Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for July 24, 2015

Nobody ever mistook you for an altruist, Calvin.

And I thought you weren’t going too follow your principles.

I’m surprised he even bothered to answer the phone.

Callers have a lot of difficulty trying to get Calvin to stay on message.

To view the following strips in the archive and help GoComics generate revenue, please click on the blue archive links below. To view the strips directly, click on the images below or stretch them.Calvin and Hobbes (November 20, 1992)Here is an early Peanuts strip from 1952, the year Charles Schulz introduced Lucy.Peanuts (November 15, 1952)FoxTrot (April 17, 2002)

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or the darkness of destructive selfishness. This is the judgment.Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, “What are you doing for others?”— Martin Luther King, Jr.

very few pay phones left….

The phone in Calvin’s house had wires.We had cordless phones in the 80s; see today’s Doonesbury from 1984.

I still have a land line with wires, and it does not need batteries or an electric plug in. When the power goes out, I can call the electric company people. I miss rotaries.

Now that you mention it, son, let’s discuss what’s in it for you when I DO talk to your dad if you don’t give him a message.

The odd part about Calvin’s phone is not the wires, but rather that it has a dial. The phone on my desk came from my grandmother, and so it’s at least 30 years old, but it has buttons. Interestingly, though, this phone, the ITT 2500, is still made and sold today, though by a different company. Yes, wired phones still exist, but dial phones are rare indeed.

@LX013: To modify a quote from former U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt, “Do what you can for others, with what you have, where you are.”

@Hobbes,“Withhold not good from them to whom it is due, when it is in the power of your hand to do it. Say not unto your neighbor, go, and come again, and tomorrow I will give, when you have it by you.” – Proverbs 3:27,28

This is why I didn’t win the Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes…

Watterson liked using old-fashioned devices in his comics because he thought they were funnier and had more personality to them.

Calvin wouldn’t like it at my Work Placement then. I am on the switchboard there and I’ve had to take a few messages!

I haven’t been shot yet though .

(Don’t shoot the messenger)

xxx

He’s just a kid. Humans don’t get really civilized and truly socialized until our twenties. Many would claim we never do. Thank God for those who have some of the milk of human kindness running through their veins. Calvin’s milk is clearly only for cookies.

Nowadays, some phone lines will not accept the rotary messages. And you’re in trouble if you need to enter any other info on your phone pad.

There are days I’m tempted to act like Calvin—but I don’t.

I am so glad my phone is… is… is…

well, it is just a phone!

The answer is, NO, I can no longer dial a number by using the switchhook (i.e. the button that hangs up the phone). I presume that means you also can not dial a number with a rotary dial phone in my town anymore, either.