MDMD2: The Learned English Dog

[Henry]

And my daughter, to whom I forwarded Dave Monroe's excellent middle (sent at
5:02 yesterday) message concerning Leibniz, replied "On an almost entirely
unrelated note, there actually was a three-legged dog at the park this
afternoon. It seemed to get around ok, and the other dogs treated it
normally. Some kind of a bulldog mix."

This reminded, and was meant to remind me of the story that I have (perhaps
often but not entirely without some variety of detail) told her, and which
she tells others. of the time that I was hitch-hiking from New York to San
Francisco, taking I-70 most of the way.  

One night, near St. Louis, I was unfortunate to sleep downwind of a pig
farm.  It was as bad as you will probably imagine, but upon awakening in the
morning, I decided, not havin' ever seen a pig farm before, to follow my
nose and have a look.  Catching only one short ride along the way, I must
have walked nearly a half hour before I came to the farmhouse, having passed
more pigs along the way than I would have otherwise seen in three of my
generally citified lives.  Hundreds of pigs.  And, of course, the smell was
awful.  

Everything was as I might have imagined, except that the pigs were larger
and the smell was worse.  The only thing that stood out was a small,
separate pen in the yard in front of the farmhouse.  In that pen was a
three-legged pig!  Seein' as how I had nothin' else that I had to do, and no
place else in the world where I had to be, my curiosity got the better of me
and I went up to the farmhouse to ask the farmer about the three-legged pig.


Well, the farmer must have seen me comin' from 'round the other side of the
house. He came up to me pretty fast and asked me what the hell I wanted.  I
told him what a nice, pretty farm he had, and that I was passing by and
noticed the 3-legged pig.  Now the farmer smiled, and told me that the pig
in question was named Norma and that Norma was a great pig.  I said that
"I'm sure that Norma's a wonderful pig, but how come she's got only three
legs?"  Farmer told me "One time, when Norma was little, she saved my
family's lives.  She must have smelled the smoke from the fire that had
started in the kitchen. Well, she got herself into the house and led us all
through the smoke and back out of the house.  Saved our lives, I tell ya!
Well, we named her Norma.  Norma is a great pig!"  "Sure she is," I agreed,
"but how come she only has three legs?"  "Well," said the farmer "Norma's
given us dozens of fine piglets over the years.  Say, there was the time she
went and got help when the tractor rolled over on me when I was plowing the
back forty. If ol' Norma hadn't been so quick, I might of bled to death from
the cut I got.  This is one great pig!"  

"Yeah, but how come Norma's only got three legs?"


"Well, pig like that you don't eat all at once!"




HENRY MUSIKAR
Information, Media, and Technology Consultant

http://www.urdomain.us/scuffling.htm 

-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Bailey
Sent: Sunday, April 13, 2008 3:16 AM
To: Pynchon Liste

 Dave Monroe  wrote:

> ... meanwhile, I saw something recently attributing that "Every dog
>  must have its day" (trans. as provided, cf. Vineland) or somesuch to
>  Voltaire, but without a specific text cited.  I can neither confirm
>  nor deny, at least not via Google.  Help!
>

from bartleby.com 
"Thus every dog at last will have his day-
He who this morning smiled, at night may sorrow;
The grub to-day's a butterfly to-morrow."
       	Peter Pindar: Odes of Condolence.

Pindar lived after Voltaire, though...but Shakespeare came first
(though the sense isn't exactly the same)

AUTHOR:	William Shakespeare (1564-1616)
QUOTATION:	Let Hercules himself do what he may,
The cat will mew and dog will have his day.