Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for June 14, 2023

Rat seems like the good guy today!

All good as long as the books aren’t written by idiots.

Some of the books being given away by Rat:

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn; The Call of the Wild; To Kill a Mockingbird; The Grapes of Wrath; Ulysses; A Farewell to Arms; Slaughterhouse-Five; The Catcher in the Rye; Harry Potter; Of Mice and Men; Catch-22; Brave New World; Animal Farm;The Sun Also Rises; For Whom the Bell Tolls

Rat must have had life easy. The worst problems in the world are caused by people who are smart — but greedy.

One of my pet peeves is that FAR too many people conflate ignorance with stupidity. Ignorance is curable… unless you’re too stupid to realize you’re ignorant.

Good deeds and rat go together like oil and water.

Anything Steinbeck…any time!

The art of the deal, by Cheetolini McBigmac should be avoided!

Evidently, Rat has not read the grammar book. The correct case is whoever as that is the subject of the clause. The clause is functioning as the object of the preposition.

Rat also enjoys the thunk of a book catching a potential reader’s skull.

I went to a Graham Kerr book signing in Mesa AZ once, I think I’m the only one that attempted to buy a book and have it signed but some dude wanted ro regale the past. I got tired of waiting, put the book down and walked out. I wonder if Graham was sober that day?

“Harrison Bergeron” by Kurt Vonnegut. Apropos re current society

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrison_Bergeron

How To Catch A Zebra …. By Larry Croc ;-)

Do they have pictures?

My father had a saying" you buy them books and buy them books and all they do is eat the covers."

Hopefully, he’s selling banned books. People will pay millions for those.

Throw the book at them.

Roger that, Rat.

We all need to read more.

“…WHOever wants one.”

I was the kid who was always being asked why I had my nose stuck in a book all of the time. It’s still there. I don’t know what I would do if my books/Kindle was taken away.

Been thinking of buying helpful books and leaving them in those “little libraries” you see here and there.

Already left a few of those little books that contain the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.

Used book stores have some choice ones, cheap. Some even under five bucks.

Book ‘em, Rat-o.

Just to get out of the 19th and 20th centuries and out of the English language, try this list: Tale of Genji, The Iliad, The Odyssey, Don Quixote, The Decameron, Canterbury Tales, Montaigne’s Fables, The Metamorphoses, The Romance of the Three Kingdoms, The Mahabharata, The Ramayana, The Peony Pavilion, The Divine Comedy.

Women write too: Charlotte Brontë, Lady Murasaki, Jane Austen, Fanny Burney, Marguerite de Navarre, Sei Shōnagon, Marie de France, Arundhati Roy, Virginia Woolf, Isabel Allende, Jean-Dominique Bauby, and many others.

Ulysses is good, just don’t expect a lot of excitement

Books do not cure idiocy, especially if those books were written by idiots.

I gotta agree with Rat

I hate to say this, but Rat has a point!

Should be “WHOever” in panel 1.

Stupid people rule the world. Just look at all the warning labels on tools. “Don’t put your fingers or hands under the lawnmower, you will loose you fingers or hands.” What stupid person does this? There are too many out there.

Depends on what you mean by ‘idiot’. We’ve all suffered a lot from people with very high IQs.

I’m sure that most people cannot even find their local library

All banned as pornographic.

Or worse, Woke.

I have to believe that the main reason some people want to ban books is because they want people to remain ignorant, so that they are easier to manipulate.

“I buy you books, send you to school, and all you want to do is eat your lunch!”

I love reading. I belong to two book clubs now. I have many great memories of getting lost in sci-fi novels as a kid on long wintry days in Wyoming.

Interesting list, Buttons, but I don’t see any bilingual dictionaries in it. :D

Funny thing is, I don’t think we’ve ever seen Rat reading. That’s more of a Goat activity.

Wait! All my comics, Playboys, and Penthouses too?

It’s Whoever wants one; not whomever. Argh!!!

What are these things Rat speaks of??

Anyone else notice that these PBS cartoons are getting edgier? I’m thinking specifically that Rat is an outlet for Mr. Pastis’s beliefs and feelings?

“The World According to Rat”.

Not one single mention of anything by Edward Abbey . The Brave Cowboy , Fire on The Mountain , The Monkeywrench Gang and Hayduke Lives . Read those in that order and follow the exploits of Jack Burns .

K8zhd not found on QRZ Database. ???

Ironically, in his quest to get people to read, Rat has spoken grammatically incorrectly. He should have said, “to whoever wants them” because this is an infinitive phrase. “(W)hoever wants them” is the object of the infinitive and, therefore, whoever is the subject of the infinitive and must be subjective, not objective. Hopefully, Rat also gave out “Catcher in the Rye” , “A Separate Peace” and “Peace Breaks Out”.

Sad how many people don’t want their children to think. Thinking leads to questioning. Questioning leads to learning. Sheltered children turn into sheltered adults. Easy to see who they are.

We have a governor, and a sizable portion of the citizenry, who believes books are a bigger threat to children than guns and therefore ought to be banned.

Sorta related note, I just finished reading ‘what if? 2’ by Randall Munroe (I have the first what if? on hold) and I highly recommend it. The author takes the most absurd questions people, including children, come up with, and answers them with real science. It’s pretty cool stuff, and he’s really funny.

Unfortunately, the morons among us never get it, even if they do read a book!

We’re all doomed!

i believe this should be “to whoever wants one?” you can tell by answering the question “who wants one?” with either “him” or “he.” in this case, it would be “he wants one” which indicates it should be “who.” if the answer was “him,” that would indicate the use of “whom.” you’re all welcome.

The works of Sir Francis Bacon. Selections from Galileo (you may be surprised it was not the Church that he regarded as his enemy, but “Peripatetics” — philosophers/academicians). Shakespeare. The Bible. Darwin’s Origin of the Species by the Selection of Favored Races (again, be prepared to be surprised). A whole pile of “Intelligent Design” and “Creation Science” books that you may never find on your library’s shelves. Flatland by Edwin Abbot (also the Planiverse by AK Dewdnew and Flatterland by Ian Stewart). Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid and Metamagical Themas by Douglas R. Hofstadter. Gulliver’s Travels. The Emperor’s New Clothes and other works by Hans Christian Anderson. Beowulf. The Epic of Gilgamesh. (sigh — I haven’t got all night)

I would say this matches well with his Sunday observation. At least he’s found a way for people NOT to keep being themselves.

Sadly,the morons don’t know HOW to read!!

As a teacher, I sometimes wish I could scream that at my students.

So TRUE rat! So TRUE!