Pearls Before Swine by Stephan Pastis for November 26, 2014

He don’t need no stinkin’ tour guide.

Drink Guinness while vacationing in Dublin?BRILLIANT!

Um… doesn’t everybody who wants to go to Ireland want to drink their beer? Also sounds like the same reason of wanting to go to Germany.

That’s the only thing I remember doing there!

I’d take Murphy’s over Guinness any day.

about yesterday to @claire de la lune.

OOPS Obstacle Obviation Positioning System

He’s hoping to get drunk enough to get into the Guinness Book of Records.:I SAID IT FIRST! I SAID IT FIRST!

A rather pint sized list isn’t it Stephan?

There’s a lot of things to do in Dublin. Trouble is, we’re too drunk to remember if we’ve actually done them…

It IS one of the nicer towns in Ohio.

TEMPLO S.U.D.: I thought you were a practicing Mormon and you drink?

I would’ve expected that from Rat.

Same list my mom had last August when she and I went to Dublin…

Old churches are like bar maids; the more you drink the better they look.

Toon Boy has his priorities.

Smtihwick’s and Bushmills for me please….

irish cuisine, doesn’t that consists of beer(guiness), corned beef and cabbage, and boiled potatoes?

The Guiness is SO SO SO much better out of the keg there in Ireland than here. It really is – so this sounds like a great trip itinerary to me.

St Pat’s Cathedral was good but I liked Christ’s Church Cathedral just a couple blocks away much better and the rector there had a dozen stories that were fascinating AND funny. At St Pat’s you pay for everything including stories.

The Guinness in Dublin is different than anywhere else in the world…in fact the Guinnes served in the pubs even tastes different than straight from the brewery! The crap you get in the states is brewed in Africa!!!

But I have to admit the main reason I went to Dublin was for the Books of Kells at Trinity College….it was my elixir of choice!

Chester Beatty Library in Dublin (sounds boring, but actually a really fabulous museum): http://www.cbl.ie/

You’re not going to find Murphy’s stout in Dublin. Beamish, on the other hand is as good or better than Guinness.

There’s a brewpub on Parliament Street (south side of the bridge) that has 4 – 5 stouts on tap, and all of their own making.

Sounds like the makings of a fun vacation.

A good friend of mine who has been to Ireland claims that the Guinness on tap there is actually waaay better than the stuff imported to other countries.First place I’m going if I win the lotto!

You’ll be happier if you skip the church thingy.

You can no longer tour the Guinness Brewery (unless they’ve changed back). You get a video instead and you can no longer have a sample after the video. I went there in 1983 and they had changed how they did things for tourists/guests. As for recommending something to visit, I offer The Garden of Rememberance which is dedicated to those who fought and perished in the Irish Rebellion.

Everyone knows:Go to Italy for pizzaGo china for their Chinese food

And go to to Ireland for beer

China would be the last place I’d go to for Chinese food. The stuff they eat over there is revolting.

“My Goodness it’s Guinness!”xxx

Mr. Pastis: On a side note, a former co-worker friend of mine posted on Facebook pictures of the Book of Kells that he stopped by to see on a half day trip. I wrote back about being jealous that he could see a near millennial old work of art live (though under glass), and went off on a diatribe of my personal jealousy that I only had second-generation photostats, blah blah blah, etc etc et al…. And several of my FB friends had no clue of what I was talking about. If you have a chance to see this (or [shudder] turn a page with sterile gloves), look closely for the ‘mistakes’ in the artwork – the intertwined dogs and other critters where a crosswork does not match up, or the multi-colored patterns where one color is "off: from the rest (imagine a multi-colored tile floor where one tile shifts to the left). Nothing by man was perfect, according to old traditions. Now imagine being a 10th Century monk with OCD where you HAD to purposely put in a mistake. Oy.

Both parts of Ireland have a lot to offer. Go.

I haven’t been to Dublin, but the Real Life Stephan was recently there and did, I think, drink Guinness. Closest I came was drinking Guinness at a lay-over in Shannon. I like Guinness, so I can understand, sort of, Cartoon-Boy’s boorish obtusity….

If he went South and kissed the Blarney Stone would his puns get better or worse?

Last time I was in Germany (which was a more than a few years ago, but not exactly ages), every little corner bar seemed to brew its own beer. Maybe just one, but they were all good.

When I was in Dublin, I rode the DART down a bit further south to a place called the Porter House, which brewed its own… lagers, and ales, and of course porter. Good stuff.