👞👟 TREE 491: When language lands

More from Mister Rogers…

…on this day, when he receives a visit from Mrs. McFeely and a springer spaniel, she says that she has to bring the dog “back to his owner”, and Mister Rogers makes a face. The cameras stop, and he says, “I don't like the word owner there. It's not a good word. Let's change it to ‘bring the dog home’.” And so the change is made, and the taping resumes…

— “Can You Say… Hero” by Tom Junod

“There were no accidents on Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood.” He took great pains not to mislead or confuse children, and his team of writers joked that his on-air manner of speaking amounted to a distinct language they called “Freddish”.

Fundamentally, Freddish anticipated the ways its listeners might misinterpret what was being said. For instance, Greenwald mentioned a scene in a hospital in which a nurse inflating a blood-pressure cuff originally said, “I’m going to blow this up.” Greenwald recalls: “Fred made us redub the line, saying, ‘I’m going to puff this up with some air,’ because ‘blow it up’ might sound like there’s an explosion, and he didn’t want the kids to cover their ears and miss what would happen next.”

— “Mister Rogers Had a Simple Set of Rules for Talking to Children” by Maxwell King

Language is the ability to think. Language can be transformative. Language is power. I wouldn’t write to you four days a week if I didn’t think so. Language is also natural, common, easy. Too often we hurl it around without thinking about what it might do when it lands. Mister Rogers always thought about the landing.

Someone’s an angry little flower.

Let’s go back to 1983 for five minutes (Spotify).

An interesting effect of not being stuffed with social media and news is that I’ve spent two days properly reflecting on the things I’ve watched and read about Mister Rogers. A less-distracted brain is a delightful thing to have.

Grow slowly
Jeff