Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for January 14, 2013

???

Newtown.

Very touching Stephan.

I hope this is readable in the morning paper. BTW, this is a Greek concept, for those not familiar with SP’s comments in the treasuries.

For all his dry humor, Pastis can hit you like a ton of bricks when he wants to. He did another one somewhat like this about a bus that was bombed in Jerusalem.

May God bless and comfort those kids’ families.

so touching

You’re a good man, Stephan Pastis, you’re a good man.

Very very nice Mr. Pastis. We have all been hurt by this incident. Thank you.

Glad Rats there! :D

All twenty names of the children are now stars in the firmament as Rat and Pig silently meditate….

I like this…

I don’t get tears very often, but I’m pulling out my hanky right now.

20 names, 20 children.

Well done and very profound.

A huge lump in my throat and tears welling in my eyes.

Thank you for this …

20 first graders died and Stephan has 20 names there. 6 adults also died.

@ hitmouse -I’m hoping that is not a complaint. Although several other people died as a result of that lunatic’s actions, it’s those innocent children being robbed of their futures that causes the most emotional impact for the general populace. It is not to diminish the names and lives of the adults; simply to provide a remembrance of the youth.

It took a moment to sink in, but I teared up some

Oh My. Very nicely done.

Good Man— May we never forget them

Nice statement!

That’s beautiful. I was waiting for a joke about baby names at the end, and then…oooooooooh.

Wonderful use of your alotted space Stephan. God bless.

There are 20 names in the strip, very touching.

I don’t get it.

Good job, Stephan. Glad you didn’t forget them.

Nice

took a few seconds, then I realized who and what. Thank you.

Rat and Pig are two entirely different characters, yet they can come together on this one. I think that is what Mr. Pastis is saying…-We all need to come together on ways to prevent these kinds of tragedies. Whatever it takes. Our children are too precious. If we don’t, we are all lost.

thanks, stephan,one of the most concise and touching comments i’ve seen anywhere!

Good tribute to the children! Perhaps tomorrow’s cartoon will show Zebra and Paris looking at the names of the adults?

20 names in the sky here, so likely that is all

!

“When he shall die,Take him and cut him out in little stars,And he will make the face of heaven so fineThat all the world will be in love with nightAnd pay no worship to the garish sun.” —Romeo and Juliet, Act III, Scene 2

So sad. Let us not forget.

That is all of the children’s names. And there are 20 of them.

May their memories be eternal. Αἰωνία ἡ μνήμη

So sad.

I didn’t register until I saw the comment. Very touching.

Beautiful Stephan. Just beautiful.

Bravo.

Ya done good, Steph…

We can never ever forget those beautiful children. Thank you Stephan.

Awe

At least now they’re all Immortalized in pearls. Say hi to pig

sometimes Jesus teaches a hard lesson. can it be that we dont deserve the care of His children? may the families and friends of these deceased be comforted in knowing that they are home from school.

Thank you, Stephan. And thank you, commenters, for explaining it. This is one of the most touching memorials I’ve seen.

Thank you Stephen!

Well done Stephan . . . ☺

Great strip, thank you. I emailed it to my congressmen

Simply beautiful. Good job!

Really touching!

Thank you Stephan

Wow, that his me out of nowhere. Beautifully done.

More children died that day than there are stars in the panel. But only twenty of them made the AP wire.

Those are the names of the 20 children. The remaining 6 were adults.

Lovely and well done.

To the parents (a month late)

This is such a beautiful tribute. My thoughts are with the families and close friends.

R.I.P to all of those children who’s lives were tragically taken away. They had so many years ahead of them.

xxx

Did anyone realize that the shootings were one month ago today?

to simpsonfan2: a GOOD punster (no such thing as a bad pun) and a good man

One month already…

I had to read the comments to figure out who the names belonged to. Now that I know, nice job Steph!

How sad. If only the teachers had been packing heat, the whole tragedy might have been avoided, but nooooo the anti-gun nuts said.(From a bleeding heart liberal who favours guns).

Well done, Mr. Patis.

No NRA there. GOOD

Hey, I can see you finally got your name up in lights.

HUUUUHH?!

I’ll bet this one gets a lot of requests for framed prints.

Well done Mr. Pastis. A nice memorial for the most innocent victims of Sandy Hook. Thank you.

Add my thanks to those above for such a touching remembrance.

Good show, Jolly good show.

Bravo!

