Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for February 04, 2010

Calvin, Spawn of Spores….

Hobbes, the instigater

Margue has a heart now, Valentinsday is near!

There’s a fungus among us!

LX013, we have to get you an avatar picture!

Why is even talking to Hobbes at 2 am ? His mom is right. He should be asleep.

How can you sleep with a question like that on your mind?

Margue: An avatar picture is a good idea, I don’t know, how to place it here!

LX013, go to your home page. Click on ‘profile’. When that opens, click on ‘edit profile’. On the right of the page that opens, you’ll see ‘browse’. Click on that, and choose a picture that you have in ‘my pictures’, or somewhere else. Open it, and click on the ‘upload’ bar under the ‘browse’ button. It has to be a jpeg file, and can’t be too large in size.

Good luck! Good night now.

Spore, sperm what’s the difference?

just love Hobbes’ expression in the last panel. saying it “matter of fact”ly

In upstate NY we have the horrible “stomach flu” going around and of course I got it. I still have the splitting non-relenting headache left so I’m catching up on the strips and then back to bed. I loved the one from yesterday. I remember when the hamster dance video was going around and we used to send it to everyone. It was cool until someone decided to attach a virus that ate through your computer system while you watch the cute hamsters dancing. There were warning everywhere and on the television all the time. My granddaughter’s who’s 3 favorite book right now is Elmo. We have one that has three mini stories in it with- My Brother’s A Little Monster, Elmo’s First Babysitter, and Elmo Goes To The Doctor. I got it for her birthday figuring atleast it would help her overcoming some childhood fears. The best part is when my son comes over to tuck her in bed and he can do the Elmo voice. He does a great english lady’s voice too when he play teatime with her dishes. They both make me laugh so hard that it makes me cry. On today’s strip… My granddaughter wakes me up to sing, “The Animals Are Coming” in the middle of the night. It’s the Noah’s Ark song which I tried to sing to her one night because she wanted me to sing her a new song. Of course since I can’t remember how it goes so I change it everytime and I just make sure it rhymes. I’ll look it up on the internet sometime to get the real words but she loves that it changes and it makes her laugh.

What’s the difference? The first is insulting, the second just might delight Calvin with its “grossness”.

I would have reacted the same way,getting scared to death in the middle of the night,then being asked a crazy question,have Calvin clean his room at two in the morning,that should tire him out,lol.

Margue: What do you say now! I have done it!

Every face in every panel is a classic: mom scared-disoriented, mom cocerned, mom angry, calvin dubitative, hobbes smuggly superior know-it-all. On the other hand, Calvin could have been spawn from a spore…It would explain so many things. Calvin: The Next Step in Human Evolution, brought to you before anybody else by Bill Waterson!!

LX013, It didn´t work. You are still a flower.

I know that my Ex had to have come from spores because nothing like that could be human.

mexdr1958: I wanted a flower!

LX013, it’s a beautiful flower. :) And margueritem, love the heart!

Ooopppsss!! I undestood you wanted an Avatar picture (as in the movie), I didn´t catch the idea your avatar was the flower. Can you find a place in your heart to forgive me? ;P

The avatars are retroactive! When Marg said, “We have to get you an avatar,” I thought, “But…LX has one!” Then I thought, “Well, duhh…it must’ve worked.” Good choice, LX. Marg, yours is appropriate for the season, as always. Can’t wait to see what you come up with for Lent! ;-0

Thanks for finding my flower beautiful!

I reckon all the little amobeae feel slighted. (boo hoo)

Hobbes knows all!

‘she must not know’ …and how does she have a kid, then?! I love Calvin!

I always love it when Hobbes is playing with Calvin’s mind, because that means that Calvin’s imagination is playing with his own mind.

love mom’s expression in the third panel….

That is a lovely flower LX013. Good choice.

As for Calvin’s mom, I’d give him stern warning. You wake me up in the middle of the night to ask one of your ridiculous questions ever again, and the next question you’ll be asking is how long it will be before you can sit down again because your butt will be so sore!

No Calvin, they come from scores.

