Dude, I seriously just came here to post that link.
i'm sure your comment would have been wittier.
When I was a kid, I did not get Watterson's anti-merch stance at all - particularly how adamant he was about it. Now it seems like the most sane thing he could have done. That Calvin and Hobbes remains a shooting star, rather than a garish neon billboard is something that makes me all kinds of happy.
Thanks for sharing. I started reading the strip when I was 12 and thought it was amusing, not Far Side funny (I was 12 and C&H had a more subtle humor) but poignant in a way that I 'sort-of' recognized. When I was about 17, I started collecting the books because I heard that Watterson was done and I didn't want the thing to end. It wasn't until I was probably 22 that I really comprehended the genius of the strip and the beauty of it's message. I still sit down with The Days Are Just Packed or There's Treasure Everywhere every few months to recalibrate my worldview.
nibbish - I couldn't have made that point any better.
I think Watterson could very easily have "sold out" a little while retaining his soul. On the other hand, I would not mind if he and his legal advisors were a bit more aggressive about going after derivative works, such as the commonly-seen "Calvin pissing" decals all too often seen on pickup trucks.
The one positive to those decals is that it at least indicates to me that the person driving the vehical with the image is someone I can make sure I never, under any circumstances, engage the min discussion should I meet them outside of their truck.
i love calvin and hobbes so freaking much. i've got the complete collection, and i've gone through it several times. what i love about C&H is every time i go through it, i notice a different angle that's always been there that i missed beforehand. i first read it as it was coming out because it was silly and the drawings were funny. then, as i started to get more interested in science i noticed a lot of the anthropological and archaeological jokes. then, i picked up on more of the political discourse and social commentary (like consumerism, environmental issues, instant gratification, etc). then i noticed how much it said about childhood. the last time i went through it, and i'd never thought much of it before, but i noticed how much the strip has to say about parenthood as well.
a close pair of friends had a baby boy last january that they named calvin. i wasn't planning on naming Pete "calvin", but i was a little upset that i wouldn't be able to at least consider it.
what an amazing strip.
this reminds me. word to sean: when I follow a link to an LTE (as above, or from the sidebar), the link does NOT take me to the correct spot in the thread/post (in this case, my screen centered on this comment: https://wgom.org/2012/01/17/january-17-2012-viewers-like-you/#comment-59525 ). This has been going on for more than a year, IIRC.
any thoughts? Is this fixable? It is all but impossible to find the correct LTE in a long series of LTEs simply by knowing the comment number because you have to mouse-over each one looking for the right number.
That's because you're an admin. What happens is the page loads, you get pointed to the comment, and then the comment editor loads and inserts code that increases the height of the comments you can edit. As an admin, that's all of them. It's kind of annoying. Fortunately the fix is easy: hit enter in the address bar. That is, click or select the address, don't change anything, and pressing enter will cause the browser to jump to that comment.
You. Da. Man.
It can be made quicker by using ctrl-L then hitting enter. That works in Firefox and Chrome. (Old) IE use F6 instead. IE 10 seems to have joined the club on ctrl-L.
F6 works in chrome too. in fact, i didn't know about ctrl-L.
Yep. F6 works in all of them and might have been the original method. I just find ctrl-L easier to type.
yup. when i read that, i tried it out and thought, hmm, that seems easier to type.
hj - I missed that. Had I seen it, I would have cited from it in my response - it's a great perspective.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Especially the way it became new all over again as a parent. I think I would serious consider the entirety of Calvin & Hobbes as the greatest work of previous century. It kind of seems crazy as I write it, but there it is.
I really need to pick up C&H. I generally disliked it as a kid because it seemed so dry to me, but I always like the strip here and there now when someone points them out.
I have a pretty strong subversive streak in me, so Calvin and Hobbes was a favorite of mine from day one. I'm gonna have to get that magazine, too.
also, i know the next movie day is coming up soon, but the new wes anderson movie looks amazing:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Fg5iWmQjwk
i mean that literally too. HD viewing is a must for this preview.
You can even play Wes Anderson Bingo with the trailer!
Should have been shot in stop-motion while aiming for a "G" rating.
Which is to say, I want to see it and expect to be disappointed.
in case we needed any more evidence that Tim McCarver is senile, well...ok, we don't need any more evidence. But this piece says a lot of what I said to the mrs last night after the Ross-Avila collision. The "there's nothing we can do" line is complete bull shit.
