Kilziggyroy

During the 2007 NSS Convention in Marengo, Indiana, I asked Jerry to do this classic pose so I could photograph him. I put the picture on myspace and identified him as "Ziggy". Jerry pointed out that he wasn't Ziggy but Kilroy. "Right", I thought, "but who is Ziggy and who is Kilroy"?

Well, Jerry pointed out that Kilroy was a cartoon drawn on a wall accompanied by the saying "Kilroy was here". I remembered that as being true but wondered why I had thought of it as Ziggy. Well, Ziggy looks just like Kilroy, it turns out. Ziggy is a small, bald, pantless, almost featureless character with a large nose.

Read and peruse for yourself and you will see how much they look alike.

My feeling about it? Ziggy and Kilroy are the same person. Have you actually ever seen them together? No, I think not. Maybe Ziggy posed as Kilroy. Or maybe Ziggy posed as Jerry pretending to be Kilroy. Or maybe Kilroy posed as Jerry disguised as Ziggy. Something to think about.......

KILROY

Kilroy was here is an American popular culture expression, often seen in graffiti. Its origins are open to speculation, but recognition of it and the distinctive doodle of "Kilroy" peeking over a wall is almost ubiquitous among U.S. residents who lived during World War II through the Korean War.
The same doodle also appears in other cultures, but the character peeping over the wall is not named Kilroy but Foo, i.e. Foo was here. In the United Kingdom, such graffiti are known as "chads". In Chile, the graphic is known as a "sapo" [toad]; this may refer to the character's peeping, an activity associated with frogs because of their protruding eyes.

The phrase appears to have originated through United States servicemen, who would draw the doodle and the text "Kilroy Was Here" on the walls or elsewhere they were stationed, encamped, or visited. Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable notes that it was particularly associated with the Air Transport Command, at least when observed in the United Kingdom. One theory identifies James J. Kilroy, an American shipyard inspector, as the man behind the signature. During World War II he worked at the Bethlehem Steel Shipyard in Quincy, Massachusetts, where he claimed to have used the phrase to mark rivets he had checked. The builders, whose rivets J. J. Kilroy was counting, were paid depending on the number of rivets they put in. A riveter would make a chalk mark at the end of his or her shift to show where they had left off and the next riveter had started. Unscrupulous riveters discovered that, if they started work before the inspector arrived, they could receive extra pay by erasing the previous worker's chalk mark and chalking a mark farther back on the same seam, giving themselves credit for some of the previous riveter's work. J.J. Kilroy stopped this practice by writing "Kilroy was here" at the site of each chalk mark. At the time, ships were being sent out before they had been painted, so when sealed areas were opened for maintenance, soldiers found an unexplained name scrawled. Thousands of servicemen may have potentially seen his slogan on the outgoing ships and Kilroy's omnipresence and inscrutability sparked the legend. Afterwards, servicemen could have begun placing the slogan on different places and especially in new captured areas or landings. At some later point, the graffiti (Chad) and slogan (Kilroy was here) must have merged. (Michael Quinion. 3 April 1999.

ZIGGY

Ziggy, on the other hand, is a daily single panel cartoon by Tom Wilson, an American Greetings executive. The character was originaly inspired by the comic "Zigfried Schlump" drawn by a college student with the pseudonym "clawmute" at the University of Akron, in Ohio. Craig Yoe (currently comic artist for Big Boy Restaurant), an employee of American Greetings at that time, collected some of these and showed them to Tom Wilson, who was inspired to recast the character as Ziggy.

Ziggy is a small, bald, pantless, almost featureless character (save for his large nose) who seems to have no job, hobbies, or romantic partner, just a menagerie of pets: Fuzz, a small white dog; Sid, a cat afraid of mice; Josh, a discouraging parrot; Goldie, a fish; and Wack, a duck. The appeal of the cast is juxtaposed with the endless stream of misfortunes which befall Ziggy.

Oh, the Places You'll Go!

Hurray!

Today was "Rotunday.

"We went to the museum!

We went high today!

We had helmets on head.

We had straps anchored to shoes.

And I can climb high or stay low as I choose.

Up high there, you're on your own.

But you know what you know.

And YOU are the gal who knows just how high to go.

From the rotunda you'll look up and down.

Look it over with care.

About the ceiling you may say,

"I don't choose to go there.

"With his chest roller on

and bungie tethered to feet,

"Now climbing six inches higher,

said President Pete.

Ah, the Rotunda

with its 90 foot gently curved ceiling.

And people cheering, jeering, clapping, and yapping.

It's opener therein the wide open air.

Up there people look tiny.

Little kids waive.Tammy climbs handless

Children say she's brave.

OH! THE PLACES YOU'LL GO!

In the Rotunda.

You'll be on your way up!

You'll be seeing great sights!

You'll join the high climbers

Who climb to high heights.

You won't lag behind,

because Jerry will get you up to speed.

You'll pass the whole gang

and you'll soon take the lead.

Whenever you come down,

Matt or Mikey D will belay you.

Bobbert will shoot you,

Chris and Tracy amaze you.

Except you they don' t

Because, sometimes, you won't.

I'm sorry to say so

But, sadly, it's true.

That Hang-ups during change over

Can happen to you.

You can get all confounded.

While exchanging your gear.

And the gang will look on.

Unaware of your fear.

But don't come down rappelling.

With an unpleasant bump.

The chances are, then,

That you'll have a sore rump.

And when you're rump is sore,

You're not in for much fun.

Going to the bathroom is not easily done.

Rumors that upon the ceiling

some members have marked.

Most areas are clean and yellow,

Perhaps spots are darked.

In this place who cares

if the yellow bares letters?

