Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for August 29, 2009

Smart move, Calvin.

AZ

Doggonit, Marg, you beat me by a minute. I remember those days, only it was a quarter.

That was fast, both of you! Morning Magureitem, morning Foxtrot!

oh wow

I would pay Calvin after the job was done.

Steve, I’m not sure about the morning thing. Here in Yukon it’s still evening of Friday 28 August.

It would be interesting to know where all of the posters to this comic are from. How about everybody adding their province, state or country to today’s comments?

Hi Yukoner. Yeah, I’m a left coaster too (Vancouver B.C.) I couldn’t stay awake to the late hours our dedicated Eastern comics fans can, but at least I can greet them in “their language.”

Gweedo, I take it there was a quick edit I missed, but a pooter is a device for collecting insects. Does that help? :O)

Gweedo, I missed the “s” in poSters but fixed it after you po(s)ted your question.

Cheers

Hey I’m from Vancouver Island. It’s a small world afterall…..(keep singing).

State of denial here (CA.).

Good bargain !

Calvin, just pick up the sticks and branches 24 more times and you’ll have 25 dollars. (FL)

sjoujke,

Another West coast, left-handed Terry Pratchett fan – “it’s a small, small world.”

(Of course you realize this means… I won’t be able to sleep tonight!!! La, la, la, la, dum, de, dum…)

New York, USA… no not the city.

I posted the last comment yesterday. It concerns everyone who is interested and some who are not.

MA

I would have gotten paid after the job was done. Dad, I think you’re making a little mistake where Calvin is concerned.

League City, TX

Calvin, let us hope Susie comes along. You can then play a ‘Tom Sawyer’ on her. (Kuwait)

Calvin is thinking like a gamester; he knows when to cut his losses. (Houston, TX.)

Sounds like my grandson, ‘cept it costs me ten bucks or he won’t get off the couch…(Fort Worth, TX)

Umm.. Morning ya all, from London !

Winnipeg, Manitoba and up way too late coz I gotta work in the morning.

Heh, great times when u were happy having a dollar [or 5 zlotys here :D] and u could do soo many things with it, as a kid…

Nysa - Szczecinek train, Poland - hello all ;-)

I used to get $5.00 a week for all my chores. I was a latch key kid for a hour five days a week because Mom was a teacher and always had kids to help or discipline after school and Dad worked shift work at the paper mill. It was my job to get dinner ready which Mom got a headstart on earlier. For example I’d wash potatoes, poke them, and wrap them in foil to put in the oven, along with the meatloaf she had in the pan in the refrigerator. I started the general housework which she’d leave a list for me which might be to put in the laundry and do the dusting. Laundry was a drudge because it was before permanent press and everything had to be ironed and starched including Dad’s workclothes, hers and my dresses, and all the bed linens which could take hours. When Mom came home she had school work to correct and lesson plans to form and still help me with my homework. We’d all have chores we’d do together around or outside the house on the weekend. I’d get extra money helping the neighbors clean up their yards, help clean their basements or attics, and straighten up for their out of town visitors. I got the best job in the neighborhood though which was to get the mail, papers, water the plants, and feed and walk the pets when everybody went on vacations. (New York State)

Only one dollar ?? Good grief, does dad know nothing about the financial situation today ??

Greetings to you all from Belgium (one of the smallest countries in Western Europe)

ha- it’s because of the financial situation that he only gets a dollar… (I thought that was a bit stingy myself, actually)

I’m not exactly a regular here but love Calvin- and your comments often crack me up. Hello from Ukraine.

Hi all

Back from a short vacation in “God’s own Country”. Am enjoying catching up on all that’s happened in the last week, notably the advent of Puddleglum2

(Secunderabad, India)

Dad has new glasses!

yeah, a quarter, except in the fall when leaves were raked and, back then, playing in the piles and the smell of burning leaves…of course I did not live in Canyon Lake tx then either.

It never would have occurred to me to demand money for chores, or talk back like that! While I don’t remember ever actually being spanked, I remember the fear thereof…

(Central Ontario)

Destiny…I agree I’d say,”What do I get if I pick up the sticks? Dad would say, To stay in one piece.”

