I have previously declared my undying love for Pogo and his creator, Walt Kelly, and that thread unearthed a slew of readers who felt the same way, quoting Pogetry by the furlong: "The moon is a madness," "Once you were two," "Oh, roar a roar for Nora," "The Keen and the Quing," "I was stirrin' up a stirrup cup," and more! more! Now I discover a fellow acolyte in Neddie of By Neddie Jingo!, whose post Greetings from Fort Mudge not only reproduces Pogo cartoons, record covers, and campaign buttons and quotes a long stretch of dichotomous dialogue between Howland Owl and Churchy La Femme (Owl: "Mine is got the ingrediments of scintillating scientific achievement inherent in it." Churchy: "Mine is too! It got the ungreedy minks of single-eightin' sinus siftin' an' cheese mints inherited too!"), it not only provides the full text of the toponymophilic "Go Go Pogo" ("From Caravan Diego, Waco and Oswego..."), it links to an mp3 of Walt himself belting it out with (in Neddie's mot juste) gusto. Tweedle de he go she go we go me go Pogo!
(Via BatesLine.)
Posted by languagehat at April 7, 2005 04:31 PMThis is brilliant!
Posted by: Melissa Spore at April 8, 2005 01:28 AM"We have met the enemy and he is us."
Posted by: JJM at April 8, 2005 05:52 AMAh, I quoted Pogo today and drew a roomful of blank stares... sigh. Kids today just don't know what they're missin'. And I mean that both ways.
I y'all ever have the chance and time, read Walt's "The Prince of Pompadoodle" and other poems wedged into one of the collection books... Pogo's Sunday Punch, perhaps?
My favorites, from my days as an "early reader":
"In a land where none are known
to neatly knot the gnu,
I met a mealy mustache upon a kangaroo..."
And the little
"Thoughts like this come all the time,
with neither reason, end, nor rhyme."
O Moustache dear I sang so clear,
why do you slowly grow
upon that lip like a buggy whip
And twinkle to and fro?
(I could quote the rest of it, right down to:
"a cootle pootle piggle Paul, Away")
My life partner surprised me at Xmas with a Pogo book I had never read! (from a funky antique/second-hand consignment store in Buzzard's Bay, MA)
One of my fondest childhood memories is coming across a dog-eared copy of a Pogo book I had not yet read a dozen times, nor even one time.
I had stacks of comic books and a half dozen soft-cover books (like: Pogo Sunday Punch) all in shabby condition and mostly memorized.
Porky Pine was my fave.
I went out as Miz beaver for Hallowe'en one year; my 16 yo sister was Albert (and tried hard not to be recognized by anybody, under her cardboard alligator snout). I had a corncob pipe with talcom powder in it. (I was 8) (now I'm 49)
Li'l Grundoon was another fave.
"sklbtxxkpt."
And the li'l bug that said "Jes' Fine"