Date:  Mon, 18 Dec 1995 22:27:12 -0500

From:  SETH SKLAREY <crissiet[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]IPOF.FLA.NET>

Subject: Re: POGO STICK IT TO ME



WE HAVE MET THE ENEMY AND WE IS THEY (watered down educated correction???)

SETH

crissiet[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]ipof.fla.net



>Hmmmmmmmm. I wonder why some of the world's most complex grammatical and

>phnological systems pesist among peoples with no formal education. You

>would figure the water would have warshed them down the hill to pure

>simplicity by now.

>Dennis

><preston[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]pilot.msu.edu>

>

>> 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.

>

>