Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for May 14, 2021

You get tickets to Steelers’ games if you’re good; Pirates’ games if you’re bad.

…..and our luggage goes to Cleveland.

Underground, I’d say.

Only featured in memories.

If you’re bad, I think you go to Hell… in Michigan! {rimshot}

“On the Whole, I’d Rather Be in Philadelphia.” WC Fields’ supposed epitaph

Same place you came from before you were born…

I wonder how the Pittsburgh City Fathers feel about today’s strip??

The afterlife is always a mystery.

Eh, my first wife was from Pittsburgh. It’s a pretty nice town, as such things go.

Bad

The great question, my take on it is you go back to star dust….

I wonder if a British Hobbes would suggest Milton Keynes

You needn’t worry about the “good” part, Calvin!

I wanted to go in 1984, but the jobs weren’t there.

If you’re bad, you go to Detroit.

I like the Ancient Greek version: all go to the same place – Elysian Fields or Elysian Plain- regardless if they are good or bad.

C’mon; you go to Detroit. Everyone knows that, especially now.

If you are bad, you go to Liberty Avenue in Pittsburgh- or so I’m told.

These days, probably bad.

Chris Archer probably thought that he did something real bad when the Rays traded him to the Pirates for Austin Meadows, Tyler Glasnow and first round pick Shane Baz. Trade went pretty well for the Rays and Archer had a rough time in Pittsburgh but is now back with the Rays though on IL. Many think the trade was one of the worst MLB trades in recent memory. It is tough being a Pirate fan as the “AAAA” team is usually down in the basement while other clubs which also have small market pay-roles like the A’s, Rays and even the Marlins (last season) are competitive.

Always liked the Steelers back in the day with the legend Chuck Noll and then Bill Cowher at the helm but times might be getting tough for the Steelers as well as the rival Browns have improved and the Ravens are good while the Steelers have an aging Big Ben, no running game to support Ben and a porous OL but at least they “might” have the Bengals to beat up on……

Oscar Wilde – who famously described fox-hunting as “the unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable” – offered the view that good Americans go to France when they die whereas bad Americans go back to America.

As well as commenting on other people’s comments yesterday, I also commented on my recent comments about my changing views on the reality – or otherwise – of Hobbes and how they were influenced by comments by Bill Watterson who intended Hobbes to be much more than a child’s imaginary friend.

Someone asked me why I had to comment about Hobbes on a strip where Hobbes didn’t appear. It is true that my comments on Hobbes yesterday would have been more appropriate today but I was thinking about my recent comments about Hobbes and various replies made about them – some people agree with my views and Bill Watterson’s whereas at least one commentator has told me that Watterson didn’t understand his own characters.

Personally, I think that Hobbes is always relevant to this wonderful strip whether he actually appears in it or not. That is why the strip is called “Calvin and Hobbes”.

Bad. Clearly.

That’s as good a reason as I can think of to go to Pittsburg.

We go wherever they bury or scatter us.

While Jesus was being executed, he told the criminal who expressed respect for him, “Today you will be with me in paradise.” Within three days, Jesus validated his right to say such a thing by rising from the dead.

“Everybody wants to know what happens after they die. And everybody gets to find out.” = Neil Gaiman

I spent a month in Pittsburgh one afternoon…

wouldn’t Pittsburgh be purgatory?

Pittsburgh is a great place to go to be bad. ;-D

I have heard that it’s HOBOKEN if your bad.

Only if you are bad, I grew up in Cleveland, so I should know. :-D

Wherever you go after you die you will have to go through Atlanta’s Hartfield Airport! ;o}

Bakersfield without a doubt

Could be worse. Could be better.

We don’t really go anywhere because we’ve been there all along. Death just lifts the veil of ignorance.

I thought we played saxophone for an all-girls’ cabaret in New Orleans

If we’re REALLY bad we go to Mar-a-Lago, and there is no escape.

Do you really want an opinion from Cleveland ? OK, Pittsburgh was a bit less Hellish, last season’s Browns v Steelers final game.

There used to be a sign outside our small town airport in Montana. “Fly to exotic cities of the East ..Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York City!!” Pittsburgh was not mentioned.

I hope it’s not Portland.

Of course early in the strip’s run, such subjects were discussed in a very simple and kid-like manner…

“I’d rather be in Philadelphia” – W. C. Fields

Bill Watterson was from Chagrin Falls, OH, a suburb of Cleveland. The Cleveland Browns and Pittsburgh Steelers are bitter rivals in football. I’m fairly sure this is just a cute little dig from a Clevelander.

I say CLEVELAND!!!

Jesus answered that question.

They say we die twice. Once when the breath leaves our body, and once when the last person we know says our name.

-Quote from “Stand Up Guys” released 2012.

penguins tickets if there’s no hope for you! hahaha

I had just moved to PGH when this comic came out in the newspapers, and I think among my friends/family I received about 24 copies of it in the mail. To this day it is my favorite of the 8 cities in which I’ve lived.

So Hobbes thinks Pittsburgh is full of ghosts?

If good you go to a very conservative city with good government. If bad you go the the hells of San Fco and LA

I still use the answer “Pittsburgh” often times when someone asks a where is or where to question. Very few people get my answer.

A guy dies and goes to judgement. They tell him that they were originally going to send him to hell, but since he lived in Baltimore, they decided to count it as time served.

Cleveland can’t be all bad; they have the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

W.C. Fields used to muse that he’d rather die than go to Philadelphia…

I know a couple of people who live there-I’m waiting to find out their answer!

You have to love Watterson’s sense of humor.

Why Pittsburgh?

East coast or west coast?

Bad.

Not as good as “So you believe in heaven?” “Call it what you like.”