Man, you know pigs get the short end of the stick all the time. For an intelligent animal, hygiene resembling something a notch or two above what I see sometimes in people, the old swineola gets no respect. We put lipstick on a pig, when Congress spends way too much money on foolish things we call it pork, we’ve named the recent stimulus bill porkulus and so on.
I think it’s on Michelle Malkin’s website where she often uses a picture of little pigs suckling at a variety of objects, obviously to show greediness and the need to rely heavily on someone or something for “nourishment”.
I’m not sure there are too many older Americans who have not read George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”. I say older because I question whether anyone under 30 has even heard of him. Dare I run the risk of insulting someone’s intelligence, I’ll just say that Orwell used animals on a farm to illustrate the functions of a totalitarian society.
When comparing the recent depictions of the pig to spending and the pigs in “Animal Farm”, I recalled a pig story that I think is related to today’s events and really has multiple meanings. The story goes like this:
Ole Olsen had a farm…..eei, eei, oh! Sorry, I didn’t really mean to do that. Ole Olson had a farm up on high street. He was really a cow farmer but he decided to invest in some pigs, so he thought if he bought one good old sow, he could breed and raise his own.
He shopped around and found a likely candidate to take up residence in the back pen behind his cow barn. About a month went by and Ole was getting frustrated because his sow hadn’t had in little pigs yet. He didn’t know what to do, so he went down to visit Les the horse farmer.
He told Les about his troubles and Les told Ole he had to get the sow bred before she could have little piglets. “How do I do that?” was Ole’s reply.
Les explained that for $10 dollars he could take his sow over to see Melvin at the Miller farm. He had an OK boar over there he charges for breeding. Or, Ole could take his sow up to see farmer Dick at the Carter farm. Dick’s boar came from pretty good stock and the $20 he charged would probably be worth it. But if he really wanted to have some good quality little pigs, he should take his prized sow over to see Jorgan. Jorgan ran a pig farm and was known to have the best breeding stock around anywhere, but it would cost Ole $30.
Ole went home and thought about it and decided he didn’t need to spend all that money, so he loaded his sow into his old wooden wheelbarrow and push her on over to the Miller Farm. Ole paid his $10, watched the proceedings, loaded his pig back into the wheelbarrow and pushed her back home.
The next morning Ole jumped up out of bed and ran out back of the barn to see if there were any new pigs yet. He came away very disappointed.
Later in the day, after completing his chores, he loaded the pig back in the wheelbarrow and this time decided to take his sow to the Carter Farm and pay the $20 bucks. It was quite a push that mile and a half but after watching the proceedings, Ole paid Dick, loaded his sow in the wheelbarrow and made the long strenuous journey back home.
The next morning Ole was some excited. He once again jumped out of bed and ran out back to see if he had any new pigs. Nothing!
Ole thought hard and figured that he should have just paid the $30 and done it all right the first time. He loaded his prize sow into the creaky wooden wheelbarrow and headed out to see Jorgan and get things done right. It was 3 miles one way to the Heikkinen Farm. Ole was some tired when he got there but he paid his $30 dollars and told Jorgan that he wanted to make sure he got his money’s worth and that it was done right. He even asked Jorgan if he thought he ought to pay another $30 and have it done twice to make sure. Jorgan assured him once was enough.
Ole watched intently and once relatively satisfied the job had been done, he loaded his sow into the wheelbarrow and headed for home.
Next morning came and Ole was so tired out from the long trip pushing his sow in the wheelbarrow, he couldn’t even get out of bed. He was excited to go see his new pigs but couldn’t. He called his neighbor and part time helping hand Clyde. When Clyde arrived, he told him to run out back and see if he had any new pigs.
Clyde left and returned in about 5 minutes. Hardly able to control himself, Ole asked, “Do we have any new pigs, Clyde?”
“Nope”, he said. “You ain’t got no new pigs but that ole sow of yours is sitting in the wheelbarrow!”
Tom Remington
