Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for April 12, 2014

Don’t worry Calvin, all the information you want will be available on the internet in couple of years (strip originally run in April 1994).

Don’t worry Calvin, the NSA is sending the police over for a little talk and some very pretty bracelets.

Calvin, if you were here Today, there would be all sorts of bomb-making information on the ’Net (not that you should really do one, seeing as you a just a little kid). ;)

well that scheme went Kabluueee

Cal better hope the librarian didn’t keep him on the line long enpughto trace the call! Good thing this is 20 years ago and he didn’t havea cell phone….

@MayKittenI know enough about your educational and professional background to know that you are or were in very unique position far as technology is concerned.

what kind of books?

There was a book on this subject available on bulletin boards back in the ‘80s. It’s available on the web.

I still use that to clean my kitchen sink. Works like a charm.

My, how the times have changed … And how they’ve stayed the same! Whew!

Watterson needs to update this strip…I’d love to see Calvin as a single father, moving back in with the folks.

I remember finding an old book in a cupboard at our community centre called something like “50 Things That Any Boy Can Make At Home.” Among the odd things like a “hedgehog” (chia pet) made from a hollowed out potato, cotton wool and some grass seed, there was a mild homemade explosive made with guano and some other stuff. Dated from 1890.

ah the 90’s, a time when a phone call like this is innocent and funny, and won’t get kid put on a government watch list…

Now these information are available “on the line”, and the “Enternetz”;)

Just what would you like to blow up Calvin????

Definitely Pre-9/11….

The knowledge for that kind of stuff has been available long time ago in serious books, before the internet was widely available, just had to know where to look.Perry´s Industrial Chemical Manual (or Handbook?)Chemistry of Explosives, and others.

NSA! What NSA? . . . And here come the black helicopters

I think times have changed and this strip would not be published today – or at least a lot of newspapers would censor it by substituting an old C&H. I do wonder what Calvin was planning to blow up – he was usually much more creative than that.

And what did get kids to reading?Harry potter, ie how to get things through wizardry-without working!

Wow. I don’t think this one would have gotten published today.

Long about 1991 or ‘92, I came across a recipe for black powder. Being the budding chemist that I was, I made many different combinations using various sources of nitrates, sulfur, and carbon. When I succeeded in blowing a 2 foot crater in the backyard, my parents took away my chemistry set, and “sealable” glass or plastic containers of any size became contraband, punishable by a week’s grounding if they were found in the random shakedowns of my room.

Reading is good for you.

During WW-II, I was in junior high school. Several of us made our own fireworks. One started blowing trees apart with flash powder. He got a visit from the FBI – no charges, just a strong recommendation that he take up another hobby. The rest of us got a laugh, but no other effect. We were also helped by a chemical supply store that would sell as little as a quarter pound of all sorts of goodies – strontium nitrate (red), barium sulfate (green), finely powdered magnesium (white), potassium chlorate (oxidizer), etc. Prior to the post-Sputnik panic, that was about the only encouragement a kid could get for an interest in science.

DON’T TRY THIS AT HOME!.Go to a neighbor’s house…

In the late fifties/early sixties everybody in gradeschool knew about the sulfur/saltpetre/charcoal recipe. It was even given in a “Children’s Digest” article on how the Chinese invented gunpowder. One of my chums made up a batch (with his father’s help!) and set it off in an open pot. It didn’t explode but it did burn a hole in the pot!

Calvin is a terrorist!

When I went to high school around 1980 I remember my chemistry teacher had removed a set of encyclopedic chemistry books from the library that described everything from baking cakes to making bombs and fireworks.

Good thing Calvin didn’t have Google…

C & H is a fantastic example of “The pen is mightier than the sword”, and Bill is doing a great job of keeping his readers active in discussing the message. Kinda reminds me of Pogo; but not as political.

I think about the time this strip originally appeared, I was getting book catalogs that featured a couple, uhh, “tomes” by someone calling himself Uncle Fester that covered topics like blowing up things (“Home Workshop Explosives”) and other things you weren’t going to find in any public library.

A rotary phone wow this strip is dated. Today with caller ID you be arrested Calvin.

Well, that little problem would be solved today. Wasn’t this about a year before the Oklahoma City bombing?

You use to be able to find a pretty wicked recipe for flash powder in the encyclopedia Britanica.

This is sooooo not funny……seriously…..

Perfect for the beginning of National Library Week