Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for May 01, 2020

Don’t ask Mom, ask Dad. He will probably pack your bags and drive you to the airport.

Even if you ARE a star, your fans won’t forgive your mistakes like friends and family do. Your fans hold you to a much higher standard, and if you make one screwup, even if it was a long time ago when you didn’t know better, they will turn on you and roast you on social media sites like Twitter until you become a pariah.

This has happened to celebrities too many times to list.

If not Madagascar, there’s Yukon (unless that storyline has already come and gone).

Well Calvin, Google says there are no tigers in Africa, so bringing Hobbes would probably violate some environmental law

Not true. Most stars don’t really please anyone anymore. Go ahead and name one.

So, Calvin likes to move it move it?

LEEEEEEmurs!

“If you’re a star they let you do anything!”

But it’s all right now, I learned my lesson well. You see, ya can’t please everyone, so ya got to please yourself. Who else sang along as you read this?

So why Madagascar?

I still agree with Hobbes, Calvin, even if you can’t go to Madagascar!

It would be tough being Calvin!

My paternal grandparents were missionaries to Madagascar and my dad was the first Caucasian male born in the southern half of Madagascar (Manambaro). They lived near the ocean so at times he and my aunt’s would set lobster traps to catch some of their meals. He had a pet ring-tailed lemur, and before he was school-age understood, Norwegian, Malagasy, French (it was a French colony at the time) and English. We have photos of him and one of my aunts visiting a leper colony. I think Calvin and Hobbes would find plenty to do there! P.S. (Watch out for the hissing cockroaches)

“No matter where you go, there you are.” We don’t know the future. We don’t understand the present. The past is a bit fuzzy. Where the heck are we now and how do we know!?

I somehow doubt Calvin has any idea what Madagascar is like.

As far as I’m concerned, any little kid who knows Madagascar even exists, let alone wants to live there, doesn’t need to justify himself to anyone.

“I went to a garden party”…

Calvin has such a great punchline in this one.

Every now and then, Calvin makes a very profound observation.

So, now I have “Garden Party” by Ricky Nelson rolling around in my head.

My Mother loved Calvin and Hobbes. Today would have been her 100 th birthday.

Hobbes has a very wise philosophy. Don’t try to please everybody.

“Calvin of the Lemurs” doesn’t quite have the same ring as “Tarzan of the Apes”…

The drive to conform to herd behavior is stronger than we would like to admit to ourselves.

hmm, Madagascar, home of the 3" hissing cockroach.

Maybe it is just a matter of the times but I don’t recall PE until sixth grade. Although I was an active and reasonably athletic kid I never liked PE.

On the matter of curriculum, we have a 13 year old grandson who has an interest in cooking (which we enthusiastically support). In 7th grade all boys had to take woodshop and all girls had to take home ec. In 8th grade all boys had t take metal shop and all girls had to take home ec. I would like to think no schools are that shortsighted any more.

But it’s all right now, I learned my lesson well.You see, ya can’t please everyone, so ya got to please yourself— Garden Party by Ricky Nelson

Tomorrow’s a fun and kind of monumental strip.

The secret is that almost no one is pleased by whatever you do. Please yourself and those you love and ignore everyone else who isn’t paying you.

…and another piece of the Watterson Puzzle falls into place

Be carefull! You should only please yourself till you need glasses.

You don’t want to go to Madagascar. You’re not going to get along with the other tigers either.

Note for younger readers: This came out long before the “Madagascar” movie series.

Madagascar, the island of the extinct Dodo bird. The last place you’d want to go, Hobbs; sadly.

There are no tigers in Madagascar (yet). Madagascar is ethnically, geographally and politically NOT a part of the continent of Africa, it is an independent island nation, similar to the fact that Indonesia is not in or part of Asia, despite the fact that it is closer to Asia than Madagascar is to Africa. However, Madagascar has ties to Africa, being an economic part of the AU (African Union). Those who say Madagascar is “in” or “a part of” Africa are misinformed.

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/2016GC006624

When was the last time you asked if you could move to Madagascar? She may reconsider now. Heck, I’d pay for your plane ticket and a couple of months rent.

“Because Mom won’t let me move to Madagascar” has to be the greatest all-purpose excuse of all time.

This is one of the most painful arcs for me.

Rick Nelson – Garden Party

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAHR7_VZdRw