Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for February 10, 2023

I literally want to punch Rat in the head.

I’m with Rat; I literally hate when people misuse the word “literally,” and I want to beat up every single one of them, figuratively speaking.

Check Merriam-Webster. One definition of literally is virtually. Times change. And disinterested now can mean uninterested. In fact, that’s what it almost always means these days.

Pig needs a new friend!

Like Rat, I admit to being a grammar nazi.

Go figure.

Piggy fall down.

I hate to literally change my cats litter box!

I wonder if Pastis has ever done some jokes about automation and AI? I’ve been following Pearls for some years, but I can’t recall seeing many on such themes here… Anyone read the entire series?

Just in case he reads these comments for ideas, there’s a deep theme… The underlying reality is that technology has crossed a new milestone. Now the corporate cancers can automate any worker. Any skill that can be clearly defined can be done better, more reliably, and cheaper with a suitably programmed computer. For example chess or rewriting. The only hitch is that it has to be profitable, so that means they will start with the most expensive workers, replacing them with cheaper AI workers. And it doesn’t matter how good you are at learning new skills. Any better paid skill will only be a bigger target for replacement. Your next job will always pay less.

Since Pastis likes recursive humor, it should consider the AI replacement of cartoonists?

Can you believe there’s a solution approach? Just joking. I’m fully convinced “There’s no way to get there from here.” Or should I leave it as a simple “Me neither”?

Rat is a figure of speech. Loud speech.

Three cheers for Rat! Now, let’s see if we can get people to understand the difference between renumeration and remuneration. And affect and effect.

Not to open another can of worms, but I’ve never liked the expression “I could care less”, when what most people mean is “I couldn’t care less”.

Good job Rat

One of the rare few times I gotta agree with Rat.

And I thought that you’d gotten it through your skull

What’s figurative and what’s literal

Oh but, just now, you said

You literally couldn’t get out of bed

That really makes me want to literally

Smack a crowbar upside your stupid head

Rat is correct!

Pig was watching “Cackles Harris’s Word Salad Theater”

Just saw the first trailer for the next Indiana Jones movie, Harrison Ford’s last so he says.

So, is Ford literally or figuratively too old to have Indy running around on his adventures? Many thought he was too old in the awful Crystal Skulls movie, which was 15 years ago. But maybe this new movie is a chance to redeem the franchise.

To everyone who is like Rat, shut up. I don’t tell you how to use the English language, so don’t tell me how to use it.

There are a lot of people in the same boat with Pig.

Leave that to the Grammar Nazis, Rat.

If it wasn’t for the Grammar Nazi’s, how would you know that you didn’t pay enough attention in English class?

I have a BUNCG of folks in my Static Raid Group that ALL butcher that word… I drink copious amounts of scotch to deal with it….

I no longer know what people mean when they say “literally” (so I love this one!)

My pet peeve has only been around since the 1990’s, “on accident” instead of “by accident”. “By accident” has been documented as the preferred usage dating back to the 4th century in Latin based languages.

Actually, Rat has a point this time.

Best to keep your thesaurus (or maybe dictionary) by the TV, Pig. Or whatever.

I’m literally fed up with people saying "literally” improperly.

The misuse of “literally” drives me figuratively insane.

I’m kind of on Rat’s side with this one.

I’ve never been more on Rat’s side.

Pig could argue that one can “almost die” without having to call the paramedics or requiring CPR.

Wish Rat would address ‘then’ and ‘than’ with the same…vigor.

When someone uses “literally” in a figurative way (or to exaggerate or to use as hyperbole), I feel that it is my duty to take their “literally” literally and to possibly make what they said seem ridiculous.

Figuratively died laughing just doesn’t have the same impact

It’s about time that someone tried to teach Pig the difference between literalism and figurativeness.

My only big pet peeve concerning the misuse of grammar: when people use the past participle to express simple past tense for the verb “to see”. For example— I seen Pastis in the grocery store yesterday. No! You ‘saw’ him. It seems I hear this more and more lately and I can’t understand why because it doesn’t seem to happen with any other verbs.

This strip makes me feel badly.

I often wonder… Is Stephan in real life like Goat or like Rat?

Here is where we really need the fist of death.

RAT is SO annoying…..

Years ago (back when literally sometimes meant literally) a local news anchor said, “I was literally scared to death!” I guess the paramedics were able to resuscitate her.

One of my grandsons is really fond of the word ‘literally’. Drives me crazy, but it’s a short trip for me.

And here I thought I was literally the only person in the world that actually knows what the word ‘literally’ means.

On a side note, when I trained as an EMT, we were told to visualize the patient’s back. The first thing I thought of was to make a mental image of the patient’s back. It would have been more clear if the instructor had said: “gently roll the patient on his side and visually inspect him for injuries.”

Rat is right, literally speaking…

Be sure to watch Weird Al’s “Word Crimes”.

Yes, Rat! I’m with you all the way.

next up… assaulting someone for using “really unique”

My favorite is when someone says they’re nauseous, when they mean nauseated.

WORD CRIMES by Weird Al

I am literally laughing!

Stephen Pastis is also literally getting old! :D

Captain Literally

I once wrote that we should be careful what to believe what something is taken out of context, but then I got a reply noting that I myself admitted that what I had written was literally “taken out of context”.

Wow, literally 182 comments today! I’m literally number 183.My pet peeve is the wrong use of less when it should be fewer. If you can count it, then use fewer: “use the express lane if you have 10 items or fewer (not 10 items or less) in your basket” “more people are out of work, so we have fewer (not less) people employed now” "There’s less water in this glass now that I drank some.’ Sunday I purpose to eat fewer wings and less food than last year’s Super Bowl.

Go figure.

People who misuse the word “literally” drive me figuratively insane.

Woah! I’m with Rat on this one.

Pig would be one of the hardest people to explain the difference to.

Good for you, Rat! Say it LOUD! —Figuratively speaking, that is….

I hate “crispy”, which was created by Madison Avenue around 1982. Now everyone says it.

At least Pig’s second sentence is grammatically correct.

Ever one of us in this conversation uses words everyday that have changed meaning over the years, some have the oppositie meaning to what they one did. It doesn’t make sense to pick out one or two works or forms that you don’t like and call those who use them ignorant, or blame or on education, etc.

Here is the best comic I’ve ever seen on “literally.”https://theoatmeal.com/comics/literally

Wow. I’m WITH Rat on that one!

Nobody tell Rat all the stuff they are NOT teaching in English classes these days, or he’ll nuke us all.