Today’s Zippy, with remarkable names:
Bill Griffith loves to play with names.
My guess is that the ventriloquists’ surnames — Kleeb, Norton, Parrot, Frick — were chosen just because Griffith finds them risible. There’s a common thead in the ventriloquists’ personal names, however: city names (Pierre SD; Attleboro MA and Attleborough in England; Warwick RI and in England; Melton in England and Australia).the geographical theme extends to the dummy’s name “Dolly Woonsocket” (Woonsocket RI, a name that Griffith probably finds entertaining).
Bistango is something of a puzzle: Latin bis ‘twice’ or French or Spanish bis! ‘encore!’ + tango, or an echo of bistro, or what? Certainly Bistango is the name of restaurants, bistros, and cocktail lounges in various places (NYC, Irvine CA, Quebec City, Spokane WA, Pretoria in South Africa, at least).
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