After Calvin & Hobbes grow up

Gerry Canavan has a collection of imaginations of Calvin & Hobbes grown up, including at the end the worst ever possible ending for the strip. Back in the mid-nineties I was a huge Calvin and Hobbes fan, who were quite popular at our uni for some reason, getting all the big daily and Sunday strip collections. I read them so much I got a bit sick of them and moved on to another obsession. Perhaps I should dig them up out of storage.

Meanwhile Patrick Nielsen Hayden links to another, much more serious story about children, absolutely heartbreaking in more ways than one. If you have small children, perhaps better not read it, as it’s about something that could happen to every parent no matter how omni-competent they are, though you never think it could happen to you: leaving your small child accidently behind in your car.

The author of the article, Gene Weingarten, has written perhaps the best newspaper report I’ve read in years — and it’s published in the Washington Post. Non-judgemental, considered, absolutely tugging on the heartstrings without becoming ghoulish or maudlin and with an ending that confirms your faith in humanity. It’s a textbook example of how to talk about an absolutely horrifying subject without descending into unnecessary gore and should be required reading for every gleeful reporter on Radio Four reading out the gruesome details of the Baby P. case.