The Qin's main armament is described in the script for this page as "a green coruscating beam of lambent force [(tm) E. E. 'Doc' Smith.]" "Doc" Smith is famous in science fiction for being the father of the space opera. Smith's heroes lunged across the stars with little respect for scientific limits or proper prose styling, and employed weapons of limitless power to smash their enemies on a planetary scale. Good clean fun, in other words, and while his novels may be dated now a lot of modern SF -- including such recent genre-redefining blockbusters as Vernor Vinge's A Fire upon the Deep and Alastair Reynolds's Revelation Space -- would not exist without him.

So anyway, the anniversary is Tuesday, but this comic appears Monday and Thursday. Well, we'll split the difference and say that all week is Birthday Week. That means I can milk this topic for one more page if necessary. And therefore, in honor of that whole deal, I invite you, our beloved and loyal readers, to write in and suggest ways that the gospel of MoS can be brought to even more people during Year Two. Because, really, doesn't everyone need a bit of lambent force in their lives?