ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN IN A CARTOON. That's what my parents told me when I saw something that defied the laws of physics, something that happened just about every time Elmer Fudd went duck hunting or Wile E. Coyote failed once again to capture the Road Runner. Apparently a psychologist never heard that advice, or he's extrapolating from research on the effects of televised violence involving living actors. The latest program to run afoul of the TV-violence lobby:

Thomas and friends (and enemies)

(via Power Line.)

Perhaps Academician Young has some time to test his hypothesis. The world awaits. On the other hand, real locomotives don't have faces (or yellow warning panels, but I digress.) Aren't children clever enough to notice that there are no eyes on the trains they ride.

Where Worlds Collide offers that Thomas is "steamist propaganda" and the series is due for an update. There is a book, now apparently out-of-print, called Thomas the Privatised Tank Engine that offers a few such things whilst pointing out the follies of fragmented railroad operation, British style. (Just paint the whole lot Armour yellow and run it from Omaha, I say!)

For all the fears about train crashes, Day Out with Thomas sure brings the kids to the Illinois Railway Museum, there are stroller jams on all the platforms.

UPDATE: The Guardian discovers safety appliances. (Hat tip: Where Worlds Collide.)