Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for January 25, 2025

One of these two is committing Word Crimes, but which one?

Good one pig!

I don’t believe I’ve ever heard anyone say “for all intensive purposes”.

Intensive care? Try Expensive care!

I know this is a mute point but…

Send in your complaints on a postcard, folks!

Where’s Rat when we need him to hammer conk Goat on the head! No one cares about his pet peeves!

While everyone hates a language Nazi (and all other types, as well, I hope), I don’t understand why people take pride in speaking so badly. We use language to communicate, and lazy or improper language usage often just leads to misunderstandings, sometimes with disastrous results. Wouldn’t it be easier and less confusing to learn it right from the beginning?

Edward, you are entirely correct. Sadly, sloppy communication also results in wasted time, effort, and materials due to misunderstandings. It also can lead to someone feeling excluded, disrespected, and/or devalued.

Nice one, Stephan!

I’m so pedantic when it comes to literacy, l write ‘Chuckle’, ‘Guffaw’…etc, instead of ‘LOL’.

You’ll notice l don’t write ‘etcetera’ though. Every man has his limits!

A grammatical pet peeve of mine is “one of the only”. Either there are others or not. If there aren’t any others, then it’s “the only” If there are a few others, then it’s “One of the few” Saying “one of the only” doesn’t make sense.

Signage is a big business these days!

Pun stuff is boring.

Sounds like something Lemont from Candorville would butt in with. Too bad they cut Rudy Park from this site.

When online is WTF, IDK, BTW, proper grammar?

A person chooses their own words (<—-number disagreement intentional), and “intensive” actually makes sense, so who am I to say it’s wrong?

“I could care less,” on the other hand…

While on recess duty, I asked two students to help me understand the meaning of a Milli Vanilli song, “ Blame It on Dwayne”.

If you used to go camping did you use the past tents?

I love it (l don’t really) when obnoxious people resort to correcting others on their grammar when they lose the fundermental argument.

Did you see what l did there?

I wonder what a Pearls movie would be like.

Yesterday, I saw a caption on a video of a “knight and shining armor.”

I thought it was, “For all Insensitive porpoises.”

…careful…

…using another ‘canceled’ strips gag could get you in big trouble nowadays…

It’s been 23 years and I still haven’t given up. Why start now?

Intents? Isn’t where you sleep when you go camping?

Never give up, Pastis!

It’s a mute point, Goat.

It started off being spoken correctly, but over time the words tended to get slurred together into something easier to pronounce .

we need 1 more panel with rat saying to pastis…it’s time to give you up! lol

“Mano E mano”

That would be “hand and hand”. The term is “Mano A mano”, hand to hand.

We do not have a word for “A very bad thing”. The word “Disaster” implies a lot of people.

Many people, including those who use words for a living, use the word “Tragedy”. A tragedy is a morality play in which the protagonist (we are supposed to identify with the “bad guy” and feel guilty) is punished for a sin. When a tornado is described as a tragedy, I am tempted to ask "How did they deserve it?’

Q: “How was your camping?” A: “In tents”

I always get confused. Is it vicious circles or vicious cycles?

Poor guy … that’s where co-pay takes your whole wallet.

I thought Pastis would work in “Camping: In tents on purpose.”

Reminds me of many old “Krazy Kat” strips where the “Kat’s” New Orleans accent creates much confusion and ire in “Ignatz”. One strip ends with “Krazy” stating that language was created so that we may misunderstand each other.

If I may inject one my own pet peeves: It is not “I should of” (or “would of”, or anything similar). It’s should’ve; a contraction with “have”. Besides being wrong, there is no circumstance where “should of” comes remotely close to making sense.

Thank you, Stephan, for caring about standard English.

for once he was right…

Pig is just ignorant. Goat is a bloviating egghead.

If it’s called Intensive Care, shouldn’t Outpatient be called Outtensive Care?

Goat continues to be perturbed by bad grammar.

I don’t think it’s right that people are so hard on grammar. It borders on elder abuse. I would never treat my grammar that way. She is a lovely lady and I hope she lives forever!

This is how you tell people who learn a language from oral communication, as opposed to reading.

in yet another example of creative english usage in japan, the sign above the card reader at the hospital said reincarnation machine. you just can’t make this stuff up… ☺

My pet peeve is when people use “frosting” and “icing” interchangeably.