The further and continuing adventures of the girl who sat in the back of your homeroom, reading and daydreaming.
Sunday, April 03, 2011
The Moving Finger Writes...And Moves On
And thus the Acme Joke & Novelty's Corporation's overseas company town is left sadly washed-up on the shoals of history and politics: Owatagoo, Thailand.
What a flashback, Jim! I remember many great days spent perusing the Johnson Smith catalog and building lists of all the neat things I was going to order. Itching power and a ten-foot genuine latigo bull-whip with extra cracker were always a part of it. Five or six hundred pulp pages of crap to excite the imagination of any twelve year old boy.
Jean Shepherd, in a personal appearance in his hated Northwest Indiana, once opined that Johnson Smith was the Rosetta Stone of American Culture, which actually led me to opine that Monty Python was the rosetta stone of Geek culture.
In all the intervening years, I find that both opinions are far more often true than not.
I'll probably regret explaining a joke, but here goes.
The reason it's a joke is that if you can get someone to say "Owatagoo, Siam" three times fast, it sounds like "Oh, what a goose I am." The reason it worked better 100 years ago is that we no longer use "goose" as a term of derision for a person we would now probably call an airhead.
I was kind of enjoying the mystery. Well, at least the very best hotel in the little-known Ohio resort town, Schmilton, is still right where it should be.
Comment moderation is enabled. Your comment will not be visible until approved. Arguing or use of insulting or derogatory language will result in your comment going unpublished: no name-calling. Comments I deem excessively partisan will not be published.
Be of good cheer. Johnson Smith and Co. still operates from these shores and continues to vend whoopee cushions and joy buzzers.
ReplyDeleteWhat a flashback, Jim! I remember many great days spent perusing the Johnson Smith catalog and building lists of all the neat things I was going to order. Itching power and a ten-foot genuine latigo bull-whip with extra cracker were always a part of it. Five or six hundred pulp pages of crap to excite the imagination of any twelve year old boy.
ReplyDeleteJean Shepherd, in a personal appearance in his hated Northwest Indiana, once opined that Johnson Smith was the Rosetta Stone of American Culture, which actually led me to opine that Monty Python was the rosetta stone of Geek culture.
ReplyDeleteIn all the intervening years, I find that both opinions are far more often true than not.
Snork!
ReplyDeleteThat joke probably worked better 100 years ago. I first saw it in a Boy Scout book from the 30's and I bet it was old then.
But hey, that's part of the charm of being Neo-Victorian. :)
I'll probably regret explaining a joke, but here goes.
ReplyDeleteThe reason it's a joke is that if you can get someone to say "Owatagoo, Siam" three times fast, it sounds like "Oh, what a goose I am." The reason it worked better 100 years ago is that we no longer use "goose" as a term of derision for a person we would now probably call an airhead.
I was kind of enjoying the mystery. Well, at least the very best hotel in the little-known Ohio resort town, Schmilton, is still right where it should be.
ReplyDelete