Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for April 28, 2010

it’s the least you could do, Hobbes…

Blame!

Best thing to do is to start eating (lots) more SUGAR BOMBS Calvin! Then you can order another beanie and use the one you have for spare parts.

Dad is going to glue the beanie motor back…..wait for it…

Poor Calvin. I feel bad for you.

Don’t fall for the crocodile tears, Hobbes!

So, his life is in shambles over his beaniecopter. I think that from now on, whenever I think that life has gone badly, I will tell myself, “In the grand scheme of things, it’s just a broken beaniecopter.”

Buenos dias, Fer Lefer!

Watch out for the trick tears, Hobbes!

Buenos dias, Fer Lefer.

What happens now is, his dad fixes the stupid thing and Calvin finds out it was nothing but a piece of junk to start with. All that intense feeling invested for nothing.

It’s a crime, the way junk toy marketeers mess with little kids’ heads. if it isn’t illegal yet, it should be. Consumer protection issue if there ever was one.

^Yup, we need our government to also protect us all from disappointments……what have we come to?

beanie is the world for a six-year old kid… sooo innocent…

We should all adopt the habit of posting a ‘Spoiler Alert’ at the beginning of posts that are going to do just that. I am really surprised that is not already the custom.

I remember as a child those times where I felt exactly as Calvin is feeling. Waterson’s genius is being able to capture it in just a few pencil lines.

Sad, sad day !!

That’s what stuffed tigers are made for, aren’t they?

Hey, quit laughing, This is serious. Can I sue the X-Ray Glasses people for my therapy bills?

Such disappointments like Calvin now experiences can make at least some kids immune against advertising junk when grown up. Tough lesson, but useful one.

Still, poor Calvin!

Hey, what are friends for? Hobbes has big shoulders. Calvin looks soooo sad in the third frame.

Tears down Calvin’s cheeks that’s a surprise. If only Hobbes falls for ‘em.

Hobbes too atleast cry a bit to console Calvin !

HEy! Don’t you guys feel bad for poor Cal!! My heart broke :(

Never fear Calvin! Dad can fix it! Dads can fix anything!

Morning Marg!

Morning Fran and Shep Mix!

What if he has to order a new one?

pacejv, my guess is that Calvin, like all of us, will encounter plenty of disappointments in life. I think what others are suggesting – and all of us have experienced this – is how wrong the adults are who use small children, offering them junk which looks magical (to a small child) but which lasts about five minutes.

Maybe we don’t need the government to “protect us from disappointment,” but we don’t need these junk vendors, either.

Good morning everyone! Y Fer Lefer, ¡Que tenga muy buen dia! Hobbes, I know he treats you bad, but he is your pal and he IS crying! Be a sport!

Calvin seldom cries, so I can’t believe they are fake tears. He is REALLY brokenhearted…he had such hopes for that beanie. Poor little boy…his mom should hug him, and tell him it’s not his fault; it’s the fault of the toy company!

I don’t think they are fake tears at all. Read the panels again, as if you believe Calvin really is upset. Poor little guy breaks my heart sometimes. Panel 3 looks like Hobbs as a parent, putting reason into Calvin.

Ocean17 - We don’t need more government, we just need courtesy. Most of us haven’t read these comics in 20 years and ther’re almost new to us again. I personally would appreciate it if you did announce - SPOILER ALERT - or something similar if you want to divulge what’s going to happen.

Muchos garcias

Heh, heh, touche, Dogsniff…the only question is, whose sanity, the governors or the governed? Or both?

Oh, those are real tears, all right, after all that projective rage. Calvin is nothing if not self-authentic, and six-year-olds aren’t all of a piece.

Calvin’s tears are sincere. We’re just not used to seeing him so vulnerable.

There’s a lot of junk (products, food, etc.) marketed to all of us, but in this case Calvin didn’t have the maturity to wait for Dad to help put the beanie together. Watterson didn’t write it, but I can just imagine the strip where Calvin’s mother (or maybe Hobbes) would tell him not to mess with it until his father got home. Calvin, like all of us when we were six, wouldn’t be able to wait …

“all sanity is lost.”

awwwwwwww…what heartache….

I like the guy who get sand kicked on him at the beach….

Comes back a week later all pumped and ready to impress the babes…

now that’s some steroids…

bleeep those big guys I seen later in life must have sent in for that…

Let’s hear it for the great savior of childhood, Short Attention Spans!

The tragedy IS REAL, but it will be quickly forgotten in the next few days as OTHER THINGS come to the fore.

The best thing about Childhood was that the OTHER THINGS were ALWAYS coming! There was always something new, just around the corner. (Points if you the TV show by that name)

Adulthood though, for too many of us, is the “daily grind” over and over and over and over……

Poor Calvin, I hate to see him cry…

Calvin has a broken beanie. What would really upset him is if he saw Susie Derkins with a beanie that actually operates (not flying, of course).

Poor Calvin.. .

Dogsiff, are you taking a page out of Ninmas’ book?

thebird55 said, about 9 hours ago

So, his life is in shambles over his beaniecopter. I think that from now on, whenever I think that life has gone badly, I will tell myself, “In the grand scheme of things, it’s just a broken beaniecopter.”