As expensive as MLB players are, why the hell haven't the owners DEMANDED an end to collisions at the plate? And why haven't more managers fired 3rd base coaches for endangering players by sending them home in situations where a collision was highly likely (such as the one last night -- short ball, charging OFer with a good arm, and a slow runner at 3rd). That was a play that could have ended the season, if not careers, for two players.
why is the 3rd base coaches problem? catcher's blocking the plate. that's interference, right?
Only if they don't have the ball. If they do, the rules allow the runner to pretend he's playing football. I'm not a fan either. Catchers shouldn't be linebackers.
Only interference if they don't have the ball, I believe.
I don't see why that rule couldn't be changed to make it no different than the other bases. A close play at second or third is just as exciting as a close play at the plate without as much threat of injury to the fielder.
MAKE IT HAPPEN BILLY SMITH!
the (practicality) argument undoubtedly would involve the fact that home plate is the only base where a runner can over-run the base and not be in danger of being tagged out for having done so.
Nonetheless, collisions have all but been eliminated in amateur baseball. Is college and high school baseball less exciting because there is no football at the plate?
another analogy is to women's hockey. Is women's collegiate hockey less exciting because of the greater restriction on checking? Maybe, but not by that much.
home plate is the only base where a runner can over-run the base and not be in danger of being tagged out for having done so.
Except for first base. Unless you turn to your left to return to the bag.
I meant on non-force plays. If the force is in effect (including first base as a special case), then blocking the bag is irrelevant.
I think blocking LNP at first might cure his "habit"
ok, there is the one major exception to the rule. Perhaps some ground-level razors could be installed a foot in front of the 1b bag to discourage him from diving.
My counter-argument would then be that that feature of home, and the fact that it isn't raised up from the ground (as high) like the other bases would make for some potentially exciting and fantastic slide techniques that do sometimes happen now, but would happen more often without the option of trying to seriously injure someone.
3rd base coaches for endangering players by sending them home in situations where a collision was highly likely
It took a while, but eventually Fox did show a replay of Cabrera lumbering home. The third base coach began waving him around but when Cabrera reached third, the stop sign was on.
That said, full-on contact in baseball does not make the sport better. It would be exactly the same if there was no contact, except catchers and middle infielders would last longer.
full-on contact in baseball does not make the sport better. It would be exactly the same if there was no contact, except catchers and middle infielders would last longer.
This. Leave the crashes to NASCAR.
I'm certainly in favor of eliminating home plate collisions. In my view, if the ball arrives at the plate well before the runner, the runner's blunder shouldn't be rewarded just because he has a bunch of kinetic energy he can unleash on a stationary catcher.
also, the catcher almost never drops the ball anyway, even if they get injured.
I once got barreled over in Little League on a play at the plate. I'm pretty sure that was an illegal move on his part, but I held on to the ball anyway and nobody was hurt. The guy felt so bad he came over and apologized to me after the game. Then he just happened to be on my team the next year.
Another benefit of banning home plate collisions -- more hook slides!
I should note that Tango is a strong proponent of no-contact and sure enough, has another post about it this morning. I wish I could find his post about his method of banning it. My paraphrase of that is the catcher must remain in foul territory while the runner must remain in fair territory past a certain point (about 15 feet from home).
Does it even need to be that complicated? You can run upright or you can slide, but you can't barrel into the catcher by using your arms as a weapon or by leaning forward. As long as you don't act like a running back, the catcher only needs to tag you just like a first baseman would who has to leave the bag to catch the ball.
Are you sure you don't have fair/foul mixed up? It would make a lot more sense for the catcher to stay in fair territory to receive the throw, with the runner in foul territory in an area similar to the box drawn just before first base for the hitter. If the runner goes outside the box, he's out, if the catcher encroaches on the box (other than with his glove to tag the runner), the runner is safe.
I might. I couldn't find where he explained it to refresh my memory on the players' boundaries.
I feel like putting the catcher in foul territory would be a non-starter, but fair territory could work.
Thinking about it that does make a lot more sense. I will assume that was the proposal.
Didn't some catcher a few years ago break his wrist doing a tag from the side?
I think that was the first run the Twins ever scored on Troy Percival. I forget the catcher's name, but the game was Twins-Angels and I think it was more a bad throw that forced the catcher into the situation, but my memory could be wrong.
oooh, CSI material.
It appears that the first runs scored by the Twins against Percival happened May 24, 2000. Percival entered in the bottom of the 9th leading 5-3.
