WE DON'T RENT PIGS

[John Barleycorn]

I Keep seeing this around and have no idea what it means or where its from.  Can some cowboy or cowgirl fill me in?  Thanks

[Delmonico]

Ain't ya never watched Lonesome Dove, Gus didn't rent no pigs and didn't want anything to do with anyone who did.

[RattlesnakeJack]

[Texas Trail Boss]

Well, there it is in black & white! 

[Coop Trawlaine]

Hawt Dang, it shor nough is..........rat thar in letter printing...  :-)

[Stump Water]

And why did people rent pigs?   

[Tensleep]

And why did people rent pigs?   

Ta root Stumps outta pastures? 

[Delmonico]

Gus never really said, but he made it quite plain that they were the kind of folks ya wouldn't want hangin' round yer place.  And a sign like that lets folks know right out that ya don't rent pigs.  That keeps them kind a folks from even botherin' ya.

I sell the big ones like Gus had and I sell small ones tha just say "We Don't Rent Pigs."  Folks buy them and put them on the front door.  I am happy to say that they come back and tell me it works cause nobody comes knockin' at the door wantin' ta rent a pig.

[Goatlips]

Hay Del,

I kinda figgered you might keep a few around to root out truffles...   No oak trees where you is? 

Goatlips

[Bucksaw]

Does any one know what the latin under we dont rent pigs says iIn english?

[Delmonico]

If I remember right it don't mean nuthin', the one in my signiture can mean several things including "everything from soup to nuts."

Few Oaks, fewer truffles, 'sides that I don't need no fancy fungus cause I don't cook French food although I do sometimes put gravy on everything. (The secret to French Food it to put gravy on everything and give it a funny sounding name.)

As as for pigs, around me they play for keeps.

[Books OToole]

The Latin says something like "a grape has to be a grape."

Books

[RattlesnakeJack]

From the Southwest Writers Collection website (http://www.library.txstate.edu/swwc/ld/ldex081a1.html - same page I got the sign image from ...)

The Latin phrase that appears on the Hat Creek Cattle Company sign in "Lonesome Dove" is a garbled corruption, and there's no direct translation. It derives from the scholia to Juvenal 2.81 which cites the proverb "uva uvam videndo varia fit" This means something like "a grape changes color [i.e., ripens] when it sees [another] grape"

Novelist Larry McMurtry probably intentionally misused the Latin, perhaps to make a point about Augustus McCrae's tenuous understanding of the language.

From there, any number of interpretations have arisen to explain why McMurtry chose to communicate that particular idea. Probably the soundest theory is that the phrase serves as a metaphor for the group's journey, as many of the story's characters go through a process of personal maturation and development. Much like grapes ripen in the presence of others.

[litl rooster]

Does any one know what the latin under we dont rent pigs says iIn english?

"How many times do I have to tell ya Woodrow it's not Greek, it's Latin. It means what it sez,

  It's a Motto

when grapes see grapes, they turn the same color....... loosely translated


sorry Rattle snake and Books....................... some say it was refering to the young men Newt and the others turning into men.