Whimsical ways of counting sheep

"The book lists different ways of counting to ten," he said. "Reid writes, 'If you get tired of counting one, two, three, make up your own numbers, as shepherds used to do when they had to count sheep day in, day out. You can try using these sets of words instead of numbers, when you have to count to ten.'

"There are 57 pages of this delightful nonsense, with equally delightful illustrations. My wife and I love it."

David, who lives in Urim, Israel, told us "I have been a member of Kibbutz Urim for the past 50 years, and so have had many -- and varied -- jobs over the decades: lathe operator, physics and mathematics teacher, factory worker, bookkeeper... But for the last few of them I was a musicologist at Tel-Aviv University until my retirement eight years ago."

In the book Ounce, Dice, Trice, now sadly out of print, Alastair Reid, a Scottish-born author, poet and translator turning 80 this year, cites these witty ways of counting to 10:

• Ounce, dice, trice, quartz, quince, sago, serpent, oxygen, nitrogen, denim.
• Instant, distant, tryst, catalyst, quest, sycamore, sophomore, oculist, novelist, dentist.
• Archery, butchery, treachery, taproom, tomb, sermon, cinnamon, apron, nunnery, density.
• Acreage, brokerage, cribbage, carthage, cage, sink, sentiment, ointment, nutmeg, doom.

He suggests that times of day should include daypeep, dimity, dewfall and owlcry.

"And if someone tells you something you don't believe, look at him steadily and say FIRKYDOODLE, FUDGE, or QUOZ."

Warming to the word firkydoodle, we googled it. We found the word, spelt slightly differently, with this definition in The random pseudodictionary:

Firkytoodle, (n) Foreplay. Not my original word, but a wonderful word to say. Try it. Firkytoodle. Probably got it from Mrs. Byrne's Dictionary. Example: As in a song lyric: Momma don't 'low no firkytoodlin' 'round here.