Calvin the Negotiator (well, he tried) - reading this in the early a.m. about as far away from the Yukon as one can get and still be in the USA

Sunny South Florida

;-) calvin many people know your way of thinking… why not trying to get the max????… in case this will not work you can still reduce to the minimum……. greets from Switzerland… (no… not Sweeden ;-) ;-)

Yukoner, “Getting to know you, getting to know all (province, state or country) about you.” At first I questioned in my mind the advisability of such a suggestion, but after seeing (without Dad’s new glasses) the responses, I think it was/is a great idea. Do the people in the Yukon still remember Sgt. Preston, his horse Rex, and his faithful dog Yukon King after all these years?

Long ago and far away , A dollar was a LOT of money.

Calvin learns the necessity of negotiating from a position of strength—and the utility of CONCESSIONS.

Calvin the negotiator gives away the store.

(East Missouri).

I think Dad is setting a bad precedent giving a six-year-old money for doing a specific chore.

I’m reading these from Missouri in the middle of the USA.

Good Morning everybody from Kalamazoo, Michigan. USA.

Calvin is smarter than he looks. lol

Steve, Is a “pooter” the Canadian verson of an aspirator (gun)? I had not heard that word before, and couldn’t find it in three of my dictionaries, but I found it online. Recently, my 11 year old granddaughter collected a couple grasshoppers, and crickets several days later, catching them by hand (she didn’t have a pooter) and putting them with grass into a little plastic container(s) with little holes punched in the top for air. The grasshoppers were still alive after several days. I don’t know about the crickets, yet. I’ll have to ask her. That was her “scientific” experiment. Calvin does his own scientific experiments from time to time. I have to get the “comic” into this.

My daughter gets an allowance when I get payed. That covers the chores she is told to do. Failure to do what she is told to do results in NO allowance. More or less lol. (greetings from south central Iowa)

Mostly I had to help without money, sometimes I got a little bit, when I lived with my parentes.

Hi from Queensland, Australia where it’s 10:34pm Saturday and 1 aussie dollar will buy 0.845 Calvin dollars.

cryptomaniac, When you say “God’s own Country”, I assume you are referring to Kerala, India. (New Zealand has been called God’s own country and the “Paradise of the Pacific” since the early 1800s.) Did you go to Thiruvananthapurim (formerly Trivandrum) while you were there? Does the rain in Kerala (averaging around 118 inches annually) fall mainly in the plain, as it does in Spain? If your comment about me was positive, you have made my day.

From sunny eastern Georgia in the USA…Been following the adventures of Calvin and Hobbs since their beginning and this strip is a nice refresher…Love all the comments and I think is is a wonderful idea to know where everyone is from.

I recieved no pay for the yard chores I did at home. I received one dollar to mow and rake the neighbor’s yards. I returned coke bottles for three cents apiece. I gave my kids an allowance to encourage them to save. Nobody in my family got paid for household chores. Tennessee then. Florida now.

LX013 said, Dad has new glasses!

You must be a female. Most men would not notice that detail. As Yogi Berra said, “You can observe a lot just by watching”. When I first read your comment, I didn’t think about Dad’s glasses having been broken during the recent trip. Then it hit me, the way the baseball hit Yukoner a few days ago, although it was a mental (not physical) impact.

I enjoyed doing chores for money. I got a regular allowance but often we were able to get more if we did extra chores. It helped if I was saving up for something.

I lived in Michigan for 49 1/2 years but my husband and I moved to London Ontario Canada last November. I’m getting used to life here, and enjoying it very much. Nice to see so many people from around the world here.

North central OH, USA here– 25 cents allowance and eventually up to a buck per week by the time I was an early teen–we had weekly and daily chores, but the $ was to encourage us to know how to handle and budget it. It could be taken away if we didn’t do the chores or talked back. My dad also came up with a unique way to support our artistic endeavors; he’d put a dollar value on what we made or painted and then run a debit account for us at a local art store. We couldn’t get cash, but we could “buy” what we needed as long as it didn’t exceed our credit. :) I still think this is a GREAT idea!

Destiny23 said, It never would have occurred to me to demand money for chores, or talk back like that!

“Yakety Yak (Don’t talk back!)” - The Coasters I know, many things remind me of a song. “Don’t Blame Me”, “I [didn’t] Write the Songs” - Barry Manilow Look at the change (up to a dollar) in Calvin from panel 2 to panel 3. Is that an instance of instant manic depression (bipolar disorder)? I am not making fun of people who suffer from that condition!

