Skip to main content
I, FOR ONE, WELCOME OUR NEW PORCINE OVERLORDS . . .


I read an article in the New Yorker (1) last year about the growing threat of feral hogs. Apparently they have become a major nuisance in most of the US, destroying native habitat and species, even uprooting irrigation pipes. Plus, they are so wily and tough that only an expert hunter with at least 4 dogs can defeat one.

Now, I learn that wild hogs may have caused the most recent outbreak of e. coli. It's clear what's going on -- the pigs are trying to kill us! Trichinosis just wasn't doing the job. With all the bacon I've eaten, I'll be the first up against the wall after the piggy revolution (here is where my sweetie Dr. Somneblex thoughtfully points out that he's given up pork).

Coincidentally, I was just reading Oryx and Crake , which features the protagonist being attacked by genetically-altered super-pigs. Clearly, a pig-related horror movie is going to go into production any minute now. A good title would be Hogzilla, after the legendary beast which stalked the woods of Alapaha, Georgia, as seen in this video.



(1)
HOGS WILD.
Authors: Frazier, Ian
Source: New Yorker; 12/12/2005, Vol. 81 Issue 40, p71-83, 12p, 1c
Document Type: Article

Geographic Terms: UNITED States
Abstract: The article traces the history that explains the increasing number of hogs in the U.S. since the 1970s. Hogs are domesticated animals that can survive in the wild and can reproduce quickly and abundantly. In the U.S., the wild hogs descended from ones that escaped from Polynesian Islanders who first brought pigs to the Hawaiian Islands in 750 A.D. During circa 1890, sportsmen with money then imported Eurasian wild boars to stock hunting preserves.
Full Text Word Count: 9704
ISSN: 0028-792X
Accession Number: 19108770
Persistent link to this record: http://0-search.ebscohost.com.alpha.stpaul.lib.mn.us:80/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=19108770&site=ehost-live
Database MasterFILE Premier

Comments

JethSeux said…
You notice in the Pioneer Press article that there is only ONE brief mention of the hog e coli connection! I sense a definite cover-up, but you my dear, will not let the truth go unheard. Tell the world, the hogs are going wild!!
ash966 said…
Guess what next year is in the Chinese Zodiac? The Year of the Pig! Scary!
Anonymous said…
Years ago, I started to collect stories of what I believed was a coming revolution. The number of hunting dogs to turn the guns against their owners was at an all time high, and a deer managed to get hold of a fire arm and shoot back. There was also a group of wild turkeys terrorizing a small town, I believe in New England somewhere. Anyway, around that time I seem to remember reading about a pig who hauled out a rifle and shot a farmer somehow...I can only find one reference to such a story now, so it may be apocryphal--but nonetheless, I think it may be wise to hold off on the bacon.

Popular posts from this blog

MY BUBBLE

This is real heavy metal, by the way . So, this guy whose name I swear I'd never heard but appeared to have gone to my high school tried to friend me on Facebook. His main interests were the band Stryper and Republicanism, so I didn't add him. I mean, really, Stryper ? I thought teens in the 80s only listened to them because they liked metal and their parents forbade any other band as a direct path to the worship of Satan. When you leave home, you throw away their records and listen to real metal. But then I read this article that said we are all getting trapped in a bubble of like-minded people who parrot our ideas back to us, due to social networks and rss feeds and apps only giving us the people/opinions/stories we want to hear. And I thought--maybe I was wrong. Or maybe I'm OK, because I do have a lot of weird interests that make it pretty hard to find people who are on the same page with everything. I have social network connections with people around roleplaying game...

TOP TEN LIPSYNCH FOR YOUR LIFE SONGS FOR A DRAG KING EQUIVALENT OF RUPAUL'S DRAG RACE

 The Advocate has suggested that the greatest (i.e. only good) reality show ever, Rupaul's Drag Race , have a drag king contestant.  That's fine, but it would be much more entertaining to have a whole drag king competition. One of the best parts of Drag Race is seeing all the different types of queens compete: beauty queens, funny queens, conceptual queens, androgynous queens, scary queens, singing and dancing queens.  I want to see punk kings, gangsta rap kings, cock-rocking metal kings, panty-dropping R & B kings, country kings, baggy-pants burlesque comic kings, and of course, Elvis. I picked out some songs that make me think of different aspects of masculinity:  swaggering men, heartbroken men, lustful men, romantic men, philosophical men, and suicidally depressed men (interesting fact: I can think of dozens of songs by men about suicide, but only one female one: "Gloomy Sunday". What's up with that?) "That's Life" - Frank Sinatra...

HOME ENTERTAINMENT UPDATE: THE EMBIGGENING

  Chromecast CD storage Antenna Blu-ray player Apple TV Receiver Record player VHS Tape player So, I decided to spend my tax refund on home entertainment this year, as TV keeps getting better, whereas movies... not so much. My computer is old, but it still works, and replacing a computer seems less urgent when you have mobile devices. It feels like a long time ago when RAM and processor power seemed so important in order to use the latest bloated software, but now with so many webapps and sites designed for mobile, as long as your Internet is fast enough, you're OK. Lifehacker says to spend money where you spend most of your time, and I now use my tablet more than my desktop. Also, with all the streams I have access to, there was one chink in my entertainment system -- my TV was not actually big enough to appreciate high definition. Well, it seemed like a good deal in 2007, at $200 more than my new one which is almost twice as big. The main thing stopping me ...