Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for August 06, 2022

WHO DOESN’T LIKE TRAINS?!

Only heathens and barbarians hate trains!

I’d like to play with model trains even now that I’m 65. I’d be the stationmaster.

For that speech in panel 3, Rat should get a kick in the caboose.

Rat: Call me when you want to demolish it.

Not all is forgotten, and not all is for naught. We can strive to make our mark on the world.

My older brothers had half of the basement devoted to trains. Plywood on sawhorses, with wires everywhere underneath. By the time I was of age, there was hardly room to squeeze in any more tracks and trains.

Then, years later, it turns out my Father in Law was a big model RR guy. His attic looked like my basement growing up. Except he liked to make his own trees, buildings, whatever.

So Model Railroad fever can kick in at any time!

Rat is missing the point of spending time with friends, gaining the joy of seeing them thrilled by what we might find not as important.

Rat prefers “Despot” over “Depot”

No train of thought. Or thought of trains.

Rat probably likes trains but he likes being a jerk more.

Do things that cannot be undone or forgotten easily, and you will live forever. This can be something evil, like mass shootings, invading foreign countries, terrorrizing people, destroying famous art, …Or you can do something good. Make the world a better place, not just for you but also for the generations after you. Invent something useful, perform scientific breakthroughs, help people, …

Your choice.

Rat: What are you making us for dinner?

Goat: Nothing?

Rat: What? Why?

Goat: Because we live and then we die and everything we’ve done is undone and forgotten and all is for naught.

If Goat was Gomez Addams, Rat might want to help.

And yet, the people who say that still eat dinner.

I see on some you-tube channels dedicated to model trains that you can now drop over $2000 for a single Locomotive from Lionel, some with a hand-held controller for the lights, sound chips, smoke and much more.

Having and Using a line that gets you out of everything is all for naught.

Gotta ask, Goat, are you sure you actually want any “help” from Rat?

I agree with Rat on this point; not being a religious person, I don’t believe there’s any grand meaning to it all. We’re here, and then we’re not.

More existential angst. I would prescribe a double dose of Camus, but it would probably just make it worse.

Unless you build a railroad line.

I’m going to use that line from panel 3 every time someone starts another pointless conversation I don’t want to be a part of: Them “Hey did you hear that that politician from the party I don’t like did something horrible?” Me: “We live and then we die…” Or anything involving social media.

Only thing missing was “Vanity of vanities!” from Ecclesiastes.

♪♫ I’m still young, but I know my days are numbered

1234567 and so on

But a time will come when these numbers have all ended

And all I’ve ever seen will be forgotten… ♫♪

- At My Funeral by the Crash Test Dummies

Rat just loves to make excuses, doesn’t he?

I sold my model trains when I was in college to get flying lessons.

Looks like Goat will leave someone a very fine train set.

So much of what we do is trivial. Especially most jobs that I’ve had.

I sure as heck hope not, Rat. Let’s not forget the victims of the Holocaust, Communism, 9/11, slavery…

I don’t think it’s that Rat doesn’t like trains, but he definitely doesn’t like helping.

Rat is always on the wrong track….he’s such a chooch!

Goat should know better than to ask.

Come on, Rat, stop being such a stick in the mud! If you actually took the time to help Goat, you might actually enjoy it!

That’s right so you might as well enjoy what you can while you can.

As P. Opus once said “We’re born, we live, we go on some diets, we die.”

my new motto!!! thank, rat!!!

I live next to a rail line by choice, worked on a local railroad as a volunteer, and have a permanent layout, I got trains instead of brains!

Naught?! Reminds me of the wierdness of nautical miles: A sea or nautical mile is one-sixtieth of a degree of latitude, and varies from 6046 feet on the Equator, to 6092 feet at a latitude of 60°.

I forgot my flash drive I forgot my flash drive I forgot my flash drive I forgot my flash drive I forgot my flash drive :D #sheldon

Rat can be a real P.O.S.

HO-scale or O? Certainly doesn’t look N or G, too big for N and too small for G. Personally, looks more O

I wish Rat’s line would be true. But some people die and their atrocities live on, their ideas are still poisoning the minds of people and making their and others existence pointless or a constant pain or despair and agony.

That’s nihilsim for ya!

Go N scale – more track smaller area!!

Profoundly pessimistic, Rat. You may qualify as a French-style Existentialist….

We’re all gunna die. Death awaits us all, with nasty, big, pointy teeth! [thanks to Disney’s Atlantis, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Rat’s not wrong, if I had a dollar for every estate that sold off someone’s model trains that I then turned for a profit… well, I’d be a hundredaire

It is a truth, described by Solomon, about how meaningless life is if all there is that matters is “under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:1-11).

I can’t help thinking… so what? If I enjoy a hobby, it’s not a complete waste of MY time.