Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for December 08, 2023

And we wouldn’t want it any other way!

Hobbes does not want the stuffing knocked out of him……

Hobbes’ fur saved him there.

From the landscaping in this strip, I have to wonder if Calvin and his family live in a wilderness.

Hobbes with the brains, as usual.

Thus, the danger…

Just an experiment. Ever wondered who was the inspiration for Ebenezer Scrooge in “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens?

https://fb.Watch/oOCJh3C-ws/

Wouldn’t want to horn in on that uniqueness.

Not sure if Calvin went off the cliff on purpose or if Hobbes pushed him as he jumped off.

Beauty is only skin deep. Take away the skin of everyone, leaving a thin transparent film to hold the organs in, and it is a horror movie.

Hobbes: Interesting observation.

Calvin: Well, it just occurred to me.

Contrast this with a discussion between Calvin and Mom at the end of the Zoo arc in which Calvin had gone missing and was separated from Hobbes and more concerned with finding Hobbes than finding his parents:-

Calvin: I went to the tiger pit to ask a tiger for directions to help me find Hobbes.

Mom: Well, next time ask a person for directions.

Calvin: Oh! That never occurred to me.

Hobbes Has Bailed again…

Hobbes has more sense than that miraculous chunk of meat

sadly… that’s human inteligence vs. animal inteligence

Better safe than sorry, right, Hobbes?

The miraculous chunk of meat that is Calvin is likely to need some Bactine and Bandaids after that ride.

How this kid is afraid of a silly little bicycle is beyond me…lol

When I was growing up, just beyond our (unfenced) backyard was a wooded area with a river running through it. The land belonged to a neighbour, and until I was ten or so, I spent a great deal of time there. In the winter, my hysterically overcautious mother used to tell me not to go in the woods because there MIGHT be big deep holes there that were now full of snow so I wouldn’t know there were there; I would inevitably fall in and not be able to get out and they wouldn’t be able to find me.

That area is all built up now, of course, and the river runs through a buried culvert.

“Interesting observation” is double meaning here. It is also possible that Hobbes said it for himself that he observed that cliff ended but Calvin didn’t. See, even he is looking at front towards cliff, instead of looking towards Calvin.

Further, it could also mean that for Calvin, being a human, understanding inside himself is interesting (questioning existence mode).And for Hobbes, being a tiger, understanding outside himself is interesting (survival mode).

Another interpretation could be “The more inside you go, the more you are cut off from the outside world.”

The fragile chunk sometimes gets tested.

If I was Calvin, I wouldn’t refer to myself as a “chunk of meat” in front of Hobbes.

Back in 1969, I was learning to fly. The runway on which I was to land was at the end of a cliff. As I approached it, I felt like someone pressed the down button on the elevator. The horizon was moving up rapidly on the windscreen. I got caught in a downdraft.

I was now eye level with the runway and still about 100 feet short of it. I was NOT looking out and down on it as I should have been.

I pulled back on the yoke, and rammed the throttle to the firewall. The stall warning horn wailed in protest and the aircraft shuttered. The wheels punched down on the pavement on “brick one.”

The runway was 2,000 feet long and i was glad I had 1,999 feet 11 and a half inches of it remaining since my knees were shaking so badly, I could hardly apply the brakes.

It was as close to an involuntary bowel movement while at the controls of an aircraft as I had ever come.

I had two takeaways from this event.

The first was to fly a steeper approach and aim further down the runway.

The second was that I should have died on that day in 1969. Every one of the nearly 20,000 days since, everything I did and every one I loved has been a bonus. I do not take life for granted.

I thought this through very carefully at a time in my life when I apparently had too much time on my hands. The vast majority of our time and effort is used up in activities to support that hunk of meat we inhabit. Eating, sleeping, working to get the money to provide the hunk with a supportive environment. My conclusion was that the only useful purpose that a body was actually needed for was to turn pages.

Knowing that everything you are is bound up in a three-pound lump of wrinkly meat and neurochemicals is more terrifying than the best horror novels.

I’ve had that thought too.

Now, let’s torture-test it!

One day Calvin woke up to find the only part of his body still capable of movement was his brain. The rest was crippled.

I think Calvin may actually be improving. He used to get these epiphanies during the fall.

Getting beat up by Moe hurts. But doing it to yourself is fun.

Calvin needs to get a side job to fix all those wagons he’s busted

And for those who haven’t had the exquisite pleasure, look up the complete text of , “They’re Made Out of Meat”, by Terry Bission.