Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for July 30, 2010

He should join forces with Lio.

You’ll need to be farther than that, Calvin!

G’Morning, Marg, Mike and Grog!

I dunno. Calvin and Lio either would be the best of friends or they’d kill each other; there’s just no telling.

On the other hand, if they gained up on Moe, then Moe would be history.

Calvin, if you want to contact the aliens, just play the five notes from Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Or go to Los Angeles (there you can find L.A.-ans).

LOL. Calvin, that is seriously desperate.

There was a line in some ole comedy sketch in the 50’s……about a drive in movie….

“come as you are but stay in your car”

Calvin, you’ll be grounded for months when they see this.

Oh no, single vignettes are not my favorites. Now I have to wait till tomorrow for more Calvin and Hobbes adventures.

Good night everybody. It’s almost 1 am on the East Coast and I have to work all night. For those of you who write “good morning,” are you just waking up? (so you’re in Europe, I assume?)

enfant_terrible….we’re in the Mountain Daylight time zone.. and right now it’s about midnight…

sooooooo…good morning!!

Oh, I see…it does make sense. Thanks @MontanaLady!

It’s 11:00 Thursday night here.

You certainly will be half way to that galaxy after Dad puts his boot to you.

Calvin! That’s a lot of work when all you needed was an aluminum foil hat!

In a certain sense his parents must be proud that he did so much work in the garden. That will definitely not happen again

Is Spaceman Spiff about to appear?

In Oregon it’s about 11:45 PM, so good morning (almost) to all.

I’ll bet Bill Watterson was a very compliant, obedient kid, and all this mischief was suppressed. What a great way to release it.

Can there be another Calvin watching from the skies?

i am in ohio & its 3:15 a.m …CALVIN YOU ARE IN SUCH DEEP DOO DOO. YOU NEED A PILLOW FOR YOUR HINNEY! BUT WE GOTTA LOVE YOU!

GOOD MORNING ALL!! HEHEHE

‘half way’ won’t be far enough, Calvin.

It’s 4:00AM now on the east coast NY so it is morning but unless the sun comes up it’s still nighttime to me. I’ve gotten up for nighttime potty training and also to check on other family members that are home from work and getting ready for sleep. This reminds me of the time me and my cousins made a SOS sign out of logs on the beach at a camp their parents rented. We were bored teens and wanted some handsome helicopter guys to come rescue us!

Even if you are not .. am sure they are going to be sending you there for sure ..

Good Morning. It’s 5:33 am here in the east.

that’s wat i think………He should be friend with lio!!

wel its late afternoon here in India .. almost 3.30 pm.. and im stuck in office with a lot of work :^)

thanks calvin u make my day

LW18 LADYWOLF, Was that pun intentional? I usually use single or double quotation marks for a pun word or words because not everyone is pun-sensitive (or wants to be). The last time I asked someone a similar question, he/she didn’t answer.

You’ve also dug your grave, Calvin, so you’ll soon be on your way far beyond the next galaxy, …that is, if you’re going to the right place!

What would really add to his handiwork, however, would be if he planted flowers in those letters. Then, even after the parents thought they had covered it all up, the words would magically reappear.

cdward, That’s ‘blooming’ clever! …although Calvin’s parents probably would ‘nip it in the bud’. I doubt that they would ‘dig’ it.

Johanan Rakkav, I quite agree. Thank you for the clarification.

Darned good penmanship with a spade.

TN-REDD, Since your comment was not impudent or impertinent, I think it deserves a response. It is my opinion that the BIG words add to the fun of the strip and the point I am trying to get across, and they enhance its PUNCH. Do I have to be a six-year-old to use big words, and if Calvin had lived the past fifteen years and grown to maturity, should he gradually have stopped using big words before he became an adult? There are hundreds of thousands of words in the English language. Most people use 10,000 to 25,000 of them. Some people say not to use a big word where a small one will do. That’s fine, but oftentimes big words have subtle nuances of meaning that explain, clarify, modify, quantify, etc. to make a statement more meaningful and comprehensible. If I’m not familiar, or familiar enough, with a word I see or hear, I look it up in a dictionary, sometimes more than one dictionary. Some people like my comments, and at least a few don’t. It seems that even billdi, in spite of his sarcasm, appreciates my efforts more than you do. That’s your prerogative. You have a right to your opinion. “To Each His Own” I tried to make this as short and pithy as I could, and still be thorough. Enjoy your day!

