Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for September 16, 2022

Why isn’t Iowa IO?

Actually, the Great Wise One was so annoyed with Pig that he wanted to take him out with an Alaska-47.

To be fair, Hi does sound friendlier than Ha

The US Postal Service created the abbreviations to speed thing along when sorting mail. Until then, many states had 3-4 letter abbreviations.

A man arrives in Hawaii for the first time and asks one of the local people, “How do you pronounce the name of this place? Do you pronounce it Havahee or Hawahee?”

The local replies, “You pronounce it Havahee.”

The man says, “Thank you.”

The local says, “You’re Velcome.”

Hawaii would rather be Hi than Ha’

i LIKE a sTATE THAT WHEN YOU HOLD UP YOUR HAND YOU CAN POINT TO WHERE YOU live/ inthe UP you make A FINGERngerGun,THAT’S a MAHCHO PLACE.

I still like my MA.

Pennsylvania – PA

Of course, since the Hawaiians never had a say in becoming a US state, they probably didn’t get to choose their abbreviation either. They might have chosen “HA”, as the joke was on them.

Here in Switzerland we use two-letter abbreviations of the canton names (like US states but far more independent). It’s common to use the first and last letters of the canton. We use these a lot, notably as the first two letters of every car license plate. So, we have VD for canton Vaud, and VS for canton Valais for example, but it isn’t universal. To make it worse, we are also dealing with four different local official languages. Valais is French, but Wallis is the name of the same canton in German. So good luck guessing which is which if you don’t know all the abbreviations. A really good one is “AI” which stands for “Appenzell Innerrhoden”, but most Swiss recognise this as usually meaning “Rental Car”. Appenzell Innerrhoden is a very small half-canton (don’t ask) which adopted tax laws that are very favourable to rental car companies, so there are many thousands of cars registered from there which have nothing to do with actually living in the place.

So that’s why Alberta is AB and not AL.

The real joke is that the Hawaiian flag has a little Union Jack on it, the country we broke away from and fought 2 wars with.

It’s probably HI so that they weren’t laughed at. HA, HA , HA

and OH for ohio……

My confusion is Michigan, Mississippi and Minnesota.

I vote for HW.

I’ve read recently that Hawaiians are displeased with the effects tourism has on their state. While I understand the concerns, I wonder how displeased they are with the dollars tourists spend while visiting.

I also couldn’t imagine living there. There’s a high cost of living, and while it’s a beautiful place to visit, I don’t think I’d like being stuck on one island, with the nearest other islands a 40-minute plane ride away (give or take, depending on which island you’re on of course. I visited Oahu and Kuai a few years back).

Tx,NV,VT,GA,KY,TN,KS,AZ…

I think “HW” makes the most sense.

I miss the old ones, like “Calif.” Computers mess up everything.

They don’t even say “Hi”; they say “aloha”. That brings us back to “AL”…

Actually, most state abbreviations are the first and LAST letter of their name.

Hawai’i didn’t want people laughing at them.

How is Pig defying gravity?

Canada had 3 letter abbreviations which we somehow lost when they wanted to sync to the US. With 3 letters, the abbreviations make sense.

How I wish West Virginia would have been named Vandalia. The state abbreviation could have been VD.

i don’t know what to say

Can Hawaii qualify as a state, since it’s an island?

Who came up with these, oh wise az on the hi?

It’s been a while, but I think this long retired AT&T middle manager abbreviated their CLLI code (COMMON LANGUAGE Location Identifier Code) as HH for Hot as Hell.

OH, really?

I’m surprised that Pig did ask the same question regarding Missouri being abbreviated as MO.

The A’s always confuse me.

Three states start with MA. Three states start with MI. One state starts with MO but doesn’t get to use MO because an MI got it first.

My MA lives in Massachusetts and my PA lives in Pennsylvania

I’m impressed by Pig’s balance and I love his ability to defy gravity. :-D

PQ in Canada is province du Quebec, the rest are initials from the name

I thought it was because ALOHA is too long

Since Hawaii is the Aloha state, and “Aloha” and “Hi” are synonymous with “Hello,” HI is appropriate on that second level.

HA would suggest Hawaiians were sarcastic about welcoming visitors.

While Pig’s up there, ask him why so many states start with M.

Why isn’t Virginia VI? The Virgin Islands hadn’t even been discovered yet.

There are no other states beginning with “H”,but this is funnier

The clue here is that those abbreviations were dreamt up by a low-level employee of the US Post Office (now the USPS). Probably the night janitor.

How the heck can Pig stick to the side of the mountain like that?!? I’d like to be able to do that, just for kicks.

Gary Gulman has some thoughts on this.

Don’t mess with either Texas OR Hawaii.

Mahalo wise a** on the hill.

wise a$$ is still sitting on a big mound of crap, and pig is defying the laws of physics and gravity.

They might still be a little ticked over the Dole Fruit Company / US Government annexation. I mean, it’s not like “Aloha ’Oe” was written by an imprisoned Queen who was deposed at bayonet point….

In one of the few examples of American international graciousness ever recorded, the US Postal Service acknowledged that “NB” was really more appropriate for New Brunswick than Nebraska and changed the latter to “NE”.

If the state was labeled as HA, the capitol would be HO HA. That would be too silly.

To those that brought up the word ‘Aloha’, it doesn’t mean Hello or Goodbye. It’s more of a salutation.

Louisiana is the only state that begins with an L. It could have been LO, LU, LI, LS or LN. But they went with LA. I guess it is because it has two of the letter A in the spelling. It has two of the letter I in the spelling, but I guess LI just didn’t look right.

hawaii is messing with the USa

Pointless Trivia Department. These are also part of the USPS’s “state” abbreviation system:

 Armed Forces

AE • Armed Forces Africa

AA • Armed Forces Americas

AE • Armed Forces Canada

AE • Armed Forces Europe

AE • Armed Forces Middle East

AP • Armed Forces Pacific

 Federal District

DC • District of Columbia

 Territories

AS • American Samoa

FM • Federated States of Micronesia

GU • Guam

MH • Marshall Islands

MP • Northern Mariana Islands

PW • Palau

PR • Puerto Rico

VI • Virgin Islands (American)

…not kinder, more like stately.

Puerto Rico should be PR ( public relations ) someday, hopefully. Maybe when hell frezzes over…

Well, Pennsylvania is PA, not PE. Maybe “HA” is too funny and “PE” is too phys-eddy.

Postal abbreviations for the states are arbitrary. For Hawaii, it has been a great marketing tool I’m sure.

The highly overrated Wise A$$ really is just another wiseass….

Michigan is MI. MI is pronounced “My” and there seems to be no end of “MI” uses…“MI Bank” “MI Kids” “MI News.”

“You’re doin’ fine, Oklahoma! Oklahoma! OK!”