JOIN OUR
ANNUAL
LIMERICK CONTEST
!!
IEEE Semiconductor Interface Specialists Conference
Rules
and Instructions
Background and Procedure
If you have attended
previous SISC's, you know that we have one cherished TRADITION: a Limerick
contest, which is one of the major highlights of the conference.
During the conference, all attendees are gently
encouraged and slightly
forced to submit one or more Limericks to the Limerick organizer.
During the Conference Banquet on Friday evening, all Limericks are
presented and an esteemed panel of experts makes a fair judgement to
select a number of finalist
Limericks. After a second presentation of the selected Limericks,
the audience chooses the winner (it is based on their amount of
applause). The winner receives a handsome plaque and the honor of
organizing the next year’s contest.
What
is a Limerick?
A limerick is a five-line poem with the following rhyme pattern:
a a b b a. The
rhythm is just as important in a limerick as the rhyme.
The beat must be “anapestic” (weak, weak, strong….see
below) with three feet in lines 1, 2, and 5 and 2 feet in lines 3 and
4. Another common characteristic of many Limericks is that the first
line ends with the name of a place, although this is not strictly
necessary. Some people
say that soldiers returning from France to the Irish town of Limerick
in the 1700’s invented the limerick.
Most importantly,
Limericks are meant to be funny. They often contain hyperbole,
onomatopoeia (naming a thing or action by a vocal imitation of the
sound associated with it, e.g. “buzz” or “hiss”), idioms,
puns, and other figurative devices. The last line of a good limerick
contains the PUNCH LINE or "heart of the joke."
Here’s a classic
example:
There
was a young man of Oporta (w S w w S w w S w)
Who
daily got shorter and shorter. (w S w w S w w S w)
The
reason, he said, (w S w w S)
Was
the hod on his head, (w w S w w S)
Which
was filled with the heaviest mortar. (w w S w w S w w S w)
- C.L. Dodgson, aka
Lewis Carroll
How strictly does your
Limerick have to adhere to the rules?
The main points are as follows:
1. Five lines where
lines 1, 2 and 5 rhyme with each other, and line 3 and 4 rhyme with
each other.
2. Lines 3 and 4 should be shorter than lines 1, 2 and 5 for the sake
of the rhythm.
3. Most importantly, it should be FUNNY!
How do I win the SISC
Limerick Contest?
In order to win the
Limerick contest at the SISC, your Limerick should reflect some (very
funny) aspects related to the conference, its papers, or its attendees
- especially the “good old chaps” of the conference. It can also
have some very innovative and funny personal touch or jokes about
science in general and semiconductor (interfaces) in particular. As an
example, here was a finalist entry in the 2000 contest, which
reflected on the evolution of a "rump session" that was held
and peppered with remarks from several “good old chaps”…
We
all enjoyed the rump session
and
heard reliability tension
opinions
flew 'round
the
session broke down
The
cause? Hot comment Injection
More examples will be
shown in the session breaks. Don’t hesitate to ask if you have any
questions. I’m looking forward to an entertaining Limerick contest!
Greg
Parsons, North Carolina State University
Limerick Chair SISC 2002
Hilarious and often riotous, the limericks never fail to give a new
perspective on the conference. Surprisingly, these highly technical
individuals are often quite talented at the subtle art of poetry!
Don't forget to submit your limerick(s)!
Favorites from past contests (in
no particular order):