Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for December 26, 2021

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    BE THIS GUY  over 2 years ago

    Ambition is what makes somebody be the first person in their to attend college.

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    B UTTONS  over 2 years ago

    Sounds like Andy Achiever achieved becoming roadkill in under 1 hour.

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    Renatus Profuturus Frigeridus Premium Member over 2 years ago

    Andy achieved a bed in Hospital.

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    BasilBruce  over 2 years ago

    The iron man has just been totaled.

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    sirbadger  over 2 years ago

    Is the moral of the story that drawing a successful comic strip is safer?

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    Templo S.U.D.  over 2 years ago

    Andy overachieved by missing the simple things in life like, oh, his life.

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    Concretionist  over 2 years ago

    Setting goals is a good idea. Moving toward those goals is also good. Being monomaniacal about them: Not so good. That Smack is Gaia’s way of telling Andy to slow down and smell the hospital odors…

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    Bilan  over 2 years ago

    Hate to be the stickler for details, but why was that car on the walking path?

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    Alexander the Good Enough  over 2 years ago

    It’s clear that Andy is in a rush and in training to get to his funeral, as is Jeff the Cyclist…

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    ChristineFoxdale  over 2 years ago

    Now he’s training for an iron lung…

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    ronaldspence  over 2 years ago

    Andy Achiever needed to meet Mandy Moderations! Now he gets to meet Mary the Mortician!

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    Cornelius Noodleman  over 2 years ago

    I’m in no hurry to get back to school.

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    zekepotato  over 2 years ago

    He should look up Caitlin Doherty’s “Ask a Mortician” on youtube

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    franki_g  over 2 years ago

    Looks like it was Andy vs Geese in frame 5.

    So sad. If it had merely been a truck, he might have stood a chance.

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    hariseldon59  over 2 years ago

    Nothing wrong with a little “overachieving”. I earned a PhD and ran two marathons and I always had time to spend with friends or watch a sunset.

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    blunebottle  over 2 years ago

    An IRONMAN in 11 hours is nothing to sneeze at, but I expect his ultimate goal would be 8 hours. I think that’s about the fastest time I recall seeing.

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    iggyman  over 2 years ago

    “Enjoy yourself, it’s later than you think” applies here!

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    juicebruce  over 2 years ago

    Pig you could of joined Andy and did some running . Running would be good for your lazy butt ;-)

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    Caldonia  over 2 years ago

    ….Frazz?

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    Bullet Bronson Premium Member over 2 years ago

    To lazy to be ambitious I let the world take care of itself.

    Ryōkan, Japanese Zen poet

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    Count Olaf Premium Member over 2 years ago

    RIP Andy Achiever. Another statistical Covid fatality.

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    cdward  over 2 years ago

    I’m not sure those Ironman folks are really a good example of ambition or achievers. They are more like addicts. They’re so hooked into it that that becomes their life, and they have difficulty thinking about anything else. Or so I’m told. Not anything I would touch with a 39-and-a-half-foot pole.

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    Viktor Sirin  over 2 years ago

    Thinking Andy Achiever’s death would be categorized as a Covid fatality seems to imply (or perhaps indicate) the opposite.

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    l.vaillancourt  over 2 years ago

    Just as well, Pig. From my experience, even if you managed to convince him to stop for a chat, the only conversation people like Andy have is all about “iron man marathons”.

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    Old Mack  over 2 years ago

    Actually what is being shown is obsession, not ambition.

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    Gent  over 2 years ago

    Too much physical activity is going to cause a heart attack. One of these days Andy Achiever is going to achieve that; if he’s able to run after that accident, that is.

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    Ignatz Premium Member over 2 years ago

    Is this Jef’s cousin?

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    Ellis97  over 2 years ago

    Ambition shouldn’t get in the way of leisure time. You need to balance your life out.

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    backyardcowboy  over 2 years ago

    Looks like he achieved orbit… but he had to return as he had not gone through a TSA check before his flight.

