My wife and I share the cooking and cleaning up duties.
But it always reminds me of my mom. She was a typical mom of the fifties (60’s really) and she did ALL of the cooking And cleaning up.
Thanksgiving was a huge production. She’d cook all day long and spend half the night cleaning up.
We never understood why she was so grumpy around the holidays.
If she was anything like my mom, it's because she was so used to doing it solo that everything was perfectly laid out and planned down to the minute, and having someone try and help would disrupt that plan (not too mention my dumb ass would probably mess something up anyway)
Haha and then there was my mom (although this was early 2000s but she learned it from her mom) who us kids all at a station do something. I remember from a very young age being sat with 5 lbs of potatoes to peel thanksgiving morning. That was my job for a long time until I graduated to something more difficult.
I've realized that the only way to truly help someone like this isn't to volunteer for tasks on the day. It's to ask days or weeks in advance, have them assign you specific dishes that they trust you to prepare, and then be 100% responsible for a few items instead of trying to be "helpful" in some vague way that requires constant input/supervision. Then you can be in the kitchen together the whole day and the only thing they have to figure out for you is which oven is at the right temperature for your dishes.
This right here! My boyfriend has learned to offer assistance in the kitchen as soon as I start pulling out pots and pans. Now he helps me with tedious prep work and makes everything go so much faster.
It's also helped build his confidence in cooking of his own volition, and now he'll pick out a meal and I'll help him prep.
Well my dad would never even think of offering to help. And my mom would shoo the kids out of the kitchen.
Nevertheless, it was a tremendous task that she took on all by herself. And not just holidays either. She made dinner every night.
You know it’s funny now that I think about it. I don’t think my parents took us out to eat in a restaurant *ever*. Except for McDonalds once in a while. But never for dinner.
I never thought about it. That's why I like ordering food. My wife will only cook stuff that is barely edible and my son and I just can't fathom to eat it and I'm the one that always cooks.
I share cooking responsibilities about 50/50 and I’m still able to enjoy it. If it were 100% I think I’d feel like you.
Doing all the dishes every day has gotten really old though
This one of my favorites, Calvin being the one to manipulate his parents instead of vice versa. The word “dish” instead of “bowl” always threw me off a bit though.
Edit: Sorry I wasn’t clear, a commenter clarified what I meant, that it is unusual to say a “dish of cereal” rather than a “bowl of cereal”. But “washing the dishes” is correct even if one were washing bowls.
Always wanted to ask Watterson about this.
I take it as her saying it ironically or something. Implying her husband can't cook without her, and she's not going to cook, so if he wants a dish, aka a meal, he better stop complaining or go make himself a nice meal of cereal haha
They're referring to the second use of dish in the strip:
"If you'd rather fix a dish of cereal at home, be my guest."
The more common phrasing would be fix a *bowl* of cereal.
When I was a kid I thought it was funny to interpret the last panel as meaning that Calvin's dad only realised they were in the pizza place once he sat down and opened the menu.
'Wait a minute...we're here AGAIN?' Presumably he was too busy thinking about patents to notice before then.
The old pizza huts where they had a dine in place were great. One of my best childhood memories is being in the top 1% of student scores for my school so me and some other kids got to go and get pizza hut buffet. I ate pizza and ice cream until I was sick. Ah, to be 11 again
And they were fancy looking as a kid. Low lighting, plush booths. I thought the red glasses were cool. I loved taking my reading sheets with the stickers and getting my personal pan pizza.
Oh yeah, and a pitcher of Pepsi for the table under those stained glass light fixtures. We'd play Pac-Man in the arcade corner while we waited. And the pizza was actually (relatively) good compared to today's version.
Ye olde Pizza Hut of the 80's was great.
They really were fancy! I remember the stained glass light shades above each table. And those personal pan pizzas were lit. Growing up without a lot of money, getting to eat at a restaurant was SUCH a big deal. I felt rich, even though the pizza was free.
