Hi Bonz:

Great to catch up with 'The purple cow' again.

It sent me to my shelves for 'A nonsense anthology collected by Carolyn Wells', published in 1908 and reprinted by Dover in 1958.

Although 'Purple cow' does sound Milliganesque, it was actually written at the turn of the 20th century by American humorist Gelett Burgess.

Here are a couple of his limericks from the same collection:

I'd rather have habits than clothes,
For that's where my intellect shows.
And as for my hair,
Do you think I should care
To comb it at night with my toes?

I wish that my Room had a Floor;
I don't so much care for a Door,
But this walking around
Without touching the ground
Is getting to be quite a bore!