<Ul> <Li> It was parodied by Roald Dahl in his poetry book Rhyme Stew (1989): "As I was going to St Ives / I met a man with seven wives / he said: "I think it's much more fun / than getting stuck with only one ." </Li> <Li> In the 1995 film Die Hard with a Vengeance, the rhyme is presented to the protagonists by the villain as a riddle, giving them thirty seconds to telephone him on the number "555 plus the answer" or a bomb would detonate . The protagonists initially believe the answer to be 2401, only solving for the number of kits . However, they eventually solve the riddle, calling the number 555--0001 which proves to be correct . They missed the 30 - second deadline, but the bomb did not explode since the villain had not said "Simon says ." </Li> <Li> The rhyme was recited by Mary Murphy's character while caring for a cat with seven kittens in the movie A Man Alone . Later the character played by Ray Milland who overheard the rhyme offers her the answer and Murphy's character explains that she alone was going to St. Ives . </Li> <Li> The rhyme was also the basis of a Sesame Street Muppet skit from the show's first season, in which the boy Muppet holding a numeral 7 sings the rhyme as a song to the girl Muppet twice (the second time, the girl is busy writing down the calculations) and finally, in keeping true to the spirit of the riddle, reveals the answer as 1 (the traditional answer), because he was going to St. Ives and the kits, cats, sacks and wives were going the other way . Then the girl turns the tables on the boy and asks how many were going the other way . She then reveals the mathematical answer from her calculations: 1 man + 7 wives + 49 sacks + 343 cats + 2,401 kittens, which comes to 2,801 . Astonished, the boy responds, "How about that?!" </Li> <Li> Mad magazine used it in at least two articles over the years for the following parodies: </Li> </Ul> <Li> It was parodied by Roald Dahl in his poetry book Rhyme Stew (1989): "As I was going to St Ives / I met a man with seven wives / he said: "I think it's much more fun / than getting stuck with only one ." </Li> <Li> In the 1995 film Die Hard with a Vengeance, the rhyme is presented to the protagonists by the villain as a riddle, giving them thirty seconds to telephone him on the number "555 plus the answer" or a bomb would detonate . The protagonists initially believe the answer to be 2401, only solving for the number of kits . However, they eventually solve the riddle, calling the number 555--0001 which proves to be correct . They missed the 30 - second deadline, but the bomb did not explode since the villain had not said "Simon says ." </Li> <Li> The rhyme was recited by Mary Murphy's character while caring for a cat with seven kittens in the movie A Man Alone . Later the character played by Ray Milland who overheard the rhyme offers her the answer and Murphy's character explains that she alone was going to St. Ives . </Li>

As i was going to st. ives i met a man with seven wives answer