JOKE: FLYING PIGS

“Why
or
why
do pigs
fly?!”

Lynne did a blog entry on her daughter’s why’s on June 8 2007, and it made me remember what my words were for the daughters, when they were in the ‘why’ age (2-5) maybe even slightly later. This was my comment on her entry on the same:

‘This makes me SMILE for when my girls where younger and in this ‘why-stage’ – they knew WHEN to stop these why’s at the point, when having answered a zillion of them, my answer became:

*Oh why, oh why do pigs fly?!!*

I sorely needed a break off the why’s for a while and at that point they got the hint – every time!!’

The most amusing thing about all these why’s and questions was that, when most of the time I did know the answers, their comment was an admiring:

“WOW Mum, you know EVERYTHING!

Then those times when I did not know, their comment was a very blunt:

“YOU know NOTHING!”

“When pigs fly” is an idiomatic way of saying that something will never happen. Pigs are heavy animals, without wings, and cannot possibly fly. So “when pigs fly” is a time that will never come. The phrase is similar to others such as “when hell freezes over” and the Latin phrase “ad Kalendas Graecas.

The idiom is apparently derived from a centuries-old Scottish proverb, though some other references to pigs flying or pigs with wings are more famous. Here is one such reference from Lewis Carroll:

“Thinking again?” the Duchess asked, with another dig of her sharp little chin.

“I’ve a right to think,” said Alice sharply, for she was beginning to feel a little worried.

“Just about as much right,” said the Duchess, “as pigs have to fly….” —

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, chapter 9.” (Wikipedia)

Possibly the first occurrence of a pig actually flying occurred in 1909 when the British aviation pioneer Lord Brabazon made the first live air cargo flight with a pig in a basket tied to a wing-strut of his airplane. (Wikipedia)

Tis for now. Rii xx

The picture is off the net.