Very touching

Too bad, this wasnt done not long after it happened…but very nice memorial….well done Stephen you earned yourself one “Wont get slapped for a bad pun” coupon

Oh, fine. Go ahead and make me cry (again.) Please don’t forget Dawn Hochsprung, the principal, who died trying to save her students. Oh darn it, I can’t see to type any more.

Fantastic job Stephen. It would be cool if other strips joined in.

Very touching and heart breaking. Thanks for this image, it erases the horrible ones from the news.

Thank you. Many people are saying this is late, but in many religions, and for many non-religious, the first month anniversary is the most important.

The missing dead: “Adam” is a black hole at the center of the sky…

You made me cry with Pig at the Vietnam Memorial – and you did it again today with this one. Bless you for something so stunningly elegant yet simple.

Well Done, Stephan. Totally fitting!

It took me a minute to understand what I was looking at. When I “got it” I almost burst into tears. Not work safe, though this sort of expression OUGHT to be work safe.

Stephan, I have only two things to say:

1. Wow.

2. Thank you.

Even Rat is not so callous that he could do that here.

Thank you for remembering these beautiful children.

Thank you for remembering the 20 children who lost their lives at Sandy Hook that terrible December 14th morning. I actually came online to find this comic so I could find a place to tell you thanks Mr. Pastis.May God bless all those impacted by this tragedy and help us all to heal.

Burst into shamless tears while eating my lunch and reading the comics today. Well done, Stephan, well done. .I looked at today’s date after regaining composure, to see if it might have significance. When I saw it was the 14th, lost my composure again.

Thank you, Stephan. The pain we all feel from this tragedy will not be easily forgotten…..

How sweet. Thanks!

Luckily, access to high-power infantry combat weapons had nothing to do with it…

Thank you, Stephen.

WOW! God Bless you Stephen.

ANd the NRA is still unmoved. How can any sane person think that the answer to gun violence is MORE guns. Embarrassing. Absolutely embarrassing.

Thank you, sir. Thank you. They are all our children now.

Very touching Stephan.

Very touching.

Please fellow commenters, let this be a memorial day/strip and not a format for guns pro or con. There are other places to go for those comments.

Beautiful.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Pastis has a heart.

It’s brownie points like this that’ll allow you to be really offensive tomorrow. Well played, Pastis.

For all of your FUNNY SHOCK VALUE!! your compassion is very touching!!p.s. any and all awards offered to cartoonists, should be mailed directly to your house…NOW!!!

This strip usually doesn’t make me cry…thank you, Stephan.

You’d be lucky if you found your name in the stars at night…

So sad. These are the 20 children (6-7 years of age) who died at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Conn. Six adults, female teachers, died trying to protect them. Now we should act to prevent this from ever happening again………..

Very b=nice. Now let’s see a memorial to the over 500 killed in Chicago alone last year due to gang violence, or the thousands killed every year due to drunk driving. The murder due to guns is less than 3 percent, 97% of gun deths are suicides. I am not saying what happened in Newtown isn;t a tragedy, but get it into perspective. The only way to stop a bad person with a gun, is a good person with a gun.

What a fitting tribute to those beautiful children. Perfect. Thank you!

Well done sir …

It only took a second to figure out. Now I’m crying.

Thanks Stephan. I’m a teacher in CT and I recognized the names right away. Reminds me of my favorite Pearls strip, about Pig’s Yia-Yia watching him from the sky. And this is why I love Pearls: one minute it’s hilarious and irreverent, the next minute it’s poignant and classy.

Beautiful gesture

Nicely done Mr. Pastis. Nicely done.

Thank you, Stephen, for honoring the victims of this terrible tragedy. I wish the shooting hadn’t happened, and these kids would have a happy life.

Possibly the most touching memorial I’ve yet seen, and coming from such an unlikely source

Brought tears to my eyes, simple and perfect!

Thank you. The memory still hurts.Adelaide, South Australia

Pastis continues to pay tribute to Breathed… I’ve seen this panel before

aww, that is sooo nice

Well done, Stephan.

Very nice. Stephan. I know you prepare your comics ~6 months in advance…very glad you were able to break with convention and get this one in. Very nice tribute!

Oh oh oh oh oh…

Pastis is one of the BEST!!! What a beautiful tribute, Stephan! Your heart is gracious.

