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I love the Strip Catalog and have spent several enjoyable hours searching my favourite characters name over and over to get different strips about her (Deanna). I was wondering if, since you have all these strips available elctronically, you were planning on adding a few more years to the Monthly strip archive? I only became a regular reader a couple of years ago and I spent a couple of weeks reading all the strips from 2003 on to catch up with the Pattersons. I would love to be able to read a few more years back. Till then, I will keep on searching Deanna!

Philippa, Sudbury, ON, Canada

Ah, Pets!! Bless 'em, they have no "Agendas" beyond securing more food, more love, more toys... and, as Sunday's strip proves, are "Biased" only towards that which gives them the most comfort!

...I once sacrificed a favourite sweater just to entice a sweet little cat into using a "bought" kitty bed, only to have it continue sleeping on my pillow and purring in my ear all night long.

(On the subject of "Pets" -- could someone tell me just how "Mr. B" met his end? I seem to have missed that particular story arc. )

Anna M, Winnipeg, MB, Canada

When he was seven years old, Mr. B developed inoperable cancer. He died peacefully at home on November 30, 2002. You can find the relevant strip by searching the FBorFW strip catalog http://catalog.fborfw.com/ with the punchline "I never knew there were sad miracles."

There is a third option, (to those mentioned by Bobbi S): Take the child out of the situation.

My oldest acted up in a restaurant when she was three months old. That is too young to be doing something for "attention"; she was responding to the pain of cigarette smoke from the next table. A person in my group called her a brat and suggested a spanking, but I took her out of the restaurant and sat with her in the car while the others finished their meals.

When my children had melt-downs in stores, I took them out, leaving my shopping cart in the store, and alerting a clerk I would be back later; when they acted up in church, I took them out to the foyer.

Almost always there was a reason for the problem: usually exhaustion from a long day of being dragged around, hunger or thirst, "scary people", teething, an on-coming illness, a hand being pinched, etc.

Young children do not have the experience or vocabulary to tell what is wrong, so they act up.

Bill Cosby said at a PTA convention, when a child is acting out, the child is broken; you don't fix a broken child by hitting it.

I'm over half a century old, and I've learned that elders who respect children get the same back as the children grow older. And some children grow up to love and respect their parents no matter how bad their childhoods were.

Barb, OR, USA

A couple things from the 1/11 comments...

I would love a treasury collection - a nice, hard-bound piece that holds all the strips. Even if it were broken into volumes, as Peanuts has done, would be fine. I would definitely keep it on the coffee table and read it regularly.

As for ending the "hybrid," I will personally miss the added features that Lynn has pulled in to the strip. I think of these extra strips as the notes on the backside of an old photograph - you look at the picture, and remember the story, but then you read the thoughts of the person on the back. It's a new perspective that evokes more memories.

Thanks for all the continued good work, and stay warm!!

Jim I, Bloomington, IN, USA