Clean Sty, Clean Mind
I’m Dan Piraro, the creator of the Bizarro newspaper comic. Each week, I post my Sunday Bizarro comic, then a short essay, then the past week’s Monday-Saturday Bizarro comics written and drawn by my partner, Wayno whose weekly blog post I recommend highly.
Here’s the ANSWER KEY to this week’s Secret Symbols in the Sunday comic, above.——————————————————————————————————
Today’s cartoon about pigs (above) could be seen as a metaphor for social inclusion. I’m all about accepting people who are outside of the norm but I’m not going to preach about it: you already know how you feel. I’m confident that most of the people who read my blog posts are open-minded and welcoming, but if you’re judgmental of people who are outside of the norm, keep in mind that I’m one of those people.
On a different topic, my post next week may be different, late, or missing. I usually construct and post these on Sundays, and one week from today, Olive Oyl and I will be on our way to Europe for a few weeks. That sounds all hoity-toity and stuck-up but I don’t mean for it to. I’ve long felt that travel is one of the few things worth spending money on so I scrimp in other ways in order to be able to afford a big trip now and then.
My first trip to Europe was in 1979 when I was twenty years old. I saved my money, bought a one-way ticket and a Eurail Pass, and did the whole backpacking thing. I stayed until I ran out of money—3 months—then used the plane fare I’d stashed in my hiking boot for a flight home.
To say the experience was terrific is a ridiculous understatement. I rambled around the continent alone, met some cool folks, had a lot of fun, was invaluably inspired by the art, museums, architecture, history, and people, and had a few unexpected adventures. Late one afternoon I was robbed on a streetcar in Palermo, Sicily, and since the exchange kiosks and banks were already closed (and ATMs had yet to be invented) I had to sleep on a hillside outside of town. The day was blistering hot but I nearly froze to death that night. I put on every single item of clothing I had brought, then put the backpack over my head and shivered my way through. I heard stray dogs howling and sniffing nearby but I paid them no mind, assuming they would not eat frozen meat.
On another occasion, I was hitchhiking through the black forest when it began to get dark and then pour rain. A man of about 30 in a VW Beetle (of course) picked me up before I got too soaked. He did not speak much English and I had no German but we managed to communicate a little. He was a school teacher and was going to the town I was hitchhiking to, but not until the next morning. He said I could spend the night with him, however, then he’d drive me to the village the next day. Well…okay.
Long story short, he had no ulterior motives, he was just incredibly generous. Oddly, though, he did not live in a house or apartment, he resided in the loft of a barn with livestock inhabiting the ground floor. A couple of cows and some sheep, as I recall. We climbed a wooden ladder, and he showed me his quarters: a board plank floor with a bit of hay here and there, angled ceilings, a thin mattress on the floor, a small table with a hotplate, a wooden chair, one bedside lamp, and hundreds of books. He found an extra blanket and showed me the place on the floor where I could sleep. I would use my backpack as a pillow.
Before he turned off the single light in the room, he showed me the sanitary facilities, which was a wooden closet just across the loft with a plank seat with a hole cut in it. Below was nothing more than the ground floor of the barn. I guess they cleaned it up when they cleaned up after the cattle. I managed to sleep okay and the next morning, he drove me to my destination, I thanked him profusely, and we said goodbye.
Over time, I visited England, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, and Italy. The value of that trip at that time in my life was inestimable. There were no cell phones, no GPS, no Google Translate, every country had a different currency, and there was no internet, just guidebooks and paper maps. Navigating the continent on my own at that age gave me confidence and the people I met opened my mind in more ways than I can describe. It was foundational for making me who I am and I’ve been a devout believer in the value of travel—especially for young people—ever since.
I’ve been back to Europe quite a few times since then but it’s been around fifteen years now since the last time and that’s far too long. O2 and I will be in Rome for a week, Florence for a week, then we’ll hit Milan for a day on our way to training through the Alps to Lausanne, Switzerland, and then Paris, where we’ll stay for a few days before flying back to Mexico City.
I’m going to try to keep up the weekly posts and blogging while I’m gone but I may not be able to muster the gumption. When I travel, I prefer to forget about email and social media as much as possible. We’ll see how it goes.
P.S. If my house gets robbed while we’re gone, I’ll tell the cops to look first at the dozen or so of you who subscribe to this blog, so don’t get any ideas.
It’s time now to see what ideas Wayno’s Bizarro cartoons for the week might give us…
In those days, if you weren’t into earth tones, you were out of luck.
Next week we’ll do a cartoon about the Lunchbag of Notre Dame.
Now that wireless amps is a thing, this guy’s days are numbered.
I’m glad there are dentists but I wish there was no need for them.
If you don’t get this joke, look up “Rochambeau”. If you still don’t get it, look up “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.” If you STILL don’t get it, maybe hop over to something less challenging like the Garfield blog.
I like corduroy because I like anything groovy.
If you think our cartoons are groovy and you appreciate that we offer them for free, without clickbait or pop-up ads, please consider helping us keep it that way via one of the links below. We’ll be as happy as a couple of cat burglars in silk pajamas.
Until next time, if you’re in Rome, Florence, Milan, Lausanne, or Paris and want to buy my wife and me an expensive meal at a fancy restaurant, leave me a message in the comments section.
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