Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for December 10, 2010

What was almost unthinkable back then is commonplace today.

Dad was right then He’d be even more appalled now -the ratio is much worse.

Then again, who asked Dad for his editorial comments? I’m with Calvin on this one. Mind your own business, Dad!

No interruptions from Dad, please…a little peace, here.

I have replaced my TV screen with a computer screen…no less addicting.

When I was watching a show tonight and started fast-forwarding, my son said, “But Mom! I love the commercials!” It’s mainly because he usually only watches PBS and Noggin so they are fascinating to him.

My previous post might be seen as a comment on Calvin’s attitude, but I meant that many children do have their own sets today.

I have to agree with Calvin!! DAD, go away!!!!!

My Dad made the same complaint when I was a kid.L made the sa,e complain to my kids and now they are saying the same thing around what their children watch.

I’m with Calvin on this one. Already have plenty of commercials, don’t need public service announcements on a side channel as well.

How loud must that tv be to jump around like that?! Is it possessed?

I love the levitating tv.

And yet another attempt by dad to instill a moral lesson passes over Calvin’s head. I think dad probably shares similar views on the commercialisation of Christmas as me - if i could work my will, there wouldn’t be a single Christmas decoration in the shops until after November 5th! lol

This is another strip with two punch lines, one in the 2nd and another in the 4th. Love it

I am with clavin..!!!

I am not with Calvin - but I think Dad’s missed his chance. If you want uninterrupted Christmas shows, then put in a DVD. But then, we pulled the plug on our TV 16 years ago - still have DVD capabilities, but that’s it. We can even watch old TV series that we borrow from the library. So….. “It’s a Wonderful Life!”

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

The greed and commercialism is why I hate Christmas

I agree with Dad on this one. However, that’s why you go out and buy the DVD of your favourites so you can watch all the time. I like ‘Ziggy’s Gift’ best.

I’m with Dad 100%. That’s why all of the Christmas shows and movies I watch are on DVD. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Good Morning, Marg, Mike & ♠Lonewolf♠

What a waste, Calvin!!

Mike Firesmith: We canceled great gifts in our familie, we sit together, eat a fine meal speak or play something and everybody is happy to be together again. In former times we gave many and great gifts and some in the family couldn’t do, for they hadn’t enough money, so they began to struggle. I said, that isn’t the sense of Christmas, now we sit together and it is fine and everybody is happy!!

legaleagle48 said, about 6 hours ago

Then again, who asked Dad for his editorial comments? I’m with Calvin on this one. Mind your own business, Dad!

Parents who abandon their obligations should not be suprised at the results. It is part of parental responsibility to pull back the curtain and enlighten their children to the nature of the influences acting on them.

Dad, therefore, is minding his own business …

Nicely done Wiseguy411, nicely done.

http://comics.com/zoom/237671/

Just let me extoll greed and waste in peace Dad!

Dad probably would’ve liked having Calvin watch specials on DVD to avoid the crass commercialism, but, alas, the strip was drawn before DVDs were around … most probably.

One thing is for absolute certainty - all of you people are getting up way too early in the morning! Apparently this Marge competition has become an insomniac race and you people really need to consult a therapist …

[He-he-he, now maybe I will get a chance to …]

DVDs weren’t around but VHS tapes were. I’ve been TV free for 5 or 6 years now. We still have a set hooked to an antenna with a converter box obtained with government coupons, but the last 2 times it was on was for the last presidential inauguration and the 2010 election returns. Even the election returns did not stay on, once I found a web site that gave information on local races.

I can’t use “Share” - have java, adobe flash, new Windows 7, but it won’t work when I click on the box. Can you advise me?

I can’t use “Share” - have java, adobe flash, new Windows 7, but it won’t work when I click on the box. Can you advise me? And my comment in here comes up with errors and word stuff I can’t understand,but I’m hoping you can read this!

And I say, Wiseguy411, that if Calvin wanted to know Dad’s opinion on a given subject, he’d ask him for it. Until then, Dad needs to keep his editorializing to himself. It’s not the time or the place for editorializing or criticizing, when Calvin is simply minding his own business and not doing anything that harms himself or others.

