COMMENTS & CURIOSITIES:

Some people just can’t get enough. No matter how many times the All-Alaskan Racing Pigs at the Orange County Fair burst out of the gates, sort of, and make their way around their miniature racetrack, you just have to see it again.

This year’s piglet pacers, like The Incredible Pork and Sloppy Joe, are driving the fans wild as always. Why do they do it? Because they were born to race. They are the thoroughbreds of pork, huffing, puffing, eating up the track with those long, lean legs. OK, that last part isn’t true. Oh, and the trough of pig food at the finish line also has something to do with it.

But whatever it is that makes those little porcine hearts and hooves pound, people love it, and Wendy Jeffries gets it. Jeffries wouldn’t dream of letting her two young daughters, Summer and Nikki, miss the wee pink streakers.

“It’s just something about the pigs,” said Jeffries. “It’s a tradition. We always go every year to see the pig races.”

Jeffries wouldn’t be the least surprised to know that people and pigs go back a long way, as in, to prehistoric times. But first, a few definitions. What are “pigs,” and what are “swine”?

Same thing, although pigs prefer to be called “pigs.” They find “swine” demeaning, and it hurts their feelings. What’s a pig and what’s a hog? As with so many things in life, it’s all a question of weight.

A porker below 140 pounds is called a pig, above 140 pounds a hog. Who made up that rule? I have no idea. The largest hogs are really, well, fat, bulking up to more than 1,000 pounds.

Do pigs sweat? They do not, thank you, which is exactly why they love to roll around in mud — it’s how they cool themselves off. Wild boars are pigs — big mean ones — the most famous of them being the University of Arkansas Razorbacks, on Mesa Drive anyway.

Are the All-Alaskan Racing pigs a special breed, slimmed down, buffed up and built for speed? Only someone who hasn’t seen them race might believe that. They are piglets — garden-variety young pigs. Like a thoroughbred, a piglet’s career in the fast lane is very short. OK, fine, but none of that explains our fascination with pigs, which seems to be endless.

Culturally, there are pigs at every turn. The story of The Three Little Pigs and their home-building issues has been around since 1843.

And did anyone in history not lay on their back while someone played with their toes, a process some like more than others, and explained how, “This little piggy went to market”?

Which reminds me, exactly what was the problem with the little piggy who went wee-wee-wee all the way home? Was he the little piggy that didn’t get the roast beef, or was there some other issue? I still don’t get it.

Our language is shot through with pork-related idioms, most of them less than flattering, as in male chauvinist pig, eating and/or looking like a pig, sweating like a hog (which you now know is totally inaccurate), your room is a pig-sty, you greedy little pig and the Alec Baldwin variation, you thoughtless little pig.

I couldn’t find any complimentary pig expressions, but there are a number of emotion-neutral expressions, like “happy as a pig in mud.” (See above, pig, overheated, rolling in mud.)

Best pig quote in the history of pig quotes? No contest: Sir Winston Churchill, who said, “Dogs look up to us, cats look down on us, pigs treat us as equals.”

In literature, it’s all pork all the time: Napoleon in George Orwell’s “Animal Farm”; Piglet in “Winnie the Pooh;” Wilbur in “Charlotte’s Web;” Piggy in “Lord of the Flies,” to say nothing of celebrity pigs like Miss Piggy, Porky Pig and Babe. Music? Way too many pig references to count.

OK, wait, here’s one: Pink Floyd’s music and concerts were shot through with pig themes. Its 1977 album ”Animals” (an album was a black, vinyl disc that produced sound as it turned beneath a special needle) had not one but three songs about pigs — “Pigs,” “Pigs on the Wing 1” and “Pigs on the Wing 2,” which I assume was just like “Pigs on the Wing 1” but a little later.

That’s it then. I am spent, exhausted, with not one more pig story to tell you. If you haven’t seen the All-Alaskan Racing Pigs in action, get out there at your earliest possible convenience. It’s important. Pick a pig, cheer it on, just don’t call it swine. They hate that. I gotta go.

PETER BUFFA is a former Costa Mesa mayor. His column runs Sundays. He may be reached at [email protected]. PETER BUFFA is a former Costa Mesa mayor. His column runs Sundays. He may be reached at [email protected].