'wherever people are obtuse and absurd ... and wherever they have , by even the most generous standards , the attention span of a small chicken in a hurricane and the investigative ability of a one-legged cockroach ... and wherever people are inanely credulous , pathetically attached to the certainties of the nursery and , in general , have as much grasp of the realities of the physical universe as an oyster has of mountaineering ... yes , twyla : there is a hogfather . '