Why "Pretty Good" Isn't Good Enough

Here is one of my favorite pieces from the man
who every week says, "See you on the radio".

WHY "PRETTY GOOD" ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH

There once was a pretty good student,
Who sat in a pretty good class,
And was taught by a pretty good teacher,
Who always let pretty good pass.

He wasn't terrific at reading,
He wasn't a whiz-bang at math,
But for him education was leading,
Straight down a pretty good path.

He didn't find school too exciting,

But he wanted to do pretty well,
And he did have some trouble with writing,
And nobody had taught him to spell.

When doing arithmetic problems,
Pretty good was regarded as fine,
Five plus five needn't always add up to be 10,
A pretty good answer was nine.

The pretty good class that he sat in,
Was part of a pretty good school,
And the student was not an exception,
On the contrary, he was the rule.

The pretty good school that he went to,
Was there in a pretty good town,
And nobody there seemed to notice,
He could not tell a verb from a noun.

The pretty good student in fact was,
Part of a pretty good mob,

And the first time he knew what he lacked was,
Whe he looked for a pretty good job.

It was then, when he sought a position,
He discovered that life could be tough,
And he soon had a sneaky suspicion,
Pretty good might not be good enough.

The pretty good town in our story,
Was part of a pretty good state,
Which had pretty good aspirations,
And prayed for a pretty good fate.

There once was a pretty good nation,
Pretty proud of the greatness it had,
Which learned much too late,
If you wanto be great,
Pretty good is, in fact, pretty bad.

"Osgood File"