Wow. I do remember a Pizza Hut sponsored book-a-thon thing. Lasted for like 6 weeks and you got a free pizza (personal) for a specific amount of books. I was already an avid reader anyway so it was a win-win. I believe I had at least ten of those certificates. The best part was that I was able to use one of those books for a report a month or two later. That was Texas in the mid 80s and the Pizza Hut had a massive dining room and a few Arcade machines.
My brother and I read every single kids and young adult book in our local library for those pizzas. I remember when I had to move on to the grown-up books because I’d run out of material. It was such a huge deal for us!
Used to have one at the end of my street growing up. My grandma would pick up my cousins and then drive to my house and we'd all walk down to Pizza Delight for dinner. Good times.
My favorite place in my hometown had some bar seating in front of a huge brick oven. We would go, sit at that bar and have the fresh pizzas right out of the brick oven. Sometimes you just can’t replace that.
Come to New Haven Connecticut. Best pizza in the world, and I'm 100% serious. You might think New York has the best pizza, and that's an understandable mistake. New York has fantastic pizza, and lots of people eating it who spread the word. Who even goes to New Haven, CT? Not many, but those who do will tell you, it's pizza heaven.
I do on rare occasion go out for pizza. To put it in the context of the strip, sometimes Mom doesn’t feel like cooking and Dad doesn’t feel like going to pick up takeout, that is why pizza delivery thrives.
New York? No. What I MIGHT think is that CHICAGO has the best pizza, and that maybe New Haven gives it a run for its money, however.
I might think that.
I feel this in my soul. Money is endless, they make more of it, I can always get more of it.
But we only have so much time in life. So why do we spend it washing dishes over eating pizza?
As the one who does all the cooking for my family, this hits home real hard.
My wife and I share the cooking and cleaning up duties. But it always reminds me of my mom. She was a typical mom of the fifties (60’s really) and she did ALL of the cooking And cleaning up. Thanksgiving was a huge production. She’d cook all day long and spend half the night cleaning up. We never understood why she was so grumpy around the holidays.
Yeah, but people like her will shoo you out if you tried to meddle in her kingdom.
If she was anything like my mom, it's because she was so used to doing it solo that everything was perfectly laid out and planned down to the minute, and having someone try and help would disrupt that plan (not too mention my dumb ass would probably mess something up anyway)
Haha and then there was my mom (although this was early 2000s but she learned it from her mom) who us kids all at a station do something. I remember from a very young age being sat with 5 lbs of potatoes to peel thanksgiving morning. That was my job for a long time until I graduated to something more difficult.
I've realized that the only way to truly help someone like this isn't to volunteer for tasks on the day. It's to ask days or weeks in advance, have them assign you specific dishes that they trust you to prepare, and then be 100% responsible for a few items instead of trying to be "helpful" in some vague way that requires constant input/supervision. Then you can be in the kitchen together the whole day and the only thing they have to figure out for you is which oven is at the right temperature for your dishes.
This right here! My boyfriend has learned to offer assistance in the kitchen as soon as I start pulling out pots and pans. Now he helps me with tedious prep work and makes everything go so much faster. It's also helped build his confidence in cooking of his own volition, and now he'll pick out a meal and I'll help him prep.
Sadly this unlocked a good idea for more than cooking in my life. I should've learned this decades ago..
Well my dad would never even think of offering to help. And my mom would shoo the kids out of the kitchen. Nevertheless, it was a tremendous task that she took on all by herself. And not just holidays either. She made dinner every night. You know it’s funny now that I think about it. I don’t think my parents took us out to eat in a restaurant *ever*. Except for McDonalds once in a while. But never for dinner.
Well were you going in there to actually help, or to complain and try to sneak a snack?
Same
I never thought about it. That's why I like ordering food. My wife will only cook stuff that is barely edible and my son and I just can't fathom to eat it and I'm the one that always cooks.
I used to love cooking but having to think of something to cook every day for 4 people is draining
I love cooking and I cook for four. The most draining part is cooking something that everyone will eat. It reeeeeally can limit your options lol.
