Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for September 08, 2011
September 07, 2011
September 09, 2011
Transcript:
Goat: Did you know the ancient Greeks had a tradition of breaking pottery and giving each citizen a shard on which they could write the name of one guy they wanted to kick out of the city? Whoever got the most votes was exiled. Pig: Is that true? Goat; Yeah. And the Greek word for pottery is 'ostrakon,' which is where get the word 'ostracize'... isn't that - Noise: Ksshhhh... Rat; The words, 'that boring goat,' won't fit on my shard.
Ostracism was an Athenian idiosyncratic custom, not panhellenic: also, I prefer sherd to “shard.”And an ostrakon is a sherd, not a whole pot, Goat. Other than those quibbles, you should be honored that Rat so fears you as to vote for your ostracism! But not until a majority of the voting characters are joined in his selection need you abandon us for ten years!