Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for December 20, 2009

Another pleasant dream comes to an end.

Only in your dreams, Calvin. Didn’t work for me, either.

We all tried!

Dreams come true, Calvin. It’s winter and they’re ‘bout to be some snow days off of school.

Why does the jet have a tail under the bottom?

It doesn’t. I’m probably misnaming the appendage, but that’s one of the rear wings and it’s horizontal. It only seems vertical due to perspective.

(sigh indeed)…Some days it seemed funny at the time to dream of the destruction of the school, but only as a gag. Calvin really hates school. And that’s too bad.

Never mind, that’s just a badly drawn stabilizer.

It’s a ruddy rudder.

I used to dream the same dream, only I was the vice-principal. Big sigh.

Yukoner Do I take it you didn’t love your work?

Then he woke up and it’s back to reality.

They need to make school more FUN!

kreole - Where ya been for the last 20 years? It’s an F-15 it has a 45 degree “horizontal”! That gets it out of the turbulence caused by the wings in high G turns. Any kid knows that!

They take all the fun parts out of school - Art, Music, Physed, anything extracurricular - all in the name of providing better education.

And with this “education” what will you have to enjoy ???

If you cut the arts, and music, and theatre, sooner or later, you will find kids aren’t going to have anything to read or write about.

School hater!

Not at all Ivy0730. I love the learning process, but Readin’ , Writin’ , and ‘Rithmetic is only the main course. Art, Music, Theatre, Sports - that’s Desert !!!

Calvin, you failed in your mission because you selected the wrong tool for the job. The Eagle is an Air-Superiority Fighter and not a Ground Attack Aircraft. What you should have been driving was the F-16 Falcon with a ground attack package.

Panel 6…see Lichtensteins, “Wham!”

Ken: The F-15E is a ground attack aircraft and can go where no F-16 ever went before. What we really need now is the F-22 in all it’s variations, but our Progressive congress seems to think they fight every war far into the future with only Predators and non-stealthy F-35 Joint Strike Fighters. How wrong is that?

wow the number of times i imagined destroying my university, seeing it blow up

Fer Lefer: On my comment on yesterday’s strip - Ok then I stand corrected! I don’t remember thinking that about school but there was a place and supervisor I wished I could crater. I did a little dance and sang a little country song that was popular at the time about a guy that said he wasn’t workin’ here no more in the parking lot after I found a better job.

Don’t you wish , Calvin?

The F-15 Eagle was an air superiority fighter. The F-15E Strike Eagle is a ground support derivative of that airplane. It was used as such during Desert Storm and other wars. So I think two people are talking about two different airplanes. You could tell them apart by the configuration of the external fuel tanks, but that’s not clear in these drawings. Don’t you love how Watterson draws most of the cartoons in comic style, but does some very realistic, detailed stuff when it’s called for? Spaceman Spiff’s ship, for example, is an interplanetary sport craft with a General Hulls #2 hull, specially modified for rough landings. ;-)

When I was a kid there were two elementary schools one for K-3rd grade and the other for 4-6 grade, but that was during the baby boomer days. Later on when people were having less kids they tore down the older of the two schools and K-6 went to the newer building. I’ll never forget how I felt when I saw the place where the other school had been. Sort of empty but in a way wondering why it couldn’t have happened while I was there lol!

If you want to do some serious mud moving and ground pounding you need an A-10 Warthog.

Calvin should have used an old dependable A-1 Skyraider.

Calvin has the same dream that every other kid has,and the same disappointment when it doesn’t come true.

Yah, I’ve been trying to do that and it doesn’t work. lol

The appendage on this F-15E Strike Eagle is the horizontal stabilizer/elevator (a single assembly in this case, on some aircraft a fixed horizontal stabilizer and movable elevator)

Y’all need to homeschool. Even if you don’t buy into the “public schools are evil” philosophy, after a few years, your kids will be begging to go to public/private school (unless they are really unusual - which is a bad fit for public school anyway - like Calvin, come to think of it). They’ll get more out of it because they’ll appreciate what it has to offer. (No system is perfect. My daughter wanted to do the choir, marching band, and jazz band thing - not easy with homeschool.)

Hey Tim - The junior bird man song also requires the ability to make googles with downward pointing fingers. Just make the circles with your thumb and pointer and your other 3 fingers pointing up and then flip them over on your face.

Kaboom! Oh, wait, that was just a dream.

Aww, man!

Susan i remember that song well. the lyic in the 3rd line was slightly different in the version i knew; but, close enough for jazz.

It doesn’t improve when you’re grown either, Calvin: http://www.youtube.com/v/PQ1V9dQB-rw

u wish calvin

Susan001 Our version in N. IL: Mine eyes have seen the glory of the burning of the school We have trampled every teacher We have broken every rule Mr. (insert principal’s name here)tried to stop us But we beat him to the duel as we go marching home!

Glory glory hallelujah Teacher hit me with a ruler Bopped her on the bean with a rotten tangerine And her teeth came marching out!

Ouch! I love school.

As you grow older you get more focused..

You fantasise about blowing your Boss/Colleague to bits and not the whole office.. cos you know office pays for your kid’s fantasies.. hehe..

OK all of you arguing over the best aircraft with which to destroy the school. Give it a rest!!!!! It’s a cartoon and one that strikes a deep chord in many of us. You wouldn’t have been having this argument if Calvin had been dressed as Spaceman Spiff.

OK … in panel 2, how does Calvin make googles with his hands like that? I never realized that Calvin was double jointed.

Military geeks, please stop going off on a tangent and just enjoy one of the classic Calvin Sundays.

In the Italian Banana Republic we don’t have F-15s, but we have Mariastella Gelmini as Minister of in(de)struction and university :-) She’s nuking our schools with much less fuel consumptions!

If only calvin knew that believing the the impossible is just another way to make his school life worse

Ssejhill To make Calvin’s goggles, hold your hands in front of you as if you’re praying. Now separate your hands about five inches. Without moving the rest of your fingers, bring the tips of your right index finger and right thumb together, and the tips of your left index finger and left thumb together. Now adjust your hands (if necessary) so that these four finger tips are touching and keep them touching. Your other six fingers are still in praying position. These are your goggles.

To put them on, you have to be flexible. Rotate them into position by bending your wrists and elbows toward your face. Now bend your head forward and put on your googles. Then hold them on your face while you tip your head back up.

Hmmm…looks like the F-15 didn’t work. Next time, Calvin, try using the Transmogrifier to change yourself into Godzilla or something.

I used to think that same thing when I was in 7th grade. Then 8th and 9th grade came and I made friends that hated school as much as I did.

School getting blown up….every kid’s dream.

SIGH….

Nobody’s been here in 10 years. Makes you wonder how many of them left Gocomics.