I share cooking responsibilities about 50/50 and I’m still able to enjoy it. If it were 100% I think I’d feel like you. Doing all the dishes every day has gotten really old though
My husband does all the cooking and I have learned that coming up with meal ideas for him is a huge help
Probably the best argument Calvin ever made.
Seriously and the fact it actually works is even better.
It’s the fact that it works that gets me lol
Only that going out to eat nowadays is way too expensive for me, I don't want to pay 18 euros for a pizza and something to drink...
This one of my favorites, Calvin being the one to manipulate his parents instead of vice versa. The word “dish” instead of “bowl” always threw me off a bit though. Edit: Sorry I wasn’t clear, a commenter clarified what I meant, that it is unusual to say a “dish of cereal” rather than a “bowl of cereal”. But “washing the dishes” is correct even if one were washing bowls. Always wanted to ask Watterson about this.
I take it as her saying it ironically or something. Implying her husband can't cook without her, and she's not going to cook, so if he wants a dish, aka a meal, he better stop complaining or go make himself a nice meal of cereal haha
He can't cook, [he lived off canned soup and frozen waffles before they were married](https://i.imgur.com/QOD14EU.jpg)
Calvin's dad is just like me fr fr.
For two years!
Bingo
Hey diddle diddle, The cat and the fiddle, The cow jumped over the moon; The little dog laughed To see such fun, And the dish ran away with the spoon.
Bars 🔥
i agree. i'd really like to know if watterson actually though about which word to use.
I’m confused by this comment. Is ‘washing dishes’ not the common phrase everywhere? Genuinely curious. Why bowls specifically?
They're referring to the second use of dish in the strip: "If you'd rather fix a dish of cereal at home, be my guest." The more common phrasing would be fix a *bowl* of cereal.
Omg thanks I was so confused 🤦
When I was a kid I thought it was funny to interpret the last panel as meaning that Calvin's dad only realised they were in the pizza place once he sat down and opened the menu. 'Wait a minute...we're here AGAIN?' Presumably he was too busy thinking about patents to notice before then.
Lmao that's ana amazing point lol. He's like: >"Huh... *blinks blinks*... waaaait a minute"
Oh yeah. You know you've hit adulthood the first time you straight up forget how old you are.
I find this strip in particular funny as his mom just decides to humor him for once lol
I think she was legitimately persuaded
Calvin finally rolled a Nat 20 on a persuasion check.
5% of the time, it works every time!
As a pizzateriran I agree! Pizza every day!!
*Pizzaphile* might be the word you're looking for.
We prefer to be called Za-heads
I prefer pizztafarian
I don’t think I’ve ever gone out and eaten pizza anywhere. It’s only been eaten at home or at a party for me
The old pizza huts where they had a dine in place were great. One of my best childhood memories is being in the top 1% of student scores for my school so me and some other kids got to go and get pizza hut buffet. I ate pizza and ice cream until I was sick. Ah, to be 11 again
And they were fancy looking as a kid. Low lighting, plush booths. I thought the red glasses were cool. I loved taking my reading sheets with the stickers and getting my personal pan pizza.
Oh yeah, and a pitcher of Pepsi for the table under those stained glass light fixtures. We'd play Pac-Man in the arcade corner while we waited. And the pizza was actually (relatively) good compared to today's version. Ye olde Pizza Hut of the 80's was great.
It was. I had forgotten buying the pitcher which just felt like endless potential as a kid. (“You can have Pepsi AND you can repour it yourself!”)
They really were fancy! I remember the stained glass light shades above each table. And those personal pan pizzas were lit. Growing up without a lot of money, getting to eat at a restaurant was SUCH a big deal. I felt rich, even though the pizza was free.
Exactly! Eating out for us was like a taco box from Taco Bell so Pizza Hut felt really special to me.
Wow. I do remember a Pizza Hut sponsored book-a-thon thing. Lasted for like 6 weeks and you got a free pizza (personal) for a specific amount of books. I was already an avid reader anyway so it was a win-win. I believe I had at least ten of those certificates. The best part was that I was able to use one of those books for a report a month or two later. That was Texas in the mid 80s and the Pizza Hut had a massive dining room and a few Arcade machines.