Follow up to Destiny 23, Calvin did make a quick recovery, though. (With a bad doctor, he might have made a “quack” recovery. I could wish for a quick recovery for all who suffer from such an affliction.

Long time Calvin fan, tho new to GoComics. Philly area here, originally from New Orleans. I used to cut the grass and take out the garbage for room and board until I was 14 and got a job which paid cash money. The job was cutting grass and hauling garbage for the family’s attorney.

Wow. It has been a long while since I have done ANYTHING for just a dollar (other than begged of course). :)

Comin at you from Hinton, AB

Once Calvin “finishes”, I’m sure Dad or the mower will find the sticks he left behind. The posters (or pooters or potters, whatever!) are distributed around the globe, although we are short on Hawaiians and east Asians. Watterson truly captured a lot of truth in these strips for them to be understandable in essence by folks who may not have spoken English as a first language. Try that with “Pearls Before Swine” and see how far you get (although it is my favorite, it just will not translate.) Central Mississippi, USA (when I’m in this dimension)

Superfrog said, Hi from Queensland, Australia…

Well, that’s more than a hop, skip and jump for you to travel to have caught Calvin (with your suction cup fingers, was it?) when he was falling from the sky. You would have had to transmogrify yourself into a light particle as I did for Calvin with my magic twanger. You don’t have Roos near you, do you? I did see the name eeyores this morning. Sleep well, tonight!

My son insisted it was a hardship to clean up the backyard for less than $10. We negotiated down to $5. He worked pretty fast though and I realized he was beating minimum wage! Looks like the Calvins scored one over the Dads – at least at our house. :^) (SLC, UT)

Hey, nickdangerfield, you sound a bit like me back in the ‘40’s. Chores were a family obligation including shoveling two feet of snow off the roof, then cleaning it off the sidewalk and 30 feet of driveway when growing up in Spokane, WA. Four definite seasons there and always chores to be done including bring in coal and wood for the heater and cook stove…and we called those “the GOOD old days”.

Then lived in the Portland, OR area 29 years, and now in Kennewick, WA the ‘hot hole’ of the nation. 8 straight days in the triple didgits this summer. Ready to move…snow sounds more pleasant and is most beautiful. But, life is good, I am well and am blessed..

Great idea Yukoner.

I used to watch Sergeant Preston back in North Dakota. Now, I read Calvin & Hobbes in Northwestern WA state. I was born in Manitoba.

ShaZamKaPow - I used to have relatives who lived for years In Hinton, AB. They eventually moved to Princeton, BC. I also have cousins that live and have lived in Jasper, for decades.

sjoujke said, Hey I’m from Vancouver Island. It’s a small world after all… (keep singing).

It’s a Small World After All

It’s a world of laughter A world of tears It’s a world of hopes And a world of fears There’s so much that we share That it’s time we’re aware It’s a small world after all

It’s a small world after all It’s a small world after all It’s a small world after all It’s a small small world

There is just one moon And one golden sun And a smile means Friendship to every one Though the mountains divide And the oceans are wide It’s a small world after all

It’s a small world after all It’s a small world after all It’s a small world after all It’s a small small world

Hello world!

Hi ALL First comment from me (Pittsburgh- city of champions)

Hey how do you guys like my profile photo ?

cleokaya said, I would pay Calvin after the job was done.

I agree. Calvin tends to have a short attention span. I don’t expect him to ‘stick’ around ‘lawn’ (groan) enough to get the job done. He’ll probably ‘branch’ out into other areas.

I think it’s time for a break, not for you Calvin, for me. Stifle the cheers, some of you people. The noise is deafening. You might break my eardrums. “Enjoy Yourselves (while I’m gone); It’s Later Than You Think”, depending on where you are, I suppose.

My wife gave me a similar deal on weeding the yard.

OR

my dad had a very interesting system for allowence. starting at age 4 each child got a weekly allowance equal to their age (so the 7 year old got $7) since the older kids had more responsibilities. however we were encouraged to put a certain portion of the allowance in a savings account for college/education. i believe it was such that our parents would match any money we put in up to half the value of our allowance. plus, when this was all put into place, the older children had a lump sum put into their bank account that counted for “unpaid income” with interest (what we would have gotten had this been the allowance system from the get go). being the eldest, i liked that part.

greetings from cape cod.

coming from georgia i got 2 bucks but chores were done no matter what. but with six brothers & sisters they got done quick. read calvin back when they were new, found this site year ago and love it!!!!!

