one of the most fascinating things i ever saw was an act on the tonight show back when Carson was hosting called something like “bubble magic” (not too sure if that was the actual name). i just remember the guy blowing cigarette smoke into bubbles to make them more visible and linking them and even making various shapes by combining them. it was really cool, but Calvin would need a lot more practise to get to that level.
ninmas: Happy Belated Birthday!
Stuart Gathman: What a horrible story! Talk about the cops way to overreact! I remember a bathroom break that I took when my son was little to find the door wide open and my neighbor with him in hand saying someone came over to visit her. Another time after he had his own twin bed I checked on him and he wasn’t there or anywhere in the house but the door wasn’t open that time. I still searched the yard calling his name and checked with the neighbors and no one had seen him. I came back in the house just to see if he doubled back on me and was playing a grand game of hide and seek. I went in his room and heard a snoring sound. He’d woke up and it was too bright and couldn’t sleep so he crawled under the bed!
My husband and I just played bubbles again today. I got one of the foot wide wands with the dish at Price Chopper at the beginning of the summer. One of the cheapest and best toys I’ve bought for her. It works great and we all take turns making these huge bubbles and she chases them. She makes sounds likes she’s watching a fireworks display. The bubbleblower came with Imperial’s Miracle Bubbles and it’ really thick which I thinks helps alot. We’ve been through two gallon bottles so far!
@yyyguy I’ve seen something pretty similar, tho’ not on the tonight show, maybe it was the same guy… I was pretty cool tho’ ;)
All I remember from doing this as a kid was all the bubble mixture down your hand and along your arm drenching one of your sleeves, the bubbles themselves never seemed to behave themselves… Calvin I simpathise :)
yyyguy, I guess you are referring to a performance by Tom Noddy (find him by searching “bubble magic”). One good example of what he can do is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcraIOkc2ZU
What I have seen was called a bubble cube.
He grouped six bubbles together, then carefully pushed a straw in to the middle and blew smoke in.
There was a bulging cube shape in the middle.
Don’t let anyone burst your bubble, Calvin!
“Is That All There Is? - Peggy Lee
“I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles” debuted in 1918.
Anyway, life is more than bubbles.
PTL
This is reminiscent of life in general. “Bip” “Weee” Remember the old song Julie London use to do called, “Is that all there is?” Well, yep. That’s all there is. The artist, Frida Kahlo, wrote her own epitaph. It went something like “It was interesting, but I’d never want to do it again.” I guess that was a round about way of saying” Bip” “Weee.”
I used to do a bubble experiment with my college students (Elementary Education majors) when we studied light waves–kept them enthralled for 30 minutes or more. You tape a clear plastic lid on top of a flashlight in a dark room and use a straw to blow bubbles from the mixture you put in the lid. The bubbles are gorgeous and intricately combined. The experiment is at http://www.exploratorium.edu/scienceexplorer/bubdome.html if you want to try it or just Google the word bubbularium
Ludekuize many thanks for the link. It was, indeed, Tom Noddy who I saw that time. I remember Paul Daniels’ Magic Show as well. I have a vivid memory of his son doing Houdini’s water torture escape on the show, and also a hokey “Loch Ness Monster” episode filmed at the Loch. I’ll probably go back tonight to watch it again, wish I knew how to save it.
Ludekuize: My thanks also for that great link - I had never seen Tom Noddy (Attercop? Bilbo?) before and enjoyed it. Poor guy could never do his act in California now, not with that cigarette.
Huntermoon: Your link no longer works, it seems, but I googled it OK - I’ll have to try that.
@Huntermoon, Back in “the day”, there was a whole book on Soap Bubbles and the sort of science you could do with them. Including cylinders, bubbles inside bubbles, cantenaries, and I forget what all. Fascinating!
At work, I often have to give a brief hearing test to very young kids. Bubbles have saved me many a time. Nice distraction that keeps them from yanking the test probe out and screaming.
JonD17: Sorry we get too caught up in the my granddaughter’s reactions to count the bubbles. I’d say we probably blow a couple a hundred a night and we started in April so as a rough estimate I’d say 34,000 bubbles and counting!
On the subject of bubble blowing fun an elderly friend of mine died five years ago. She was in my water workout class at the YMCA and lived in my mother-in-laws apartment building. My mother-in-law’s patio was by the pool and they’d all gather there in the afternoons to chat and swim. My friend was a real cut-up and one day showed up with a bottle of bubbles and everyone laughed so hard taking turns blowing the bubbles. After my friend died I went to the store and bought 30 bottles of bubbles and gave everyone from the workout class that went and the apartment building in the church parking lot before we went in. As my friend’s casket went past the pews on the way out the girls positioned at the ends started blowing bubbles and we continued until they loaded her in the hearse.
margueritem about 15 years ago
Such an anti climax…..
wndrwrthg about 15 years ago
Bubbles need some good mushrooms as accompaniment.
