Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for August 28, 2009

A light particle isn’t big enough to have an ounce of sense.

A light particle….clever.

I wonder what’s for dinner. Probably stuffed monkey heads!

A photon, I guess.

So the transmogrifier is a quantum device.

That’s perfectly reasonable.

Somewhere over the rainbow…

If it was stuffed monkey heads, Calvin would instantly eat it. Looks more like meatloaf to me.

Or maybe broccoli?

An ounce of sense or a pound of safe ?

The safes safe is not always safe!!!

This night I dreamt, a very good friend visited me. And I wanted to bring him the best things to eat, I wanted to prepare best meel for him I cood do. I spoiled everything and did not find the tea. I ran seeking the tea until I awakened breathless.

I meant the safest safe is not always safe!!

The transmogrifier need not be be quantum to transmogrify into a photon.

Zipping back home instantaneously sounds like quantum teleportation.

How did Calvin fire the transmogrifier when he was a safe? A safe has no hands to pull the trigger. A clock, maybe, but a safe, no!

Still, better safe than sorry, I suppose.

Home, safe at last. All’s swell that ends well.

Let us not make light of his adventure and its electrifying ending. His experience has illuminated the possibilities of transmogrification. This is a shining example of what can be accomplished by the radiance of a six year old imagination.

ps: Mom needs to lighten up.

Uh, Mom, be careful what you wish for. When Calvin actually does that, you’ll be wondering what on earth happened. (Yes, Bill W. used that plot line.)

Calvin, just drink it down with a glass of milk. Starting to miss Hobbes.

Nice safe Calvin, a light particle!!!

Hey… Did I miss something ? How did he re-transmogrify himself into a six-year old? Could he operate his t-gun or communicate to Hobbes for shoot, in the form of a light particle !!!

Everything took place in a matter of a minute or 2.

Willcar1 & Margueritem: Glad you both enjoyed my falling dream and de ja vu at college. I’ve had a bug this week so I just got a chance to check in on your comments. Anyway I went to SUNY Delhi which is outside Oneonta, NY and the college overlooked the surrounding mountains and the village of Delhi. I’m not sure what the rivers and falls nearby were on and don’t have a map handy. We’d go to one area and climb through the trees and down the banks to the river below on the weekend. We’d cool off under the waterfall and then sit on the boulders and sunbath, eat, and party the day away. The water moved pretty fast some days and you had to be careful not to slip on the rocks to get to the waterfall. It was our own,”little piece of heaven”!

Allow me to shed some light (at least a particle) on the subject! “You must remember this (from yesterday)…as time goes by.’ “Plunk your magic twanger Froggy!” Plunk To strum or pluck (a stringed instrument). To emit a hollow twanging sound. Twang A sharp vibrating sound, as that of a plucked string A twanger must be a device that twangs. Now do you know how Calvin got back home? Is the light dawning?

Superfrog, You know about photons and quantum devices so couldn’t you have caught “light in a bottle” to get Calvin back home?

I just love Calvin’s explanations. I heard my granddaughter who’s almost 3 years old talking to and moving around the stuffed turtle in her crib while I was laying out her play clothes. My husband got the turtle for her a couple days ago and it’s as big as she is now. I asked her if Franklin was dancing and she told me she was teaching him how to play hopscotch so he could play with her sometime. She told me that her aunt had taught her how to play that day and that she was passing it on to Franklin. She looked for my reaction. I just told her what a great thing it was for her to teach Franklin that and that I thought every turtle should know how to play hopscotch. She just hugged me and said, ” I love you Grandma”.

Mom lets him get away with this BS?

Be careful how you word (letter) things, Lewreader! Padre5 has a point (to a point). I suppose those letters mean ‘Bad Stuff’!

This has been a happy medium sized safe story with a measure of regret and a lack of sense . Say goodnight Alice .

Calvin “missed his calling” (from his mother). Couldn’t his mother have gone to see why Calvin wasn’t responding (not that he ever does)? Yesterday he ‘zapped’ (into a safe). Today he ‘zipped’ (home). Apparently Calvin thinks the dinner doesn’t make “an ounce of sense”, either. Calvin tried to ‘wash his hands of the whole ‘matter’ before sitting down to dinner. “When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made, he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude, saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it. Matthew 27:24 It didn’t work for Pilate, either.

Does the transmorgifier also transmorgify? It would have had to unless Calvin had another one back at the house. Otherwise he would still be a light particle. Gee! I learn so much about science from this strip.

Ronshua, You make a measure of sense, but I regret to say that you seem to be mixing apples and oranges in a sense. Wasn’t it “Say goodnight Gracie” from Burns and Allen? Alice was Ralph Kramden’s wife on “The Honeymooners” (unless you have something else in mind).

If only mom had seen it happen ..

Is Calvinator anything like Kelvinator? By the way, for you (mad) scientists, Kelvinator takes its name from William Thompson, !st Baron Kelvin, of Kelvin Scale (“absolute temperature scale”) fame? It was considered to be an appropriate name for a company that makes ice-boxes and refrigerators. But I digress; here is my real concern. Is transmorgifier a typo? It sounds like a device that Calvin might have used to change himself into a corpse, but of course Calvin could have done that by allowing himself to crash to the ground. That might have been a bit more painful, however, but not for long. The impact would have left him “dead to rights” which was his usual lifestyle, anyway.