Dang, the mention of Lent makes me remember that I have to finish all of my open bottles before Lent starts, as I always give up drinking for Lent. It’s tough, and I’m generally a non-practicing Catholic, but it keeps me out of rehab :-) If my Saints win the SuperBowl, I don’t think I’ll have any problem making empties out of the opens though.

Hobbes, you are one of a kind buddy!

Go Colts!

GO COOOOOLTS!!! (for missing)

Gezz… Mom as long as your already awake why don’t you answer the question? Unless parish the thought she really don’t know. And I’ll bet she’s stops off in the bathroom before she goes back to bed anyway.

Mom, you may as well say yes.

There was this one time at band camp…

Now, Dad’s answer to that would have been interesting, to say the least!

If you know this strip, you know exactly what I mean.

@Paul M., you fail to consider (1) how mom is feeling right now, (2) whether mom is thinking clearly enough at 2:00 a.m. to answer with sufficient accuracy and insight to satisfy her little INFP, and possibly (3) whether the Mi-Go will approve her answer.

Does anybody know the answer??—If so, please speak up….I don’t want to end up wide awake and wondering tonight.

I thought we just accumulated in some dark corner one long winter month…

… well after some careful consideration I have come to a conclusion bmonk: As to (1) Maybe it would have been a better idea to stay with the feeling of fear that appears to be displayed in panel one. As for panel two For all Mom knows Calvin just woke from a terrible nightmare. In his scared state of mind rather it be from the aforementioned or he’s been laying awake letting his imagination run wild shouldn’t matter… She don’t know which might explain her state of mind/feelings? Then in panel three everything goes up in a cloud of dust, so whatever her feelings she’s made her mind up and finds no reason to be concerned about her son and if this is somehow because as you point out he might suffer from some type of mental ailment then I feel even more concerned for Calvin. Now as for what the http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mi-go will think of her answer I don’t know but anything might have been better than to leave Calvin worse off then he was when it all started back in panel one? I do however have a idea of what the Mi-go’s would think of my answer but I’ll save that for another time, right now I have to go to the bathroom.

INFP, bmonk? ENFP rather. This lad’s no introvert, his strongest ability is his syncretic imagination backed by his sense of personal values (rather than vice versa), he crusades against injustice (which in his mind is often the same as authority plain and simple), his sense of group values is quicker to condemn others than to support them (an INFP wouldn’t be like that), he withdraws with his imaginary friend when he needs to center himself on his personal values…I could go on…I know a fellow screwball of this type when I see one!

Calvin’s dad, like Bill W., may be an INFP, however. Dad’s imagination (when we see it) supports his sense of personal values and not the other way around.

Calvin [in bed]: DAAADD! Dad: What?? Calvin: I’m thirsty. Can you bring me a glass of water? Dad: NO! Go to sleep!

Five minutes later. Calvin: DAAAADD!! Dad: What is it now? Calvin: I’m thirsty. Can you bring me a glass of water? Dad: I told you, NO! Go to sleep. If you ask again you’ll get a spanking!!

Five minutes later. Calvin: DAAAADD!! Dad: Now what?? Calvin: When you come up to spank me, would you bring me a glass of water?

Good thing Calvin called Mom instead of Dad.

Mom’s answer was OK. Better that trying to breach the truth on that delicate subject at 2AM without preparation.

Where’s Calvin’s Dad? Usually Mom delegates the midnight emergencies to him. I would have enjoyed the fairy tale that he would probably have come up with - like when he explained that the sun sets “somewhere in Arizona. That’s why all the rocks are red and orange…”.

This is not right Calvin would find it so neat to have come from spores He couldn’t wait to gross out Susie

Johanan Rakkav I’m afraid I have to go along with bmonk. If he were an ENFP, I think he’d have a lot more friends than he does. Hobbes is his best & only friend. He may go to school with Suzy and Mo, but they are no friends.

I think they come from the cabbage patch.

Well…maybe “They grow from seeds,” would have satisfied him. It has the added advantage of being close to the truth, if in a metaphoric rather than a strict biological sense. No followup questions allowed, however.

well of course!