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    diskus Premium Member over 2 years ago

    Training makes those other things even more enjoyable when you rest.

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    Andrew Wheeler  over 2 years ago

    Oh, yes – “I write and draw a cartoon daily that appears in hundreds of papers around the world, but I am completely untroubled by ambition.”

    Someone protests too much.

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    figuratively speaking  over 2 years ago

    Can’t think of a better way to pass the time than watching a sunset with Pig.

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    Stocky One  over 2 years ago

    Ambition is better than “am bitchin’”

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    Otis Rufus Driftwood  over 2 years ago

    Ambition is fine, but not at the expense of the little things. I suspect there is a fine line between ambition and obsession.

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    Zebrastripes  over 2 years ago

    Well, there goes that theory….

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    NeedaChuckle Premium Member over 2 years ago

    My ambition was to get by and then retire. I achieved both.

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    johndifool  over 2 years ago

    Pointless: Robert Downey Jr. Iron Man’s records are all unbreakable.

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    SusieB  over 2 years ago

    You have to have some level of ambition to survive and maintain your life. Being overly ambitious can lead to not truly enjoying that life.

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    Goat from PBS  over 2 years ago

    Maybe before training for the ironman, train to look both ways.

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    raybarb44  over 2 years ago

    Equatable to stupidity on many ocassions…..

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    AndreasMartin  over 2 years ago

    He managed a mush-man in under half a minute.

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    brianbattuello Premium Member over 2 years ago

    I know this guy, and am not going to show it to him. Steph nailed the landing, as always. However, this probably would have been better as a daily strip, you only really need three panels.

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    unfair.de  over 2 years ago

    Stephan could have used the Jeff the Cyclist character, but that wouldn’t have fit in the Christmas mood. Still, I’m surprised he didn’t took that jab at him.

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    Bruce1253  over 2 years ago

    Ambition is what will get a bunch of people to take the day after Christmas to make sandwiches, gather water, fruit, goodies, and warm clothing to feed and help the homeless. Ambition is a tool just like a hammer. You can use it to build a shelter for those who need one. . . or hit your thumb.

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    txmystic  over 2 years ago

    I’ll take Andy over Jef any day…

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    bigplayray  over 2 years ago

    “Cat’s in the Cradle”

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    El-Kabong  over 2 years ago

    Food.

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    Eric S   over 2 years ago

    would have been funnier if the shoe had remained in the final panel, laying in front of pig or rat… or across Rat’s nose

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    Carl Rennhack Premium Member over 2 years ago

    Sometimes relaxing & enjoying a sunset can be an achievement in itself!

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    zeexenon  over 2 years ago

    Probably a good idea to remove sun glasses after dark and wear reflective clothing and carry Next of Kin ID and having all your affairs in order (I bet Stephen King does). I quit running 5-miles every day in the 1980s when my lumbars gave up the ghost but not the pain.

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    WCraft Premium Member over 2 years ago

    And the cats in the cradle and the silver spoon, Little boy blue and the man in the moon, When you comin home, Andy, I don’t know when, But we’ll get together then, You know we’ll have a good time then.

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    Quantumtorpedo1  over 2 years ago

    “When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept;

    Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.

    Yet Brutus says he was ambitious,

    And Brutus is an honorable man.”

    Antony

    William Shakespere

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    BE THIS GUY  over 2 years ago

    There’s a philosophy associated with Scandinavian society called Janteloven — Norwegian for Law of Jante. It’s named after a fictional town of Jante in the book A Fugitive Crosses His Tracks by Danish-Norwegian writer Aksel Sandemose. It refers to the Scandinavian trait of discouraging personal ambition or goals that might make an individual standout in his/her community.

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    DaBump Premium Member over 2 years ago

    Ambition is great! But there IS such a thing as being OVER ambitious. Or just plain obsessive. Or a fruitcake.

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    Sisyphos  over 2 years ago

    Philosopher Rat speaks a profundity today, for those at least who consciously are not ambitious….

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