Wishfull thinking, Calvin.

Good Morning, Marg, Mike & ♠Lonewolf♠!

Well Puddleglum2!!! Nothing against your comments but TN_REDD has a point for sure… simple and stupid is many a times better.. :)

Puddleglum2 - I’m curious about your response. I love using an extensive vocabulary, but generally refrain from doing so lest those to whom I am speaking believe I’m “putting on airs”. My father had Bertrand Russel for a teacher of philosophy at UCLA, where one student did indeed make a show of using his rather extensive vocabulary. Russel stopped him once and pointed out that the fellow was less interested in learning than he was in demonstrating his superiority, that a truly intelligent person could use exactly the proper words without resorting to his repertoire of superior words. I don’t agree, entirely, but I personally believe that you have to take into account your public, and use a more “normal” vocabulary, generally, than a “superior” one, regardless of the possible nuances certain extensive vocabulary words can impart. When I was in college, they offered a class called “Basic English”, and the object was to use a very limited 100-word vocabulary to write extensive and complicated essays. It opens a whole new world, believe me.

While I agree with your sentiments, I enjoy the little tricks of using the English language, and what Waterson does with them in his marvelous C&H strip. Enjoy …

I’m in Illinois at 7:30. Calvin, you dont need an alien ship, just go into Spiff mode.

Only geniuses!

That looks big enough to be visible from space. Nicely done,since there was no airborne vantage point.

If you really dig around, there’s a hole lot more dirt on Calvin than this simple display in the yard!

JameJo… I don’t hear superiority when people use big words, I hear well read. It’s actually a joke amongst my friends and me, because there are a few of us that enjoy vocabulary, and we use big words all the time. And especially when reading something like C&H where a good bit of the humor comes from “superior” vocabulary as you put it. Puddleglum… keep it up with your big words!!!!

As long as we’re discussing the merits of the English language, I might as well point out the enormous redundancy of its vocabulary and the confusion that can cause even to native speakers.

One reason I like Biblical Hebrew so much is that it has such a pithy vocabulary on the one hand and the ability to use it in contextual idioms and combinations of words to make yet more idioms on the other. I like playing with nuances of meaning as well as anyone, but there’s a reason why I don’t go through the dictionary gathering vocabulary in order to do so. My talent in that area does no good if I’m the only one who understands what I’m talking about.

Puddleglum2.. I thank you taking the time to post your comment. I too frequent a dictionary. This morning’s strip is good example. ” Vignette” However , yesterday I was simply stating that sometimes, again, sometimes It is easier to see the forrest (Your point) without so many trees (BIG Words)…That’s all , nothing more. enfant_terrible I agree with you A short discriptive literary sketch is not my favorite either. Still humorus. Gotta love mister Waterson.

Since we are on the subject, I do enjoy the nuances of words, and the skillful use thereof.

Judging from this mornings comments,it appears we have a lot of people that don’t know night from day

Seems to me that too many people are judging others.

Maybe if you plant flowers in the letters mom won’t be quite so angry. Then again mowing would be a pain. Nope mom and dad are going to be…miffed.

Sounds like to me that both Calvin and Hobbes are perfect canidates to be SETI researchers.

Oh Calvin, how we are wanna follow your moves.

Unrelated Note: Does Anyone know what book it is when Calvin, and Hobbes make stuff out of clay, and Hobbes wear’s a smock, and says smock a ton? Thanks.

Good letter formation for a 6 year old! I couldn’t do better and I’m….., well older.

exoticdoc2 Are you sure about that. Just last month NASA found something like 110 exoplanets with this new earth orbit telescope. Just look at JohnRJ’s picture beside his comment. There’s one right there. He came as he was !

