Mixed Moss

In the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes, Calvin asked the same impossible-to-answer scientific questions I did at age six…only his dad’s answers were much more interesting than my dad’s were; mostly because Calvin’s dad lied to him.

I was reminded of this fact by one of Eric’s ditzy co-workers lately. Here’s the comic strip it made me think of.

———-
Calvin: Dad, how come old photographs are always black and white? Didn’t they
have color film back then?
Dad: Sure they did. In fact, those old photographs ARE in color. It’s just the
WORLD was black and white then.

Calvin: Really?
Dad: Yep. The world didn’t turn color until sometime in the 1930s, and it was
pretty grainy color for a while, too.

Calvin: That’s really weird.
Dad: Well, truth is stranger than fiction.

Calvin: But then why are old PAINTINGS in color?! If the world was black and
white, wouldn’t artists have painted it that way?
Dad: Not necessarily. A lot of great artists were insane.

Calvin: But… but how could they have painted in color anyway? Wouldn’t their
paints have been shades of gray back then?
Dad: Of course, but they turned colors like everything else in the ’30s.

Calvin: So why didn’t old black and white photos turn color too?
Dad: Because they were color pictures of black and white, remember?

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