THE HINTS- VITAL TO SUCCESS

[Beavertooth]

"Sometimes a man likes to get you into an argument first to show that he is as smart as you are. And when you begin refuting one another’s reasons, fussing back and forth, you generally do what a nationally known industrial relations authority warns you against: you wallow in the mud with the pig. He says, “Never wallow in the mud with a pig, because the pig likes it.” That is exactly what he wants, because you are on his home ground. He can think of arguments as well as you can, so where do you come out?" -- 1946, Richard P. Calhoon (Calhoon disclaimed credit and attributed the remark to an unnamed “industrial relations authority”. QI conjectures that the referent was Cyrus Stuart Ching.)

In January 1948 “The Saturday Evening Post” published the first strong match from Ching as noted previously:

"I hope you won’t take this personally, but I am reminded of something my old uncle told me, long ago, back on the farm. He said. ‘What’s the sense of wrestling with a pig? You both get all over muddy . . . and the pig likes it.'”"

I don't mean to imply that anyone on this thread is a pig. But I want to point out in words that most people are familiar with (a humorous metaphor?) what I think about this thread in general. I think it is essentially a complete waste of time for all parties involved, unless you enjoy endless discussion of how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

And yes, I know that getting dirty while wrestling with a pig goes much further back in time -- it's the addition of "the pig likes it" in the 1940's that made it a bit more humorous.