Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for December 26, 2022

Don’t discuss how easily teachers get upset at any little old thing.

Get your screwdriver and other tools out of your son’s reach, sir.

Lemme guess, Calvin fiddled with the chair that dad is sitting on?

Dad uses the calm approach to break down Calvin.

Now tell us about the awesome dismantling potential of a crowbar!

That was my brother! He loved to take things apart, then try to put them back together. He was generally successful. At 16 he became a ham radio operator and built most of his own equipment. He went on to get a degree in in Electronics Engineering and became the chief broadcast engineer at a major radio station (KGB in San Diego, CA) for 40 years. So, maybe there’s hope for Calvin yet … except Calvin’s much more obnoxious than my brother ever was. Not that that has ever stopped an engineer.

That’s why in online escape games, the first thing you want to find is a screwdriver. You’re halfway out.

Even conversations!

Yeah! Had a couple of “screwdrivers” last night and they took my mind and memory apart…

How many screwdrivers did Calvin drink?

And Dad will learn things that he really didn’t want to know.

Well… For starters, there’s your laptop, your camera, the TV…

Hey, Calvin!! Take a suggestion from today’s Bloom County: “I could pimp.”

A very good thing that Calvin didn’t have this conversation with Dad before Christmas. Come to think of it, the screwdriver may have been part of a children’s toolbox that Calvin got for Christmas.

Looks like Dad will be spending his Christmas break repairing the stuff that Calvin took apart…

Calvin is the reason Torx screwdrivers were invented. Hypothetically speaking.

Trying to communicate isn’t as easy as it seems…

A screwdriver and vicegrips, that’s all you really need, plus duct tape, of course.

Amateur mistake. If you want to make conversation, make sure you know the topic.

I accidentally used a “screwdriver”, or two, to disassemble a pickup truck once. In my defense, there was a little ice involved and no people.

Too late, kid – Dad’s already searching the house…

You know it’s comin’ when Dad adjusts ye olde glasses

There goes the computer.

Oh, oh… Calvin has taken apart one of his Dad’s tools perhaps ??

My Father was smart enough to give me the occasional non-working thing to take apart. Very occasionally, I was able to fix it. Nowadays, there’s very little to fix in electronic household items. Too bad – repairing something yourself gives a terrific feeling of accomplishment.

I, too, was the disassembler in the family. I took the furnace thermostat apart once when it was acting ‘funny’ as my mother put it but could not recall how it went back together. my dad had called a Legion buddy to repair or replace it and he took a great deal of time to show me what he did to repair it and how i should document all my disassembly steps. There we were, a grizzled old WW2 vet showing an 11 year old kid how it worked. that was 1963. I have worked on cars and any other mechanical stuff my entire life. I still repair stuff rather than throw it out and buy new.

surprised Dad didn’t have a heart attack in the 1st panel

Open mouth, insert foot.

Only 364 days till next Christmas, Calvin.

As a computer technician, I agree with Calvin on what he says in the first panel.

People say you can’t hear pictures, but the tone of Calvin’s dad’s voice is very easily heard here.

Piolet to Air Traffic Control: “There seems to be a bright red light glowing.” Air Traffic Control to piolet: “Naw that’s just Calvin’s backside.”

Taking things apart is easy. It’s the “putting them back together” part that’s hard.

Calvin begins to learn the meaning of CRS!!!

So what’s going on here? Was he about to admit to having done something naughty and caught himself at the last second, or did he just think he had an interesting topic but then realized he had nothing to say about it?

A mobile home, for starters.