"Food for thought is no substitute for the real thing." Walt Kelly
You can see this quote on the wall from any checkout line at the North Conway, NH Hannaford's grocery store. I've been in there a couple of times. Every time I ask the checkout person about it:
Me: Who's Walt Kelly?
Checkout Person: Who?
Me (pointing to quote on the wall): Walt Kelly.
Checkout Person: Oh. I don't know who that is. (Smiling.) They don't tell us anything here.
Me: Oh. (Pause.) I know who it is.
Checkout Person: You know?
Me: He was a cartoonist. He did POGO. He died in 1973.
And then they hand me my change and I go away.
Yeah, it's too bad that the publicly held Hannaford's store, which probably had many meetings about what appropriate quotes to put up on their wall, did not bother to let any of its workers know who the heck this Walt Kelly guy was. This should have been a chance to keep POGO alive, guys! Then I wouldn't have to be Mr. comics-smarty-pants at the checkout!
Grr!
We have met the enemy and he is us.
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1 comment:
Just imagining the conversation among the checkout clerks as you approach with your basket.
"Here comes that cartoon guy again."
"I'm going on break."
"You take him."
"I don't want him, you take him."
"I took him last week. Twenty minutes about Hal Foster and Chic Young. 'Blah blah inky goodness.'"
"You missed the day he droned on and on about Charles Addams while his ice cream melted all over the conveyor belt. Took me an hour to mop up."
"Just ask him if he's the guy who draws 'Pearls Before Swine.' That always makes him shut up and leave."
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