The Same Only Different   Finished a 1965 Tom Swift, Jr. book, The one mentioned in "Tiger By The Tale," And started a 1991 book In the fourth Tom Swift series   The 1965 book, Tom Swift and His Polar-Ray Dynasphere, Is number 25 In the second series   The 1991 book, The DNA Disaster, Is number 4 In the fourth series   Sometimes it's hard To figure out Whether or not the new Toms In the third and fourth series Are supposed to be The son of Tom Jr.   A generation Has gone by In the real world   When a generation went by Between the first series And the second, This was acknowledged -- Tom Jr. was now the hero And his father, The original hero, Became a secondary character   Tom Jr. had a best friend Named Bud Barclay, Just as Tom Sr. had one Named Ned Newton   Ned was now the father Of Tom Jr.'s girlfriend, And Tom Sr.'s girlfriend, Mary Nestor, Was now Tom Jr.'s mom   In the third series There is very little Continuity between it And the previous series   In the fourth series Some of the minor characters From the second series Show up again, Such as Harlan Ames, The security chief   Harlan is gray-haired now, Which befits acknowledgment Of real time passing   The new Tom must be Tom the third -- He's 18 just like Tom Jr. was Back in the 60's, He's got a best friend Named Rick Cantwell, And he lives in A town in California Instead of Shopton, On the east coast, Where previous Toms lived   There's only one problem -- The new Tom's sister Is named Sandra   Tom Jr.'s sister Was named Sandra   As if to underscore This peculiar twist, Late in Dynasphere Sandy comes up with A name for the craft, And christens it "Dynasphere Ranger -- Dyna for short"   Early in the 1991 book, Sandra gives Tom A surprise gift Of a minah bird And says "You can call her Dinah the minah"