Abstract
Greenspoon discusses the various usage of the saying, "casting pearls before swine". The editors, reporters and headline writers of the popular press have no doubt about how they can apply this saying, or variations of it, to an extraordinarily wide range of circumstances. On rare occasions, the terms "pearls" and "swine" are taken literally. A brief how-to item in Canada's National Post is titled "Do Not Be the Swine Before Whom Your Pearls Are Cast"; it begins, "Everyone knows that pearls are the accessory of choice these days" and continues with advice on how to care for "those little bits of baubles." However, the "pearls" and "swine" of today's popular media are generally to be understood in a nonliteral manner.