A Miracle of Science: Dewey, you fool! Your decimal system has played right into my hands!

(Jon sez:)

Today is Thanksgiving Day here in the United States. It's a holiday in which one is supposed to pause and reflect on those things which are good in one's life.

Apropos of this day, I'm going to share a comment which keeps me going whenever the news of the world on CNN gets to me. It sums up, for me, the hope we can find in the human condition.

"A day will come, one day in the unending succession of days, when beings, beings who are now latent in our thoughts and hidden in our loins, shall stand upon this earth as one stands upon a footstool, and shall laugh and reach out their hands amidst the stars." --H.G. Wells

Sometimes it can feel like the world is an unwieldy tractor trailer with its brake lines cut, plummeting down a steep mountain road and gaining speed with every passing moment. To one side is a yawning chasm too deep to plumb and to the other is a sheer stone wall and jagged, fallen rocks. All we can do is grab the steering wheel and drive hellbent for the bottom of the mountain, hoping that there will be a straight road and safe, flat land at the bottom. As long as we work for it, things will continue to slowly get better.

May you spend today with those you love, and who love you.

Oh, yeah...Benjamin is supposed to be frisking Rocco for weapons right after Benjamin punches him. Mark decided that would make laying out the page impossible, or something like that.

(Mark sez:)

I am thankful for having the bestest friends in the whole world. I am thankful for the advanced medical technology that saved my sister's life this summer. I am thankful for having somewhere to go for Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow. I am thankful for living in a new golden age of video gaming. I am thankful for Motoko Kusanagi. I am thankful for Schlock Mercenary and Concerned. I am thankful for living in this awesome country and for the people who protect it. I am thankful for at least having some success in my chosen career, for having a nice place to live and enough food to eat. And, I am thankful for getting to have a comic strip which thousands of people read -- something I always wanted since I was a little kid. Thanks!