WEBVTT

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I'll read now, I think a
poem from my first book,

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poem called A True Story,
which is in a syllabic form,

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I used to have a lot
of syllabic so I didn't

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do terribly much any longer.

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It really is a
true story actually

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though you may not think so,
it's written in syllabics.

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But it will sound
exactly as it was

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written in puurs, A True Story.

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When the British Association
for the Advancement of Science

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held its annual meeting
one year in East Anglia,

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no one could think
what to feed them on.

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It appeared from previous
experience in County Durham,

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that members consumed
an enormous quantity

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of sandwiches.

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How were the hundreds of
visiting scientists to be fed?

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The problem was finally solved
by the inspiration of a Norfolk

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poacher, who suggested at a
public meeting in the town Hall

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at Norwich, the employment
of their local pest,

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the coypu rat.

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He claimed that between two
layers of freshly cut bread

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a thick slice of coypu
tasted quite delicious,

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and it proved so.

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At any rate the sandwiches
were bought and eaten

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in extraordinarily
large numbers.

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The plain bread seemed to
set off the unusual taste

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of the dead rodent.

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Indeed, a group of younger
men from the biology section

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dissected the furry beasts with
a view to assessing just why.

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Altogether it was
a great success

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for the quality of
willingness to experiment

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as the countryman aptly said.

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[AUDIENCE LAUGHTER]

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Yeah, you don't think it is too.

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I can see even the darkness,
I can see from your faces

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that you think I made it all
up, you don't believe it so.

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[AUDIENCE LAUGHTER]

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I don't have that
imagination, I really

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couldn't, it has to be true.

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