I wish we wouldn’t speculate HERE about what might or might not have helped the situation. There are a million places this could have happened: nursing homes, hospitals, on a school bus, on a city bus, on the street, etc etc etc.

May we all deeply love the little ones in our lives. I appreciate the sentiment, Stephan. Well done!

I also wish people would leave the politics out of today’s comment. There are plenty of other forums on the net for that. Discuss it there. This is about today’s Pearls strip.

…and here I was…thinking now is a perfect time to talk about gun violence and not losing another first grader to it…isn’t that sort of the point? Why mourn our lost children and not talk about how they were lost and how we can prevent it? In that case, it is just silence. No one wants to talk about the 500 lb. gorilla in the room.

That was beautiful

Ignoring the few who come to “hear themselves talk”, it’s impressive to see the flood of good thoughts here. Add my appreciation too, Stephan. (your Delawarean geezer fan)

sometimes comics can be serious.

Excellent strip.

ThankYou!

Thanks to all who have avoided debating “that issue”. I do not mean to be rude but let’s just ignore those who would spoil this. Just don’t respond.

And if I have offended you, I’m really sorry.

A great strip.All i can say

Thank You Stephan…

I am not a religious person, but this strip touched me. May whatever higher power exists bless you.

Beautiful.

A wonderful tribute, Stephan. Thank you.

I make it a policy to not publicly comment on comics. I’ll make an exception this time. Elderjgs hit it right on the head. Tears in my eyes right now. So subtle, so poignant. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Pastis.

Another sad day in America’s history — thank you for bringing it to life. When will we have the gumption to make it end?

Very Touching………

Blessings, Stephan.

Impressive – awesome silence … and meditation

And the stars spelled out your name and the angels danced when you were born! Love to all who were loved into existence!

And May you all be so happy in heaven and know all of God’s secrets! sleep in His lap, play with your pets who ran across the rainbow bridge before you, and after!

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name.=Psalm 147

Now I get it.

Words are not enough for this. All I can manage is : very VERY well done Pastis.

Things obviously need to change.

Touching and quite beautiful, Stephan. Thank you.

Nicely done, Mr. Pastis.

Stephan, I am not a man who cries easily, but when I saw your little characters and those 20 names written in the stars, I was totally moved to tears. Thank you for the lovely tribute. We need to laugh and we need to cry as the time is appropriate. I shared this with my wife and we were both very touched by your sensitive portrayal … reminiscent of Magritte’s “Desir” in the stars, if you know that one. Bravo, my friend.

This is a poem that I wrote shortly after the tragedy that was published in The Faircloth Review (you can read it there, if you wish).

Santa’s Sleigh Pauses Over Newtown, Christmas 2012by Harry Calhoun

This night is different, when the beloved myth-man carries his toysover Connecticut. I have known for years that Santa is real. My mothertold me that he is love, the good, the soul of all of us. But tonight his reindeer

in their animal sense and he both feel it: something is wrong. Souls wrenched from tiny bodies. Presents that can’t be delivered. Anguish that brings tears to his loving old eyes.

Santa carries the sadness of all of them with him, circlesthe town and reaches deep in his Christmas sack for the rarest gifts of all: Love, forgiveness, understanding, to give to Sandy

Hook, to Newtown, to the world. Love and a little forgiveness, he has and gives it all. But when he reaches for understanding, he finds there is none left to give. Someone has fired rage-filled

rounds into all comprehension.We all have to be Santa tonight. Love each other, every day is our gift, pray tomorrow soothes the heartbreak of what happened that day

Close to tears, and this is my second time seeing the strip. Bravo.

Yours is always the first strip I look at to start my day with a chuckle. Today you made me cry.Thanks, Stephan, it was beautiful.

Wonderful. A day nobody will forget. Job well done!

I was in Newtown when it happened :(

Both my names were up there – Grace and Emilie. I didn’t know those were names of the victims of the Newton shooting.

Thank you Stephan.

I was very touched by not just the carton it self, but the comments brought a tear to my eye…

God bless America

Wow, a moment of silence, too.

Great job Sp but you needed to make that easier to relize

Strange. Six years later, I had no idea what these names were (I’m a New Zealander), but I found it deeply moving. Got it from replies to the other comment.

Explain

My two children’s names are there. Nearly eight years later, this still packs a punch. Sympathy, from over here in England..

I have no clue what this strip is about, but I like it.

shut up

I see my name (I apologize for not knowing what it’s about lol)