EarlWash about 15 years ago
Some days are like that!
yyyguy about 15 years ago
one of the most fascinating things i ever saw was an act on the tonight show back when Carson was hosting called something like “bubble magic” (not too sure if that was the actual name). i just remember the guy blowing cigarette smoke into bubbles to make them more visible and linking them and even making various shapes by combining them. it was really cool, but Calvin would need a lot more practise to get to that level.
vibjyor about 15 years ago
Even life is like that !
Rakkav about 15 years ago
Calvin, some things work better if you don’t try so hard to do them. :)
Dino-1 about 15 years ago
ninmas: Happy Belated Birthday! Stuart Gathman: What a horrible story! Talk about the cops way to overreact! I remember a bathroom break that I took when my son was little to find the door wide open and my neighbor with him in hand saying someone came over to visit her. Another time after he had his own twin bed I checked on him and he wasn’t there or anywhere in the house but the door wasn’t open that time. I still searched the yard calling his name and checked with the neighbors and no one had seen him. I came back in the house just to see if he doubled back on me and was playing a grand game of hide and seek. I went in his room and heard a snoring sound. He’d woke up and it was too bright and couldn’t sleep so he crawled under the bed! My husband and I just played bubbles again today. I got one of the foot wide wands with the dish at Price Chopper at the beginning of the summer. One of the cheapest and best toys I’ve bought for her. It works great and we all take turns making these huge bubbles and she chases them. She makes sounds likes she’s watching a fireworks display. The bubbleblower came with Imperial’s Miracle Bubbles and it’ really thick which I thinks helps alot. We’ve been through two gallon bottles so far!
carmy about 15 years ago
Ahoy there, Calvin. If ye be lookin’ for some adventure, join me for some swashbucklin’ me hearty!
GROG Premium Member about 15 years ago
Was he hoping for fire works?
johnnydoc5 about 15 years ago
At least a small scale explosion….
Ronshua about 15 years ago
BIP ? So they do generate a sound .
Madruga about 15 years ago
…yeah, very impressive =DD
tirnaaisling about 15 years ago
@yyyguy I’ve seen something pretty similar, tho’ not on the tonight show, maybe it was the same guy… I was pretty cool tho’ ;)
All I remember from doing this as a kid was all the bubble mixture down your hand and along your arm drenching one of your sleeves, the bubbles themselves never seemed to behave themselves… Calvin I simpathise :)
Ludekuize about 15 years ago
yyyguy, I guess you are referring to a performance by Tom Noddy (find him by searching “bubble magic”). One good example of what he can do is here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcraIOkc2ZU
rshive about 15 years ago
Sorry Calvin. No explosions–they just pop.
Dkram about 15 years ago
What I have seen was called a bubble cube. He grouped six bubbles together, then carefully pushed a straw in to the middle and blew smoke in. There was a bulging cube shape in the middle.
Puddleglum2 about 15 years ago
Don’t let anyone burst your bubble, Calvin! “Is That All There Is? - Peggy Lee “I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles” debuted in 1918. Anyway, life is more than bubbles. PTL
Vonnegut about 15 years ago
“Wheeee.”
jrbj about 15 years ago
This is reminiscent of life in general. “Bip” “Weee” Remember the old song Julie London use to do called, “Is that all there is?” Well, yep. That’s all there is. The artist, Frida Kahlo, wrote her own epitaph. It went something like “It was interesting, but I’d never want to do it again.” I guess that was a round about way of saying” Bip” “Weee.”
Huntermoon about 15 years ago
I used to do a bubble experiment with my college students (Elementary Education majors) when we studied light waves–kept them enthralled for 30 minutes or more. You tape a clear plastic lid on top of a flashlight in a dark room and use a straw to blow bubbles from the mixture you put in the lid. The bubbles are gorgeous and intricately combined. The experiment is at http://www.exploratorium.edu/scienceexplorer/bubdome.html if you want to try it or just Google the word bubbularium
lewisbower about 15 years ago
Calvin, there is a lesson in love to be learned here but you probably won’t learn it either.
vexatron1984 about 15 years ago
Want to have fun with bubbles? Get the catnip scented kind and blow them at Hobbes. The tigers I know love it!
rentier about 15 years ago
Some idea in life is a wonderful sparkling star, it bursts like a soap bubble and only the memory stays, but the membory is excellent!
lazygrazer about 15 years ago
Bubbles would be alot more fun if they had fangs and claws.
grammahotsho about 15 years ago
My grandpa used to say, “Never expect any more than you get and you’ll never be disappointed.” Think of that often. Words to live by!
