Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for June 04, 2010
June 03, 2010
June 05, 2010
Transcript:
Rat's Civil War Re-enactment Soldier says, "You know, I love these re-enactments as much as anyone, but this hardtack is tough to eat." Soldier 2 says, "Well, it's what you gotta eat if you don't wanna be a farb." Soldier says, "What's a farb?" Soldier 2 says, "Someone who's not authentic to the era. We authentic folk despise 'em." Rat says, "Me too." Rat says, "McNugget?"
singkong2012 almost 11 years ago
me too Me too Rat really
andrew5 almost 10 years ago
Almost as funny as the strip:
Various explanations of the origin are given:
That it is a contraction of the phrase “‘Far be’ it for me to criticize anyone, but…”
That it comes from the German word Farbe (“color”). (Many fabrics dyed with modern dyes are “too colorful” to be authentic, by comparison with their historical originals.)
That it stems from the rating of a reenactor’s portrayal as “‘Far below’” the standard.
There exists a letter dated 1 April 1863 from an A.R. Crawford in the 76th Illinois Infantry, Co D, that uses the phrase, “fallacious accoutrements & reprehensible baggage,” in description of six children posing in phony military gear during a sham reenactment that took place during the actual Civil War. Many point to this phrase as the origin of the word, citing “farb” as an acronym.
And no decent references for any of ’em!
dolf37 over 7 years ago
I don’t think the food is the main point of authenticity here, I very much doubt that there were any uniformed rats in the civil war.
PBS1! about 5 years ago
I’m surprised no one made a stink eye in that last panel.