I'm occupied with work this afternoon, believe it or not, but I have no interest in the Super Bowl except that it means that pitchers and catchers report in the next week, so we can get down to business with an actual sport.

So I quote this statement to my classes: "Sometimes you make progress in the wrong direction." Huh? I point out that it is now possible to telephone people from airplanes. That's a technological advance, but is it really progress?

I also tell them the quote comes from a great philosopher named Robert McKimson, and they look even more puzzled. Then I explain that he was a legendary Warner Bros. animator who, as a director, created the Tasmanian Devil as well as the kangaroo, and a very loud chicken named Foghorn Leghorn. Interestingly, what he referred to when he made that statement was how he loved the kind of animation with big sweeping gestures and action at a time that his colleague Chuck Jones's approach became more dominant--Bugs getting a laugh by just raising an eyebrow.