Originally published 30 July 2010There are a lot of important 50th anniversaries coming up over the next few days. Tomorrow we commemorate the 50th anniversary of three momentous deaths, President Jack Kennedy, Narnia creator C S Lewis, and writer and philosopher Aldous Huxley. The day after that, Doctor Who celebrates its 50th birthday.
Today, however, as a sort of warm up, we have another one. I am 50 years old today. I’ll be spending most of it travelling. Yes, it’s time for another trip to New Mexico, to spend Thanksgiving with Linda’s folks. It’s not as onerous a trip as you’d think, I genuinely enjoy travelling, and being such a short-arse, I am actually able to fit comfortably into an economy class seat on a transatlantic aircraft.
I’m flying courtesy of those very nice people at Delta, if any of their employees read this and want to give me an upgrade.
For reasons that leave me totally baffled, it’s £100 per person cheaper for us to fly into Albuquerque’s glorious sunport that Lubbock’s bus station of the air. So our itinerary today is Hastings - Heathrow - Atlanta - Albuquerque, Clovis NM.
It’s not too bad. At least my birthday will last 29 hours, instead of the usual 24. And there’s the chance of a really good celebratory Mexican meal at Sadie’s at the far end.
I won’t be out of touch. I’ll be checking my comments regularly on my tablet, and making updates via the comments go GoComics and Facebook. (Look me up under my name - I’m the one in Hastings, Sussex UK, and mention Smith so I recognise you). And I’ll be doing my usual trick of holing myself up in the Java Loft, Clovis, overdosing on caffeine and writing six months of strips while being swallowed up by one of their sofas.
As for the strip? I took a phrase and interpreted it literally. End of story.
