I was intrigued by the revelation in Shelley Fisher Fishkin's _Lighting Out
For
the Territory_ that Mark Twain inspired the creation of Wile E. Coyote in
the
Warner Brothers cartoons.  Apparently, Chuck Jones drew on the description
of
the coyote and the town dog in _Roughing It_ in making his cartoon coyote.
In
all my many years of watching those cartoons and in reading _Roughing It_, I
had
never made the connection.  Seems Jones reversed the pattern and had the
coyote
apparently superior but always being defeated by the seemingly inferior
Roadrunner.  Maybe that's why I didn't notice.  But anyway, just goes to
show
how far the influence goes!

John Bird