By Pierre Ratte
Pigs are smart. These two came in from the rain this week. In warmer weather they roll in the mud. Oh, that loving-the-mud thing? It’s not because they like to be dirty. It’s to prevent sunburn and cool themselves.
Yup, these cutester dootsters—snort, snort, oink, oink—get hot and sunburned. They are so smart they put on natural sunblock, just like we do. Well, we do it differently, but point made.
People are like pigs. Wait a minute! How could that be?
Similar to humans in several ways, pigs recognize themselves in mirrors: Surely that’s human-like; few animals do. They are empathetic, friendly, social, playful, talkative, able to use tools and solve puzzles, and abundantly curious.
Their tail wagging, similar to dogs, can show contentment. They socialize, enjoy living in community, and show distress and depression when isolated. Mother pigs “sing” to their suckling babies. Up with pigs!
Fun facts: Pigs lack sweat glands, hence their need to cool themselves in the summertime. Their pink skin sunburns. Their sense of smell is 2,000 times greater than humans. Genetically, pigs share about 76% of their DNA with humans, below monkeys (95%), cats (90%) and dogs (82%). Yup, cats top dogs.
Porky Pig was created in 1935. He first appeared in a Friz Freleng cartoon-animal takeoff of Our Gang films. The original voice actor, Joe Dougherty, stuttered. He stuttered so much that recording sessions ran for hours until he was replaced in 1937 by Mel Blanc. Blanc kept the stutter, mastering comedic effect by stumbling on short words, replacing them with complicated ones.
Porky appeared in 135 cartoons with Warner Bros.’ Looney Tunes. Blanc voiced hundreds of characters, including Bugs, Daffy, Elmer and Tweety Bird, along with Barney Rubble from The Flintstones and Cosmo Spacely from The Jetsons, to name a few.
Our Gang is also known as The Little Rascals. Created by Hal Roach, the production ran from 1922 to 1944. Its 220 episodes featured 41 child actors. Our Gang featured an integrated cast getting along through hard times. Matthew Beard played “Stymie”; Alan Hoskins, “Farina”; and Billie Thomas, “Buckwheat”—all males, though Farina and Buckwheat were depicted as female.
Th-th-th-that’s all folks!!!