There are some very enlightened and enlightening comments here. Not to single anyone out (to the neglect of everyone else), which I’m about to do, but Yukoner distinguished himself with his punny remarks. “I couldn’t have said it better myself”, he said ingenuously (a Tom Swifty) as in:

“I must have clicked POST COMMENT by mistake”, he said inadvertently. “I might as well be dead,” Calvin (or Superfrog) croaked.

I absolutely love Calvin’s little face in frame 4. I think I’ve seen that same look on my boys’ faces many times over the years.

Ever notice how “more words” is not necessarily “more interesting”? zzzzzzz

No quantum mechanics are necessary for a photon to travel from the atmosphere above anywhere on the continent to anywhere else on the continent in an instant. The smallest time slice a human can experience is about 1/28th of a second–individual frames meld together at that speed to simulate movement. Calvin as a photon would have covered the necessary distance at near the speed of light in less than 1/30th of a second–an instant by the definition above. If it was across the entire continent he would have required some refraction or reflection to compensate for the curvature of the earth. Maybe mom didn’t argue because the science was sound.

Mom might need to take cooking lessons. Calvin hates everything she makes. Doesn’t she ever make hamburgers or hot dogs which every kid loves?

hey mom, we will all vouch for where calvin has been, we’ve been watching him for several days now, just contact us through gocomics.com and we will be glad to tell you his story is real.

Woodeye & Three In one of the Indiana Jones movies, they served “chilled monkey brains” to Indiana and Short Round. I think if Short Round wouldn’t eat chilled monkey brains, Calvin wouldn’t eat stuffed monkey brains.

Macushlalondra What kind of good parenting is that? Dogs and burgers have little nutritional value should be had as occasional treats I rarely got burgers as a kid except on certain designated barbecue Sundays and for occasional winter Friday night dinners. I may not have understood it then, but now I’m glad that my mother didn’t serve be the traditional MacDonalds menu.

Use your transmogrifier and zap yourself an extra cheese pizza!

Wow, Calvin, with a vocabulary like yours, this should be your senior year in college with a double major in science and liberal arts. Considering your vast skills in debate, you may even have a strong future as a court room defense attorney, or maybe even as an investment counselor. But then, who will be YOUR defense attorney? Well, maybe Hobbs.

And by the way, mom, as a kid I didn’t care all that much for cooked food either. Before my mother had a chance to cook any of it, I would sneek into the kitchen and grab a few pea pods and a carrot off the table. Now, that tasted much better than that soaked in water sloppy stuff with the flavor of ???…and very little nutrition. No wonder we kids had 3 or so colds and sore throats a year.

Please don’t get me wrong, we had a FANTASTIC mother, but they didn’t have the knowledge over 60 years ago as we have presently.

How can he tell where he’s going if he’s a light particle?! Like cleokaya said, light particles aren’t big enough to make sense. They don’t even have brains!

What happened to all those regular commentators on this forum ? Attyush, tabylyn, prasrinivara, helmethead, to name a few. All I can read is puddleglum2 and more of puddleglum2. Of course, I can recognise Cleokaya, Marg, Yukoner, Calvinator from the earlier group, but I do miss those one line, crisp, humourous and interesting comments which made this forum lively. Do come back, guys and gals. You too Grammahotshot !!

per haps he should…..but wheres the fun in that?

I thought surely he had fallen out of bed, but that wouldn’t go on as long as this did. This ending seemed anti-climatic. I certainly would have been looking for my children before their dinner got cold, at least at 6 years old.

Calvin is like the just-married husband who’ s sitting down to the first meal prepared by his new bride. She say’s, “I hope you like your dinner. My mother taught me how to cook. My best dishes are meatloaf and apple pie.” The new husband looks down at his plate and says, “Which one is this?”

Some people believe that Edwin Frazier (Frazz) is actually a grown-up version of Calvin. The author of that strip denies it, but there are similarities in attitude and appearance. Either way, Watterson has stated repeatedly that Calvin is portrayed as precocious to make up for the fact that he is incredibly lazy.

Dad should just slap the bleeep outta the kid, and that will stop all that foolishness.

If mom and dad knew what WE know they would be trying to captilize on the movie rights to his amazing story.

Susan, I think this strip is drawn from Calvin’s point of view, and he tends to see and hear only the negative from his parents. I hope he wouldn’t have lost the imagination when he grew up, but I think P.L. Travers covered that answer when Jane and Michael grew up.

don’t complain Cal, there are starving Spooks in Id that only have swill to eat!!

Puddleglum 2- “How sweet it is”most episodes but Ralph would rant & matter of fact rave over a bone of contention . Alice would prove in a word or two complete vindication . The big guy looked down at the floor & said in a yielding voice “say goodnight Alice”. Every few shows after all guests left he would add “some day Alice strait to the moon ”

One mans Alice is another mans Gracie . By the way we seen George’s 99th birthday show at Caesar’s South shore Tahoe . He was booked for the C-mark but had to cancel .

