Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for August 24, 2019

The boy does like to live dangerously.

Hey, if Mom’s not looking, now’s the chance to throw the crab apple!

Calvin’s allowance is going to pay for his mother’s dry cleaning bill to get that “marinara sauce” off of her.

He better be a lousy aim.

Calvin sure knows how to make enemies.

Hurting Susie was the point, of course…

Kids… and every other person… interpret what they hear to suit themselves.

Calvin, there are always consequences to what you do. If you hit Susie with the crab apple, she would of slugged you and told her Mom who would of told your Mom. Hitting Mom with a squishy tomato would bring untold consequences that would last at least until you leave home for good, but I guess you have to learn it.

Calvin never made it past his teen years, did he?

Then she will be crabby…

That kid just does not learn.

That’s why not to throw them at someone? So if they only ruined her outfit it would be OK? No wonder he’s like that. Welcome to the style of parenting that brought us Occupy Wall Street, burning campuses in Berkeley, and millennials in general. But they’ve got self esteem in boatloads!

The kid got a death wish.

Dead meat boy. Wait until your father gets home.

Calvin’s got the makings of a good lawyer.

We lived in an apartment that backed up to a busy street. There was a fence between the play area for the kids and the street. We told our son not to climb the fence. One day we saw him on the other side. We got out and retried him.

We admonished him for climbing over the fence. He said, “I didn’t go over. I went under.”

There is a life lesson here: there are rules (don’t climb the fence) and there are values (stay on this side of the fence). Don’t confuse the two.

Somehow, I think Calvin got only part of the message.

Once when I was on a trip with some friends and we were bored. We began squirting water out the window at folks, Then tossed little bits of butter out, finally, we tossed a tomato at some girls in a phone booth. The door was open and the tomato almost hit one of the girls. As we passed by, we heard, “OOOOH!!!, Someone threw a tomato at me!” Gosh, we used to have so much fun when we were kids…

What is wrong with this kid?

I suspect that the corrections Calvin gets for his attacks are not sufficient to prevent further infractions. I suppose his time outs need to be a little longer. That will teach him. Right?

I hope he likes living in his room

You see, Calvin is very obedient!

The kid’s heading for real trouble some day.

Ah, a much better plan. What could go wrong?

Wonder what Calvin would have turned out like if he had grown up? He never has to pay for his bad actions other than time out, which doesn’t work for him.

Hopefully Calvin will perish of doing something stupid before he actually hurts someone. Sadly, I see too many middle-age adults in real life that are Calvin-molds to have much hope for the species. Yes, they walk among us.

… and that’s why this strip ceased to be!

A Wrist Rocket. I would definitely use a Wrist Rocket. I could lob cherry bombs across a 4-lane highway on to my pal’s dad’s gas station platform.

What else are crab apples good for? Nothing. So you may as well throw them at people.

He’s asking for it. Once he drenched both his mom & Suzie.

Throwing the crabapple at Suzy might indeed injure her, whereas bopping his mom with a rotten tomato is unlikely to cause any damage beyond staining her gardening outfit. So I would say this represents a moral improvement for Calvin. Next thing you know, he’ll be eating his veggies.

calvin is about to exceed the limits of his moms medications.

Love those sunglasses!

The detour is obvious!