Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson for December 08, 2021

Don’t they have a pizzeria in this town?

Looks like its waffle night tonight.

I was the main cook in our house. She only cooked when her family came to visit. The rest of the time she couldn’t find the kitchen

I think mom get well sooner than expected.

Believe it or not, a lot of people like waffles AND chicken together.

Hah! Women – the unbelievable snobbishness they possess in thinking we can’t survive in the kitchen.

And a microwave oven is a blessing.

My sister’s first husband lived on Fritos and Pepsi in college, to hear her tell it.

It could’ve been an old army meal Calvin, S.O.S.

Mom taught me and my brothers to cook (at least a little) to avoid this situation. Well, she also said “I don’t want you boys getting married just because you’re hungry”.

That’s about the same level as my cooking, anything out of a tin that can go into a microwave. And it’s so handy they fit the “meals ready” device to the ceiling these days?

Soup for breakfast?

Geez Dad, spring for some pizza delivery or a trip to BK or Mickey D’s or else Calvin and Mom are going to figure out your a real cheapskate!

Anyhow, its the early ‘90s, you don’t have a frozen Tombstone or Totino’s pizza to lob in the oven or a couple of Hungryman, Banquet or El Charrito TV dinners you could nuke in the microwave?

Yeah Cal, quit waffling and help Dad with the “cooking”! :D

My dad always cooked dinner every Friday, and it was always the same – hamburgers. My sister still has hamburgers every Friday.

Dad is obviously Pre Ramen.

My wife likes to cook, so she does most of it. I am a good cook too, however my menu is a lot more limited than hers. What I make, I make well, but the selection is limited.

However, on of my best creations came about when I was watching my two sons and the neighbor’s boys. I had to feed them and all I had were bits and ends of several kinds of pasta, ditto on the cheeses and some hot dogs. I put them all in a big pot and added some tomato sauce and called it “hot dog stew.”

The next day, I was gone on a trip and when I came back a week later, my wife asked me, “OK, so what’s hot dog stew, the boys have been asking for it all week.”

Hope the house insurance is paid up…

Any adult who can’t prepare at least a simple meal …… well, there’s something wrong somewhere.

‘Breakfast for dinner’!! Good by me, every now and then!!

I used to cook when I was single. Now I can’t remember what it was that I cooked.

It’s all good as long as Dad doesn’t mention fava beans and a nice Chianti.

Be happy Calvin. No vegetables for a few days!

When my wife was out of town I often cooked dinner for our kids. They developed a lifelong affection for Trix and Frosted Flakes…

I feel like this explains so much.

When I was an undergrad, I had a (illegal, under university regs) electric hotplate, a (also illegal) toaster oven, and one of those little cubical fridges in my room. I cooked fried chicken, fried fish, and heated up assorted frozen meals. I’d have used a microwave, but they were too expensive. I also did fried or scrambled eggs, and, of course, toast. To this day I make scrambled eggs with milk, cheese, shredded ham, and small pieces of bacon added in because that’s how I did it in uni.

Oh the hilarity! Another dad can’t cook comic!!!

Today’s strip reminds me of the Dad Poll strip in which Calvin told Dad that the polls favoured Mom being made Head of the Household:

Dad to Mom: What do you know about this?

Mom to Dad: My first act will be to make you do all the cooking.

Calvin: Whoa! That changes everything!

Obviously Mom would prefer Dad’s cooking to having to cook meals herself as she prefers to spend money eating out with her family rather than cooking meals. Calvin much prefers eating out but prefers Mom’s cooking to Dad’s.

Hobbes loves seafood and his preference was originally for tuna but he later stopped having tuna when he learned that dolphins are caught with the tuna fish. At Mom’s suggestion to Calvin, Hobbes changed from tuna to salmon.

I was lucky. I liked Cup O Noodles, hot dogs and macaroni and cheese.

On November 27, there was a strip with Hobbes waiting with Calvin at the bus stop and Calvin catching the bus to school. About four commentators asked how Hobbes would get home. I pointed out that the third of the four panels showed Hobbes walking away from Calvin which suggested that he walked home. The commentator called Brian asked me, “What happened when Calvin left Hobbes in the woods for real?”

The following day, I replied to Brian that Calvin waited for Hobbes to follow him home and got upset when Hobbes had not come home by bedtime and started looking for him. Mom made Calvin go home and go to bed but also made Dad search for Hobbes with her. She called out for Hobbes in Dad’s presence and became embarrassed about this. Mom got tired and went home to bed but Dad kept searching and returned home with Hobbes. Next morning, Hobbes told Calvin that he wasn’t lost and had found his own way home.

Brian did not reply and may not have read my reply to him so I am repeating it for his benefit. I would like to know if he disagrees with my summary. I like to read Brian’s views although he and I are sometimes in disagreement.

Can of soup in hand…..Get the syrup son…….

Back to waffles.

Hash. My Dad could make hash out of any leftovers. It was always delicious.

My loving wife and I were married 34 years until she died in March, I CAN cook I don’t care about eating. I cared for MIL who had dementia all alone and cooked for her until she died in August after that there has been no real cooking by me. I just don’t “feel” like it. I have gained a little of the weight I lost but nothing seems to matter or make any sense anymore.

I discovered I liked to cook when I was single and on my own, and that cooking classes were a great venue for meeting women …. On another note – Calvin’s future mother never visited his future father’s apartment?!? Really?!? That could help explain why Calvin is still an only child…

What? No ramen?

Both the guys in my house can cook (and do their own laundry.) Hubby is in charge of broiling fish, steaks, and cooking burgers. No 1 son can cook, too. His first job was as a short order cook in a pool hall—to learn how the other side lived, he said—by that he means, anyone who doesn’t have the luxury of having a food in the pantry and a mom willing to cook for them.

Your dad was not a scout, we learn to cook or starved.

I can relate. I’ve been known to scorch water…

Love the dad’s showy pose in the third panel! This is why my parents have been having my brother and I prepare dinner once a week, as practice for when we move out soon.

Hey…That’s MY recipe.

Waffles can’t be that bad… right?

My college roommate and I at least knew how to open a can and heat the content in a saucepan over a hot plate. There’s a lot of variety available in cans and you can even mix two cans together.

When I first read this comic as a kid, I thought he meant that the waffles were STILL frozen when eaten.

Someday this kid will blackmail dad with one of his bachelor days misadventures.

Evidently the toaster survived Calvin’s preparations yesterday.

Oddly, I was thinking about this exact strip a few days ago. Maybe I had a craving for waffles?

together? ew …

The dad can say “I can cook, or my name isn’t…isn’t…isn’t…umm.ummm…umm, shit what is my name?”

I had a good reason to learn how to cook. Hunger!

Waffles seems like overkill, somehow.

I learned to cook when I was eight years old. Mom was in the hospital, and I had a choice: Eat Dad’s cooking, or LIVE!

Looks like it’s waffles and soup.

If Dad is such a great cook why is he missing two fingers?