Maresha (fka EMET) —I would gladly pay you on Tuesday for portion of “Rumagrout” today. Yum Yum .

Up front for Lutefisk ! Yum Yum Yum .

@Susan et al: It’s not as if Calvin’s parents have no imagination or sense of humor – it’s that the whole family has unresolved issues, Calvin included. Solve those issues and their natural imaginations and senses of humor would emerge, as surely as flowers bloom when given the right conditions. Once in a while, we even see Calvin’s parents “bloom” (when they’re not under stress).

That said, not every personality type deals very easily with a precocious yet lazy ENFP child. Maybe it’s a good thing that I didn’t realize I was one, so that I actually got something done. :)

Ronshua, I remember “The Honeymooners”, but I don’t remember ever hearing Ralph Kramden saying “Say Goodnight, Alice”, nor can I find it on the internet. However, since you remember it, I will take your word for it. I remember “Say Goodnight, Gracie” because it was a regular closing line on the “Burns and Allen Show”. I hope George’s 99th birthday show wasn’t too raunchy. George Burns made it to age 100, but not by much. By the way, George Beverly Shea, the singer on the Billy Graham Crusades for many years, is now 100 years old. Lutefisk - cod soaked in lye…”To Each His Own” “Under the Yum Yum Tree” My granddaughter in Denver doesn’t like lutefisk, as I recall. Her father is Swedish. I understand that Lutefisk is a Norwegian dish, but apparently some Swedes eat it, too. “One man’s meat is another man’s poison” (lye) which seems to be the case on this comments forum judging from a couple recent complaints and criticisms.

Is it possible that some people have a very short attention span? “Sleep on now, and take your rest:… Matthew 26:45

DREAMS LAST ONLY 30 SECONDS DON’T YA KNOW!

never would have thought to change into a light particle,clever little monster.

All in the mind of a child!

Come on, Mom!!! He makes perfectly good sense to me…and I’m older than you!!!

And on another subject:

Maybe we would have a lot fewer comments if some would keep their general conversations for another websight, or email. Like Puddleglum2 … most of your comments don’t relate to the comic. PLEASE…to all those that this applies too…save your drivel for your facebook page, or whatever.

Yet Mom follows transmogrify.

Calvin and sence don;t go together….

It’s gotta be brussels sprouts.

BC13 said,

Macushlalondra What kind of good parenting is that? Dogs and burgers have little nutritional value should be had as occasional treats I rarely got burgers as a kid except on certain designated barbecue Sundays and for occasional winter Friday night dinners. I may not have understood it then, but now I’m glad that my mother didn’t serve be the traditional MacDonalds menu.

~~~

Good grief, I didn’t say serve him that stuff every day. But at least learn how to prepare nutritious meals that he won’t hate. I don’t remember my mom making too many meals I didn’t like other than liver and spinach which most kids hate. We had a pretty good variety of food. There’s nothing wrong with hot dogs and hamburgers once in a while.

To Groversfather and others of like “mind”: I beg to differ. Sometimes, ‘drivel is in the eye of the beholder’. “The time has come, the walrus said, to talk of many things…” It’s true that I often make comments on other subjects, but the thoughts and ideas usually come from the comic or a comment from someone else. I look at the comic very carefully every day. There are times when I make ‘astute’ comments that nobody else makes such as the one about the meaning or purpose of a dark background in one of the panels, or zapping and zipping, etc. I spoke today about several things that were in the comic. I happen to like puns and plays-on-words, and I’m obviously not alone in that respect. In fact, OldHipster complained earlier today that the cartoon is getting a little too technical for him; he wants something funny. Whether he likes my brand of humor or not is another story. Personally, I don’t mind most of the technical stuff. In fact, I admire and respect the knowledge that the ‘astronomers, physicists, mathematicians and rocket scientists share. There’s enough of everything for everybody, in my ‘humble’ opinion. If you don’t like a comment, in part or in whole, “separate the wheat from the chaff” as John the Baptist indicates will happen at the judgment according to Matthew 3:12. “You can’t please everyone, so you have to please yourself” from Garden Party by Ricky Nelson.

Puddleglum2 and I share an affliction with Ducky of NCIS fame. Ask us what time it is, and we’ll do our best to explain each and every time we were late, why we were late, and give a convincing story that explains that ‘late’ is only a state of mind, not a fact of existence. Sometimes we’ll take the quantum physics angle and explain that we were actually on time, but the space-time position at which we were supposed to be had been sucked into a different plane of existence through no fault of our own. Make no mistake, Calvin is a fatalist, and Watterson deliberately drew him that way. Someone had mentioned that his parents didn’t care. You have to read basically all of the strips for the entire run to get this, but Calvin’s Dad and Mom deeply loved him. They let him run with his imagination but reeled him in when it went out of control. This is truly a comic strip for the ages.

Hey Calvin, just use your transmogrifier on the meal and turn it into something you’d enjoy eating–like monkey heads!

Dino-1 – Hope the bug’s not bugging you any more. Your college getaway place sounds great!