Recent Comments

1. about 16 hours ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   “Watterson has never actually claimed that Hobbes is real but an example of different views of reality.”

   First of all, you’ve contradicted YOUR claim that Hobbes IS real, an objectively real, large living tiger that ONLY Calvin among ALL the beings in the entire UNIVERSE of C&H has the “special ability” to “correctly” perceive.

   Second, the washing machine strips DESTROY the claim that the nature of Hobbes is “subjective”. The machine CAN’T have a “different view of reality”. It can’t have ANY view. It’s an inanimate object. It can only hold what is OBJECTIVELY small enough to fit in it. Hobbes must OBJECTIVELY be the size of a doll. Therefore, contrary to YOUR claim, Calvin does NOT correctly perceive Hobbes. You ADMITTED that Calvin imagined Hobbes being large enough to put Calvin in his mouth.

2. about 16 hours ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   “I often feel that you are dishonest with me and I have pointed out examples of this in the past”

   “feelings” are not the basis for a factual claim. Correct observation and reason are. You can’t cite a single example of me stating something I know to be untrue. YOU, OTOH, HAVE stated something you KNOW to be untrue, such as quoting Watterson saying “COULD make up” instead of “WOULD make up” even after you were given the source for the correct quote and you had acknowledged that you had gotten it wrong. That is FACT.

   “I keep explaining to you that I am NOT trying to prove that Hobbes is real”

   As you often do, you’re trying very hard to evade the point, which is that you have often cited Watterson saying “Hobbes is more real than I suspect any kid would dream up” as “confirmation” of something. Yet AGAIN, Watterson based his “suspicion” on his claim that “when you make up a friend for yourself, you would have somebody to agree with you, not to argue with you.” But Watterson INVALIDATED that claim and therefore his “suspicion” by showing Calvin ENJOYING the fight with Hobbes. So the thing YOU cite as “confirmation” has NO basis.

   “I started to suspect Hobbes has a life away from Calvin when I noticed that he is shown as a real living character – and often speaks directly to us through the Fourth Wall – when Calvin is elsewhere and he is on his own.”

   Proof of nothing, of course, since you’ve admitted that Calvin can imagine that.

3. about 17 hours ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   “I have admitted that Calvin must have been imagining things when he was almost completely swallowed by Hobbes.”

   Then you ADMIT that Calvin’s perception of Hobbes does NOT have to be reality, just as it was NOT reality for Calvin to see the PHYSICAL IMPOSSIBILITY of being the size of a bug, being the size of a galaxy, being 2D, traveling to Mars in a toy wagon with no protection from the vacuum of space, etc etc. Therefore, your claim that a five foot Hobbes fits in the machine solely because Calvin sees it is FALSE.

   “As we both agree, Hobbes – as we see him when he is either alone with Calvin or completely alone – is not big enough to swallow Calvin’s torso but he is large enough to swallow Calvin’s head”

   God, you love to use sneaky tactics. I don’t agree to that at ALL. Hobbes can’t swallow anything because he is a DOLL.

4. about 17 hours ago on The Born Loser

   I’ve never understood why people don’t bother to look where they’re sitting.

5. 1 day ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   “I read The Encyclopaedia of Cartoon Animals which has an entry on Hobbes. This entry quotes Watterson as saying “I suspect he is more real than any kid would make up”. You tell me that Watterson meant that he did not imagine anyone would imagine an imaginary friend who argues with them and that Calvin sometimes enjoys an argument and fight with Hobbes.”

   How sneaky of you to imply that it’s only something I “told” you. I did much more than that. I showed that it’s a documented fact. I’ll repeat the exact quote (Which is EASILY Googled and which you ALWAYS omit) from The Comics Journal #127 (March 1989), and conducted by Richard Samuel West:

   WATTERSON: It would seem to me, though, that when you make up a friend for yourself, you would have somebody to agree with you, not to argue with you. So Hobbes is more real than I suspect any kid would dream up.

   WEST: Well, at the risk of getting into psychobabble, a lot of psychologists would say that children create imaginary friends to play out family dramas. So an argument can be just as much a part of an imaginary world as, you know, a sort of sentimental, gooey friendship can be.

   WATTERSON: Yeah, well, I would hope that the friendship between Calvin and Hobbes is so complex that it would transcend a normal fantasy.

