Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for November 04, 2013

And its hard to read its in French I think.?

Yes thats more like it?

Logical… flawlessly logical.

Catch-22! Dad is on especially good form!

Good reply, Dad!

curious boy’s

kids are mistakes and accidents

Otherwise the human race would die out.

I’ve got one of those about marriage.

And the book self destructs after he’s read it.

That book sounds like a case where it would be better to buy a used copy, with key words highlighted, other words crossed out, and comments written in the margins.

@bgby4884: Yes, but what is the value of possessions if you choose to have no kids to share them with? And what is the value of a car, or of life, if you choose to have no one with which to share the ride?

Calvin’s dad is my hero.

Grandfather book is much, much shorter! One page, one sentence: Enjoy Grandkids!

About the time of the Nicene Creed…

Kudos to Bill Watterson. Always right on. You must have a degree in child psychology or is it in reverse psychology? Calvin & Hobbes continue to brighten my days and new columns would be welcomed enthusiastically, as well.

Sorry, Calvin. Not for kids.

xxx

No one would have kids if they read that book first.

The book in question must be “Fatherhood” by Bill Cosby.

I’ve read it, but I was born knowing everything—at least until I stopped being a teenager.

@todyoung: It’s a book that was marked up by a previous parent.

Hi harlequindugong1914. Here is the Peanuts strip that you mentioned:Click here: Peanuts (November 9, 1975)The character in the upper right panel looks a bit like Shermy, but I don’t think that Charles Schulz intended him to be Shermy. He’s meant to be a nameless character drawn for this particular strip.Here is a strip with Shermy, for comparison:Click here: Peanuts (August 3, 1962)You can also look at today’s (Monday’s) Peanuts strip on GoComics, which is from November 7, 1966. Shermy is in the first panel (except that his eye is missing).The character in the 1975 strip that you mentioned has a forehead that makes a large “C” shape with the top of his nose, but Shermy’s forehead makes a 90-degree angle with the top of his nose. The 1975 character has somewhat different hair that sticks up more, whereas Shermy has a “flat-top” haircut that was popular in the early 1960s. Shermy’s hair also makes a horizontal line above his eye at the top of his face. The 1975 character looks younger than Shermy, who looked like the oldest male Peanuts character. Shermy is older than Charlie Brown, who is older than Lucy. Shermy is drawn a little bit taller than Charlie Brown, and Charlie Brown is drawn a little bit taller than Lucy. So Shermy should be quite a bit taller than Lucy. But the character in the 1975 strip is just slightly taller than Lucy, about the same height as Charlie Brown.It’s interesting that Shermy, Patty, and Violet were three key characters in the earliest Peanuts strips. The three of them eventually disappeared, whereas Charlie Brown and Snoopy, of course, became the most famous. So all five of the original characters evolved to one extreme or the other over time.

Sadly, all the parents I have talked to say that somehow their copy of the Operating Manual for their new children got mislaid, or lost in the mail, or something. . . .