Calvinball

English Etymology From en Calvin ball. From a fictional game without rules, played in the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes. Noun - en games A deliberately absurd sport without fixed rules. 1996 June 17, Wayne Lockwood, "Nobody without health insurance is a slacker or a loser", Knight-Ridder: And every time I would play serious tackle Nerf Calvinball out in the park somewhere, it played over and over in the back of my mind -- what would I do if I broke an arm? en 1998 Chris Glaser Unleashed: The Wit and Wisdom of Calvin the Dog 71 Westminster John Knox Press 0664221165 At first my humans very much disliked it when I played croquet with them.... But eventually they decided to accept my participation, and renamed the game “Calvinball,” after the game of some comic book character 2002 March–April, Bret Rappaport and Joni Green, “Calvinball Cannot Be Played on This Court: The Sanctity of Auction Procedures in Bankruptcy”, Journal of Bankruptcy Law and Practice, volume 11, pages 189–212 en 2005 The Grate Book of Moo ccclvii Church of MOO, Lulu.com 1411641671 They are required to play the game of Nomic, in some form, or alternatively, the games Calvinball or Mao, which are basically the same. en 2006 The New Island Relocation Guide: How to Live on the Island of Possibility Lee Mothes 50 http://books.google.com/books?id=TpFa1qq9gB8C 0976580403 A more unusual sport is calvinball, which involves spontaneous rules that are never the same twice. en 2006 Cathy Yardley Will Write for Shoes: How to Write a Chick Lit Novel 148 St. Martin's Press 0312358997 Chick Lit, and pretty much all of publishing, plays a lot like Calvinball. There aren’t any rules. en 2006 D. C. Simpson Prehistrionics: Ozy and Millie, 1997-2000 76 Lulu.com 1847287735 “House rules parcheesi” is distinct from “Calvinball” in that the latter has no set rules, whereas the former seems to have very specific rules, which are never divulged in the strip, under any circumstances. en 2007 Fritz Allhoff David H. Guston; John Parsi; Justin Tosi Anticipating the Ethical and Political Challenges of Human Nanotechnologies Nanoethics: The Ethical and Social Implications of Nanotechnology 196 0470084162 http://books.google.com/books?id=EIxRAAAAMAAJ If the limitations of life were like the rules in Calvinball, someone like Nozick might ask if there would be anything left for people to do. en Adam Serwer The Supreme Court Is Playing Constitutional Calvinball https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/12/gavin-newsom-california-gun-law-scotus/621000/ w:The Atlantic December 14 2021 The Court’s conservative majority is playing constitutional Calvinball, in which it’s never too late to change the rules. https://web.archive.org/web/20250828154458/https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/12/gavin-newsom-california-gun-law-scotus/621000/ 28 August 2025 Further reading Calvin and Hobbes#Calvinball Calvinball en eponyms terms derived from fiction