I have just spent the last too many hours with three boys under the age of 6 in the Fifth Circle of Hell, also known as McDonald�s Playplace. As a result, my brain is not functioning at normal capacity. Hell, we�re lucky I�m not sitting in the corner in the fetal position banging my head against a wall.

So instead of coming up with something creative to say on my own, I�m posing a challenge suggested by my friend M.

My friend M. teaches music theory at a large Midwestern institution in a state that I like to make fun of even though I�ve never been there. M. was telling me that when he introduces novices to musical form, he uses as an example, the limerick. He emailed me this morning to tell me that one of his students told him this one:

There once was a man from the stix
who wanted to write limericks.
But he failed at his sport,
'Cause he wrote them to short.

He then issued a challenge � or, more accurately, mentioned that he had failed so far to come up with a limerick to go with the following line and I took it as a challenge:

There once was a man from Zimbabwe

I have yet to come up with an option that is remotely amusing. So now I�m challenging you: Can you come up with the rest of the limerick? I feel that I should issue a prize for this particular contest. I�m not yet sure what it will be, though. A collection of Edward Lear limericks?

And for those musicians out there, some friends and I have been stymied for years how to best continue this perfect beginning of a joke:

Three augmented sixth chords � a French, a German and an Italian -- walk into a bar�

8 people said it like they meant it