Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for July 29, 2022

People also find you more tolerable when they drink, Rat.

And if they don’t become tolerable quickly enough, Rat gets out his “miracle whip.”

A dangerous thing to be around folks you not likes after getting drunk.

All real, true, honest, Bible-believing Christians should certainly take up serpent-handling and poison-drinking. Really. You should. It says so in the Bible. You believe the Bible, don’t you? Go ahead, what are you waiting for? Isn’t your faith strong enuf? We’re all watching to see how devout you are, you know. Go on. Don’t wait any longer. You know it’ll work. God said so in his very own words. Grab that rattler. Chug that strychnine. God wants you to do it! Please, please, please, oh please!

I always wondered how a Whip could be a Miracle. Does it make miracles when you whip it?

He needs a better group of people to hang around with.

Except for the words all three panels are the same.

Could be you rub them the wrong way Rat!

Wonder what “the people” think – they must be extremely tolerant to put up with Rat, sober or otherwise!

The miracle is Rat seeing people as tolerable.

I drink alone. And when I drink alone, I prefer to be by myself.

Rat is my kind of people!

I refuse to believe that Rat is a friendly drunk.

Certainly they do – magnets, how do they work?

Oh…my in-laws?

A miracle would be for Rat to suddenly become a gentleman.

rat is always on point.

i drink therefore you go

If I tried to answer that question seriously, 100% of the people on the internet would roast me.

People are the worst folk I know! Present company excluded, of course.

Pig is one of the people around you Rat.

If I think I need a drink or two to be around someone; or worse, should someone think they need a drink or two to be around me, I am forced to conclude we’re both in pretty sad shape.

Rat thinks only of what matters to him….ME ME ME

The drunk from The Little Prince.

When asked why he drinks, he replies that he drinks to forget.

Forget, what asks the Prince

Forget that I drink replies the drunk.

Doesn’t Rat just hang around Pig and Goat?

Not the best example of the Supreme Being helping out in Human affairs…..

Miracle or not, I bet that some restaurant customers experienced their water tasting differently as soon as certain others appeared.

I have an opposite experience; when I drink my tolerance for other peoples’ B.S., and therefore other people, goes down.

“I drink to make other people more interesting.”

― Hemingway, Ernest

People tolerate me. I think that’s a miracle in of itself.

Given Rat’s low opinion of others, you have to wonder how Rat thinks he’s viewed by others. Of course how others view him would be of no interest to him, but you have to wonder.

That’s a mirage, not a miracle

Given whose saying that, thy probably were already tolerable.

When I drink enough I become very happy.

Know thyself,Rat…

Irascible Rat knows his own little world all too well.

Does he refer to Goat? Or some other character we know and see him with from time to time?