I had to do chores because there was noone else to do them. My kid wouldn’t do a chore for love nor money - even if I spanked him or sent him to his room.

Victorville, CA here (hence the inVV). Earl Wash, I asked my husband who is also from Spokane and while Kennewick is A hot hole, it is not THE hot hole. Here in the high desert we have had about 8 days where it DIDN’T get into triple digits this summer.

When our son was young, he got a small “base” allowance and a set scale of additional money for other chores around the house and yard. It actually made him WANT to do additional work (except cleaning up dog poop - no amount of money was enough for that one). As he got older, we taught him the art of negotiation by haggling over the price of additional big jobs, such as cleaning the garage.

I used to get 25 cents an hour mowing lawns and was insulted when one lady would only pay 15 cents an hour. I refused to mow her lawn again!

Then there was the little Irish girl, Susie, who asked her mother, “Mama, can I have a shilling to give to a little old lady sitting in the park?” Her mother is impressed with Susie’s generosity and gives her the shilling saying. “Thay’s very thoughtful and generous of you. I guess the lady is too old to work?” “No,” says Susie. “She sells candy in the park.”

we got $2 every 2 weeks, but had chores, if they were not done ,money was deducted.

Tonawanda NY (Buffalo suburb)

back in WNY after 43 years

Two thoughts:

A buck for a chore isn’t so bad for a (approximately) six year old kid, especially thinking back at least 15 years to the early 1980s. Since these are reruns, the amounts could not be indexed for inflation…

Is a “poter” anything like a “toper”? :-)

We didn’t get a regular allowance until we were in High School and needed bus money, and possibly lunch money. We did have regular chores, just as part of the family, since we also had regular meals, shelter and heat, new clothes, and so on. We survived, more or less.

the kid’s lucky. I never got paid to do my chores. my stepdad would always figure a way out of paying me and my brother. which is why I made sure my kid got paid for his chores.

(Remember: there are three types of mathematicians: those who can count, and those who can’t…)

I thought there were 10 types of mathemeticians. Those who understand binary and those who don’t.

“Pooter” means something entirely different in Arkansas, although a strong enough one could kill insects.

Dino-1, I find your little real life parables very interesting, really, I do….

Based upon an old biblical proverb, a workman shall be paid five or six dollars for that particular job…. ”—five, six, pick up sticks.”

Born and raised in North Dakota, retired in Kauai, Hawaii.

I didn’t wont to say but that’s what my Bride said on our first night 50 years age so I concur .

MB. @threlfallm - I was starting to think I was the only one who knew that reference. Although I recall it as either the part of the body from which it emanated, or the person who dealt it. Alternatively known as a tooter. Later on, a ‘pooter was short for computer.

As kids, we got paid for doing chores. The parents used it to help teach us money management.

Good Evening everyone fron Wales ( England ). My first time of posting. Love Calvin and catch up with him every day.

Calvin may delegate the work to Hobbes Van Isl

KS here. I require my kids to do some routine chores without pay just because they are part of the family (and of course, we pay for their food, shelter, etc.) Extra chores that don’t need to be done on a regular basis can be done for pay, prices are negotiable. I don’t want my kids to expect to receive money, just because they’re breathing. I had hoped that would make them want to work harder to have more money, but they’ve just become very good at not spending their money. Well, at least they’re staying within their means…(I’ll refrain from inserting a political comment here.)

Where did $25 come from? Sounds like my grandsons…they think they’re worth the wages that experience earns. Annoys me.

This explains inflation - everybody wanting MORE!

JonD17: Glad you enjoy my parables as you call them. I think that’s why I love my class reunions so much because everyone has those kinds of stories there complete with family pictures. That’s how my parents and grandparents always explained things to me when I was a kid so I’d remember them. My Mom’s parents always told the best life stories because they grew up in, “the great depression” and that’s what you did because there was no radio or of course tv in those days. My family would sing but nobody played instruments like some families did otherwise we’d have some great songs to pass down to the generations.

I love Hobbs………..central Maine here.

