The first comes from one of the great American novels, Dashiell Hammett's Red Harvest.
"I haven't laughed so much over anything since the hogs ate my kid brother."
This isn't original to Hammett—I remember hearing it once or twice growing up in Arkansas—but he still deserves credit, like all great writers, for knowing a good line when he hears one.
The second isn't exactly a quote (I'm working from memory here), but it's close. Years ago, on, I believe, NPR, I heard a USDA researcher explaining the difficulties of trapping these animals. As he put it, in terms of intelligence, when you take into account the smartest pig and the dumbest farmer, there is quite a bit of overlap.
Here's John Oliver on a legitimately serious environmental and agricultural crisis.
Is this related to Pat Conroy's quote: "All Southern literature can be summed up in these words: On the night the hogs ate Willie, Mama died when she heard what Daddy did to Sister."?
ReplyDeleteThanks for the Conroy quote. I think the lesson here is both he and Hammett knew a good line when they heard one. -- MP
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