There is nothing worse, in my opinion, than someone who butts in with advice or judgmental comments on my activities when none have been sought or invited. In fact, if you REALLY want to guarantee that I’ll keep on doing something that you don’t like, just do what Dad did – make an unsolicited comment like Dad’s, when I haven’t asked you for your advice!

The question is not the solicitation but who is the adult and who has the responsibilty.

I like your solution, LX013. I often feel sad when I think about all the greeed involved in Christmas.

Good Morning Marg

Commercials make me crazy. I watch everything on DVD or netflix streaming.

Folks, did you notice that the TV is not only “levitating” (I assumed that there was a wall mount at the back which is out of sight in all the panels) but is also “alive”? It changes position as though it is “looking” at the character. In panel 1 it is aimed at Calvin, as expected. However, in panel 3, it is “looking” at Dad as he speaks. Then, in panel 4 it is “looking” at Calvin again as he replies. The TV has become a character in the strip, not just a prop.

If this was a Calvin/Spif daydream segment, an animated TV might be “normal” (as normal as things ever are); however, this is a “real world” segment.

I cannot believe that the TV movement was an accident – Bill Watterson is far too good in his scene continuity (and everything else) to let that happen. I suspect he did it for artistic (dramatic) effect to help us to focus in on the key character. Or, perhaps he did it simply as a gag, a “leg-pull.”

Does the Maestro have any words for us? Or is it more fun to leave us in puzzlement? (Do I hear chuckles?)

notinksayanymore:

same here! Interesting sign-in name BTW. What does it mean?

There is no responsibility here, Wiseguy411. Calvin isn’t doing anything that needs any sort of parental intervention or criticism.

Let’s put this another way: Would you still think Dad’s editorial comment to be appropriate if it were Mom watching the show? I wouldn’t, and neither would Mom – and neither would you. Yet, under your criteria, Dad would stll have the duty to “educate” her, even though she hasn’t asked him for his opinion. After all, he’d be doing her a favor by pointing out the evils of commercialism – never mind that she might not even care one way or the other!

My point is that there is a proper time and place for everything, even parenting. If Dad really wants to make his point about the evils of holiday commercialism, he can and should do so in a much more appropriate setting, perhaps AFTER Calvin has finished watching his show, when they can discuss it together and BOTH parties can express their opinions in a two-way discussion – NOT as a one-way lecture that will only go in one of Calvin’s ears and out the other.

Yes you and I both need our own tv. We are on the same page again.

What you need is a DVR so you can watch uninterrupted.

Everything in moderation.

As a kid I liked the commercials with kid’s stuff.

Does anyone remember a show where a kind man in a room full of toys, displayed and demonstrated them? Maybe Santa’s Toy Shop? About 1964. I loved that man and his toys. Warm fuzzy’s.

Recorded A Charlie Brown Christmas (glad they haven’t tried to cut Linus reciting from the Bible yet), watched it last light, fast forwarded through the commercials.

It’s working! Encouraging TV sales!

Thank goodness need only occurs between late November and late December. Otherwise, we would have to be nice to everybody, and be concerned about others throughout the year. And NOBODY can do THAT!

THAT’S why I don’t like Christmas. If you have the “Christmas Spirit” once a year, you’re covered until next year, when you have to do it all over again. But it’s only once a year.

I’m alright with the commercialization of “Christmas”. I look at the fact that the celebration we think of as Christmas is based entirely on error, and a bit of myth. Yes, I believe that the messiah was born, and became our sacrifice. But…

1 The date is well known to be wrong, and was chosen to incorporate the Roman Saturnalia festival enthusiasts into Christianity.

2 There is no biblical directive to observe His birth.

3 If He wanted us to observe it there would be no doubt as to it’s date.

So let ‘em have it. They’ve taken nothing from me.

It is much more important to understand His sacrifice, and why it was necessary. Which brings up Easter, a whole ‘nother can of worms.

Edit: Sorry that the font was so large. I didn’t know that putting the # in front of the numbers would do that. I didn’t mean to yell! And I fixed it.

