Here’s an entry off the beaten path …

This weekend, I happened upon a recording of Hal Holbrook’s famous portrayal of Mark Twain. It’s double comic genius.

Then I happened to wonder about any connections between pigs and Mark Twain. I asked my buddy Google about that and was pointed to this quotation: (It’s a good one, but I gather in various sites that it’s not necessarily from Mark Twain):

Never try to teach a pig to sing. It wastes time and annoys the pig.

Hey, we’ve all been there, right?

Anyway, I also read that Twain based the character of the noble Jim in “Huckleberry Finn” on a pig farmer—yes, a farmer of pigs— named John T. Lewis. Here, I found a picture of the two men (no pigs in sight, but a man does need to knock off work now and then):

Here’s a quote from Twain about Lewis: “I have not known an honester man nor a more respect-worthy one.”

I’m sure that Lewis treated his pigs well through to their appointed ends. Mortality in the hands of an immortal.

Hm, I could use the previous sentence as a segue to mention New Pig’s forever guarantee. But no, that would just be ham-handed.

By Keith

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 26th, 2010 at 5:37 pm and is filed under Other, Pigs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.