COWBOY7 about 15 years ago
Love the expression in the last panel!! LOL
JonD17 about 15 years ago
Wow Dino, 2 Gallons…. did you by any chance do a bubble count on that consumption…. Inquiring minds want to know. lol
EarlWash about 15 years ago
….and for those of us old enough to remember such things, there was Lawrence Welk’s “Champaign Music Makers” bubble machine. “Wonderfula, wonderfula”.
dianecliff about 15 years ago
My cats ignore the catnip bubbles…. they want the real thing.
Fun: try blowing bubble outdoors once the temp goes below freezing… they freeze almost instantly.
yyyguy about 15 years ago
Ludekuize many thanks for the link. It was, indeed, Tom Noddy who I saw that time. I remember Paul Daniels’ Magic Show as well. I have a vivid memory of his son doing Houdini’s water torture escape on the show, and also a hokey “Loch Ness Monster” episode filmed at the Loch. I’ll probably go back tonight to watch it again, wish I knew how to save it.
JonD17 about 15 years ago
from 2 days ago: Wiseguy411 said, 2 days ago ……..
Oh and Stede_Bonnet … Youth is wasted on the young. Amen to that Wiseguy, When I turned 60 is when I really started having fun!
jpozenel about 15 years ago
Sometimes the simplest things in life are the most rewarding. Unfortunately Calvin will never grow up to learn this.
grammahotsho, my own motto is: “Expect nothing. You’ll never be disappointed.”
bald about 15 years ago
i bought one of those giant bubble wands for my youngets son when he ea 1 1/2 and took him out to play withthem, scared the living heck out of him
Carmy : it took me a little while but i finally figured it out
happy national pirates day
Ushindi about 15 years ago
Ludekuize: My thanks also for that great link - I had never seen Tom Noddy (Attercop? Bilbo?) before and enjoyed it. Poor guy could never do his act in California now, not with that cigarette.
Huntermoon: Your link no longer works, it seems, but I googled it OK - I’ll have to try that.
bmonk about 15 years ago
@Huntermoon, Back in “the day”, there was a whole book on Soap Bubbles and the sort of science you could do with them. Including cylinders, bubbles inside bubbles, cantenaries, and I forget what all. Fascinating!
ratlum about 15 years ago
Didnt dancers use bubbles at least in movies ?
NoBrandName about 15 years ago
Ahoy, bald716, apparently you still didn’t get it, since it is International Talk Like A Pirate Day. Arrrrgh!
All praise to the FSM. May you be touched by his noodly appendage!
Saucy1121 Premium Member about 15 years ago
At work, I often have to give a brief hearing test to very young kids. Bubbles have saved me many a time. Nice distraction that keeps them from yanking the test probe out and screaming.
farmermatt about 15 years ago
Welcome to the real world, kid. Someone always out to burst your bubble.
mrprongs about 15 years ago
I always enjoyed blowing bubbles.
Ivy0730Lcsq about 15 years ago
Wheeeeeeeeeeeee!
margueritem about 15 years ago
Ludekuize, Thank you for the link, that was fascinating!
Dino-1 about 15 years ago
JonD17: Sorry we get too caught up in the my granddaughter’s reactions to count the bubbles. I’d say we probably blow a couple a hundred a night and we started in April so as a rough estimate I’d say 34,000 bubbles and counting!
On the subject of bubble blowing fun an elderly friend of mine died five years ago. She was in my water workout class at the YMCA and lived in my mother-in-laws apartment building. My mother-in-law’s patio was by the pool and they’d all gather there in the afternoons to chat and swim. My friend was a real cut-up and one day showed up with a bottle of bubbles and everyone laughed so hard taking turns blowing the bubbles. After my friend died I went to the store and bought 30 bottles of bubbles and gave everyone from the workout class that went and the apartment building in the church parking lot before we went in. As my friend’s casket went past the pews on the way out the girls positioned at the ends started blowing bubbles and we continued until they loaded her in the hearse.
humormehere about 15 years ago
Had a friend that took an acetylene tank and a bubble maker and make acetylene filled bubbles…They really POP!