Attentive consideration of the phenomena of vision has led to the invention of artificial aids by which the sight may be wonderfully strengthened and preserved, and man endowed at once with the perspicacity of the eagle or the minute scrutiny of the insect.

[Deacon Mushrat to Pogo:] The Machiavellian barratry of a pettifogging public has maundered into do-nothingism.

And after summer evermore succeeds / Barren winter, with his wrathful nipping cold.

They were referring, of course, to that vast expanse of tract homes and backyard barbecues that is the San Fernando Valley. The valley, with its valley girls and mini-malls, never shared Los Angeles's cultural cachet.