Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for December 21, 2015

That’s a false equivalency, eh, Rat?

I have some I’d like to unload in a yard sale.

Lol! This will strike a chord with so many…

“Loved ones” includes my chosen friends, quite a few of whom have been with me for over 50 years. But I get where Rat’s coming from. I’ve seen how friends can mean a lot more than those we’re born to. Now, if only Rat had some friends….

To Rat loved ones means something like Miller High Life, or Coors, or Budweiser, or Pabst Blue Ribbon, or Sam Adams, or any one of the dozens of domestic brands. Not sure he’d go for too many imported brands, if any. And he might view microbrews as beer snobbery. Then again he seems likely to be a beer snob himself.

Rat is sometimes more accurate than Goat….

I would love some space between me and my relatives.

Absolutely and totally agree with Rat here. You can choose your friends, but you can’t choose your relatives, which is why it’s easier to love your friends.

unless your relatives are horrible people. racist, sexist, alcoholics with a pack a day habit and a xanax addiction. the self-centered, self-absorbed snobs whose lives have a foundation of sand. condescending, patronizing people with the slightest touch have extreme anger issues.

Of all my relations,I like sex the best…

Me too and I didn’t get to choose my brothers.

Sometimes family is just strangers with the same last name.

Yeah, but unlike a yard sale, when no one takes them, you can’t just stuff ’em in a box and take it to the dump.

I agree with Rat on this issue because Rat’s relatives really are Rats,just like Rat………………Rat does it hurt to look in a mirror ?

I expect every family has it’s share of blockheads and rejects. Mine does. But that isn’t all we have. We have some fine human beings too, some who have made the world a better place and some who will. I love most of them, even the rejects, because there is no limit on the amount of love we are permitted to have for others, no quotas or rationing. Sometimes it’s the rejects who need it most of all. But they don’t always make it easy.

Friends are easier to love because we choose each other as friends. There are family members I would not love if they were not family members. Blood IS thicker than water, and we have to take care of family the best we can.

I can’t think of any extended family members I don’t like, but we rarely see each other. Maybe there’s a correlation.

God gave us relatives to teach us how to be with people we don’t like.

If I had Rat as a relative, I’d disown him.

You can choose your friends but you can’t choose your relatives.

Sorry, Rat.

xxx

We can pick our friends, our relatives are picked for us.

Remember Rat, you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your relatives.

I don’t really get drinking beer myself, or alcohol for that matter. Now cooking with them, that I get.

“Friends are the family you get to pick.”

Eh, I’m probably the only product of my dad’s side that actually loves my mom.

“They are annoying and they ruin holidays” -Rat’s theory of relatives.