Good evening everybody! (5:40p.m. in Germany)

My garden looks similar - and I don’t know why. Well, it doesn’t form letters and words, it looks more like from a boar, but I’m sure, there are no boars in my village… Perhaps aliens wanted to get into contact with me???

Two of George Orwell’s ‘golden rules’ of clear writing:

never use a long word where a short one will do never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent

If you dont get visitors you got a good start on next years garden.

billdi………nicely stated ….

Long words are good for people with out a good education I guess. Must be why lawyers and bible students read the same books over and over to keep coming out with different meanings. Yes I know Im off base here ,some lawyers have enough smarts to stay out of jail and book out great fees

Interesting to see where all the posters are from.

Grog, you are right. My earlier comment has been edited accordingly. I still believe that it is not appropriate or polite for anyone here to challenge the vocabulary usage or composition of another. The variety and manner in which comments are made should be left up to each person with no fear of censor by others (profanity excluded). Variety being a spice of life, I do not wish to see anyone quoting ‘rules’ for anyone else. Even ‘golden rules’.

I’ll throw my hat in sorta but not on word comments makes me think I’m not that smart, it’s 11:07 am here in KS.

Calvin you will always have a way with words and your fascination of aliens.

Nice try Calvin. Get ready to run!

JAMEJO, According to Wikipedia, Bertrand Russell was a British philosopher, logician, mathematician, historian, atheist, socialist, pacifist, and social critic. Logician and atheist in the same sentence seem oxymoronic (with emphasis not on the oxy) to me, but I suppose Russell has his place, wherever that is. I agree that one should not “put on airs”, but the faultfinder and critic often see what isn’t there. In Russell’s case, he DOESN’T see “The God Who Is There” - Francis Schaeffer It appears that the main point where you and I don’t see I to I (eye to eye) is concerning my public. To me, my public, for the most part, are the ones who have affinity with, or are at least interested in my views, statements, and opinions. Based on today’s responses on this subject, LeslieAnne is a prime example of “my public”. BTW, Johanan Rakkav, I’m sure that you and LeslieAnne (I like that name) are not the only two people who understand and enjoy the use of BIG words. As I indicated earlier, big words are part of the fun, plays-on-words, etc. P.S. Bertrand Russell and I have at least one thing in common. I consider myself to be a history buff, although not a historian.

Imagine how utterly boring it would be if we all expressed ourselves the exact same way. It would be like listening to a bagpipe playing the same note 24/7. Not much fun.

I’m thankful not a one of you is lucky enough to sound like me. ;)

Bravo, grazer! Let’s enjoy (or at least ignore instead of criticizing) what and/or how others write.

Puddleglum2 I didn’t even know that I did a pun. I never really consider myself good in that category. :-)

Does this kid have a deathwish? First the car, and now this. Puddleglum - it’s long been my understanding that the English language has something on the order of three quarters of a million words in it. At least that’s the number, I think, in the humungeous new Oxford dictionary….

TN-REDD, I understood what you said yesterday, and I did not agree with you about “zap all the fun out of the strip and the point at which you are trying to get across. It loses its PUNCH.” I take the opposite view as I indicated earlier today. However, perhaps you have modified your position since yesterday, based on your comment earlier today.

BTW JAMEJO, That 100-word vocabulary thing sounds fine and dandy for a one-time (or few times) essay. To talk or write that way on a regular basis would be excruciatingly tedious, tiring, boring, dull, “etcetera, etcetera, etcetera”.

**Good morning Marg! Good morning Fran and Kizzzy! Good Morning L’Wolf! Good Morning Grog!**

Can you hear me Major Tom?

kinda weird considering the china incident last week

Star chic, I think it is “Homicidal Phsyco Jungle Cat” or “It’s a Magical World”

StarChic, its in “The Days Are Just Packed” book :)

Thanks guys! I’ll check them out right away! (I have all 3 at home)

Alrite.Ok Puddlegloom2 Look’s lik you can be putting words together more better than them who aint nevr heered as such . Shucks eye dint near about know folks could bend der mouths to make allem high falutin words an all.

