Disaster, begins as follows (read it in a cultivated Scottish accent):

Beautiful Railway Bridge of the Silv'ry Tay!
Alas! I am very sorry to say
That ninety lives have been taken away
On the last Sabbath day of 1879,
Which will be remember'd for a very long time.

And here are some lines from later in the poem
(http://www.taynet.co.uk/users/mcgon/disaster.htm)

As soon as the catastrophe came to be known
The alarm from mouth to mouth was blown,
And the cry rang out all o'er the town,
Good Heavens! the Tay Bridge is blown down,
And a passenger train from Edinburgh,
Which fill'd all the people's hearts with sorrow . . .

Look at my own humble verse, and you'll see that I can't hold a candle to McGonagall. Some poets don't know how to rhyme; some poets don't know how to scan. McGonagall, with effortless mastery, doesn't know how to do either. My lines, I must reluctantly admit, both rhyme and scan. To make matters worse, my little effort includes literary conceits of which McGonagall would have been magnificently unaware. There's alliteration ("All around the World Wide Web, the wingnuts . . ."). The rhythm of the lines onomatopoeically evokes a horse's hooves drumming as it gallops in with the good news of PZ's birthday (reinforced by the use of the word 'drubbing'). The effect is enhanced, to my shame, by gratuitous little internal rhymes which McGonagall would have disdained to waste in this way (Pharyngula/singular, about/redoubt). In addition, the choice of the word 'redoubt' for PZ's castle subliminally recalls the 'sceptical' of the previous line. There's a frivolous joke on the pronunciation of Pepys, deliberately held over until the second line, so that that last word of the first line will appear temporarily mysterious, thereby enhancing the effect of the rhyme when all is finally revealed. The same mis-spelling device is echoed in the last two lines, building up to the increasingly anticipated climax of the honoree's name. It is hard to imagine any of these cheap literary tricks flowing from the insouciant pen of William McGonagall.

In short, Cheshirecat is too kind to me. He does McGonagall an injustice in suggesting that there is any resemblance between his verse and mine.

Richard Topaz Dawkins

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24. Comment #25100 by Russell Blackford on March 10, 2007 at 5:41 am

The great McGonagall would certainly have eschewed such flourishes as the use of iambic heptameter, with little variations from dropping or adding unstressed syllables at the beginning of various lines. Just saying.

(He wasn't known for his ability to dash off an Elizabethan sonnet, either, but that's another story.)

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25. Comment #25127 by cheshirecat on March 10, 2007 at 9:12 am

Brilliant!!

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26. Comment #25129 by cheshirecat on March 10, 2007 at 9:15 am

I love bad poetry.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stuffed-Owl-Anthology-Review-Paperback/dp/1590170385/ref=pd_ka_1/202-5147636-3233438?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1173546862&sr=8-1

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27. Comment #25192 by miss amelia on March 10, 2007 at 6:59 pm

What an adorable poem...Richard Topaz Dawkins, why are you the coolest person in the known universe?

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