Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for July 16, 2009

It is great fun to make up rules as you go along.

Oh Hobbes, you’re in for it now!

I guess Hobbes took the joke a little to far this time

How come Mom and Dad are letting Calvin stay up this late?

Hobbes, get out of the tree! Calvin might whack at you like a piñata.

Where is the comic book that Hobbes was reading?

Don’t mean to nitpick further, but either BW misdrew the phase of the moon (that one appears just before dawn, not between sunset and midnight) or else C&H live south of the equator. :) I just noticed that and thought it was funny.

Or…maybe it really IS Opposite Day and the moon’s playing along. ;)

And we ALL know how you are with pinatas, huh Carmy??

A bee-sting doesn’t hurt THAT much. A wasp or a mud-dauber or yellowjacket is something else again, much more like Calvin’s reaction.

vibjyor said,

It is great fun to make up rules as you go along.

Yeh, Hobbes is going bossy and enjoy the fun out of it!

Um ! Hobbes you planning on staying up there all night. Where’s the comic book at by the way.

I’m trying to decipher the last panel: “No” means that come midnight when Hobbes tries to come down, Calvin might swing at him like a baseball. I hope that’s right…

The only way Hobbes can make this worse is by telling Calvin the end of Captain Napalm

C’mon people. Wasp/bumble-bee/hornet/honeybee- they were all “bees” when you were a kid.

“When Crying- Stung by Bee”

Rakkav - Nice thinking, I agree it’s Opposite Day and the moon’s playing along.

In that case, I’m going back to bed!!

What does the phase of the moon have to do with the time of the day? It should be based on a more monthly calander. A full moon is a full moon all day long, when you get to see it in the sky depends on where you live.

I got stung by a bumble bee a few weeks ago - posted earlier - didn’t hurt as much as one previously 30 some years ago (2 stings in my memory’s lifetime). Glad it didn’t swell up like it did with my brother - he had to use a Epi-Pen & rush to Hospital for further evaluation (I drove him).

But - I enjoy the Humor of this weeks story-line!

Rakkav The moon goes through its prescribed phases on a regular cycle and can be seen in it’s phases without regard to hemisphere.

Calvin has the flood lights on so he can bee there until 12 am. end of opposite day.

artybee – When you expect a bee sting to hurt, it will. I once got stung by a bee when I was about five. Didn’t stop crying for hours.

Guess Hobbes wins this round. Sort of.

I love the way calvin says “yes” in the last panel, it’s priceless.

Looks like Calvin won’t be sitting down for a week! It bit him on the b-u-t-t.

Since it’s Opposite Day, we should discuss the “Lie of the Moon.” When the moon makes the letter C in the sky (as it’s doing in panel 4), the C stands for the Latin word “crescens” meaning “to increase.” But the moon is actually in its last quarter and waning. Likewise, when the moon looks the opposite, it is like part of the letter “D” for “decrescens” or decreasing, when the moon is actually waxing toward full. I think that the waning moon, as seen in panel 4, is visible only from midnight till dawn. So Hobbes has been in the tree for awhile (though I doubt that Bill W. gave a moment’s thought to ANY of this). I expect you’ll all be thanking me for this knowledge.

Hobbes would visit Broomie if they were tuna pies.

Wilson Bob Tucker always said “Don’t let the facts stand in the wa of a good story!” This is a comic strip people. Enjoy it. Waterston isn’t trying to reflect reality here, he’s trying to entertain us and succeeding marvelously at it.

OK people, here’s the lowdown: (1) Yes, the moon is playing along on Opposite Day, (2) Calvin overreacted from a bee sting [bees do not bite!], but since when doesn’t he overreact to anything–like father, like son–remember the binoculars? and (3) the Capt Napalm comic is up in the tree with Hobbes, so Calvin wll never know how it ends, and if Hobbes tells him, can he trust him on Opposite Day (or any other day)? Thank you. Now that I’ve resolved all these issues, I’m moving to Minnesota to run as a senator.

artybee

what is a mud-dauber ?

comicgirl, a mud-dauber is a wasp, sometimes known as a paper wasp-they build cellular structured hanging nests from the underside of roof edges, or patio roofs, in trees, etc. They are prone to being quite aggressive so it’s usually not a good idea to let them near your home.

I love it when people try to analyze cartoons and/or find flaws in them. They’re CARTOONS. Cartoons have no rules! The cartoon bee stung the cartoon boy and he flew into the air in cartoon style… end of story.

Ray C thank you for all that knowledge. I know you were expecting the thank you and I didn’t want to disappoint you.

Thank you Mr. Franken. This must finally be your decade.

Opposite day or not, Hobbes better not come down now that Calvin’s armed.

