Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for April 11, 2021

Only to have his father criticize him wasting his time watching TV.

Try going to the bathtub, Calvin, and then to bed.

Wow! And Hobbes didn’t even look like he was planning anything.

Deep thoughts for a six years old kid who does not commit to school.

Call it a…..saber tooth ache.

Hobbes… Master of the sneak attack..

Or perhaps cave bear or dire wolf food…

Never ask a philosophical question to a tiger and expect a humanitarian answer. You’ll get a feline answer.

I still feel awe when I can find a clear night and I can see the Milky Way stretch across our sky. Or when I see the vistas of the planets in our system and how wondrous is our one little system, with our one little star, and one life supporting planet (for our needs anyway) and then I realize that there are so many stars in the sky that I can see and that for each of those, there is probably a galaxy as big as the Milky Way that I can’t see.

We are less than twinkles in the darkness, less than sands on the beach. Space is so very vast and the scope of that is of such a magnitude to beggar comprehension.

And for all that, one and all, we are individuals in some unique respect.

We are drops in the largest sea, yet each and every one of us can be important to someone and loved and each of us can make our world a better place and ourselves better people.

If that isn’t awesome and magical, I don’t know what is.

And I am so glad when I get to share that with my daughter around the camp fire.

Tigers – A reality check for human philosophers (of all shapes and sizes) since ancient times. Bless you, Hobbes – for reminding us that inspite of all the intellectual blather we get into, all it really boils down to is 4 square meals a day.

From sabre-tooth to slobber-tooth tiger!!

Sometimes Hobbes still feels sneak attacks inside him!!

Way to go and ruin the moment Hobbes.

Civilization started to escape saber-tooth tiger attacks – and ended with attacks of plushy ones

Remember that Hobbes is named after Thomas Hobbes.

https://existentialcomics.com/comic/387

And Calvin is named after John Calvin.

Nothing like star gazing on a crystal clear cool evening. I recall a night sky I saw as a kid in Blowing Rock NC when my Dad took the family for an Appalachian vacation back in the early 70s. Man that sky must have had a million stars. I have never seen one like that since then though I have tried up there in the Carolinas, Colorado, New Mexico, the Everglades, etc…. Magic times back then, truly the wonder years……

Got news for you Calvin, you’re not going to be any safer in the “Cave” if you take the Sabre tooth in with you…..

Calvin, don’t say that (re the last panel)! Otherwise, Dad will throw you bodily out of the house (see yesterday’s strip)! Won’t matter if it’s day or night.

I don’t know about early man, but modern man should realize that there are perhaps 3000 tigers left ON THE WHOLE PLANET, and you know who’s the reasons of that.

I was on vacation with friends. I was outside sitting on a tailgate watching the lightning miles away, it was in FL and you could see off a long way. My friend comes to the door of the trailer and asks if I don’t want to come in and watch TV! NO!

A surprisingly logical segue from yesterday’s strip.

Second last panel, Calvin’s still seeing stars and planets…

We are but boats on a very large sea, UNTIL, we crash upon the rocks of reality.

Nothing like an object lesson!

Well, Calvin, we could send you to Venus but I really don’t think you’ll like it very much… or for very long!

Oddly enough, I suspect that’s pretty much the same thing ancient man thought, and did. Hide from the night until you can see in the light.

He is, at times, wiser than many adults.

That starlight took trillions of light years to arrive here and if you don’t glimpse it, it is gone.

Another contemplative moment ruined by Hobbes.

Everywhere I lived, there was a lot of light pollution. I can see only the brightest of stars. I’ve never seen the Milky Way. I can’t afford to travel to a dark sky area. I’d like everyone on Earth, rich and poor alike, to be able to see the Milky Way a few times in their lives. One night every few years, I would like us to try to make Earth as dark as possible.

awwwww. Hobbes just added a little drama. being out late at night and searching out the skies for the planets, shooting stars, meteor showers, etc would be soooo much better and interesting.

This made me think of that scene from the Lion King where the Simba and Timon and Pumbaa are looking at the sky and wondering what exactly those stars are and Timon says that they’re “fireflies stuck in that big blue thing”. (I don’t remember if the scene is also in the original or only the remake.)

Hobbes, like everyone else, won’t let Calvin be philosophical.

One of my favorite comic strips of all time: Snoopy is atop his doghouse, pondering….(Maybe not the exact words)..“Some times I look up at the night sky…..I see the twinkling stars….I think, what’s it all about?….Why are we all here?….Suddenly it all comes to me !……………. I haven’t the slightest idea.”

One reason stargazing is a relatively modern sport – night predators.

AUGH! WUMP! An homage to Charlie Brown and the football.

Hobbes =Reality Check

That is why man ‘invented’ religion, to attempt to explain the unknown. Religion was created in the attempt by our primitive and ignorant ancestors to assuage the fear of the unknown. Today, religion continues to thrive on the fears of the ignorant. And we, as a species, allow it because we have been trained/indoctrinated to think of religion as a boon to mankind. It isn’t. Religion is a hate filled business venture that thrives on the fear it creates.

Sadly the entire population refuses to look up and recognize we are a special place for our species and we need to come together to protect it. Instead, a few hundred exploit it for greed.

There’s Hobbes looking like my old cat in a dark room again in the ninth panel…

Calvin is such a dweb!

“Infinitesimal.” Pretty fancy word for a kid who avoids education the way I avoid lima beans.

“We are but a moment’s sunlight, fading in the grass. . . .”

Love it when Calvin is a victim of his own fantasies, Love Hobbes concentrating on Calvin’s words-looks like it but he is plannign what to do! LOL!

they had no concept how vast the universe is… no one really did until Hubble’s work

Calvin set him up for this! Good job by Hobbes to show Calvin what early man would have felt!

Imagine how the photons that traveled billions of years to get here from those stars must feel as they impact on the back of your eye. “Is that all there is?”

I live on top of the hills of Lake Elsinore, CA. Without obstructions of any kind, the stars are bright at night and make my daily evening meditation a beautiful routine. Well, ok, ok, the shot of whiskey helps too…. but, the peaceful serenity of siting in the backyard in the dark, looking at the stars, an airplane goes by from time to time, the whole thing makes me feel like I am a very tiny spec in the universe, and yet I still matter a great deal.

I’ve read the Australians had such a clear view of the sky they named constellations after the dark spots, those lucky ducks.

THEORY: Calvin listed Venus; aka the home of King Ghidorah. Spaceman Spiff then gets stranded (again) on Venus, and meets the evil scum known as King Ghidorah, which is Susie and her three other friends.

Khool…I think I “Cosmos” is on TV…

The infinite spaces fill me with dread. – Pascal

That moon (late waning) only appears in the early morning before sunrise. What is Calvin doing up and out before sunrise? Where are his parents?

Calvin deGrasse Tyson

I can still remember the awe I felt the first time I was able to see the Milky Way galaxy. I hope to be able to share the experience, like you, with my grandkids.

It’s no accident.

“It’s a great big universe and we’re all really punywe’re just tiny little specks about the size of Mickey RooneyIt’s big and black and inkyand we are small and dinkyit’s a big universe and we’re not!”

Beautiful and very needed in these times. Thanks for a really good note to end my Sunday.

why not fly to uranus? No one would want to go there. You’d be free from everyone else unless you bring hobbes. Say Nay in chat if we should leave hobbes behind. Say Naw if he should come.