Who says you can't please everyone? The News & Observer pulled off a comics trifecta when it announced New Year's Day that the paper will preserve funnies fans' favorite oldies, add new strips and revive old ones canceled in 2007. The fan mail was rapturous:

"Thanks a lot! I will definitely keep my paper subscription going now. The only, and I repeat, only reason I have been getting the paper from you for the past eight or so years is because of the comics." -- Van Hammer, Fuquay-Varina.

"You have made a truly positive move and, after having seen many comic sections in papers all over the country, The News & Observer may have the best section I have read. Good move!" -- John Freeman, Raleigh.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you, from the bottom of my heart, for bringing back 'Cathy'! She knows us better than we know ourselves and always adds a great laugh to my day." -- Evelyn Ellis, Cary.

Engineering professor Robert Rodman wrote to Features Editor Thad Ogburn: "You've done us a great service, and you are an intelligent, well-meaning gentleman."

As Charlie Brown would say, "Good grief!" Are newspaper comics really that important?

Yes, if this expedition in comics page sociology is any indication. Back in November, Ogburn and Co. ran a survey inviting readers to vote on their favorite and least favorite comics, as a prelude to adding and cutting strips. An astounding 7,910 voted, by e-mail and paper ballots. Some town elections don't get that many participants.

As Deputy Managing Editor Dan Barkin said, "It would be lunacy for a newspaper to ignore that."

The editors were so awed by the response that they scrapped the original plan to add three new strips and cut three old ones. Instead, they cleared space on the comics page for nine more strips, adding some new ones and resurrecting the previously canceled "Cathy," "Hagar the Horrible" and "Drabble." Saved from the chopping block were "Peanuts," "Shoe" and "For Better or For Worse." The changes start Jan. 14.

You might wonder, as I did: Should a newspaper that seeks to be a serious forum on the great issues of the day devote so much effort and some investment to such frivolity? Especially as it cuts space in other parts of the paper?

Well, the editors have made me a believer. Comics offer a diversion from the often unpleasant news elsewhere in the paper. Some strips -- "Mallard Fillmore," "Doonesbury," "Candorville," "Sylvia" -- themselves provide political and social commentary, often controversial. And, in a time of diminishing newspaper circulation, comics attract and keep readers (ref. Van Hammer above.)

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Some readers weren't happy with a New Year's Eve article that warned readers about the legal consequences of drunken driving. Titled "The dry facts about DWI," the article began: "Plan on getting trashed tonight? Have fun. Getting drunk on New Year's Eve is normal, if not very original, behavior."

That riled reader Sara Johnson of Chapel Hill: "Getting drunk on News Year's Eve is not normal behavior. It is not necessary to drink alcohol to enjoy a holiday. A statement like this is contrary to everything we as parents and educators (I teach middle school) are trying to teach our teenagers and young adults."

Rob Waters, The N&O's Durham bureau chief, edited the story. He responded: "The story was not an endorsement of drinking. It was an exploration of the consequences of drinking and driving. Its intent -- as anyone who actually read the story would have concluded -- was to encourage people to behave responsibly, and to line up a designated driver if they did not behave responsibly."

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