Date: Mon, 18 Dec 1995 12:13:06 -0800

From: Chris Coolidge ccoolidg[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MOOSE.UVM.EDU

Subject: Re: Pogo



I just finished reading a compilation book of old Pogo cartoons; inclu-

ded is an interview with cartoonist Walt Kelly, who refers to his charac-

ters' ways of talking as "following the path of least resistance, like wa-

ter flowing down a hill." That's a pretty good description of the way

children and less educated people use language. They tend to make up words

that they figure should exist. In a way education tends to water down that

childlike tendency, and it kind of saddens me to see children grow up and

lose that childlike delight in playing with words and local yokels moving

to the big city and losing their regional idiosyncracies. Fortunately it

doesn't always happen.