Pigasus

Originally called the Uri Awards after the famous psychic spoon-bender, the Pigasus Awards are announced annually by skeptic James Randi.

April 1st is here, and it’s time to give out the coveted Pigasus Awards. The categories change somewhat from year to year, and this time we have five to share with you. As my readers will know, these are announced via ESP to the winners, who are of course allowed to predict their winning of this honor by precognition. The Flying Pig trophies are sent to the winners via psychokinesis. We send; if they don’t receive, it’s perhaps due to their lack of PK ability.

This year, the prizes for 2005 performances go to these lucky folks.

The name Pigasus was chosen for these awards in 1996 after an artist submitted a drawing of a flying pig to James Randi, who then held a naming contest to name this pig.

Pigasus is a portmanteau word combining pig with Pegasus, the mythological winged horse, an homage to the idiom “when pigs fly” perhaps.

“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.”

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 in Wonderland, chapter 9.Against that rich etymological backdrop, we used flying pigs as a metaphor for blog posts by capitalist bloggers in the recent Carnival of the Capitalists at Wordlab, but we didn’t use the name Pigasus.

The name for the iconic flying pig, Pigasus, has an interesting history in modern literature and pop culture.

The Pigasus was used by John Steinbeck as a personal stamp with the Latin motto Ad astra per alia porci (to the stars on the wings of a pig). The pigasus was supposed to symbolize Steinbeck as “earthbound but aspiring…. A lumbering soul but trying to fly…(with)…not enough wingspread but plenty of intention.”

Coincidentally, Pigasus was a character in the Oz books written by Ruth Plumly Thompson in the 1930s. Her Pigasus was also a winged pig. As with Pegasus, his riders gained the gift of poesy, speaking in rhyme while on his back.

Steinbeck’s widow, Elaine, who inherited the stamp, wrote in her own hand an explanation of Pigasus, as used by John Steinbeck throughout his life as a symbol of himself, “earthbound but aspiring.”