Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for May 13, 2015

In panel 5, Rat goes on Shark Tank and tries to get Kevin O’Leary to invest in his plan.

There was an article back in the ‘90s that New Hampshire had the highest percentage of “handicapped” drivers of any state in the US. According to the article, most such drivers didn’t have any actual disability that would qualify them as actually being handicap, but they went to their doctor and convinced them they had a reason to need a handicapped plate or placard.

The patrons may not be disabled when they go to the bar, but they will be cognitively by the time they leave.

one of the funniest ever, on so many levels-my cheeks are hurting,wow how brazenly daringi’m liking Pastis more and more each day

Actually, that is no worse the non-disabled people who borrow their neighbor’s permit and use the spots.

Oh, sure, Cartoon-Boy; blame it on the Rat! We all know it was really your idea, though.

Keep those cards and letters coming, folks!

What is everybody so upset about? He didn’t say “Handicap parking spaces”. He was talking about spaces that had been disabled for parking cars.

Rat is a “job creator.”

And that’s just the letters. No telling what his email inbox looks like.

People still send mail? Why not just e-mail him?

If it were truly tactless, Pig would comment on how that wouldn’t be right because the disabled have more of a reason to drink than everyone else. Maybe that’s tomorrow’s strip….

I’ve got a disabled parking permit that I use only when I need it because one of my ailments prevents me from walking. I agree that much of the time they’re abused by people perfectly capable of walking. Maybe those folks got the placebo version? I find that those spots fill up first and it particularly irks me when a seemingly perfectly healthy person uses them when I do need one and there’s no parking available anywhere close to where I need to go, like to pick up meds.Then there are places like Home Depot and Target that have 25 spaces and EV spaces, all unused. At least 1/3 of people are disabled at some point in their life, even if temporarily and access is vital AT THAT TIME. Hear me you space-abusers? I’d love to have the ability to ticket those folks.

Overheard by me at our local DMV center from one of the clerks on the phone. ’Do we issue disabled plates for motorcycles?. The answer was yes, go figure.

There’s a medium sized store near me that has 17 “disabled” parking spaces. I’ve never seen more than 2 used at any one time. If 17 disabled individuals ever visited that store at the same time, they would have arrived on a bus.

Seen that yesterday. The guy has the I.Q. of a pearl.

Love the humour of Pastis

I wish you could tell me where these places are with loads on unused empty parking spaces. The places I take my parents to most often, the supermarket, the Pharmacy, The fracking doctor’s office, WallMart and Target and all Restaurants during breakfast lunch or dinner the handicapped spaces are always taken. I have to drop my parents off in front of the place, and get out ofd the car to help my father out and get his walker then play hide-and-go-seek for parking spaces, and a find a place where some idiot isn’t parking right on the line because I too need use of the handicapped spaces. Those idiots right on the line. AGH! Sometimes I want to park there and open my car door as much as I need to to get out and show them that the door to my refurbished 1984 Pontiac can do a hell of a lot of damage to their 2013 POS Toyota.

And to the one who said that if all the other spaces are full the handicapped spaces should be open to anyone, I really hope you are joking. You are basically saying that once all the handicapped spaces are used by able bodied people, the handicapped must circle around the lot and park far from the store entrance because you can’t be bothered to keep looking out for a place; o r is it look for a nearby place to park and Heaven forbid walk a few more yards (It’s not like you’re having to go from the 1 yard line to score a touchdown on the other end of a football field.). I’ve had to walk the full parking lot many times in humid South Texas 100+ degree weather. If I can do it, surely you can do it in at least half the time than I can.

All of you gripping and complaining, remember, one day you too will be old and your legs won’t carry you like they used to and you will know the sheer anger at seeing perfectly healthy children and adults or healthy women with young children who say “Well I have kids they shouldn’t walk so far and I need the room to get out the stroller.” I was angry and told a woman that her kids should be walking. It’s good for them. She saw how tightly I was holding my cane and how angry I was that she put her stroller back in the trunk put her kids in the car and left the space. I don’t remember seeing her in the store. A few people gave me their cell numbers or business card and said to call them as witnesses that I never threatened or moved towards her in any way should she try to have me arrested.

The Entrepreneur is always to blame.

But only the ones who are called “Rat”xxx

Some people may not look disabled, but certainly would by the time they walked from the far end of the lot.

MANY people are disabled in ways that are not visibly obvious, such as back, hip and heart problems that make walking any distance almost impossible. (I am one of these, having had my first heart attack at age 32, and back injuries from moving hardwood plywood that was heavier than I thought) It is not for YOU to judge who is, or is not handicapped.

Someone will complain about this; I am sure of it.

I entered the bar optimistically and left it misty optically

The “funny”(?) thing about this is that libertarians don’t see anything wrong with Rat’s business plan. Of course, they’re still peeved at the government’s shutting down the sales of thalidomide…

Ah, but there’s a difference between saying a minute/my relatives car, and having a reason to have the plate/placard. And the thing with NH doctors was that you could go in and claim your near-sightedness was a reason for getting it, and the doctor would agree. That’s something that could be fixed with the proper prescription glasses/contacts and no need for a plate/placard, but folks could get them for it. And just because a person looks perfectly health doesn’t mean they are.

Not true, Pig usually gets those lines is true. Most of the time Pig delivers the puns, but sometimes the other’s do so. My favorite pun involved Pig getting Rat and Goat to help him make the pun in the 11/07/2010 strip. Best part was Rat realizes he was used o make a pun and has to paraphrase Shakespeare.

Please put them in hospital waiting rooms, for pity’s sake. It’s insane otherwise.

Can someone please explain the joke?