Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for November 27, 2023

Is this strip a rerun?

Where will the balloon land?

Pig beats Rat, unusually.

or Rat can just listen to GARFIELD…Dan aka…

The 5th Dimension..

The balloon should come with a parachute harness to free up your hands.

Just can’t see rat making that leap in faith.

Flying away from trouble? Possible only when pigs fly.

I guess rat’s going to add that to his problems.

Can’t have him doing that, Rat. Bring a slingshot next time.

Hold tight Pig.

Funny how the balloon is dead still ’till he grabs it

Dang it! Where’d my pea shooter get off to?!?

The quote “better late than never” is almost always not true at all.

The early pig catches the balloon.

“Up,up and away”!

If Rat had taken the balloon, a lot of people’s problems would’ve flown away!

If only that’s how it worked.

I’m surprised Rat didn’t have a dart

Look for a nearby rainbow, Pig.

The Red Ballon, still one of my favorite movies 60+ years later.

I don’t wanna fly on a balloon. I don’t like high places.

If only it were that easy!

You can get away from your troubles with alcohol and other drugs, but done too long or too often the consequences are usually considered bad at least by outside observers.

For a contrasting POV

One needs consider here, “The Fall of the Royal House of Thebes” featuring Oedipus, his wife and daughters.

Sleep is good, death is better; but of course, the best thing would to have never been born at all. — Heinrich Heine

And in Pig’s case, for the rest of the crew, delicious pork.

I’m pretty sure it only works for Pig.

There is no balloon to fly away from all your troubles on.

I’d rather breathe the helium out of the balloon and say rude stuff in a high squeaky voice for a laugh. Better yet, exchange for sulfer hexafluoride and turn my voice into Barry White.

The Monday after the long Thanksgiving weekend is one of the worst if you have to go back to work

Unless the balloon goes through a worm hole to another galaxy, it won’t mean a thing

For you Rat, the balloon would have gone over the cliff.

At least it took Pig away from one.

LOL! He’s always been a flight risk…..

Cheer up, Rat. It will probably be mistaken for a Chinese spy ballon and we saw how that ended.

Send me one to avoid most of next year

My balloon’s made of lead.

Better give it a try … we’re getting close to heart attack Mondays Holiday Season … and don’t forget next year is another farcical Presidential election.

Rat, have you considered you are other folk’s Troubles they want to escape?

I wish the crocs would eat the rat.

If I had to hang onto a balloon 200 feet up, I would still be troubled.

There’s a balloon every week? But only one and only on Monday? Seems odd.

Just jump Rat. Same thing.

One, please.

On a related note, has anybody ever actually found a note-in-a-bottle, thrown into the water from oh-so-far-away?

If that cliff is so troublesome, somebody ought to knock it down.

Pig found a way to do a Mary Poppins. I wish I could.

…sorry Rat…Jambi only grants one balloon a day…

Severely limited supply. And no delivery available.

…and as Pig drifts south, he crosses the Rio Grande and is never seen again!

And when it pops, you’re gonna go SPLAT!

Why bother, Rat? Pig is now not your concern, at least until his balloon venture bursts and he returns in abject failure….