vidoc?

[Arnold Zwicky]

bethany dumas is puzzled:

 >On Sun, 16 Apr 2000, Tom Kysilko wrote:

  >>And how old were you when you first saw "The Coconuts" ?

 >I have no idea what you are talking about.

well, first of all, it's "The Cocoanuts".  the marx brothers'
first movie (1929), and quite funny.  it includes a "viaduct" -
"why a duck?" exchange...

from _Why a Duck?_, ed. by Richard Anobile (New York: Darien
House, 1971):

 Hammer [played by Groucho]: You're a peach, boy!  Now, here is a
  little peninsula, and here is a viaduct leading over to the
  mainland.

 Chico:  Why a duck?

 Hammer:  I'm all right.  How are you?  I say here is a little
  peninsula, and here's a viaduct leading over to the mainland.

 Chico:  All right.  Why a duck?

 Hammer: I'm not playing Ask-Me-Another.  I say, that's a viaduct.

 Chico:  All right.  Why a duck?  Why a-- why a duck?
  Why-a-no-chicken?

 Hammer:  I don't know why-a-no-chicken.  I'm a stranger here
  myself.  All I know is that there's a viaduct.  You try to
  cross over there a chicken, and you'll find out why a duck.
  It's deep water, that's viaduct.

 Chico:  That's why-a-duck?

 Hammer:  Look ... suppose you were out horseback riding and
  you came to that stream and wanted to ford over there, you
  couldn't make it.  Too deep.

 Chico:  But what do you want with a Ford when you gotta horse?

 Hammer:  Well, I'm sorry the matter ever came up.  All I know
  is that it's a viaduct.

 Chico:  Now look ... all righta ... I catcha on to why-a-horse,
  why-a-chicken, why-a-this, why-a-that.  I no catch on to
  why-a-duck.

 Hammer:  I was only fooling.  I wsas only fooling.  They're
  going to build a tunnel in the morning.  Now, is that clear
  to you?

 Chico:  Yes.  Everything--excepta why-a-duck.

arnold (zwicky at csli.stanford.edu)