Richard Scarry's Sausage Pig

September 6, 2009 5:32 PM

This should be pretty easy... Does anyone remember which book of Richard Scarry's had an illustration of what I think was a pig holding a big sausage on a fork? We are going through old childhood books and the vision of that image is driving me nuts and I need to see it again.
posted by stefnet to media & arts (49 comments total)

Here is a picture of a butcher pig cutting up a big sausage.
posted by specialagentwebb at 5:39 PM on September 6

The above is from The Best Little Word Book Ever, fwiw.
posted by specialagentwebb at 5:42 PM on September 6

Yeah, I found that one, but it's not it. I also remember that the sausage definitely had the little tied-off ends on it.
posted by stefnet at 5:43 PM on September 6

Pig with fork and sausage
posted by Paragon at 5:43 PM on September 6

It is on page 26 of Best Picture Dictionary Ever By Richard Scarry.
posted by ManInSuit at 5:54 PM on September 6

Google books link. (I found it prettty quick by doing a google books search on the word "sausages", author:scarry)
posted by ManInSuit at 5:56 PM on September 6

No, that's not it. Pretty sure the sausage was on the fork and the pig had his mouth open.
posted by stefnet at 6:16 PM on September 6

ManInSuit... Are you saying that the one that Paragon linked to is the image you found or is it another one?
posted by stefnet at 6:18 PM on September 6

The image I found is the same one Paragon found.
posted by ManInSuit at 6:22 PM on September 6

In Richard Scarry's Best Counting Book Ever, there's a tableau of many pigs (between 10 and 20, can't remember more speicifically) sitting down to a meal of one incredibly large sausage.
posted by Sublimity at 6:24 PM on September 6

Is the book you have now the same copy you saw as a kid? I know there have been changes made to the books through the years, mainly to remove content that people now would find a bit sketchy. Maybe the pig was excised for doing or wearing something patronizingly racist while eating sausages.
posted by "Elbows" O'Donoghue at 6:30 PM on September 6 [1 favorite has favorites]

Was it a scratch and sniff book? Because I vaguely remember the same thing.
posted by elsietheeel at 6:31 PM on September 6

Okay, the one I remember was Richard Scarry's Mother Goose scratch and sniff.
posted by elsietheeel at 6:34 PM on September 6

Here is the image Sublimity mentions. It was for number 19.

The Best Counting Book Ever was the first book I ever owned. It choked me up a bit to go pull it off the shelf!
posted by cabingirl at 6:34 PM on September 6

Last comment I swear, but this was the book that I'm thinking of.
posted by elsietheeel at 6:36 PM on September 6

"Pickles" is eating Sausages (with mustard) on page 39 in Storybook Dictionary
posted by boatsforshoes at 6:38 PM on September 6

In Best Storybook Ever (page 263 of the 1995 ed), not a pig, but an enormous cat holding a sausage on a fork. It's an illustration of Jack Sprat, and she is the wife.
posted by boatsforshoes at 6:43 PM on September 6

Was the pig wearing an apron and a chef's hat? I can't think of the book at all, but when I read this question, that's the image that popped into my head - pig, fork, sausage with the ends tied off, chef (barbeque, maybe) hat and apron.
posted by EvaDestruction at 7:15 PM on September 6

This is bizarre. I was just telling my wife about the book's I remember most from childhood, and my first answer was Richard Scarry's Busy, Busy World. I'm not certain, but I have a very strong memory of a picture of a pig holding a fork with a big juicy sausage on it appearing in one of the stories in this book. I think this is how I learned the word "frankfurter". (I'm thinking it may have also been a cat instead of a pig, or a cat may have been involved in the story, but I have no idea.) Unfortunately, google isn't turning up any sources that confirm this memory, and my childhood copy is long gone..
posted by mariokrat at 7:21 PM on September 6

My books are in storage so I can't check, but I am pretty sure that particular pig with sausage is in Busy Busy World. I think it was a German family of farmer pigs. (There's another sausage in that book, that gets squished in the Tokyo subway, but I think the animal there was a hippo.)

If not Busy Busy World, it may be in What Do People Do All Day?
posted by thread_makimaki at 7:25 PM on September 6

I was going to say, almost verbatim, what mariokrat said about Busy, Busy World. I can't swear to it, but that sounds awfully familiar.
posted by willpie at 7:49 PM on September 6

A friend of mine recently posted this to his facebook, it's from Richard Scarry's "Busiest Firefighters Ever." I think Mr. Scarry really liked his pigs to enjoy their dogs!
posted by amanda at 7:53 PM on September 6

Yes, I was going to make the same suggestion of Busy Busy World. There are German pigs wearing lederhosen, and I'm almost sure one is eating a sausage.
posted by MsMolly at 7:54 PM on September 6

mariokrat... I was just about to come in here and post the exact same thing you posted.

