Dear LINGUIST List Subscribers,

You're a clever bunch of folks; in many cases, you're probably actual geniuses.
You're good with words. You have impeccable taste in the arts, and a fine
sense of meter and rhyme. You can be very, very funny. Why not deploy these
admirable traits in the name of supporting LINGUIST List?

That's right: we're putting out the first call for limericks, a time-honored
Fund Drive tradition that has yielded some truly virtuosic works in the past.
Put on your poetry caps, flex your wit muscles, and prepare to compete against
your fellow linguists in the 2012 Limerick Competition. Here's how it works:

-Submit your limericks to annalinguistlist.org! They can be on any
linguistics-related topic, but so much the better if they have something to do
with LINGUIST List or Fund Drive.

-Every Friday, we'll post that week's limerick submissions on the Fund Drive
site. Visitors will be able to vote for their favorite limericks over the
course of the week.

-Every Friday, we'll also announce the winner of the previous week's batch of
limericks. The winners of each week will go on to the FINAL ROUND towards the
end of Fund Drive.

-We'll be awarding prizes to each week's winners, plus a big prize to the
overall winner of the Final Round! And let's not forget the pride you'll feel
at having your limerick marked "WINNER" in big red text, in full view of
thousands of linguists worldwide.

Get your creative juices flowing, and start penning those limericks! We'll be
accepting submissions for Round 1 until Thursday, March 8, at noon (EST). For
inspiration, here's a classic limerick from a previous Fund Drive by Michael
Horlick:

There are quite a few linguists whose fate
was improved by LL's up-to-date
job announcements and postings
yet site maintenance and hosting
need commitment and money - donate!

View more classic limericks, and instructions on how to submit your own, at
the Bard's Corner:

http://linguistlist.org/fund-drive/2012/limericks.cfm

Good luck, poets!
The LINGUIST List Crew