‘The TV is off of its stand because Calvin is watching some elevated material. Some additional observations: 1) the vast of majority of companies, large and small, in this country make their margins during December. All of the money they make the other 11 months of the year goes to salaries, benefits, operating overhead, etc. 2) As a sometime actor here in SLC I would absolutely LOVE to do a national ad with residuals for December. The added income would be a huge help, in light of the fact that the cost of medical for me has put me below the poverty level.

There is a prevailing theory that He was born on or about Sept 29th. That would make sense. It’s after harvest (so people could afford the tax), but before cold weather (so they could make the trip to pay the tax). And if you count back 9 months you come to….Dec 25th! Also the story of Mary meeting Elizabeth in 1 Luke bears out this theory. One can do the chronology from the course of Abia, which was Zacharias’, along with how far along Elizabeth’s pregnancy was.

jukeofurl said, about 17 specials ago

Dad was right then He’d be even more appalled now -the ratio is much worse.

Not to mention that the shows are often 40-minute commercials themselves…

Teresa said, about 3 hours ago

It’s been investigated that Jesus was actually born in the Spring, when all the lambs were being born, approximately Easter time. and yes, Christmas on 25 Dec was a plot of the current ‘Powers that be’ at the time (Catholic Church) to incorporate a pagan holiday (holy day) so that they could say it was all the same.

Not quite–there is some evidence that the date was adopted before the Church was legal, and used the pagan holiday as a sort of cover–so that the Christians could celebrate without being obviously out of sync with the neighbors. Further, as evidence, they interpreted the verse by John the Baptist, “He must increase while I must decrease” to put John’s birth (six months before Jesus) at the end of June, when the sunlight is decreasing, and Jesus in late December.

Another advantage of the December date was to separate the celebration of the birth from the passion, death and resurrection.

Television today gives you more commercials than show.

Today’s permissiveness is tomorrow’s standards.

I’ve actually done extensive research on the chronology of John the Baptist and Jesus Christ (relative birth dates and times of ministry) for my church. Sept. 29 is somewhat too late - the most likely date for Jesus’ birth is the Feast of Trumpets aka Rosh ha-Shanah (also the weekly Sabbath), Sept. 22, 4 BC. Yes, you can get that exact assuming a normal pregnancy for Mary (it helps to know what Zachariah’s membership in the course of Abijah, in the priesthood, really implies vis-a-vis the sacred calendar).

Trumpets also happens to be “the new year of kings”, the day on which, if ever, Jesus’ birthday would be noted by those who believed he was the Messiah. (He never commanded anyone to observe the day of his birth, or of his resurrrection for that matter, but he did command people to observe the day of his death. And that’s what led to the famous Quartodecimian controversy - the biblical Passover vs. the Roman Easter.)

By the time Gentile Christianity was speculating about the matter, it was already too far divorced from the original Church’s roots in Israel and in God’s law to make heads or tails of the issue. Quite a few dates were proposed for different reasons, until the coincidence with the day of the solstice was fixed effectively ex cathedra.

Bmonk and Johanan Thank you both for relevant facts. Christmas is not meant to be commercial, but free enterprise will make a buck any which way it can.

I’m not going to editorialize a cartoon though to make a point. For Pete’s sake, Watterson drew this to be funny, and it is funny.

legaleagle48…… Mom probably doesn’t need parental supervision, but a child Calvin’s age does. Would you wait until a child was finished watching porn to lecture him on it’s evils? I think not. Or did you just get up on the wrong side?

He has a flying TV? It’s 2010 and we still don’t have flying cars.

Equating seasonal holiday ads with pornography, rogue53? That’s really reaching, in my opinion.

Sorry, but my point still stands. There’s a time and a place for everything, and that was neither the time nor the place for a snarky, unsolicited editorial comment like Dad’s. Advertising isn’t evil, and it’s not something that Calvin needs to be lectured on at his age.

I don’t see dad’s rant as a lecture, but a statement of opinion.

me too…

Now there’s TV on cell phones, computers, and other pocket-size video devices, something that was unthinkable and nearly impossible in those days. What next, are we going to have displays imprinted directly on our retinas?

thier new tv can fly and face people????!!!!!!!!

See, he is learning, Dad.

It was down In the first panel but in the second it was, I don’t get it?