Query: "gone to Hobbes"

[Cohen, Gerald Leonard]

Today I was told that a 90 year old lady had matter-of-factly said that the crops this year "have just gone to Hobbes" (roughly = simply went to hell in a handbasket). The younger lady to whom she said this then asked her about the expression, and the older lady answered that her mother had often used it.

I don't have OED or DARE handy, but I see the expression doesn't appear in the ads-l archives or HDAS.  Is anyone here familiar with it and would anyone have any idea who Hobbes in the expression is?

Gerald Cohen
South-Central Missouri

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