Midre Cummings (PH for Butch Huskey) reached on E-6
Cummings to 2nd on defensive indifference
Jacque Jones (PH for Brian Buchanan) struck out looking
David Ortiz (PH for Matt LeCroy) walked
Denny Hocking PR for Ortiz
"Marcus Jensen"(???) struck out looking
Corey Koskie (PH for ii) walked
Jay Canizaro doubled to RF, Cummings and Hocking score, Koskie out at home (Benji Bengie Molina catching). No note of injury to Molina. He batted and singled in the top of the 10th.
Marcus Jensen was one of several catchers the Twins ran through in that era.
Sept. 3, 2003.Dustan Mohr broke Bengie Molina's wrist on the play. He was trying to score from first on a double by Shannon Stewart with two outs in the ninth. Ball was there well ahead of him. He was sent only because it was two outs in the ninth, so the coach decided it was worth the risk. Mohr slammed into Molina, who dropped the ball when his wrist was bent back. The ball got away and Stewart scored the winning run on the play. Unfortunately, Molina was given an error, so both runs off Percival were unearned.
This season, Molina absorbed far more violent collisions from Oakland's 220-pound Jermaine Dye and Kansas City's 240-pound Ken Harvey on July 6 and July 9. Both were out at the plate, and Dye missed seven weeks with a separated shoulder for his trouble.
Percival didn't give up an earned run to the Twins until 2005 in his one season with the Tigers. He gave up two earned runs, one each in games 10 days apart in April. The first was April 12 when Stewart got to him again, a GW ground-rule double in the 9th to score LEWWWW, who was in scoring position following a single, a sac bunt by Cuddyer and a walk to Punto. Then, 10 days later in Detroit, Morneau hit a game-tying HR in the 9th, but the Twins wouldn't get anymore base runners off him in two innings despite two deep lineouts to CF by Jacque Jones and LEWWW. The Tigers won it in the 10th on a leadoff HR by Ivan Rodriguez off Terry Mulholland.
Those were the only two earned runs Percival gave up to the Twins in 47.2 career innings.
Which means a 0.38 ERA!
.
.
new Twins player autographed baseball card aquisitions J.T. Chargois and Luis Rodriguez
now have certified autographed cards of 146 different Twins players
I hope your J. T. Chargois card will be worth lots of money someday.
it's not my intention to collect anything as an investment, but I understand your meaning
It never hurts to hope. That's really the best way to do it. You'll enjoy your collection regardless of value, but if it does turn valuable: Bonus!
not really a bonus. If Chargois turns out great, it just means his future cards will be that much more expensive for me. that's some catch, that Catch-22
"Good morning, and welcome to episode 307 of Effectively Wild, the daily podcast from Baseball Prospectus."
"Jersey shore, or Jersey proper?" KPCS: Demetri Martin #107
looks like i'll be visiting my local newsstand:
Mental Floss Exclusive: Our Interview with Bill Watterson!
Dude, I seriously just came here to post that link.
i'm sure your comment would have been wittier.
When I was a kid, I did not get Watterson's anti-merch stance at all - particularly how adamant he was about it. Now it seems like the most sane thing he could have done. That Calvin and Hobbes remains a shooting star, rather than a garish neon billboard is something that makes me all kinds of happy.
Thanks for sharing. I started reading the strip when I was 12 and thought it was amusing, not Far Side funny (I was 12 and C&H had a more subtle humor) but poignant in a way that I 'sort-of' recognized. When I was about 17, I started collecting the books because I heard that Watterson was done and I didn't want the thing to end. It wasn't until I was probably 22 that I really comprehended the genius of the strip and the beauty of it's message. I still sit down with The Days Are Just Packed or There's Treasure Everywhere every few months to recalibrate my worldview.
nibbish - I couldn't have made that point any better.
I think Watterson could very easily have "sold out" a little while retaining his soul. On the other hand, I would not mind if he and his legal advisors were a bit more aggressive about going after derivative works, such as the commonly-seen "Calvin pissing" decals all too often seen on pickup trucks.
although, I now know that the meme is much older than I thought. INteresting.
The one positive to those decals is that it at least indicates to me that the person driving the vehical with the image is someone I can make sure I never, under any circumstances, engage the min discussion should I meet them outside of their truck.
i think i said it all here before:
this reminds me. word to sean: when I follow a link to an LTE (as above, or from the sidebar), the link does NOT take me to the correct spot in the thread/post (in this case, my screen centered on this comment: https://wgom.org/2012/01/17/january-17-2012-viewers-like-you/#comment-59525 ). This has been going on for more than a year, IIRC.
any thoughts? Is this fixable? It is all but impossible to find the correct LTE in a long series of LTEs simply by knowing the comment number because you have to mouse-over each one looking for the right number.
