Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for June 02, 2020

The upside of being a pessimist.

Lower your expectations lower your world

When Rat says, “Break a leg,” he hopes it will actually happen.

Not healthy is having Rat behind you at the edge of a cliff. He can be impulsive, you know.

The year 2020 has snuck up on all of us, Rat.

Rat follows the Rat Pack hydration plan:

A Dean Martin (Scotch Old-Fashioned) followed with a Frank Sinatra (Jack Daniels Tennessee whiskey and water)

Scary thing is… he’s kinda got a point.

I hate to have to agree, but I think you’re right- Rat has a point.

I am starting to suspect Stephan is a misanthrope!

Which crisis? Take your pick!

not exactly the same as rat, but similar, it’s perversely comforting to be proved right that 12 monkeys is the way the world will end…

What I don’t get is the nerds who believe there’ll be a zombie apocalypse. They can’t wait.

Just learn to surf on waves of chaos.

Not healthy, is being in Trump’s world. Wretchedly sick is contamination in everyone in his pathway.

How exactly is Rat prepared for this? Has he stocked up on beer?

Rat in time saves nine ! …. Croc Power !

If you expect this world to be a castle you will constantly be miserable. However, if you expect it to be a boot camp you will constantly be amazed at how comfortable it is.

Fatalism is never a good character attribute.

Rat is Right!

What has happened to the other characters?

Well, Rat does only have like four or five years, so he doesn’t have much time to absorb beauty and love.

Back when I was working in the former soviet union, I heard a joke: “What’s the difference between a russian optimist and a russian pessimist?” A: “The russian pessimist is not sure that things can get any worse and the russian optimist is sure that they will.”

I was feeling down and miserable, and everything was going wrong, when a voice from the heavens said “Cheer up, things could be worse”. So I cheered up, and sure enough, things got worse.

I’m better leaving Rat alone here.

The disgraceful performance yesterday by the President of the Disjointed States, was a new low, even by my cynical expectations. This man is insane and out of control. He needs to be stopped IMMEDIATELY! Democracy won’t last until November.

Americans better wake up to the fact that this is a very carefully orchestrated fascist attempt at a takeover of the United States, by fomenting riots and mayhem by infiltrating peaceful protests to cast the blame on the disenfranchised, on non-whites, and on the left.

Waiting for trump to do better. Going to be a long wait.

“I’ve trained my whole life for this”

Rat, for the win.

While it’s good to be prepared for the Worst Case senario there will often be some nasty aspect you never imagined.

Rat kind of having a point there, doesn’t heard to be a little prepared for things to go bad

What goes around comes around….history always repeats itself. Parents and Common Core are failing their kids…education in America has hit a new low….God help us all and the next generations…very discouraging to say the least

The pessimist says we’re in a dark tunnel. The optimist sees light at the end of the tunnel. The realist says, “If you’re seeing light at the end, great! But for now, we’re still in the tunnel” Fortunately most of us are realists who, through all of this, are looking for some common ground. Somewhere between Polyanna and Chicken Little. We know that there will be an end to this and we will move forward. That this won’t be the final chapter for us.

Characters such as pig or the crocs make Pearls a refuge in harsh times. I so miss the humor and the smiles. Can we please return to it?

Rat, it’s not healthy for you to not have something to worry about.

When bad things are yet to come, I worry. When bad things have come…

LIFE 101. If you spend your life preparing for the Zombie Apocalypse, everything else will seem minor in comparison.

“Hope for the best, expect the worst

Some drink champagne, some die of thirst

No way of knowing which way it’s going

Hope for the best, expect the worst!"

—Mel Brooks

“We are gonna win, win, win. We’re going to win with military, we’re going to win at the borders, we’re going to win with trade, we’re going to win at everything. And some of you are friends and you’re going to call, and you’re going to say, ‘Mr. President, please, we can’t take it anymore, we can’t win anymore like this, Mr. President, you’re driving us crazy, you’re winning too much, please Mr. President, not so much, and I’m going to say I’m sorry, we’re going to keep winning because we are going to make America great again.”

Rat has the same philosophy as I have always had.

Rat 2020

I find that a little news is best. If I watch or read too much I get too depressed.

I’m with Rat on this one.

heres another sad thought, especially online. I was just reading calvin and hobbes strips that were like, 10 years old, and i replied to someones comment. the sad part was, the person who commented commented 10 years ago. 10 years have passed since they’ve been on this site. Are they even still alive? All that long ago, 10 years, and it seems like their still alive, but in reality, they might not be

Just set the bar low enough and the world will not disappoint.

Pessimism is better than optimism because when a pessimist  is surprised, it’s a pleasant  one.

“Not healthy” is letting Rat sneak up behind you while you are standing on the edge of a precipice, Goat….

I would try to do okay in quarantine, but it seems too selfish to do so while African-Americans are being murdered for no reason! It’s like I have a moral obligation to be negative.

100th comment

For once, Rat makes a lot of sense. I rather enjoyed the fact that there was a 6-foot buffer-zone between me and everyone else.