Much Ado About Nothing – “Pig Tools”
According to a recent National Geographic article, pigs have been caught using tools for the first time. Seems some ecologist was hanging out at the zoo in Paris and saw a Visayan warty pig pick up a piece of bark in its mouth and start digging with it, pushing the dirt around to make a nest. While you want to cheer for the Visayan warty pigs because they’re a critically endangered species native to the Philippines and the whole warty thing makes you feel bad for them, but come on. It’s not like they just created real competition for Caterpillar earth-moving equipment. Besides, plenty of pigs have done more impressive things.
The persistent muppet, Miss Piggy pulled herself out of the pen to a position of popularity and prominence, practically pounding any proposed opposition. A star of television and film, she’s large and in charge with a mean karate chop and a designer wardrobe equal to any. She’s used every tool in the arsenal to get to the top of her game, so what the heck Nat Geo?!
I know three little pigs who built homes. Okay, yes, some more sturdy than others. Nick Jr Network’s Peppa Pig is all about adventure and giving little kids tools for life. That spider Charlotte in her Web couldn’t say enough about her pig, Wilbur. And don’t even start on that adorable, Babe, who herded sheep and sang little songs. “That’ll do, pig.”
Of course not all pigs put their power to positive production. Just ask my favorite high school English teacher, Miss Darling. She made us read George Orwell’s “Animal Farm” and probably assigned a couple of those compare-and-contrast, symbolism, great moments in literature papers that I always lost points on because punctuation always seemed to me like more of a suggestion than a rule. (That hasn’t changed.) But Orwell’s boss pig, Napoleon, was a bad bit of bacon! Good Lord, he sends the old workhorse to the glue factory! Talk about a tool!
Not to take away from Visayan warty pig’s discovery of the spatula. It obviously made the Nat Geo folks squeal. Or it was a really slow news day. Really slow. I’m just saying don’t pooh-pooh the power of Piglet, people. So in the words of Porky Pig, “Th-th-th-that’s all folks!”