Do you dare to put yours?

Would it be such a sin?

Can they see so far up?

Far above the din?

But when YOU go up,

will you feel like a kite?

Like Werner and Neena?

Or, maybe, not quite?

Or go on up as if a spider has dined?

Maybe Ausdenmore, Rzesutock, Keller could find,

Feeling like an arachnid meal left behind.

But you could get so amorous.

That you'll take off your harness.

Something about this place makes you lawless.

You might drag poor Jerry.

To a tower now arcane

But end up listening ‘bout tracks and train.

"That's all fine and dandy"

we wanted to cry.

But we just wanted a place to embrace on the sly.

Ride the elevator down with your feller.

Down down down to the dark empty cellar.

To find damp passage like a lusty cave dweller.

Your feller the cave dweller and you then get frisky.

When you hear the guard's deep voice yell "this is risky".

"Oh yea, it is risky" you mind screams when you feel.

The guard trying to bust down a large door of steel.

But it's better than waiting.

Upstairs most other cavers are just waiting.

Waiting for their turn to go

Or Matt's family to come,

Or Tammy's kin to show

For Jerry and Lisa to stop messing around.

For Emmy and Michael to climb up and then down.

Or waiting for the clapping crowd

And little kids to shout out loud.

Everyone is just waiting.

(And this is where it gets a little crazy...)

Waiting for Jarrett to bite.

Or 6 Inch Pete to calm his fright.

Or waiting around for the bleach blond below.

You want to look suave should she take in the show

Or a biner to fall,

or rolling the dice

Or Bob Dobbs to say,

"I forgot my rappel device".

Or a personal pizza,

Or some fries and a coke.

Everyone is just waiting.

YES! That's for you!

Next year, you'll partake

All that waiting and staying.

You'll come to the museum rotunda.

Where GCG is playing.

With rope-walker in place,

Once more you'll climb high!

Ready for anything under the sky.

Ready because you're that kind of a guy!

Oh, the places you'll go!

There is fun to be done!

There are ropes to be conquered,
Even for Matt's son.

And the vertical things

You can do with that ascender

Will make you better than any gender bender.

Fame! You'll be famous as famous can be,

With the whole rotunda watching you feel free.

Except when they don't.Because, sometimes, they won't.

I'm afraid that some times.

You'll wake alone in a cave too.

It's too dark to find the door.

Your friends act like you're in the zoo.

(Yeah, I'm talking about you Mike Wuerth)

All Alone! Whether you like it or not,

When you are 80 or 90 feet high.

You'll feel like a peeping tom spy.

And when you're climbing.

There's a very good chance

You'll think of things that scare you

Right out of your pants.

Jerry, Werner or Matt may come to your rescue,

If you're upside down, pick you off or subdue you.

But try it anyway.

Come to rotunday though you've vertical fear

On you will climb and you'll hear your friends cheer.

Up you will go, up and up and up.

Do a change-over, mind your gear.

The rope may wiggle.

The rope may creak.

Your arms and legs may get sore.

And your ascenders may squeak.

The rotunda is beautiful.

An engineering marvel, a real jewel

From high up a bird's eye view.

Of amazing curves and mosaics too.

Marble, wood, metal and stone.

Corners to whisper, hear across dome.

But you'll get mixed up, of course,

If you finally actually go.

You'll get mixed up

with GCG vertical cavers you know.

Then with frog or ropewalker act.

Move with care and great tact.

And remember that Life's One Great Climbing Act.

Just never forget to be dexterous and deft.

And never mix up your right foot with your left.

And will you succeed?

Yes! You will, indeed! 98 and 3 / 4 percent guaranteed*.

(Caution: *Guarantee is not contractual herein as stated in the Bible, and various other religious documentation. While this treatise may or may not provide motivation, it is not a guarantee of your life circumstances, abilities, yin and yang, luck, intelligence or stupidity. The guarantee (98.75%) provided within is for poetic license only. It does not cover physical defects, bad genes, lack of sticktuitiveness, general failures, employment termination, car accidents, slips, trips and falls, sickness or death of friends, foes or family, personal illness and disease, acts of God, acts of others, wild animals, nature, meteors, dinosaurs, oil residue, wooly mammoths, asbestos, breast implants, natural mammary glands, any and all medications, drug usage, bad judgement, lack of style, lack of taste in the opposite sex, gender preferences, sleep deprivation, bad hygiene, hairstyle negligence, brawling, idiopathic falls, talent or lack thereof, failure to appreciate your own bad singing voice, spelling errors, elevator mishaps, plane crashes, ATV crashes, helmets or lack thereof, flash floods, mountain slides, avalanches, etc. This is not an explicit guarantee and constitutes only a vague suggestion of success. Poet offers no other guarantee and consequently excludes all other guarantees, explicit or implicit (be they de facto or de jure) concerning any life experience discussed herein. Author, GCG, Jerry Brandenburg, NSS, Cincinnati Natural History Museum by and through GCG liaison, and any and all other related entities expressly reject all guarantees in respect of titles, aptitude, usage or violation of the rights of participants. Author does not guarantee that the reader's life will function perfectly, free of errors and without interruption. Author hereby declines all responsibility for the aforementioned reasons. Void where prohibited.

KID, YOU'LL CLIMB MOUNTAINS! (please refer to the above cautionary clause)

So...be your name Brandenburg.

Weurth, Keller or Bray.

Or R. June, Otten, Ausdenmore, Jose.

You're off to Great Places!

Today is Rotunday!

The museum is waiting.

So plan next year's soiree!

---Dr. Lisa Pruitt-Thorner Seuss, B.A., J.D., ESP.