Clarion Content

A real Calvin and Hobbs story came to life today near Fort Collins, Colorado. News organizations broke into coverage of President Barry Obama speaking in New Orleans to announce that a six year-old boy had climbed into a homemade helium boom and drifted skyward. He was now floating at 6,000 feet over Colorado.

This is how the Washington Post reported what happened next, "For three hours on a workaday Thursday, a mesmerized and helpless America watched this shiny silvery disc spin slowly against a brilliant blue sky with puffy white clouds. As it tipped this way and that, emergency vehicles trailed the balloon over two counties and 50 miles. The Air Force was alerted. The Federal Aviation Administration grounded planes. A Black Hawk chopper flew in close, blades slashing, to create a downwash to defeat a contraption that looked like a giant birthday party balloon...At last, the jet stream set the shimmering orb gently down in the middle of a vast field.

Men in overalls ran to the balloon and stabbed it with shovels until it slowly crumpled.

A nation held its breath.

There was no boy.

Authorities scoured the ground for bits of broken plywood, a crumpled child. "

As it turned out, Calvin-esque to the end, the kid had never left his house (except possibly in his imagination). He had gone upstairs to the attic to get away from his Dad and older brothers. At six years-old, he goofed around playing a cardboard box for a while and then fell asleep.

After going unaccounted for five hours, intrepid reporters quoted the child as saying, "I played and then I went to sleep."

Read the whole story here.

Labels: Pop Culture