Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for October 06, 2023

I am southern, and yes, it does mean that.

She could have just said, “yup, right below it.”

“She blessed me! And I didn’t even sneeze!”

Nothing wrong with letting Pig feel warm and loved.

Does the Pope ever say that?

It’s better than the snarky comment that rat would have made. I haven’t met many Southern girls, but those that I knew seemed nice and polite.

Well, bless my soul, ain’t he SPECIAL.

BLESS YOUR HEART, RAT!

Pig is geographically challenged!

How did “bless your heart” come to mean “you’re a dumb@##”?

She didn’t answer his question.

And is “I would never” southern, too?

Closely related to “Aren’t you cute!” which means "You really don’t have a freaking clue, do you?·

Carolina spelled backwards is Anilorac.

Not always. Its meaning changes depending on context and intonation. Besides, North Carolina is right next to South Carolina. Not like West Virginia, which is so so far away from East Virginia that you can’t see it with the Hubble telescope. Or New Jersey… where the F**K is the old one???? (It’s a joke. I know where it is.)

Wasn’t it Queen Victoria that used the insult: “How nice for you.”?

The real question is: Who blessed Stephan and why?

Pig, stay away from anyone who gets up early to see pork belly futures.

Don’t worry Pig, some people can’t find the US on a map of North America.

You never know. I live on a Court South and the Court North is about four miles west.

Bless yer heart is really Southern for GFYS.

I was sure she was from Dallas.

It angers me that people believe that"Bless your heart" is an insult… because I know better. I’m familiar with the southern culture where people say that and mean it. The saying is used in small southern towns where everyone goes to church on Sunday and actually pray for their neighbors and other members of the community. It’s northerners that need to be more kind to one another.

Sending the strip to all my blessed friends in the south…

remember it’s @ before # except after $

For those who may be interested, there’s a book titled “How the States Got Their Shapes” by Mark Stein (2008) that answers all the important questions like why Maryland has that skinny little midsection, why Delaware has an arc for a northwest border, and why Oklahoma has a skinny panhandle that looks like it should be part of Texas.

Well South Carolina is right below North Carolina, so yes.

Southern slang, it’s fun.

Everybody knows it’s just next to Oklahoma! What a dummy.

When I lived in MS, AL, and TN, “Bless your heart” could be used as a sympathetic comment and it could be used as sarcasm. Usually depended on the tone and inflection + the person to whom one was referring.

Another saying was I’m so proud for you… when I had gotten over my flu.

The final comment would’ve been a little more transparent if it had used $$ instead of ##.

And she’ll never say, “come back now, ya hear.” Because she hates pork.

No, Pig, South Carolina is right next to South Dakota, only one letter away. North Carolina is — oh, you get the idea.

Wait…..there’s a NEW Mexico?

In Texas it means, “Kiss my a $ $”.

… and FU too Debbie.

I believe there is a song called: “Just a little bit south of North Carolina.”

Just a little south of it, in fact.

Debbie has no personality. She has the same exact expression in three different panels

How about that.

Oh man! I gotta remember that one!!

I remember many years ago reading a true story in readers digest about someone who wanted to mail a package to New Mexico, and the postal worker said international mail was gonna cost more. After some discussion, they actually had to pull out a road atlas to prove to the United States postal worker that New Mexico was indeed one of the United States!!!

Actually, it can be meant kindly. It has many meanings according to the tone and situation. My Southern roots run deep so I know these things.

I love the last panel :)

Arkansas is land-locked (surrounded by six states), and one can get to each of those six states by traveling due south from Arkansas.

It’s like the joke about “fabulous.”

Sweet, naïve pig.

Awww… Bless your heart… :D

South Carolina is sexually explicit, and California is burning all documents referencing it.

Nah. “Kiss My Grits” is Southern for "Dumb $%^*

Joke for Book Tour Pastis

back in The Roaring 20’s, Alexander Woollcott,a famous theatre and literary critic with a huge ego, was autographing his books and said—“What could be rarer than one of my first editions?”

To which a rival author quickly replied—“One of your second editions”

Jimmy Carter’s mother, Miss Lillian (yes, she was married), was being interviewed just after he’d said that he would never lie to the American people, and the interviewer asked if he’d ever told a lie. Miss Lillian said that he’d probably told a few white lies. The interviewer jumped on this— what was a white lie? Give her an example of a white lie! “Well, do you remember when you came in, and I said how good you looked and how happy I was to see you?” That’s a southern lady blessing someone’s heart.

If someone blessed me like that I would bless them back.

Yep. We do believe in being polite. Even or maybe especially when we are actually wondering how could Anyone be so stupid/ignorant/insensitive or just plamb dumb.

It is a polite was of putting someone down. Although the true meaning has spread a lot these days. It was meant for the simple souls like Pig, where actually insulting them would be cruel, but something had to be said.

Pig is challenged, period!

Just when I thought from my experience that Southerners weren’t that polite as we believe . . .

To make it even more patronizing, say “Aww, bless your lil’ heart.”