   “you are certainly right that Calvin sometimes enjoys arguing and fighting with Hobbes”

   So you ADMIT that Watterson was WRONG when he said “when you make up a friend for yourself, you would have somebody to agree with you, not to argue with you.” Since you ADMIT that Calvin enjoyed the fight with Hobbes, and since he WOULD do something he enjoys, he WOULD make up a friend who would argue with him. So the very thing that you cite as the basis for both Watterson’s and your claim that Hobbes is real has NO support.

6. 1 day ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   “Please stop judging me by your own dishonest standards.”

   I judge you by the simple standard that you have said things that you know to be untrue. That is NOT a dishonest standard. It is YOU who have been dishonest.

   “I read my first book collection some months later and noticed to strips which – surprisingly to me – showed Hobbes as alive and speaking directly to us after Calvin had left him on his own. I started to look out for strips which show Hobbes on his own and to remember them.”

   That means NOTHING, since you have ADMITTED that Calvin can imagine Hobbes doing that. But the washing machine strips DEFINITIVELY prove that Hobbes CANNOT be the large living tiger YOU claim he is.

7. 1 day ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   “we have agreed that the washing machine is real.”

   Yes, and we know that Hobbes fits in the machine. What YOU claim is that it’s a FIVE FOOT Hobbes fitting in the machine, EVEN THOUGH THAT’S PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE.

   “Calvin has sat on the rea washing machine and opened the lid and seen Hobbes inside the tub and they have spoken to one another.”

   CALVIN sees A PHYSICAL IMPOSSIBILITY. A five foot Hobbes is as large or LARGER than known adult humans such as Shari Lewis, Danny Devito, Aron Eisenberg, Judy Garland, or Jada Pinkett Smith, to cite some examples. NO rational person would say it’s physically possible for THOSE people to fit in a household top loading washing machine with an agitator. THEREFORE, logic DICTATES that it is ALSO physically IMPOSSIBLE for Hobbes to fit in the machine. Calvin saw the PHYSICAL IMPOSSIBILITY of being the size of a bug, being the size of a galaxy, being 2D, traveling to Mars in a toy wagon with no protection from the vacuum of space, etc etc. Not even YOU would claim those things are real and possible SOLELY BECAUSE CALVIN SEES THEM. But that is EXACTLY what you’re claiming when you say “Calvin saw it, so it must be real and possible”. You are claiming NONSENSE. And once again, You admitted that Calvin imagined Hobbes being large enough to fit Calvin in his mouth.

8. 1 day ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   “That is NOT a fact. We have seen Hobbes as Calvin sees him inside the tub of the washing machine.”

   WRONG. It IS a fact. You have AGREED that Hobbes as Calvin sees him is five feet tall. That makes him as big or BIGGER than known adult humans such as Shari Lewis, Danny Devito, Aron Eisenberg, Judy Garland, or Jada Pinkett Smith, to cite some examples. NO rational person would say it’s physically possible for THOSE people to fit in a household top loading washing machine with an agitator. THEREFORE, logic DICTATES that it is ALSO physically IMPOSSIBLE for Hobbes to fit in the machine. Your obliviousness to logic and physical reality is amazing.

   “I saw that in a strip from 1989”

   SO WHAT?? You’ve ALSO seen Calvin as the size of a bug, Calvin as the size of a galaxy, Calvin as a 2D being, Calvin traveling to Mars in a toy wagon with no protection from the vacuum of space, etc etc. Not even YOU would claim those things are real and possible simply because Calvin saw them. We KNOW that Calvin FREQUENTLY sees physically impossible things BECAUSE HE IMAGINES THEM. CALVIN IS IMAGINING THAT A FIVE FOOT HOBBES FITS IN THE MACHINE. That’s the point that you can NEVER escape. You’ve even admitted that Calvin imagined Hobbes being large enough to fit Calvin in his mouth. Your “it’s real and possible SOLELY because Calvin sees it” claim doesn’t wash AT ALL.

9. 1 day ago on Calvin and Hobbes

   “I did not know the context of the quote when I read it in The Encyclopaedia of Cartoon Animals.”

   The point you keep trying to squirm away from, but which I will continue to emphasize, is that you DID and DO know the context after I gave it AND the source for it to you, yet you STILL continued and continue to OMIT the context even after I did so. That’s because you KNOW that Watterson invalidated his own assumption that Calvin would not imagine a friend who disagrees with him by showing Calvin ENJOYING the fight with Hobbes, thereby showing that Watterson had no basis for “suspecting” that Hobbes is real. And you continued to falsely use the word “could” instead of “would” even after I gave the source for the correct quote. Blatant dishonesty on your part.

10. 2 days ago on Geech

    Mel does it wrong, but Geech doesn’t know that.