Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for February 01, 2021

Mrs. Wormwood wishes Calvin would spend his time doing other things.

Another time Calvin made dinosaur tracks in the snow in order to fool Susie; it didn’t work because she knows Calvin wears size five shoes which made the “dinosaur’s” toes.

Calvin’s own footprints kinda give the whole scam away.

Hobbes still does much better than you, Calvin.

Does W.C. Fields know about this?

The two-ton chickadee apparently has a friend.

I wonder if Bill Watterson got the idea for this from a legendary prank Hugh Troy pulled while a student at Cornell University in upstate New York.

Troy “borrowed” a wastebasket made of a rhinoceros foot from Professor Louis Agassiz Fuertes, added some weight to it, got a couple of co-conspirators to help him suspend it from long ropes to either side, and during a winter snowstorm made what appeared to be rhinoceros tracks across campus. The tracks led to Beebe Lake, which was the source of drinking water for the area. Troy then cut a large hole in the ice on the lake, making it appear the animal had fallen in. University experts verified the tracks as those of a rhinoceros. Unverified reports claimed that many people stopped drinking the water until Troy revealed the prank via an anonymous letter.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hugh_Troy

A strap would mean you could wear it on your foot, a second one would mean not leaving your own tracks, too impatient I guess…

I wish Watterson would have shown Calvins process for building that.

And it’s even worse now, Hobbes!

Carefulcalvin that foot print may come to life!!!!

As I always say. Messing around and wasting time is hard work, if you do it long enough.

Long ago while still in Boy Scouts we were winter camping in a rustic cabin at a local YMCA camp. My brother, who worked at the camp in the summer, was one of the troop leaders, being an older kid. He, I and an old camp caretaker who stopped by to check on us spun a camp legend of “Hairy Man”, a cannibalistic, insane, unkempt, banned from society old hermit who now lived roaming the hills above since his cave had been sealed with concrete to drive him away (there is still a hole filled with concrete up there with the scratch marks he made trying to get back in). After we had bedded down for the night my brother snuck out and donned a pair of snowshoes that were modified to leave what appeared to be big, hairy, footprints for the kids to find in the morning. As he has making tracks across the brightly moonlit pond one kid had gotten up to pee in the snow off the front porch and saw him, a large big-footed hairy looking (he was bundeled up against the cold) creature stalking in the moonlight. He came running back in, screaming that Hairy Man was after him, peeing a yellow streak the whole way. That sighting is, to this day, proof that the legend is true.

He’s a tiger. Setting the bar pretty low for accomplishments.

Hehehe I’m reading in classs

People will just think Hobbes turned into a giant bird.

The accuracy of that third panel depends entirely on your definition of “accomplish”…

Someone actually did this on a Florida beach, back in the 50’s I think, and it fooled some people into thinking a giant penguin had come ashore and walked around.

At least Calvin’s alternate personality is more sensible than he is.

The Great and Powerful Calvin says: PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE LITTLE FOOTPRINTS!

hi

Time is an illusion.

If you want to hear about a real life version of this trick, this episode of the podcast Criminal has the story. https://thisiscriminal.com/episode-152-the-clearwater-monsterDon’t worry, Criminal is often more about the effects of crime than being gory, and this one is not upsetting in the least. Unless human gullibility upsets you.

Goes well with those little boy prints of yours, Cal.

How is this not a good thing?