Fun_People Archive
20 Oct
A Review of Algebra

Date: Thu, 20 Oct 94 14:47:25 PDT
To: Fun_People
Subject: A Review of Algebra

    This is from a POGO strip in "Impollutable Pogo" by Walt Kelly, Simon
and Schuster, (c) 1970, Chapter 6.  I was inspired to transcribe this bit
of banter after reading an amazingly close rendition apparently typed from
memory (forwarded by Henry Cate).  The three bats (Bewitched, Bothered, and
Bewildered) are having a meeting...

Second:	... Everybody present?  Let's see ... ONE, TWO ... mmm .. TWO?
First:	I get TWO.
Third:	One ... Two; ... TWO it is.

First:	Double checkin', I STILL get TWO.
Second:	I was always under the impression there was three of us.
Third:	Lessee, YOU get TWO an' HE gets TWO an' I get TWO.

First:	That's THREE TWO'S makin' ...
Second:	Un, ONE, TWO, THREE ... uh ... Lend me a few fingers.
Third:	I got MORE if ya need 'em.

Second:	FOUR, FIVE, SIX ... SIX?  There's SIX of us?
Third:	Impossible ... We only GOT THREE pairs of pants.

Third:	The way to settle how many of us are present is by ALGEBRA ...
First:	I got my first grade algebra book here ... It says
	Let X equal the UNKNOWN.

Third:	The UNKNOWN, huh?  That would be SNORBERT ZANGOX over in Waycross.
Second:	He's UNKNOWN?
First:  The BEST.  I never heard of him.

Third:	Me neither ... I'll put down a ONE for ME not knowin' him.
Second:	Mark ME down for another.
First:	An' ME!

Third:	I adds up the ONE'S and I get THREE!
Second:	Meaning there's three of us don't know him!
First:	So there's THREE of us!  Man, that ALGEBRA is a MIRACLE!

© 1994 Peter Langston