John O'Mill

John O'Mill

A terrible infant called Peter,
sprinkled his bed with a geeter.
His father got woost,
took hold of a knoost
and gave him a pack on his meeter.

Johan van der Meulen (11 January 1915, Breda - 13 September 2005, Breda), better known by his pseudonym John O'Mill (a jocular translation of his given name, as if O' stands for "of the"), is a Dutch author mostly known for his wordplay and limericks, and for using a macaronic combination of Dutch and English words and sentence structures he called "Double Dutch" (itself a pun on various meanings of this phrase). Double Dutch appears English, but it cannot be fully understood without knowledge of Dutch, because it is based on the literal translation of Dutch idioms into English and the similarity in sound of certain words and expressions. O'Mill, who was until 1975 a teacher of English at the public highschool "Rijks-HBS" at Breda near Rotterdam, was inspired by the clumsy English used by his pupils.

Read more about John O'Mill:  Books

Famous quotes containing the word john:

    [17th-century] Puritans were the first modern parents. Like many of us, they looked on their treatment of children as a test of their own self-control. Their goal was not to simply to ensure the child’s duty to the family, but to help him or her make personal, individual commitments. They were the first authors to state that children must obey God rather than parents, in case of a clear conflict.
    —C. John Sommerville (20th century)