That's because you're an admin. What happens is the page loads, you get pointed to the comment, and then the comment editor loads and inserts code that increases the height of the comments you can edit. As an admin, that's all of them. It's kind of annoying. Fortunately the fix is easy: hit enter in the address bar. That is, click or select the address, don't change anything, and pressing enter will cause the browser to jump to that comment.
You. Da. Man.
It can be made quicker by using ctrl-L then hitting enter. That works in Firefox and Chrome. (Old) IE use F6 instead. IE 10 seems to have joined the club on ctrl-L.
F6 works in chrome too. in fact, i didn't know about ctrl-L.
Yep. F6 works in all of them and might have been the original method. I just find ctrl-L easier to type.
yup. when i read that, i tried it out and thought, hmm, that seems easier to type.
hj - I missed that. Had I seen it, I would have cited from it in my response - it's a great perspective.
Yes. Yes. Yes.
Especially the way it became new all over again as a parent. I think I would serious consider the entirety of Calvin & Hobbes as the greatest work of previous century. It kind of seems crazy as I write it, but there it is.
I really need to pick up C&H. I generally disliked it as a kid because it seemed so dry to me, but I always like the strip here and there now when someone points them out.
I have a pretty strong subversive streak in me, so Calvin and Hobbes was a favorite of mine from day one. I'm gonna have to get that magazine, too.
also, i know the next movie day is coming up soon, but the new wes anderson movie looks amazing:
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Fg5iWmQjwk
i mean that literally too. HD viewing is a must for this preview.
You can even play Wes Anderson Bingo with the trailer!
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/05/24/wes_anderson_bingo_play_along_with_moonrise_kingdom_using_our_bingo_board_generator_.html
Tangentially related but awesome: Fantastic Mr. Fox and Moonrise Kingdom as reinterpreted by a very crafty lady.
Should have been shot in stop-motion while aiming for a "G" rating.
Which is to say, I want to see it and expect to be disappointed.
in case we needed any more evidence that Tim McCarver is senile, well...ok, we don't need any more evidence. But this piece says a lot of what I said to the mrs last night after the Ross-Avila collision. The "there's nothing we can do" line is complete bull shit.
As expensive as MLB players are, why the hell haven't the owners DEMANDED an end to collisions at the plate? And why haven't more managers fired 3rd base coaches for endangering players by sending them home in situations where a collision was highly likely (such as the one last night -- short ball, charging OFer with a good arm, and a slow runner at 3rd). That was a play that could have ended the season, if not careers, for two players.
why is the 3rd base coaches problem? catcher's blocking the plate. that's interference, right?
Only if they don't have the ball. If they do, the rules allow the runner to pretend he's playing football. I'm not a fan either. Catchers shouldn't be linebackers.
Only interference if they don't have the ball, I believe.
I don't see why that rule couldn't be changed to make it no different than the other bases. A close play at second or third is just as exciting as a close play at the plate without as much threat of injury to the fielder.
MAKE IT HAPPEN BILLY SMITH!
the (practicality) argument undoubtedly would involve the fact that home plate is the only base where a runner can over-run the base and not be in danger of being tagged out for having done so.
Nonetheless, collisions have all but been eliminated in amateur baseball. Is college and high school baseball less exciting because there is no football at the plate?
another analogy is to women's hockey. Is women's collegiate hockey less exciting because of the greater restriction on checking? Maybe, but not by that much.
home plate is the only base where a runner can over-run the base and not be in danger of being tagged out for having done so.
Except for first base. Unless you turn to your left to return to the bag.
I meant on non-force plays. If the force is in effect (including first base as a special case), then blocking the bag is irrelevant.
I think blocking LNP at first might cure his "habit"
ok, there is the one major exception to the rule. Perhaps some ground-level razors could be installed a foot in front of the 1b bag to discourage him from diving.
My counter-argument would then be that that feature of home, and the fact that it isn't raised up from the ground (as high) like the other bases would make for some potentially exciting and fantastic slide techniques that do sometimes happen now, but would happen more often without the option of trying to seriously injure someone.
3rd base coaches for endangering players by sending them home in situations where a collision was highly likely
It took a while, but eventually Fox did show a replay of Cabrera lumbering home. The third base coach began waving him around but when Cabrera reached third, the stop sign was on.
That said, full-on contact in baseball does not make the sport better. It would be exactly the same if there was no contact, except catchers and middle infielders would last longer.
This. Leave the crashes to NASCAR.