Calvin, ask the monsters under the bed. They specialize in Human anatomy and development….but do take care to stay on top of the bed when you ask. They get very hungry around 2 AM.

Shucks Mom, if you didn’t answer Calvin’s question, how can you expect him to go to sleep.

Just ignore him, he will eventually go to sleep, jejejejeje…. unless Hobbes keeps stirring his mind, then his teacher will be in for it in the morning trying to keep him awake.

Oh well, that’s life.

Is Mom’s answer as cold as the following item?: TODAY’S NUMBER: -81.4F - the coldest outdoor temperature recorded in North America to date, at Snag in Canada’s Yukon, on this day in 1947. Yukoner, I doubt that you were there, and are probably glad you weren’t.

If people came from spores, it would be ‘spore-radical’.

This reminds me SO MUCH of one of my own little Calvins (I have two of them–lucky me!–twin 7-year-old girls). The one in this case can stay awake until 2 or 3 am, thinking of the oddest questions, because her brain literally doesn’t stop and she can’t relax. I think my favorite question was “Do spiders have knees?” Since I have a degree in animal sciences, I was able to answer that yes, they do, they have seven knees on each leg–that’s a lot of joints!–which satisfied her, and she went happily back to bed…until the next time.

This girl and her sister are diagnosed with severe ADHD, and I’m a bit surprised that no-one has ever brought up that Calvin might have it as well. He certainly has all the hallmarks: he’s highly intelligent, if not a genius (one of mine is, which sometimes gives me the heebie-jeebies), imaginative, disconnected from his peers, distrustful of authority and unable to sit still for long periods. He reminds me of my own girls so much sometimes I wonder if Bill Watterson knew a child with this disorder.

But so far, she’s not asked if people come from spores.

Poor Calvin. I had a cat once. Curiosity killed it. Boy am I glad he’s dead.

Johanan Rakkav said, about 4 hours ago

“INFP, bmonk? ENFP rather. This lad’s no introvert, his strongest ability is his syncretic imagination backed by his sense of personal values (rather than vice versa), he crusades against injustice (which in his mind is often the same as authority plain and simple), his sense of group values is quicker to condemn others than to support them (an INFP wouldn’t be like that), he withdraws with his imaginary friend when he needs to center himself on his personal values…I could go on…I know a fellow screwball of this type when I see one!”

Ah, but I happen to be an INFP myself, over close to an INTP, but still, I do know a bit about the type.

I also crusade against injustice, tend to withdraw to recenter on my values and recover my energies, like Calvin. But, as BC13 pointed out, if Calvin is an Extravert, where are all his friends? He’d have been at home in that Cub Scout pack, making friends and chatting away. Instead, the most memorable event there was that he wandered away from the group, marching to the beat of his own drummer… The INFP may be monastic in behavior most of the time, but scratch a bit deeper, and we turn into a questor, seeking–well, something to believe in, or fit into our own world view, or build. Fits Spaceman Spiff, and Tracer Bullet, and many other characters of Calvin perfectly. (Note how many other characters any of them have around as well!)

In panel 2, we get a glimpse of a normal boy and his mother like we did with Dad reading a bedtime story. Mom’s anger at being awakened for what seems like a silly question is also normal.

Calvin, can’t you see that Hobbes is just trying to mess with you? Remember the time he told you that tigers eat caterpillars by the truckload?

clever tiger - he winds up Calvin’s mind like the mainspring in a Rolex and then gets to watch it fly around the room like a golf ball hit by a sand wedge in the bathroom….

Actually, my mom would have been up at 2:00 am, so it wouldn’t have been a problem. Don’t know if she would have known the answer tho.

I remember hearing that from my mom… “It’s 2 o’clock in the morning! Why are you even awake?”

And then she’d take the flashlight and the Childcraft encyclopedia away and I’d be left wondering what all those neat things were that I didn’t get to read about yet until I’d drift off to sleep.

I could have used a Hobbes to run interference for me!

He’s right - it must be true!