In our family all were musicians. My mother and I played the piano and my brother the trombone and we sang very much.

Hey, Dino-1, I never understood why people ironed bed linens when they’d just wrinkle them up sleeping in them again at night.

Did you ever find the explanation why?

(Sunny (and hot!) Southern California

No pay for chores (you eat here, don’t you), but did get an allowance $5 every 2 weeks. First job was grocery checker at then min wage of $2.35/hr. Norfolk, VA (which explains why I’m never around at turnover).

from Pat Piano: Hey, Dino-1, I never understood why people ironed bed linens when they’d just wrinkle them up sleeping in them again at night.

Ha, ha, ha! My husband complained the other night that the clean sheets were wrinkled. I said, “so what? They’re going to get wrinkled when we sleep on ‘em”! ;) We got money for doing chores to teach us “finances” and all that good stuff. Am I the only one here from Minnesota?! :/

Hi

First time posting, but Calvin has the makings of a negotiator. A good one…????

St. Vincent and the Grenadines ( small island in the southern Caribbean)

I can remember getting a dollar allowance when I was older than Calvin. A dime was for Sunday School and some went into a piggy bank. Of course, we did chores. Another Kansan, the real center of the contiguous states. It’s 6:44 p.m.

USA, FL here. this prob will be the last post for here for the night for it’s 9:12 pm right now and this is the only time I could get on.

When I was a kid I got $5.00 for allowance for the things I did around the house and it had to last two weeks.

New York City says Hi. No yards to mow in our concrete jungle, but if there were, you can bet it would cost more than a buck.

I did this sort of thing just a few years ago simply as repayment for the privilege of being able to live and eat in the house. You mean I could have received money for it?? Nah - not at my house - thank God!!

I’m a long time Calvin and Hobbes fan originally from Inglewood and Carson, CA. Now in Albuquerque, NM USA.

Kansas City. I had full responsibility for all indoor and outdoor management, maintenance, cleaning, security, and repairs, including plumbing (!), except for laundry and cooking, from age 11 (the divorce) through 13 or 14, adding the cooking and laundry from 13 or 14 through 19, when I finally stuck out my thumb and hit the road. (Wasn’t big enough to lug the laundry to the laundromat until around age 13 or so.) No payment, no allowance most of the time, and no permission to get an after-school job. Once an aunt gave me a $20 bill for Christmas; I saved it for a prom dress by hiding it in my Bible. Dad stole it to go partying.

@Puddleglum2

Glad to have made your day - I’ve been going through most of the comments and enjoy reading anyway, though I don’t get most of the Bibilical references.

Yes, you’re right about Kerala. We spent our week in the magical mountains and tea estates of Munnar and the thick forests of Thekkady.

It does rain a good deal in Kerala and not just in the plains (unlike Spain). Though this is supposed to be a “deficient” monsoon year, we got to use our jackets and umbrellas quite often.

And despite my best intentions, I can’t see how I can relate all this to the comic, but hope Calvin mentions India (if not Kerala) someday and exonerates me!

Another Limey/Pom here reading CH everyday while sitting in the countryside 30 miles north of London

k8giggles said, about 23 hours ago

“my dad had a very interesting system for allowence. starting at age 4 each child got a weekly allowance equal to their age (so the 7 year old got $7)…”

It was the same for me, except it was 5¢ per year of age. But I was too cheap to ever spend my money anyway.

Fascinating to see where everyone is from - Chicago, IL, here…

Nice idea, Yukoner! I was born in Australia, now in Toronto, Ontario.

Never had an allowance, but well remember babysitting for a buck an hour, that’s per hour, people! And if a free shot at the fridge wasn’t included, I was busy ;-)

Stayed with friends at a US army base in the ’70s while my parents were in Vietnam (entertaining the troops), they doled out 30 bucks a month to me and their two kids. Might as well have been 1000, I thought I was rich!

if it ain’t too late to get in on this, i’m from Bramalea, ON (on the northwest edge of Toronto), and think this was a great idea - seeing where everyone is from, that is. salutations to all!

I’m a day off unfortunatly as a kid no pay just did what needed done. Wichita, KS

When i was a kid to have a dollar would’ve meant I was rich! The store keeper would even phone my Mom to tell her that I had that much cash! LOL Sunshine Coast of British Columbia, Canada