In 1904 Parents Washed Out Your Mouth With What!?

I've always wondered why Dr. Seuss had to take such liberties with the "English" language to get his rhymes -- and it bothered me. He was just being silly, but I thought it was a little unfair that he could make words up to make his stories flow.

Now that I've read many of his stories over again with our little one I realize that what appeared so inane not long ago, is a terrific teaching aid for anyone who's learning to read. The similarities and differences between words really illustrates the phonics and graphics of a word -- which will be really handy when our first born starts to read on his own (and before that with our help, of course).

BUT all of that said, there's GOT to be some reason Seuss turned to this beyond the pure pedagogic intentions. My best guess is that children from 1904 were raised by parents who washed his mouth out with something a whole lot worse than soap. If Seuss had to enter into some Jewish version of Pig Latin to express himself, it must have been awful. Something that could only be conceived by the mind of a German beer-maker who lost his brewery due to prohibition.

When your father immigrates to New England to live out his dream to be a successful German brewer to only have the Yankees enter into prohibition, I'll BET you learn some interesting words around the house, too.

Without further ado, here are some other thoughts on some of the latest comics we've had up on Spring Chickens.

Way Down There
The stilts were an idea I came up with to introduce a new character to King St. - - someone who was a bother to me LONG before I met Mr. Minestrone or Beardo. He just lived over on Parkhill so I never really made the connection between him and King St.

I thought, what could be the wackiest setup I could think of, which I could have interrupted by this new character? Beardo on stilts seemed like a good fit. However, I liked the idea so much, that I thought of a couple ways it could pay off - - so you can expect some more stilts in the future on King St.

Gogh for It
A friend on Facebook made a status update "I could cut my ear off" and my immediate response was "Gogh for it!" but .... I didn't write it. He seemed in genuine anguish and I didn't feel like leaving graphic evidence that I'm a big jerk. I mean, I AM a big jerk, but leaving proof for everyone to see isn't my style.

But believe me, when I read your Facebook status, my immediate and default response is pure "Jerk."

(And yes, I did fashion the anguished guy off of Ernie from Sesame Street ... )

Employee Ownership
My biggest concern about employee ownership is the divestment of ownership after you no longer want to have it - - I mean, who buys this stuff from you?

And what happens when you own part of a business, like a German start-up brewery, and then the States institute prohibition again - - how do you get your money out of it THEN? You lose your job and all your investments, too -- yikes.

I'm not against Employee Ownership, I just wonder how you'd ever leave or retire. Or what to do with all that unsold home-brew left over. Would you use it to wash your kid's mouth out when he swears around the house, obviously leading to a whole new insane world of Zizzer Zazzer Zuzzs, Gecks and Wumps?