Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for May 07, 2011

Hey, two (2) Xs!

I like that plan, Calvin!

Hi Marg

Today you were in the right place at the right time.

Today’s strip was Bill Watterson’s final one before he went on the first of his two sabbaticals. He was away for nine months, from May 1991 to February 1992. During that time, the syndicate published reruns of Calvin and Hobbes.

Here on GoComics, we are now reading 20-year-old reruns of Calvin and Hobbes, so it’s a bit like living in a time warp. I wonder what reruns GoComics will publish beginning tomorrow. If they rerun the strips that were rerun during Bill Watterson’s sabbatical, then we will be reading the reruns that they run of the reruns that were run. That would be like living in a time warp within a time warp.

Fortunately, GoComics won’t turn off the strip for nine months. If they were to do that, we would all have to just hang around in front of our computers and read Calvin and Hobbes comic books while we wait.

Ahhhhhh……….I remember the good ole days of reading comic books at the drug store!!!!!………………

Epiphany is good, but not too early!!

Love it. I’m taking this approach to life from now on

Also, Hobbes, talking in circles again? I love circles

I know many who subscribe to this philosophy.

I should send this to a counselor I know as a classic illustration of what Carl Jung would call “Thinking in the service of Feeling”.

So, today I posted the first “x,” Dogsniff posted the second “x,” and then Marg posted her comment a couple of minutes later. But GoComics bumped our “x” comments into second and third place, making Marg the first poster. Hence, her comment about the two X’s, since she saw them before she posted. Then I wrote over my “x” comment, and then Dogsniff wrote over his. (I feel like I’m writing the final chapter of a mystery novel.) This has been extremely exciting, and I’m glad I somehow found the time for this edifying activity, but I think tomorrow at this time I’ll watch infomercials on TV instead.

(For those of you who are now entirely baffled, you didn’t read yesterday’s comments.)

So, this is what random means. Got it.

Solomon stated that a lot in life is controlled by nothing more than time and unforeseen occurrence, which quells the idea of “everything happens for a reason” (without getting into the physics of it). Some things just happen because they do.

Hi Hobbes, the Poster, today your comment on time warps and re-runs sounds suspicously like Calvin’s philosophy??? LOL It’s great to see Marg back at the top of the comments again.

The GoComics servers are not synchronized. They’ve been that way for a while now. Therefore the time stamps are about 5 or more minutes off. Therefore Marg’s comment made it to the top, where she should be.

Reading comic books to kill time works for me. Calvin will be in heaven when he can finally see them on the internet though.

Good Morning, Marg, Mike & ♠Lonewolf♠

Freud said ” Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar”.

Seneca (Roman Philosopher) said that “Luck is what happens when Opportunity meets Preparation”. Being in the right place won’t help if your not prepared when opportunity knocks.

This is one of my favorite strips; love Hobbes’ use of the word “Epiphany.”

i love this strip!

Hobbes I quited to be first, it’s sensless!

So now we learn that Marg has an “in” with goComics. That’s why her postings always come first. I’m shocked and appalled!! My heroine has feet of clay. Next thing, they’ll tell me there is no Easter Bunny.

Why is it so important to be “first” on GoComics? Who cares? Just write your comments and get on with it! and while you’re at it, GET A LIFE!!!

I personally don’t care if a person posts first or not but if someone wants to make a game of it and play, let them have some fun. People read an awful lot into some of these comics and comments that just isn’t there. And if you must turn a simple comic strip into a political forum at least please keep a civil tongue in your head. Life is too short to be rude to anyone.

Calvin is so reckless; something is liable to fall off the wagon at the wrong time and the wrong place. “You picked a fine time to leave me Lucille (loose wheel)!”

**Good morning Marg! Good morning Fran! Good Morning L’Wolf! Good Morning Grog!**

“There’s no place like the right time” -Donna The Buffalo

“Firsters” will always be around. Someone has to be first, and a simple mind thinks that position has a place of importance. In the case of Mr Dogsniff, it merely serves as a tool to highlight a lack of class in choosing to make a tasteless joke in a public forum.

I respect the right of any individual to make humor, even racist humor, at an opportunity when the audience is prepared. Most stand-up comedians and performance artists spend time developing a charater or act to a point where comments about race, religion, sex, etc… are established as comical, not hateful.