Amazing.
posted by Earl the Polliwog at 9:10 PM on September 6

Nthing Busy, Busy, World...that was the first one I thought of...
posted by Thistledown at 10:02 PM on September 6

well, it could be a chicken sausage...
posted by kenliu at 10:06 PM on September 6

Maybe from Pig Will and Pig Wont? I'll take a look tonight when I get home.
posted by Neale at 10:37 PM on September 6

That image sounds familiar to me—maybe it's being eaten by one of those fireman pigs?—but I am really only familiar with What Do People Do All Day. Do you have that book handy?
posted by blueberry at 10:52 PM on September 6

Hmm, now I'm thinking... is there a Richard Scarry book of old fables?... Specifically, with the one about the man (pig) with three wishes so he wishes for a sausage?
(his wife gets annoyed with the wasted wish and wishes the sausage were on the end of his nose, and then the third wish has to be used to get rid of the sausage stuck to the end of his nose)
posted by blueberry at 11:09 PM on September 6 [1 favorite has favorites]

Blueberry... I think you are on to something there. That sounds REALLY familiar.
posted by stefnet at 6:29 AM on September 7

I just looked through Richard Scarry's Best Mother Goose ever and did not see it. We have misplaced our copy of Busy Busy World, but I will check when it resurfaces.
posted by shothotbot at 8:35 AM on September 7

It's an ongoing theme.
posted by The corpse in the library at 10:14 AM on September 7

Busy Busy World has Sue Zookie, a cat, carrying a sausage, but no cannibal pigs that I can find.
posted by The corpse in the library at 10:21 AM on September 7

What Do People Do All Day? has a butcher pig cutting up a sausage on the cover. Mother pig serves up some bacon, which Sally has on a plate, on p. 21, and Sally is about to eat a sandwich with a sausage in it on p. 23, but I don't see anything that's specifically what you're looking for in it. On to the next one...
posted by The corpse in the library at 10:25 AM on September 7

Funniest Storybook Ever has another pig butcher in the Lowly Worm's birthday scene, and one in the "Tanglefoot" story (hey, there's Sue Zookie with her sausage again, never noticed that). Yes, I am mildly obsessed with Richard Scarry, but again, these are not the pigs you're looking for.
posted by The corpse in the library at 10:29 AM on September 7

I think I'll stop now. I don't have the fables book (how can this be?), but I have a big stack of other ones. If you have a specific book you want browsed, just let me know.
posted by The corpse in the library at 10:30 AM on September 7

Pig with fork and hot dogs? That's from Busytown. Maybe on the page before that there was a hot dog *on* the fork?
posted by fish tick at 10:31 AM on September 7

I am 99% positive that what I was thinking of is the sausage nose folktale that blueberry mentioned.

So now the question is, what book is that in? I can't seem to find a reference to it anywhere.
posted by stefnet at 12:56 PM on September 7

Blueberry, I think the book that you're referring to is Animal Nursery Tales. I had that as a child and it's been rattling around in my head since last night, but I didn't want to say it because I wasn't sure. Give it a shot.
posted by dlugoczaj at 12:58 PM on September 7

By the way--I did think of the sausage-nose folktale, but I also could see the picture very clearly in my head in another story in Animal Nursery Tales. I think it might have been a version of "The Bremen Town Musicians"--the pig was one of the robbers, who were whooping it up around a big table covered with food and jewels.

(I can SO clearly see the picture that inspired this whole post; it's exactly like stefnet describes--it's just the rest of the scene that's a little unclear. This is my best shot. Let me know if it works!)
posted by dlugoczaj at 1:01 PM on September 7

Oh! Yes! I remember having the Bremen Town Musicians story too.

Now I'm all confused about which one I was originally thinking of, but I'm ordering Animal Nursery Tales right now. I'll be sure to update with links to photos...
posted by stefnet at 5:50 PM on September 7 [1 favorite has favorites]

I can confirm it is NOT in Pig Will and Pig Wont.
posted by Neale at 10:24 PM on September 7

I have "Richard Scarry's Animal Nursery Tales" at home. The cover looks like this one.

I'll try to take a look at it tonight and let you know.
posted by MrToad at 9:01 AM on September 8

I looked at the book but didn't have time to scan anything.

In the story "The Musicians of Bremen", there is a scene with all the robbers sitting around a table having a feast. Around the table are various things they've stolen as well as some guns and stuff, I believe. On the right side of the table is a pig with a sausage on a fork. He is brown with scruffy fur. He has small tusks on each side of his mouth like a wild boar. One of the robbers is referred to as Snaggle Tooth Louie. I think this one might be Louie. I pulling that last part from memory when I last read it to my kids, so I could be off on the name.

Does that sound like the one you remember?
posted by MrToad at 5:31 AM on September 9

Today I had some free time downtown so I looked for Richard Scarry's Animal Nursery Tales. Powells failed me, and while the Multnomah County Library has it (and confirms that it contains "The Three Wishes"), it was out at their Central branch. However I did discover the fact that it seems that Richard Scarry came up with the original Snakes on a Plane idea.
posted by blueberry at 9:15 PM on September 9

Okay, looks like it’s not in Richard Scarry's Animal Nursery Tales.
(link to image of the three relevant sausage-containing-pages from said book)
posted by blueberry at 9:13 PM on September 18

Thanks blueberry! I'm still waiting for my copy to arrive (and I'm glad I got it for the stories anyway). Maybe this is just a big mass hallucination... Although we don't have confirmation that it was or wasn't the scratch and sniff book mentioned above. Hmm....
posted by stefnet at 4:40 AM on September 20

Well Amazon just cancelled my order as being unavailable from any of their suppliers. Hrm.
posted by stefnet at 3:05 PM on September 24

Ok, so my re-ordered book came today and although there is no picture like I asked about originally, I'm almost positive that I might have just conflated a few in my mind. I think it was the sausage-nose tale that I had in mind. This is definitely the book I had when I was little and I'm so glad to have it again to read to our daughter!

Thanks for everyone's help! I'm going to mark the ones that mention Animal Nursery Tales as best answers as those were the ones that pointed me in this direction. Thanks again!
posted by stefnet at 7:16 AM on September 26