Bird, maybe it should be “in the grand scheme of things, at least it’s not a broken beaniecopter…”

and calvin doesn’t even know about the part about getting old and watching your own body degenerate and lose the ability to do what it had always done, and to wind up dependent on strangers to get out of bed or go to the bathroom …..

shambles? that there be shambles

if calvin is upset about the broken beeniecopter, he is in for a rude awakening when he gets into high school and has no time to use it.

Shambles? That’s a street in York, England.

“What rough tiger beast is this that shambles off toward sympathy to be born?”

Sorry, suffered a Blake out.

On: “At least it’s not a broken beaniecopter.”

That thought reminds me of my bishop’s motto: “I don’t deserve this.”

That is, not that I don’t deserve the grief and crud I get, but I don’t deserve all the gifts (including all our talents) and support and good things that come my way–but we are loved, and we get them anyway. And so we are called to use them for one another, to support one another in need (like Calvin just at the moment), and so on. “I don’t deserve this–so at least let me make good use of it.”

Look at the bright side….Those cheap toys helped toughen us up for all of the cheap-azz products that would bring us to tears later in life.

At a prior place of employment, we all used to have VERY rough weeks and needed to vent. So I established “Fault Week”. Everything that went wrong was your fault within your designated week. And then we rotated. Then, when a ‘grenade went off in your lap’, you were allowed to scream and yell at the designated “faultee” who would then say he/she was sorry and that they wouldn’t let it happen again. If you were the angry one, you felt better because you had vented and the “Faultee” didn’t give a rip because they knew that it really wasn’t their fault. It was fun and gave us all a break for a moment to laugh. World War II was once my fault because I wasn’t born in time to stop it…

“Whatsoever is sold in the ‘shambles’, that eat, asking no question for conscious sake: For the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.” I Corinthians 10:25,26 Change what you can, accept what you can’t change, and have the discernment and wisdom to know the difference.

OK, Dognsiff. Good show. I admittedly laughed, but don’t get too carried away. You could end up in the same predicament that he/she did.

Calvin, life is like that. Some days even the lucky rocketship underpants don’t help.

At LEAST he didn’t buy a Chrysler!

Hobbes your his buddy a hug and share some of the blame will do wonders for your friend. After all you did not do enough to stop the little twerp.

Why doesn’t he just do what everyone else does: blame the government.

Time for a huggie! My granddaughter who’s three, hugs her Dora pillow and talks to her when she’s sad. The pillow’s the same size as her now.

Hey, I said several times what happens, WITHOUT spoiling it for anyone.

Poor Calvin! Just take the blame Hobbes!!! That’s what your job is as a stuffed friend. Now provide some comfort to that kid!

Grazer is right. I never buy anything the first two or three times that works right, if at all. It’s annoying, especially when you bought the expensive “good one”, and the cheap spare one works better.

It’s not the cheap junk that’s the problem. It’s the expensive junk.

I didn’t say you did it, I said I’m blaming you.

Calvin - if you think the beanie was something, wait until you purchase your first car and the same thing happens. Your lawyer may look suspiciously like Hobbes….

Poor Calvin! In all his 6 years of life, this is probably the absolute worst, most traumatic thing that has ever happened to him!

Those aren’t “crocodile tears” he’s shedding. They’re very real, sincere tears of anger, disappointment, frustration and helplessness brought on by a situation that he can’t control and now he doesn’t what to do except throw a temper tantrum and cry! He’s been waiting in great anticipation for this magical beanie hat (don’t know if it’s red or not!) for 6 long weeks … and as soon as he gets it out of the box … a very important piece breaks before he even has a chance to begin putting it together!

My heart definitely goes out to the little guy today because I can certainly feel his pain. You don’t have to be a child to experience frustrating situations like this. Even adults can have a “broken beanie hat” moment and not know what to do to “fix” it either!

Wow, this reminds me of real up and down moments with a short wave receiver kit I was saving up for. I think I was in the 5th or 6th grade. I was saving up for it, I figured that I had another six months to go, and what showed up for Christmas? A nice big box from the Heathkit company! What a great surprise! Then what a disappointment when after opening the box and taking inventory of all the parts (had to be over 100) the IF/audio circuit board appeared to be missing (it was a bare board, you had to install all of the components, why is this important? read on). Mom said “Look at the rest of the manual, maybe you don’t need that board until later, and by the time you are ready for it, the replacement will have arrived.” That did cheer me up, and as it turned out, my Mom found the very thin bare circuit board (“Is this what you are looking for”) wedged between two pieces of cardboard in the packaging. Unlike Calvin I didn’t break anything during assembly and the receiver worked the first try.

Forget about the beanie, look what you got too in the same shipment, a new transmogrifier, flying time machine, a new duplicator.. it’s up to you calvin.

Pacejv, “what have we come to?”

We refuse to take responsibility for our own actions.

Let’s see what tomorrow brings… hopefully a fully functional beanie that we’ll finally see! ¡Y buenas noches a todos!

Susan- that is WAAAY too true! I find the attitudes of children (even some of my own grandkids) so OTT! I hate to see that they do not appreciate the marvelous opportunities which are open to them. I’m happy to say that is not true of all my grandkids!

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:8

That’s what friends do!

Wow, nobody has commented in 10 years in this general area. And about everyone is gone now.