Mud daubers & paper wasps are not the same. Paper wasps make nests that look like they are made out of paper. Mud daubers’ nests are made of mud. Both can sting, but the paper wasps are more aggressive than the mud daubers.

oooo, white-headed stingers. they make hives in the ground. my brother and i made the mistake of standing on an entrance, once. they swarmed us, hid in our clothes and stung once we started moving again (completely unaware of the takeover). i think i may have jumped as high as Calvin that day. we had to strip down in public and run for our lives to get rid of them… never been back to that park.

RayC, if Bill W. submits a cartoon with a trapezoid moon dancing with a hexagonal sun, while Calvin is being torn apart by Hobbes on a kaleidoscope bus, will you explain the latin terms to me? Thanks!

Tell him how it ends, then he will be Soooooooooooooo mad that he’ll just turn and walk away.

I’m guessing tomorrow will be “Pinata Day”?

@RayC, maybe Mr. Watterson did the moon that way because of so many Hollywood movies that get the moon wrong. An easier way to remember the moon phases is “DOC”: first a D shape, seen to the East in the afternoon and evening, than O for the full moon, and finally a C shape in the morning West.

Bmonk, what you are saying is that since there is a “C” moon it is already past Midnight and Hobbes has cleared the “dead”line.

“Yes” ???

Akenta & Huhwhat: You need to be more observant when you look at the moon - Rakkav knows whereof he speaks. Obviously, the different phases of the moon are visible from anyplace on the world but the actual appearance varies greatly depending on the viewer’s location, orientation of the moon’s orbital nodes (corresponds to the season), and the specific phase.

Because the moon’s orbit is tilted about 5° to the celestial plane, the “crescents” are tilted from vertical - sometimes over 60° - depending on the season. In the northern hemisphere, the position angle of the waning crescent is tilted left (CCW) and rises in the early morning. The position angle of the waxing crescent is tilted right (CW) and sets in the early evening. In the southern hemisphere everything is reversed: the same view as if you were hanging upside down.

Get up before dawn this Sunday and look. Or go to

http://media.skyandtelescope.com/images/Webvic09_Jul18_341px.jpg

to see what you would find. The view from Australia will be different:

http://tinyurl.com/Australia-Moon-Pics

This site has many pictures of various phases and various tilts (seasons):

http://www.netaxs.com/~mhmyers/moon.tn.html

For further reading:

http://www.paulcarlisle.net/mooncalendar/ http://www.skyandtelescope.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draconic_month http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lunar_phase http://ircamera.as.arizona.edu/NatSci102/NatSci102/lectures/skyappearance.htm

I’m sure this is much more than you ever wanted to know about moon phases! ;-)

Life is all about consequences.

It’s all right to hit Hobbes with the bat this time!

I think we’re all learning a lot more than we bargained for about moon phases. WOW.

Yesterday minka78 said

“Schrodinger’s Bee?”

Love it! I take it you are also a fan of “The Big Bang Theory”? Rock, paper, scissors, lizard, Spock.

artybee said, about 9 hours ago

A bee-sting doesn’t hurt THAT much. A wasp or a mud-dauber or yellowjacket is something else again, much more like Calvin’s reaction.

true, unless you are allergic to bee stings as my stepdaughter was, sad part though she used to play with bees in her grandmas front yard all the time

Wiseguy411 said, 43 observations ago

“Bmonk, what you are saying is that since there is a ‘C’ moon it is already past Midnight and Hobbes has cleared the ‘dead’line.”

Yes, that would follow. (Also, although it doesn’t matter, it’s only a few days to the new moon.)

I think Hobbes has another trick to take the pin from the pin cushion and sting that pin under Calvin’s butt. That is how Calvin jumps up the air suddenly and yells OWWWW! I know that there is no BEEEEEEE!

Carmy, I call Hobbes, the stuffed tiger piñata! LOLs!

LOL!—I find the comics far less ridiculous than many of the comments.

and here all this time I thought Hobbes was bluffing! :-D

Opposite day or not Calvin is letting Hobbes get the best of this

Moon-iacs.

I mean really? Stop getting so complicated. It’s a comic. Ur supposed to enjoy it, not disect it.

fizzygerry : I’d be happy to explain the trapezoidal moon. Some of us get our best fun in taking the fun out of the funnies for everyone else. But on this cartoon, I’m in second or third place at best (worst).

Today’s strip was brought to you by “Raid Wasp and Hornet killer.”

haha..i didnt see that coming :)

@ Skulker: Thanks for the nifty links.

@ Kerovan: Smoo-ooo-oooth!!

(Wish these dang things’d thread/nest….)

808 is Hawaii…dat’s why we’re always late…nah (but yah)…but hey….y’all know Cal means “no!” ….yah? heh heh heh…poun’um Cal!

Ha ha, I guess you can’t win it all huh Calvin?? Hobbes always triumphs!

This brings to mind George Costanza’s “Festivus” from “Seinfeld”.