A poorly prepared reader pulling up yesterdays page who may not always read the posts and just checks out the comics might see that comment right under the strip, find it offensive, hateful, rude, or alienating, causing them never to return.

Not everybody here knows me Dogsniff, and not everybody knows you either. If you find the “first” position so important and coveted, please take some responsability for the forum you represent.

I like Calvin’s philosophy!

HI Mike, haven’t seen you around for awhile. And I really didn’t expect to see a member of the Buffalo Herd on here.

I’m ‘entirely baffled’ by the term “those of you”, which is very commonly used. Who are those and who are you? It seems to me that “those of” is superfluous. No offense to any particular person is intended, and I trust that none will be taken. It’s a real question!

To every thing there is a season, AND A TIME TO EVERY PURPOSE under the heaven: - Ecclesiastes 3:1 Nothing is random, or by chance, or luck. It only appears that way, sometimes.

“those of you” is a colloquialism used when adressing a group of people. “You” is the collecticve term for the group itself, and the modifier “those of” directs the comment to the particular members of the crowd that the speakers comments apply to.

I understood Hobbes’ comment, so I was not one of “those” that was baffled. If you were baffled, you would be one of “those” that were (obviously). It was just a tongue-in-cheek tag on to a clever albeit confusing post pointing out the origin of his whole comment.

Boy, am I getting old. I had completely forgotten about reading comic books at the drug store. Every Sunday morning at the local Rexall. Mighty Mouse, Donald and Mickey, Scrooge McDuck, Bugs Bunny and the occasional Foghorn J. Leghorn. Good stuff!

Dallas Mugno, Thank you for the well-said explanation, but actually, I understood both Hobbes and the meaning of the term. My problem with ‘those of you’ is that the commenter is not really speaking to the ‘you’ group so why refer to them at all. Why not just say ‘for you who are now entirely baffled’? Besides, if a modifier was necessary or even appropriate, wouldn’t ‘these’ be more apt than ‘those’ since they are the ones being addressed, (and either one should modify a noun or pronoun). ‘These’ are here and ‘those’ are there. If anyone really was ‘entirely baffled’ your explanation should clear things up for ‘those’ people (them). :o)

In front of a drug store is ok with me. But success might be slow getting around to drug stores.

A drug store was a great place to grab a comic and read for a bit, they had a spinner rack or shelf with a handful of common titles sitting out with their magazines. They weren’t hinging their business on it, so it didn’t really effect them to let us sit around and “sample” the new Superman for the week. The didn’t lose too much, and we more than likely bought soda, candy, and even the occasional comic.

A comic shop, however, depends on sales of the books as a primary revenue stream. Letting customers read in the store without buying is detrimental to staying open. Look at Borders, which just closed half it’s stores, or B&N, which isn’t far behind.

People can read books in those stores without buying them, and they sell eReaders which prevent people from ever having to go back in there at all. That effectively cuts out their foot traffic and profitability.

Consider having your buddy with the comic shop establish a reader’s club, which would have a monthly or annual charge for people to hang and read the books. Give them 10% off their prices as a benefit, if they’re not a member they either have to buy the book or join the club in order to read it. Sure it may cut out some cheap people, but they aren’t spending any money as it is.

Ah, memories! On just about every Saturday, dad would give each of us kids a quarter. We would walk 5 miles to town, spend 10 cents each to attend the afternoon western, 5 cents each for a drink and 5 cents for a bag of popcorn. After the movie we would drop by the drugstore to get a 5 cent cone of ice cream to eat before the long walk home.

Back in those days, the tops of unsold comic books were cut off and sent back to the distributor for a refund. The proprietor of the drug store would let us go to the back storage room and select one book each to take home with us.

We never realized how poor we were or how generous dad was with his hard earned 75 cents.

Hi Puddleglum2

Well, somehow the phrase “to those of you” just seemed preferable to saying, “to the subset of y’all.”

I feared that using the latter phrase would leave some readers at least partially baffled, if not entirely.

:>)

Dahawk,

In my day it was 25 cents for the movie, 10 cents for the popcorn, 5 cents for a small fountain drink and 5 cents each way for the bus.

It was wonderful to be “let loose” on our own. Something no parent would allow these days (or at least would tremble in fear if they did).

Nice memories, dahawk!

