German Horsemans axe of 16th century?

[Philip]

Originally Posted by kronckew

I know a lady with what was once a 'micro-pig' house pet that puts sunscreen on her 300 lb. 'baby' now that it lives outside. The boar, George, of similar size that lives in the pasture next door is pure black, but there is shade available & i've never seen him wallow.

Most of the religions in North Africa and the Middle East do not like the little rotund bacon factories and one especially fears touching them in any form or even looking at them, another reason you seldom see them there.

I wonder how long it takes for your lady friend to apply sunblock on a 300 lb piggy (by the way, how old is it -- if still a young 'un I wonder if he be a Hogzilla in the making, or perhaps a reincarnation of the Calydonian Boar of Greek legend, waiting for another Meleager and Atalanta to come and dispatch it with their spears).

Maybe she might be interested in the gadget that currently occupies a spot in my kitchen -- a cast-iron rotating hog oiler made by the Columbian Co. ca. 1900. Medicinal oils (to repel bugs) are poured into the tray and pigs are supposed to get the stuff splashed onto their skins as they rub against a suggestively porcine-shaped object. Ag equipment collectors love these since dozens of patents were issued in the US; they fell out of use when efficient sprayers became available.

Re: religious objections to Wilbur, you can see these raised as far back as the Old Testament. No animal that didn't chew cud AND have a cloven hoof was kosher, but Mr Piggy was singled out as being especially objectionable. Maybe because of wallowing in mud? Or the habit of sows of eating their newborn in panic if they feel threatened while nursing? Dogs are likewise frowned upon, was it because that they lick their privates and many like to eat scat? I once read an anthropologist's economic take on the anti-porcine stance of Scripture, which in essence states that since pigs are not suited to being raised in a hot arid climate by nomads always on the move, they represented a needless luxury and inconvenience. in a social-economic system that ran pretty lean to begin with. Interesting. I think it was a multiplicity of things.

Anyway, to Jews and Mohammedans, a pigless life must not have been such a hardship. More bacon and sawsidge for the rest of us! As a Jewish friend once told me, an observant member of his tribe would have been forbidden to play football, but nothing in the Torah would bar him from owning the team.