Recent Comments

1. 18 days ago on Gasoline Alley

   You must be a literalist. The attorney’s meaning is clear. Walt is not a member of the HOA as Charliefarmrhere said, therefore they have no authority to fine him at all.

2. 22 days ago on Peanuts Begins

   I have noticed that in these strips from 1952, Schulz is quite inconsistent on the weather. I went back and looked at the strips that have run on GC from January 1 to today. These strips originally ran during winter from January 31 to March 1 of 1952. Fifteen of the strips take place inside. Of those that show evidence of the season outdoors, 4 are winter (ice and snow), 4 appear to be Autumn (kids are wearing jackets), and 8 are summer (kids are in short sleeves).

3. 25 days ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   It’s a metaphor.

4. 25 days ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   Why do you think it would freeze solid? Snow that comes down at 30 degrees can experience much lower temperatures afterwards without freezing solid.

   Anyway, Happy Dog is correct. Assuming the thermos was at room temperature at Calvin’s house, the snow would be warmed slightly by the ambient heat of the thermos and then remain at that temperature, at least until time slowly allowed heat to penetrate the thermos.

   The real question is how did he get four snow balls from the contents of a child’s thermos? Twelve fluid ounces would be on the large size for a child’s thermos. That would make one large or two smallish snowballs, not four large ones.

5. about 1 month ago on Gasoline Alley

   Walt received two letters on the same day. The first was for Christmas lights (strip from 1-08) The second was about the tree (strip from 1-09). I don’t see a continuity error.

6. about 2 months ago on Peanuts Begins

   It already happened. According to the Peanuts Wiki, Violet called Charlie a blockhead on August 16, 1951, about 5 months before this strip.

7. about 2 months ago on Frazz

   Axial tilt is not relevant to the phenomenon. Imagine that earth had a perfectly circular orbit 0f 360 days with no axial tilt and that you are on the equator at the spot where the sun is directly overhead at noon as measured by a clock. If the earth turned 361 degrees each day (24 hours), then you would see the sun directly overhead at noon the next day and every day. During that day, the earth would have traveled through one degree of arc around the sun.

   However, if the orbit is an ellipse, the earth would travel through more than one degree of arc when it is close to the sun and less when it is farther away. So when closer to the sun, as we are around the time of the winter solstice, it would travel through more than one degree of arc each day (24 hours as measured by a clock) meaning that the spot where you are standing does not quite reach the point where the sun is directly overhead at noon as measured by that clock. “Solar noon” would occur slightly later, as would sunrise and sunset.

8. about 2 months ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   That’s his general outlook, but this particular strip does not reflect misanthropy by Watterson in any way I can see.

9. about 2 months ago on Frazz

   The earth rotates through 360 degrees at a constant rate. If the earth had a perfectly circular orbit, solar noon would occur at the same time every day. But earth’s orbit is an ellipse. We are closest to the sun and moving faster at about the time of the winter solstice. This means that 24 hours is not quite enough time for the earth to turn and show the same face to the sun. So sunset, solar noon, and sunrise all drift later. If you go to sunrisesunset(dot)com, you can create a calendar for your location.

10. about 2 months ago on Frazz

    Depending on where you live in the continental US, sunsets start getting later around December 10, a week and a half before the solstice.