The fact that this week's strips are about Emergency Preparedness is a cruel twist of fate given the actual emergency that is going on right now.

It's hard to know where to start with the giant waves that have killed tens of thousands. The numbers of dead started out so large that it was hard to comprehend, then they got even larger. It's very far away from me, but I work with several Indians and one Indonesian (fortunately their friends and families seem to have been unaffected). Though bigger in terms of human loss, it feels less scary than 9/11. For one thing it's not a threat of more similar events (though I certainly live in earthquake country). And there's no one to blame, which is both harder and easier.

But in the end it doesn't matter where I start. What matters is that there are many dead and many more who will die without immediate aid. You can make a donation to the Red Cross International Response Fund here.