Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for March 21, 2020

The government does what Pig is doing all the time.

Pig is generous to a fault.

I wonder what cute picture Pig has on his cheques.

It’s okay. The money is drawn from Rat’s secret Cayman Islands account.

Pig must’ve heard that old line, I can’t be out of money. I still have more checks.

Do stores still take checks? With the Corona Virus, my landlord doesn’t want checks anymore; they want me to pay online.

That’s pig. Never wears clothes yet buys clothes.

Eating establishments still take check?

Unfortunately, Pig didn’t get the kind that came with money.

Check yourself before you wreck yourself, eh, Pig?

At least jail has no living expenses.

What is the “writing checks” concept???

A pig in the pokey.

For the record, you should only write checks for up to the amount you have in your account. You’re allowed to go under.

credit card companies also apparently get a bit peeved when you live beyond your line of credit – just something i heard, not something that i would ever have experienced directly. not often, at least…

My cheque book was issued to me in 2011 and I still have twelve unused cheques in it…

Well it is March. The perfect time for kiting.

Pig will need to check out of town soon!

Pig was your brain with your body when you got the check book ? … Croc Power !

You can always get a bargain on slightly used checks at an estate sale.

Shelter in place jail.

When your in jail watch your backside when you bend over to pick up the soap!

The good old days — debtor’s prison.

Now they all have to pay for their own…besides, what restaurant takes checks???

Why did he buy clothes?

No joke. I have known not one but two real live people that did just as pig did. They did not understated how checks worked. Both got into a lot of trouble.

That was the same mentality my ex had with checks. sad but absolutely true

Pig should get a credit card, they don’t care if you have money in the bank.

I’m constantly amazed at young people that look at me funny when I write down my debit card transactions in a check register. Does anyone actually balance/reconcile their account anymore? We switched banks but kept one open at the other bank specifically for all those fast food and quick shop purchases so I don’t have to contend with those anymore. We farm & all other transactions go into Quickbooks. That makes tax time so much easier in the long run. But then I’m over 60. Just call me old fashioned.

You may laugh, but this actually happened. I had to counsel a couple while in the military that just because they had a check book did not mean they could just write checks for everything. After 7 bad checks they got the message.

Pig is so going to jail.

How many people under 30 know how to balance a check book? How many people use a debit card as if it was a credit card? I learned how to balance a checkbook way back in the dark ages, in a math class in the 7th grade-way way back in the 1960s. And before I graduated HS, my mother went thru everything again

Oof Pig.

There’s a John Collier story about that except it’s a bit darker. My sister was a bank teller a long time ago. One of their customers was an elderly woman who believed that as long as there were checks…

When I was in grade three, I got hold of an old book of cheques and started writing them to my friends in amounts like $1000000000000000. My father was horrified — he was afraid he might be responsible for paying them. My mother just laughed. Even I knew they were worthless.

I guess Pig doesn’t qualify for a credit card

The sad part is that I’ve known several people who thought like pig that as long as you still have checks in the book you can write them out all you want.

I thought checks went out with dvds

“I can’t be out of money. I still have checks.”

Three square meals and a cot. Nice.

Six days ago Pig was left handed… Today he is right handed. He is talented!!

I think it must be more than a decade since I last saw a check. It started by personal checks going away, then company and bank ones. Next we will see cash being gone as well – it is like a year since I last used cash and that was then only for flowers at a flower stand. Some people still insist on cash, but fewer and fewer does and shops can now be allowed not to accept cash.

I think there was a cartoon in the New Yorker in the 30’s showing a young woman (naturally) on the phone and saying, “Overdrawn?? But how can that be—I have plenty of checks left?”

The writing on this strip just seems off to me.. idk why

Then there was the lady who got a new check book, and to keep them from being stolen, signed every one…

Practical things that Pig doesn’t know about would fill a fat book, not to mention numerous humorous comic strips. Good show, Cartoon-Boy!

I haven’t read all 135 comments, so I don’t know if this is original:

Bank to Dumb Guy: “Your checking account is overdrawn.”

DG: “It can’t be, I still have checks in the book.”

Does America really still use checks? I’ve not seen one in Europe in a decade or so. When I first arrived in Switzerland in 2003 I tried to pay a (UK) check into my new bank account to get it started. The cashier (at UBS, a major bank) had literally never seen one before, and had to ask her manager for help. I don’t think the UK really has them anymore now. We use contactless or PIN cards, or electronic transfers.

how old is this strip?

There’s always a catch XD