Bjorn Yesterday

LimerWrecks contributor Donald B. Benson is a retired staff writer for the San Jose Mercury News. He takes pictures of discarded furniture and other curious items, and writes limericks. He's also published his first novel, Her Temporary Prince, which you can read about and/or purchase here.

"...a lively farce of crossed wires and competing schemes. What happens afterwards is still farcical ... but fraught with action, cliffhangers, spectacle, love, tears, and Ballyhoo -- the fads, follies and celebrity worship that made the twenties roar.

If you loved "The Prisoner of Zenda", you'll enjoy this affectionate but freewheeling return to Ruritania. It comes complete with passion, daring-do, and even a helping hand from an old Englishman named Rassendyll.

PS: "Her Temporary Prince" contains a little over 223,000 words, so in addition to rich, fleshed-out narrative you're getting Value for Money. And you can be reasonably sure you won't run out of book if you're reading during an airport layover (when you don't want to waste the bestseller you're taking on vacation), or in a DMV line, or over several days of commuting."

Turn the Screwy

 
Screwy Tuesday is a weekly online wacky humor event. Just search for the hashtag #screwytuesday, and please join us. All cartoonists are welcome!

Goodbye, Ghoul World

It's the end of a term of insanity
Time to mend, reaffirm our humanity
But Ted Cruz remains toxic
There's still Newsmax and Fox-ick
With "and Friends" and such worms as Sean Hannity.

President Evil and spouse are forced by the constitution to leave Washington.

Just Say Nowlan

Kevin Nowlan! Kevin Nowlan!
With talent Kevin's hands are swollen!
His style so sweet
It can't be beat!
Instead his stuff is often stolen!

Line-art of Jack B. Quick by Kevin Nowlan for a cover to DRAW! magazine. Not exactly a limerick, but an ode to one of the modern masters of comic book art.

Smells Like Quarantine Spirit

Because bleach won't postpone COVID doom
We must each sit alone in our room
No, we don't hide from fear
But it won't "disappear"
You can reach us by phone or on Zoom.

Teenage Raceland

Her mom and her pop can't be squarer 

The prom? A darn sock hop? Please spare her!
But let her drive fast
And she gets quite a blast
Atomic jalopies spread terror!


Lobby cards for Hot-Rod Girl (Leslie H. Martinson; 1956) promised Teen-age Terrorists burning up the streets!

Rock Around the Block

The heart rates in hot-rods will quicken
As car crazy knot-heads play "chicken"
Though racing high-speed
Is bracing indeed
Sub-par soup and plots never thicken.

UK poster for Hot-Rod Girl (Leslie H. Martinson; 1956).

Another Fine Message

It has a Deep Thought for its day
That Nuke-U-Ler War’s not okay;
But for all of its' strivin’
The kids at the drive-in
Aren’t watching the screen anyway.

Paul Truster


Teenage Caveman (Roger Corman; 1958) stars Robert Vaughn and Darah Marshall.

On Golden Blonde

This hottie's a bitch but a blast
Her motto's "get rich and live fast"
You better have nerves
To handle her curves
She'll rot in a ditch, but die last.

Bad Blonde aka The Flanagan Boy (Reginald Le Borg; 1953) was made by Hammer Films. Wishing a happy birthday to longtime LimerWrecks reader Tim Roznowski.

Girls Gone Mild

Though you'd think from their dresses they're bad,
The delinquents in question are sad
They're deflated, they're bruised
And by matrons abused
And this shrink -- more or less -- becomes "dad."

So Young, So Bad (Bernard Vorhaus; 1950) stars Paul Henreid as the sympathetic psychiatrist, with early roles for Anne Francis and Rita Moreno. This low-budget independent production is an expose of abuses at a girls reformatory, conceived and directed by just blacklisted director Vorhaus. Sort of a juvenile version of Caged (1950).

Crew Loose

"Hit the bricks!" says this daring girl gang
As the chicks in it bare claw and fang
They lie, cheat and steal
And die if they squeal
This flick is B fare with a bang.

Girls on the Loose (Paul Henreid; 1958)

Moore or Less

At drive-ins the kids were excited

Alive with libidos ignited
But ads they believed
Film cads had conceived
Not a thigh, flank or middle was sighted.

David Cairns

Okay, there were a few thighs on view in Over-Exposed (Lewis Seiler; 1956).

Hot Carcass

The wheels in this racket are hot
But appeal of this hack-job ain't plot
Just glance at the scheming
Joi Lansing, hi-beaming 
This dealer's chick's stacked on the lot.

Joi Lansing works for a crooked used car dealer in Hot Cars (Don McDougall; 1956). It's obvious they're not selling cars here.

A Poor Show of Hands

This horror's a permanent lull
A snore-fest -- the term here is "dull"
There's hate and there's killing
But mate, it ain't thrilling
From boredom you'll squirm, scratch your skull.



Paul Lukather, James Stapleton, Joan Harvey, and Michael Rye in the earnest-but-awful talkathon Hands of a Stranger (Newt Arnold; 1962). Hard to believe that this inept junk is based on the same story as is the brilliant Mad Love (1935).

Infernal Youth

 

That males run amok only teaches 

Young gals they're the pluck-worthy peaches

For when girls start aging

The men stop engaging

Old frail chicks must suck just like leeches.

At least that's the message of The Leech Woman (Edward Dein; 1960)