Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for September 22, 2022

Hobbes must have gotten his PhD from LSU.

Maybe Calvin can wish be like another certain orange comic feline.

Didn’t Calvin already once try living as a tiger?

Tigers have to earn their stripes, you know.

Who knew that mauling animals was a STEM class?

Consider yourself told, Calvin..

Tigers obviously are much more complicated than just a nice suit

Sounds like being a fighter pilot!

Hobbes, the ethical killer.

Today’s strip is one which seems to say that Hobbes grew up in a jungle before coming to America. Another example of this was a strip where Calvin asked Hobbes for advice on dealing with Moe. Hobbes replied, “You could do what we used to do in the jungle when a rhino charged at us.” Calvin eagerly asked, “What was that?” Hobbes replied, “We scrambled like maniacs for the nearest tree.”

Someone asked earlier this year, “How does a stuffed tiger know so much about classical music?” and someone replied, “We don’t know how old Hobbes is but he’s much older than Calvin.” Since we don’t know how much older than Calvin Hobbes is and since Hobbes seems to have grown up in Asia, it is possible that Hobbes once knew a boy in colonial India who was called Eric Blair and later became a writer under the pen name of George Orwell. Hobbes seems to have some familiarity with Orwell’s writing as he once said to Calvin, “Who would have thought Big Brother would go commercial?”

Physics and Biology are hardly “Liberal Arts”.

Do real-life tigers even think of those things when chasing their prey??

I kinda doubt it.

So…Calvin will go to school to train for a career as a tiger!!

Sounds pretty cool!!

“On Murder Considered as one of the Fine Arts” by Thomas De Quincey, 1827

I plagiarized my ethics dissertation. It was not well received.

Ooooh the Humanities….

Ethics… The discipline the weak use to convince everyone else that the strong shouldn’t take things for themselves just because they are stronger. Truly one of the greatest flaws in our society, as it lessens everyone’s incentive to be the strongest individual they can be.

I guess a Liberal Arts degree beats an English major.

Point of order… physics isn’t a liberal art and while biology might be more liberal than most STEM classes it still falls in the STEM realm.

I find it interesting than any ethics thesis would be well-received. I remember the announcement of an upcoming thesis defense concluded with, “…and I expect you all to be there to ask questions that no one can answer.”

Everything civilized is founded in the liberal arts… and when those became passé our society began its fall.

Like a good funeral director, a Tiger always needs to know where the jugular is!

It’s a life skill to neatly nosh through a soft underbelly with no utensils. Might want to practice at the dinner table tonight Calvin.

Calvin used the “L” word…AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!

(Hobbes) “Not to mention that I have to perch on a tree the hunted prey”.

Only Calvin would call physics and biology liberal arts.

I’m not stupid just because I’m ignorant. I can learn. On the other hand, you’re ugly.

Cheetahs have to be keenly aware of thermodynamics because they can overheat after 30 seconds.

Tigers just don’t go down to the local grocery store ’ya know.

LSU? Oh, yeah, the Tigers ! Good one.

The Fox Knows Many Things, But the Hedgehog Knows One Big Thing. Archilochus (7th Century BCE)

He’s right and he’s wrong. Tigers do indeed draw on all of those things to survive. However, it’s instinctive behavior that evolution has hardwired into them; they don’t need to learn it, nor really understand it. In fact, the less intelligent an animal is, the stronger its instincts, and so the less work needed to master those skills (at least mentally).

The down side of relying on instinct is that, when circumstances change, continuing to act on what was once a successful survival strategy can lead directly to your doom.

Now I wish “Tiger School” was a joke in this strip somewhere.

I love Hobbes’s expression and pose in the second panel.

Dr. Hobbes. Tiger extraordinaire.

“Everything happens for a reason . . . and the reason is physics.” NdGT

NEVER underestimate a tiger.

Hobbes, you match this brat very well. Keep him grounded. Once in a while show him laws of motion involved as liberal art.

Why do you think it’s called liberal arts?

Apex predators aren’t know for their ethics, case in point the Human Race.

Although it’s kind of pointless to assign moral judgments to animals that act almost entirely on instinct, I would suggest that normal tiger activities would look a lot like ethical behavior to us. They rarely violate each other’s territories without a very compelling reason, they invest a huge amount of effort in raising cubs, and they don’t overhunt their prey.

Ethics of a Tiger? I guess even sociopaths have ethics, of a sort. They just don’t include you.

“Then, after a while, you can work on points for style…”, get it?

I heard his dissertation was called nasty brutish and short.

That’s why cats make such good pets. They don’t know how to finish the kill instinctively, but they do have an instinct to stick around and learn from their mother. When you make a cat your pet, you become the mother.

Calvin did try to be a tiger, but learned of the consequences of being an endangered species.

Is Hobbes supposed to be sarcastic?

Liberal arts has nothing to do with technical degrees.