I was often allowed to buy a comic book (usually Uncle Scrooge.) I still have most of my collection under the bed – the catalogs say they have increased about a thousand percent in value, but that’s still only a dollar each. Guess I should have gone with the sex and violence genre!

“Back in those days, the tops of unsold comic books were cut off and sent back to the distributor for a refund. The proprietor of the drug store would let us go to the back storage room and select one book each to take home with us.”

It was still done that way in the 1990s, I was involved with magazine distribution back then. For all I know, it’s still done that way, because why ship the whole magazine back, send the cover back for proof of the unsold copies and recycle the rest of the magazine locally.

How long do you wait at the drugstore before you decide that isn’t the right place?

Hobbes, you’re cracking me up today with your rerun assessment. :D

Some of these posts remind me of the answer to the age-old question about when is it enough? The answer is, of course, “when it’s too much”. In terms of today’s cartoon, the tiger’s aescerbic outlook is wonderfully wry and funny….

Mom wouldn’t let me buy anything at the drugstore but Dell or Gold Key comics, although she did allow Classics Illustrated, to my surprise. No war, crime, superhero or horror comics. Those I had to read, unbeknownst to her, at the barber shop, always well-stocked with the latest. Later I’d buy MAD. Mom got a huge kick out of Don Martin.

To Puddleglum:

You highlighted the verse correctly, however, there is a word in there you obviously overlooked the meaning of: PURPOSE. When someone loses a loved one to some accident, is there a ‘purpose’ in that?

Solomon was correct, being the second wisest person to walk the earth, since he was given divine wisdom. He stated that ‘time and unforeseen occurrence befall ‘us’ all”. In other words, sometimes we are just in the wrong place at the wrong time. God has no ‘purpose’ in the death of someone’s baby, or mate. And when we give him the blame we do a disservice to his name and reputation, considering all He has done for us.

To rogue53, From my perspective, I didn’t overlook the meaning of PURPOSE. I truly believe God has a purpose in everything that happens under the sun and under the heaven in that he preordained it all. I don’t ‘give God the blame’ for anything, but I think He is responsible for everything. God is sovereign; “He does according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, what are you doing?” Daniel 4:35b God is love, God is holy, and God is righteous. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” Genesis 18:25b For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8,9 And we know that all things WORK TOGETHER for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his PURPOSE. Romans 8:28 It could go on ad infinitum, but suffice it to say that God makes no mistakes. “It will all come out in the wash” as the saying goes.

And what is that, rogue53? Pain and suffering? Sorry can’t buy it.

Puddlegum, if God preordained it all, then there is no such thing as man’s free will to choose. That to me would make the whole subject of God’s love for man by sending us a means of redemption and man’s love for God by freely accepting that gift completely meaningless. All knowing DOES NOT mean preordained.

Hobbes and Puddlegum, Dallas would have know what “y’all” meant. Single or plural, whole group or sub set, makes no difference. Much shorter than “those of you”.

Another contraction I like is “m’er”, from “them are”.

My better half does go ballistic though when I say “they’s” instead of “there is” or “they are”. I like to be efficient in my oral communications, quite different from my writing. LOL

People have tried for years to wring the hillbilly out of me without success.

Grog:

Your comment makes no sense in response to what I wrote. Please read it again, and show me where I stated there is a ‘purpose’ to pain and suffering, brought about by man’s initial failure to follow God’s command.

puddleglum:

If God “foreordained” everything that happens in life. What good would it do for him to ask us to ‘seek for Him and find Him, when in fact He is not far off from each one of us’? If he ‘foreordained’ our fate or destiny, what choices do we as individuals really make?

God created man ‘in His image’, in that we have the same capacity for His personal characteristics, although to a lower degree. Would you ‘foreordain’ your child to be a murderer, rapist, and then give them eternal damnation for doing exactly what you intended they do?

If you, as an imperfect human can see the flaw in that, then you should be able to understand that God would not be so cruel either.

Calvin, if you don’t know when the right time is then how could you possibly know where the right place is?!?

Astounding that a single word in this cartoon, “epiphany” has produced so much reaction in terms of the debate about free will and determinism, discussed by Paul in the latter chapters of Romans. One thing is obvious: we are on the wrong side of the fence to have an “absolute” answer with respect to the debate. As for me, I am reminded that the Lord never expresses any one of His attributes at the expense of any of the others…..

Aahh. So THIS is where they start to start all over again, a?

And here we go,back and forth