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Tom Corbett shows us that, even in the far-flung future, people still don't do very well at keeping their New Year's resolutions. So don't feel bad if you don't do too well on yours. Countless humans have done and will continue to do the same.

Happy New Year, everyone!

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Recently I saw a discussion online about why people who create fantasy worlds continue to use Latin and Latin-esque words in their stories. It was pointed out that the reason why is because people associate Latin sounding words with glory, grandeur, and a sort of ancient splendor. One person was skeptical, asking how people could think that after the empire that first used Latin, the Roman Empire, fell. It does seem odd, but Latin has been used in the Catholic Church for liturgical purposes for centuries, and Latin is still used in scientific circles for many things. In fact, Isaac Newton first laid out his laws of motion in a treatise he called Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (usually shortened to just Principia). It was written entirely in Latin, and was published in 1687, 1200 years after the fall of Rome.

So, writing your New Year's Resolutions not only in stone, but also in Latin, would definitely lend an air of importance to them. I don't know if that would make you more likely to keep them, though.

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Tiny Tim and Dotty are, as they should, making resolutions for the new year, but I feel like they laid a sort of trap for Paddy. I think if they were better friends to Paddy, knowing that he wanted to stop eating peanuts, they would have made sure that Paddy didn't see them, or distracted him somehow. Loudly pointing out the giant pile of them was not helpful.

All of this is moot, of course, since peanuts are actually very good and healthy for pigeons such as Paddy, at least in their raw, unprocessed form. Paddy will not want to cut them out of his diet completely, but I guess if he's eating a very large amount he can cut back a little bit.

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I wrote a bit about Fontaine Fox last year. One of the things I love the most about his strips is the expressive style, and this is another great example of that. I love how, with just a few lines and a few panels, he can show such a range of emotion on both the father and the child.

It's also kind of amazing how differently children and adults perceive time. We can only think of time in relation to the amount of time we've already lived, and a year in relation to only 3 or 4 years of life is quite a long time. Adults have lived many more years than that, so we don't think of a year as being nearly as long. I think we try very hard to fool ourselves into thinking it's a long time, though.

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I must preface this by saying I never expected to see anything like this.

Tom Corbett was a popular science fiction character in the 1950s, inspired by the Heinlein novel Space Cadet. He started out life as Tom Ranger, in an unperformed radio play written by Joseph Greene. His name was changed to Tom Corbett based on input from Heinlein. The comic strip only ran from September 1951 to September 1953, drawn by Ray Bailey, but the character also appeared in comic books, novels, and a TV show. The character, along with the Heinlein novel, popularized the term "space cadet," which I think has fallen out of common usage these days but was a popular phrase for many years.

The stories always have something to do with Tom's adventures with his friends at the Space Academy, and the training that they undergo in order to become members of the Solar Guard. I've been a fan of science fiction and space adventures since I was a kid, and I don't remember many of them, or any of them at all, dealing with any kind of overt religious themes. This is why it was very surprising to me to find this overtly Christmas themed strip among the ones published in the first year of its run. I really enjoy the fact that it not only has a message about peace and goodwill, but also ties the star of Bethlehem to space exploration in keeping with the science fiction themes of the strip.

Merry Christmas, everybody, on whichever world you happen to be.

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I couldn't find very much information about this strip. Even the Comiclopedia entry for the cartoonist, Bill Williams, doesn't mention it at all. It ran from 1965-1971, and appears to be about the woman that Santa is speaking to, Dolly. From the few strips I saw, she seems to work a variety of different jobs, possibly because she's not very good at keeping them. I'm not sure exactly why Santa would need to go through Customs, unless his flying reindeer were unavailable somehow and he had to take a plane. I guess even magical reindeer need a sick day now and then.

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Tiny Tim was a comic strip created by Stanley Link, about a small boy named Tim and his sister Dotty, who were only two inches tall. The strip ran from 1933 to 1958, and over the course of the strip the brother and sister grew to eight inches tall, then to normal child size, then back to two inches tall, and then gained the ability to switch back and forth between two inches and normal child size. They had many adventures in the tiny world over the course of the strip's run, and gained some animal friends along the way, including the bird, Paddy, who you see in the final panel.

This particular strip is interesting, because I'd never thought about Santa Claus preparing for Christmas Eve in this way. I thought the myth was that Santa could use his magic to shrink to the right size so he could fit in any chimney, or whatever opening was available to him, so he didn't need to worry about fitting in anywhere. In fact, it seems like that story would fit quite well in a comic strip about tiny people. Of course, Dotty could just have been dreaming...

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Smokey Stover here seems to be about as aware of what a bridge lamp is as I was when I first saw this particular strip. I'm not very knowledgeable about the names of home furnishings (but don't worry, Google has educated me). I imagine this is the type of thing that happens when you overhear a conversation between your significant other and someone else, telling them how much they wish they had a thing, but you don't know what the thing is. Then again, it could happen when they tell you directly what they want and assume you know what that is. This is always dangerous. If you really want someone to get you something, provide photo references and, where available, a link to a reputable online merchant that sells them. Otherwise, especially with people who are as bad at gift giving as me, you will always be taking a chance.

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I always enjoy comic strips that are humorous on several levels, not just one. Brother Juniper being as excited as he is about Santa arriving is funny, and the fact that he utilizes a Flintstones style answering service is also funny, but I like the caption the most. The addition of the "would you believe" is what gets me. He didn't have to include it. The image would have worked just as well if he hadn't. The fact that it's there just makes it that much better, though.

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Pogo is set in the Okefenokee Swamp in Georgia, and as someone who grew up in Georgia this is a familiar sight. It only snows maybe once every five years, and usually not around Christmas time. If it ever does snow, you have to look quick, because it will probably all melt by the time it hits the ground. Sometimes it stays around for a while longer, but only for about a day.

As with many things Walt Kelly writes, the overall message of this "song" seems a bit cynical, but even though certain things are fleeting, we should be able to appreciate them while they're there. Even though the snow melts quickly, it's always enjoyable to watch it fall from the sky (as long as you get to a window fast enough).