Waka Waka Bang Splat!

The following poem appeared in the May/June 1990 issue of Infocus magazine and has since been floating around the Internet. The original authors were Fred Bremmer and Steve Kroese of Calvin College & Seminary of Grand Rapids, Michigan.

A poll conducted among Infocus readers had established “waka” as the proper pronunciation for the angle-bracket characters < and >, though some readers held out resolutely for “norkies.”

< > ! * ' ' #

^ " ` $ $ -

! * = @ $ _

% * < > ~ # 4

& [ ] . . /

| { , , SYSTEM HALTED

The poem can only be appreciated by reading it aloud, to wit:

<  >  !   *  '  '  #
Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash,

^  "    `    $   $  -
Caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash,

!  *  =  @  $    _
Bang splat equal at dollar under-score,

%   *   <  >  ~   #   4
Percent splat waka waka tilde number four,

&     [    ]   . .  /
Ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash,

|       {      ,    , SYSTEM HALTED
Vertical-bar curly-bracket comma comma CRASH.

[via about.com]