Not at all trying to cause Ill feeling. I think each and everyone’s comments are special to whom writes it. That is what a comment is …Right? I never said you ( Puddleglum2)were in anyway harmful to people that read your comments. It is apprent that people do like them . I never said that anyone didn’t like them. So let’s move on ….nothing to see here… As you said “Each to his own” I couldn’t agree more….

Silly me. I read yesterday’s comic (and comments) before today’s, so just a few minutes ago I wrote my own endorsement of puddleglum’s vivid, precise and correct (with one glaring exception!) vocabulary under yesterday’s comments. Silly me!

I agree with grazer that variety is the spice of life. Billdi, don’t forget that Orwell and Russell were equally literate Brits, but Orwell would naturally favor short simple words (wisely chosen) because he was a novelist trying to get a point across to the general public in its own terms, while Russell typically chose rare and specific words because he was a scholar writing for the academe or for those debating complex theories. I enjoy both writing styles. Wittgenstein and Hemingway used simple words; P.G. Wodehouse and E.B. White used a delightful mix.

Love the discussion of language usage. I enjoy a mix of the terse and precise with the flowing and lengthier. Just like all the puns that have been floating around GoComics, careful use of big words can make a comment much more interesting. That is, so long as it’s not pretentious.

Johanan, biblical Hebrew does have one disadvantage: no vowels!

Oh dear Calvin you are not going to be able to sit down for quite a while. Good evening everyone from England at 2200 almost time for bed.

Oh dear Calvin you are not going to be able to sit down for quite a while. Good evening everyone from England at 2200, nearly time for bed.

Is he going to use Mom’s car to make his escape??

W.Rogers my hero

..I wish I could make this much cash doing nothing..

cdward, that’s a common misconception. Biblical Hebrew does too have vowels (in the Masoretic Text). In Modern Hebrew, Masoretic vowel-points are used in the Bible, prayer books, children’s texts and poetry, but almost nowhere else. They usually aren’t needed - by adults.

What of Biblical and Medieval Hebrew, as well as Modern Hebrew, outside the Masoretic Text? Well, normally Hebrew and related Semitic languages are shorthands. They have consonants, semi-consonants and letters called matres lectionis (“mothers of reading”) which show the presence of vowels. These languages do have vowels, and they are pronounced, but they normally aren’t written out. The grammatical rules of the languages imply what vowels are used in what contexts.

Yes, there can be problems with ambiguity for that reason, but no more so than the kind of ambiguity that exists (for different reasons) with the English words “read” and “lead”, for example. I find that my context-driven mind manages Hebrew’s strengths and weaknesses quite well.

Interestingly, the one Hebrew word whose pronunciation has been the most debated is the one whose pronunciation can be the most easily proved IF one has full access to the grammatical and accentual rules involved and takes them into account. That word is the famous YHWH, which should be transliterated as Yehawweh.

Good Morning from Scotland where it is 8:13 am on Saturday

Puddleglum… Thanks for the compliment on my name… I like yours as well… From CS Lewis I assume??? A classic! :)

I love the back and forth discussion! Whatever your opinion, it makes everyone look at the issue from someone else’s opinion and defend that which they believe and adhere to!!

BTW TN-REDD… It’s really hard to “not cause ill feeling” when you say things like the comment you made in “country speak” for lack of a better way to put it. You are implying that people with poor grammar are stupid… and that is far from the truth.I know plenty of country people that speak that way yet are WAYYY smarter than a lot of people that use big words.

I think Russel’s point was that some folks use their vocabulary as a pretentious move. He indeed had an extensive one himself, and used it adroitly, and with finesse. He was far from being an intellectual snob, though, and that was more his intent in addressing the issue in class.

I didn’t mean to point any fingers here. I, too, am capable of and frequently use a fairly large vocabulary, but again I limit it to appropriate situations. When I write letters to the editor, I want people, generally, to understand what my point is. When I write an essay I expect that more scholarly types will be reading it, and when I want to make an extremely precise point, I use extremely precise language. Just ask my very tolerant wife.

Keep writing any way you like; it doesn’t hurt.

…And pray that there’s intelligent life somewhere up in space ‘cause there’s bugger-all down here on earth!

Can you spell “grounded”?