Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for December 17, 2019

Just in case it may become necessary, dial 2 or 3 important numbers instead of pressing the name on the contact list.

Will there be ham and bacon in your party, Pig?

The only phone number I remember anymore is my number.

oy vey {eye roll}

I used to prepare for a visit to a new place by studying maps so I knew my way around. Now I just use WAZE. I still can’t remember whether my sister is north of Philly and the airport is south, or vice versa.

Oh, Rat! Say it’s not so – you completed your transformation to the DARK FORCE – you’re a brain dead politician!

If your mother never moves, it is easy to remember her number, but if she moves, you may have to lookup her number.

My smart phone is smarter than me, so why not let it do all the mental stuff?

Yup. Dont know any current numbers. My childhood friends however….

The always conniving Rat forgets the only thing he has to remember ( his phone). No way, Pastis!

I have to say disconnected phone numbers make great PINs.

Can the same be said for Rat’s heart?

Off topic: Anyone heard from Kyle of Lochalsh lately?

It is supposed too free your brain for higher level thinking.

The brain is a terrible thing to atrophie.

Did Pig just ask for Rat’s mom’s phone number?! Isn’t she a little old for him?

One for Tuesday, from the Stones: “Lose your phone and you will lose your mind”

Oh so that’s what is happening? Makes sense.

I never get a phone that’s smarter than I am.

I keep my important numbers written down, in case I lose or don’t have my cell phone.

Not surprising Rat doesn’t remember his Mom’s number. In fact, surprising that he remembers his Mom at all!

He doesn’t have his phone? Come on, now… I can only suspend my disbelief so much…

The definition of the 21st century.

That’s what happens. Evidence shows that people retained oral information better before the invention of the printing press. You don’t remember stuff you can look up, and now you can look up everything.

I got locked out of my house last week , my phone wasn’t in my pocket and none of my neighbors were home. even if they had been I couldn’t call anybody because all of my people are in my phone. I no longer remember any numbers and since they all have cell phones now , none of them are listed. I miss phone books

This is not a new phenomenon. When I was teaching I had dozens of #s to remember so I got a phone (land line!!) that could memorize dozens of numbers that required only 1 push of a button to activate… and I promptly forgot All of those numbers including my Mom’s.

This is a little to close to the truth.

Rats do have tiny brains.

I know a lot of people who are like Rat.

I have English major brain. Lots of words in the brain but very few numbers.

I dropped my phone in the dog’s water, and they won’t buy me another one!

The more I see and hear about other people’s addiction to their “smartphones,” the prouder I am to have a flip phone and a brain.

I have admit when I was younger it was nothing to know a dozen or so key phone numbers by memory.

A long time ago, I read that someone asked Einstein for his phone number, and he reached for the phone book. He said he didn’t like to clutter his brain with info he could easily look up. I agree. I even have myself listed in my contacts, in case someone asks for my number. I’m at the age where I have CRS.

Ya don’t know ya own Motha’s numbah ? Oy !

A party including Rat’s Mom/ is likely to be a “bomb”/ she’s even less fun/ than her cynical son/ the glorious “fruit of her womb”.

Well there’s always tattoos.

A police officer gave a speech at my son’s high school several years ago and had a good question. “How many of you know your parents phone number?” “Because if you have the misfortune to be arrested you get one call and your cell phone will be locked up in locker.”

Just be sure you aren’t mis-diagnosed as having Early Onset Alzheimer’s, Rat. That would be much worse than your self-diagnosis of “withered brain”….

Remember 10 person party lines? remember how you had to CALL someone ON your party line?

This has ALWAYS been the contention of tech-fearing doomsayers. And it’s actually true for a large part of each generation. About half of people take advantage of new technology only enough to reduce the physical or mental labor of necessary tasks, but the net effect is that they do become more lazy and less capable than they used to be. Most of the others, however, find ways to accomplish more with their newly freed time and effort. Then there are the precious few who maximize the potential of the technology, revolutionize the world around them, and eventually develop the next big thing. Within a generation or two, the majority of people will have mastered the technology, and on average our civilization will have evolved another step.

Of course, there’s always the risk of some major cataclysm that deprives us of the tools we are accustomed to. Similar ratios will then apply, as half of the people will probably not survive. The rest will adapt by degrees, we will gradually climb back to where we were, and the march of progress will continue.