"Lime Jello Marshmallow Cottage Cheese Surprise" is a novelty song by William Bolcom, frequently sung by his mezzo-soprano wife, Joan Morris. It is based on his experiences, in his youth, of playing the piano for women's clubs, and being fed absurd and unappetizing cuisine, including foods resembling Jello salad.
The singer takes on the persona of a leader of such a club, describing the featured dishes to be served "next week" at the club's "culture night", and most prominently, the title dish, a concoction that also includes "slices of pimento (you won't believe your eyes)", pineapple, mayonnaise, and vanilla wafers. Other dishes mentioned include "scones that are filled with peanut mousse" and "strawberry ice enshrined in rice with bits of tunafish".
Famous quotes containing the words lime, jello, cottage, cheese and/or surprise:
“In our large cities, the population is godless, materialized,—no bond, no fellow-feeling, no enthusiasm. These are not men, but hungers, thirsts, fevers, and appetites walking. How is it people manage to live on,—so aimless as they are? After their peppercorn aims are gained, it seems as if the lime in their bones alone held them together, and not any worthy purpose.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Poetry uses the hub of a torque converter for a jello mold.”
—Diane Glancy (b. 1941)
“It might be seen by what tenure men held the earth. The smallest stream is mediterranean sea, a smaller ocean creek within the land, where men may steer by their farm bounds and cottage lights. For my own part, but for the geographers, I should hardly have known how large a portion of our globe is water, my life has chiefly passed within so deep a cove. Yet I have sometimes ventured as far as to the mouth of my Snug Harbor.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Apart from cheese and tulips, the main product of the country is advocaat, a drink made from lawyers.”
—Alan Coren (b. 1938)
“The legend of Felix is ended, the toiling of Felix is done;
The Master has paid him his wages, the goal of his journey is won;
He rests, but he never is idle; a thousand years pass like a day,
In the glad surprise of Paradise where work is sweeter than play.”
—Henry Van Dyke (1852–1933)