Dear Helmut, and others,
 
Let's all wish a happy birthday to Conch-L. It is three years old this
month. In celebration, I'd like to do a little retrospective of this list
of ours. (I assume Conch-L is an acceptable topic of discussion on Conch-L,
since some of us spend so much time discussing what they believe to be
appropriate and acceptable on the list and what they believe to be
unacceptable.)
 
Welcome, Helmut, to those of us who are mystified about the Flying Pigs.
You are not alone and you are right to ask. No one but Art Weil, their
spokesman, is quite sure about those pigs, and I suspect they hold some
mystery even for Art.  Back when the list was very new, three years ago,
our good friend and list member Art Weil started sending silly  (though
sometimes pointed) messages to the list when things got tense or too
serious.  We were much smaller then and we were getting to know each other
better and the joking was already needed to lighten dull days or an
occasional heavy or unfriendly atmostphere.  They were always widely,
though not universally, welcome comic relief.
 
Soon Art introduced Flying Pigs.  He lives in the city of Cincinnati, Ohio,
which has been a market for pork from early in its history, so much so that
it has also been called "Porcopolis."  Some students of list history might
be interested to know that Art also had a really interesting pet octopus
who lived in his (flooded?) basement and played chess. It too was a joke
(and a mollusk-related one, I might add) which beguiled us for a while. But
the pigs really stuck. They were either much beloved or the porkers people
loved to hate. But they were part of this list.
 
Many people have attempted to explain this piggy phenomenon, including its
appropriateness. One explanation has been that they are little cowries with
wings...since cowries are also known as "little pigs."   I like this one.
Here is a digressive but interesting, informative, and decidedly on-topic
quote from Dr. E. Alison Kay's introductory essay "About the Cowries" in
C.M. Burgess's book, Cowries of the World (1985) p. 4:
 
[Dr Kay is discussing the early names the cowries answered to]
'In some of these early iconographies cowrie shells were called "Venerae"
and "Conchae Venerae", "shells of Venus", for example by Philippo Buonanni,
1681 and Martin Lister, 1685-1692. In others (for example, Rumphius, 1705,
and Niccolo Gualtieri, 1742) the same shells were called "Porcellana", the
word being the Italian diminutive for "little pig", perhaps because of the
rotund shape of the shells. "Porcellana" has been retained as the French
and German term for cowries, and became the familiar word "porcelain" as
applied to fine chinaware because of its resemblance to the polished shells
of cowries...'
 
 I forget just why these joke pigs are pigs that can fly, but they do fly.
The joke is also that they fly south for the winter, and back to Cincinnati
for the warmer months. Some list member who shall remain nameless here once
verbally pictured them with little wing-like mantles, soaring in flocks
through the air. A delightful picture to cypraeophiles! Perhaps the flying
aspect enters via the expression, "When pigs fly!"  which means something
that is not likely ever to come true. For instance,
 
Question:  "When is Marlo going to lighten up?"
Answer:  "When pigs fly."
 
Is "When pigs fly!" only an American expression?  I don't know.  Anyway,
these never-again-to-be-mentioned pigs have a whole mythology built up
around them, and they have been our list mascot from early days. As such,
they are objects of affection for many of us.  There has never been any ill
will or judgmental intent from them or from their proponent, Art. Nothing
has ever come from them that was rude or repressive, or would call anyone
on the list, or anywhere, a pig, or a sow or any other term that some might
find offensive. They feel kindness toward your mother, Helmut, just as they
do to you. Nor would they ever drive Travis Payne to sign of the list. The
Flying Pigs are entirely benevolent in intent. Or so they have always
appeared to be on this list. They are universally accepting of our
differences, and our pecadilloes, even of those members who would cast them
out of their native land of Conch-L. Just as Conch-L accepts everyone, so
do the Flying Pigs.
 
It would be far more appropriate to the focus and purpose and original
intent of this list if each one of us followed the example of the pigs and
was tolerant of all others, including the little pigs, than for us to
quarrel about what is appropriate subject matter for this list. I'd bet a
shell or two that far fewer messages on pigs have been posted to Conch-L
than messages against the topic of someone else's post. And, unlike pig
messages, those other sorts are both repressive and intolerant, as well as
being wholly off topic. They lead to ill-will and subversion
 
Happy birthday, Conch-L!
 
Lynn Scheu
Louisville, KY
Home of the 1999 COA Convention, where all are welcome, members,
non-members, prospective members, those who don't wish to become members,
and  of course the Flying Pigs!
 
 
 
Since I am on internet I always heard from flying pigs and have seen
>a few photos of flying pigs, but I don't know what it means. Sorry.
>Can anybody explain what it means. My mother and I have as pet
>a gray New Guinea Pig, called "Putzele". Would this be with wings
>a flying pig. Or as I am client of netwing and wings are used to flying,
>am I now a flying pig. Please tell me, what flying pigs really are.
>Until now I don't understand the discussion. When I am a slowly flying
pig, my mother will be a flying sow, but this is not very nice. Maybe.
>Helmut from Innsbruck.
>
>