I'm certainly in favor of eliminating home plate collisions. In my view, if the ball arrives at the plate well before the runner, the runner's blunder shouldn't be rewarded just because he has a bunch of kinetic energy he can unleash on a stationary catcher.
also, the catcher almost never drops the ball anyway, even if they get injured.
I once got barreled over in Little League on a play at the plate. I'm pretty sure that was an illegal move on his part, but I held on to the ball anyway and nobody was hurt. The guy felt so bad he came over and apologized to me after the game. Then he just happened to be on my team the next year.
Another benefit of banning home plate collisions -- more hook slides!
I should note that Tango is a strong proponent of no-contact and sure enough, has another post about it this morning. I wish I could find his post about his method of banning it. My paraphrase of that is the catcher must remain in foul territory while the runner must remain in fair territory past a certain point (about 15 feet from home).
Does it even need to be that complicated? You can run upright or you can slide, but you can't barrel into the catcher by using your arms as a weapon or by leaning forward. As long as you don't act like a running back, the catcher only needs to tag you just like a first baseman would who has to leave the bag to catch the ball.
Are you sure you don't have fair/foul mixed up? It would make a lot more sense for the catcher to stay in fair territory to receive the throw, with the runner in foul territory in an area similar to the box drawn just before first base for the hitter. If the runner goes outside the box, he's out, if the catcher encroaches on the box (other than with his glove to tag the runner), the runner is safe.
I might. I couldn't find where he explained it to refresh my memory on the players' boundaries.
I feel like putting the catcher in foul territory would be a non-starter, but fair territory could work.
Thinking about it that does make a lot more sense. I will assume that was the proposal.
Didn't some catcher a few years ago break his wrist doing a tag from the side?
I think that was the first run the Twins ever scored on Troy Percival. I forget the catcher's name, but the game was Twins-Angels and I think it was more a bad throw that forced the catcher into the situation, but my memory could be wrong.
oooh, CSI material.
It appears that the first runs scored by the Twins against Percival happened May 24, 2000. Percival entered in the bottom of the 9th leading 5-3.
Midre Cummings (PH for Butch Huskey) reached on E-6
Cummings to 2nd on defensive indifference
Jacque Jones (PH for Brian Buchanan) struck out looking
David Ortiz (PH for Matt LeCroy) walked
Denny Hocking PR for Ortiz
"Marcus Jensen"(???) struck out looking
Corey Koskie (PH for ii) walked
Jay Canizaro doubled to RF, Cummings and Hocking score, Koskie out at home (
BenjiBengie Molina catching). No note of injury to Molina. He batted and singled in the top of the 10th.Marcus Jensen was one of several catchers the Twins ran through in that era.
Sept. 3, 2003. Dustan Mohr broke Bengie Molina's wrist on the play. He was trying to score from first on a double by Shannon Stewart with two outs in the ninth. Ball was there well ahead of him. He was sent only because it was two outs in the ninth, so the coach decided it was worth the risk. Mohr slammed into Molina, who dropped the ball when his wrist was bent back. The ball got away and Stewart scored the winning run on the play. Unfortunately, Molina was given an error, so both runs off Percival were unearned.
Percival didn't give up an earned run to the Twins until 2005 in his one season with the Tigers. He gave up two earned runs, one each in games 10 days apart in April. The first was April 12 when Stewart got to him again, a GW ground-rule double in the 9th to score LEWWWW, who was in scoring position following a single, a sac bunt by Cuddyer and a walk to Punto. Then, 10 days later in Detroit, Morneau hit a game-tying HR in the 9th, but the Twins wouldn't get anymore base runners off him in two innings despite two deep lineouts to CF by Jacque Jones and LEWWW. The Tigers won it in the 10th on a leadoff HR by Ivan Rodriguez off Terry Mulholland.
Those were the only two earned runs Percival gave up to the Twins in 47.2 career innings.
Which means a 0.38 ERA!
.
.
new Twins player autographed baseball card aquisitions
J.T. Chargois and Luis Rodriguez
now have certified autographed cards of 146 different Twins players
I hope your J. T. Chargois card will be worth lots of money someday.
it's not my intention to collect anything as an investment, but I understand your meaning
It never hurts to hope. That's really the best way to do it. You'll enjoy your collection regardless of value, but if it does turn valuable: Bonus!
not really a bonus. If Chargois turns out great, it just means his future cards will be that much more expensive for me. that's some catch, that Catch-22
this is a pretty long read, but entertaining.
My attempt to use Mariano Rivera for 9 innings in MLB 13: The Show
That was great, but I think the best part was the screenshot of the box score after the game, notably the errors section.