Christmas Number Unique

The three wise men of the East are looking up at something on the front cover of the new Lampoon. It may be the bomb bursting in air or merely the printed legend, "Christmas Number," but there is something worth looking over anyway. The front cover is rather impressive, by the way--much better in its colors of red and blue and its unusual theme than a "Merry Xmas" affair, done in the orthodox red and green. Not a holly leaf in sight, either. You take the laurel sprig for this num- ber, Lampy.

What's the use of giving the Lampoon credit for what it contains in this Christmas number? A summary of the table of contents would be much more informative than useful, and the Lampoon's chief claim to credit this time is for what it has left out.

There is no cartoon of what the Freshman does with his Christmas presents. There is no facetious time schedule of the cotillon snake, home from college for three and a fractional days. There is no stinging editorial against the Faculty because it still rations the University with a ten-day instead of a two-weeks' recess. There is no paragraph on the troubles of Christmas shopping in Boston.

The Lampoon, apparently, has gone out into the open market this year and gleaned a fresh supply of stuff for its Christmas number--stuff and nonsense. Both items rank pretty highly, compared with former stereotyped numbers in which the stuff and nonsense have been merely the previous year's crop, garnished with new class numerals.

The stuff deals rather conspicuously with war and its multiple aspects, and the nonsense touches on everything else under the sun, excluding the Scandinavian. And the very best thing about the Christmas number is that you'd never know it was one if the cover didn't say so. The cover, once again, is the most striking individual feature of the Lampoon, but that is not at all disparaging of what is under the cover. Even the Arrow collar advertisement on the back page is a little more artistic than usual