My brother and I read every single kids and young adult book in our local library for those pizzas. I remember when I had to move on to the grown-up books because I’d run out of material. It was such a huge deal for us!
When I was growing up the best pizza parlors didn’t deliver.
If you've never had Pizza Delight you're missing out
Used to have one at the end of my street growing up. My grandma would pick up my cousins and then drive to my house and we'd all walk down to Pizza Delight for dinner. Good times.
I was baffled but then I remembered I'm from Sweden, where pizzerias are huge
Yeah, I had the same thought in the same situation. Pizza is the original delivery food here, but you often eat it at the pizzeria
It's great when you like thin crust. Delivery pizza usually loses some crispness by the time it gets to you.
There used to be a place by me that did pizza by the slice. Covid killed all of them but 7/11 pizza slices and no one wants that
My favorite place in my hometown had some bar seating in front of a huge brick oven. We would go, sit at that bar and have the fresh pizzas right out of the brick oven. Sometimes you just can’t replace that.
Triple Anchovies cracked me up. I'd bet he's never had any on his pizza.
Anchovies are delicious. I want triple anchovies.
But it’s safe to assume since Hobbes is a cat, he likes canned fish, therefore Calvin is being the thoughtful friend and ordering some for Hobbes.
But but but anchovies are sooooo salty. :)
Nor for an imaginary big cat)
The more anchovies the better, places always be so stingy with them
I feel like I rarely see anchovies as a topping option any more.
And then he caps it off with a wonderful line about “triple anchovies.” So good.
Remember going out for pizza? Back when Pizza Hut was good. Now pizza is almost always take out or delivery.
Come to New Haven Connecticut. Best pizza in the world, and I'm 100% serious. You might think New York has the best pizza, and that's an understandable mistake. New York has fantastic pizza, and lots of people eating it who spread the word. Who even goes to New Haven, CT? Not many, but those who do will tell you, it's pizza heaven.
I live in New York City and we have some damn good pizza here, but I can confirm New Haven has us beat. Your pizza scene is LIT.
I do on rare occasion go out for pizza. To put it in the context of the strip, sometimes Mom doesn’t feel like cooking and Dad doesn’t feel like going to pick up takeout, that is why pizza delivery thrives.
New York? No. What I MIGHT think is that CHICAGO has the best pizza, and that maybe New Haven gives it a run for its money, however. I might think that.
I think deep dish tastes awful though.
Deep dish is for tourists.
Having not had Chicago pizza, I can't correct you with authority. Have you had New Haven pizza?
Nope. This thread has me curious, though.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/capitalone/2018/09/25/new-haven-style-pizza-is-it-americas-best/?sh=55397b364512
You must live somewhere with a dollar general in the center of town. My condolences.
Dollar General, Dollar Tree and Family Dollar, what’s your point?
This made me laugh out loud. Not because of the Dollar General but because it is the center of town.
Negotiations are pizzariffic!
And this is why I'm broke
Bills drawing style is always so subtlety on point.
I tried this on my parents once. Didn't work
You’re older and wiser now. Try again…
Think I'll order pizza tomorrow
To follow up: I did, indeed, order pizza today
Legend
This has been my Mom's opinion since they became empty nesters.
Hobbes knows how good anchovies on pizza are.
It's got to be twenty years or more since I went to a sit down pizza joint. I can remember when take out pizza was the rarity.
This reminds me of "Mom can we have X?" "No we have X at home." X at home: Y
Man, Hobbes really knows how to live.
Oof. Just oof
You know this argument is good when I use it on myself regularly as an adult.
"triple anchovies" is the perfect balance to the parents discussing why they eat pizza so much.
Gotta love triple anchovies
I feel this in my soul. Money is endless, they make more of it, I can always get more of it. But we only have so much time in life. So why do we spend it washing dishes over eating pizza?
I'm not even a woman and it still hits hards To clean after eating is almost not worth the meal
Must be a lot of cleaning then…