1999 Part 1 - I Am Not A Puppy Dog!

Snoopy will not suffer fools. The gang visits an exhibit featuring Monet and McDonnell.  Even the Little Red Haired Girl’s mom shows up.  Meanwhile, the guys theorize with wild abandon about the coloring of Peanuts in the late 90’s. Plus: The Passive Voice is a pretty good band name.

Transcript available at UnpackingPeanuts.com

Unpacking Peanuts is copyright Jimmy Gownley, Michael Cohen, Harold Buchholz, and Liz Sumner. Produced and edited by Liz Sumner. Music by Michael Cohen. Additional voiceover by Aziza Shukralla Clark. 

For more from the show follow @unpackpeanuts on Instagram and Threads, and @unpackingpeanuts on Facebook, Blue Sky, and YouTube. For more about Jimmy, Michael, and Harold, visit unpackingpeanuts.com.  

Thanks for listening.

 

Episode Transcript

VO (00:02):
Welcome to Unpacking Peanuts, the podcast where three cartoonists take an in-depth look at the greatest comic strip of all time, Peanuts by Charles M.
Schulz.

Jimmy (00:18):
Hey, everybody.
Welcome back to the show.
It's your favorite podcast, Unpacking Peanuts, and I'm your fourth favorite host, Jimmy Gownley.
I'm also a cartoonist.
I do things like Amelia Ruehl's Seven Good Reasons Not to Grow Up, The Dumbest Idea Ever.
And you can find all my new work serialized for free right now over on gvillecomics.substack.com.

(00:40):
Joining me as always are my pals, co-hosts and fellow cartoonists.
First, he's a playwright and a composer, both for the band Complicated People, as well as for this very podcast.
He's the co-creator of the original Comic Book Prize Guide, the original editor for Amelia Rules, and the creator of such great strips as Strange Attractors, A Gathering of Spells, and Tangled River.
It's Michael Cohen.

Michael (00:59):
Say hey.

Jimmy (01:00):
And he's the executive producer and writer of Mystery Science Theater 3000, a former vice president of Archie Comics, and the creator of the Instagram sensation, Sweetest Beasts.
It's Harold Buchholz.

Harold (01:11):
Hello.

Jimmy (01:12):
And making sure we stay out of trouble and everything runs smoothly, it's producer and editor, Liz Sumner.

Liz (01:17):
Hey now.

Jimmy (01:18):
Well, guys, we are about to embark on the final year of this little experiment.
I just want to say I am filled with mixed emotions about this.
I'm very proud that we accomplished this, that we were able to get all these episodes out.
I'm thrilled that everyone has been listening to us, but I'm bummed that the original run of Strips is coming to an end.

Harold (01:43):
Yeah.

Jimmy (01:45):
So 1999, that was the peak of civilization.
I don't know if you guys remember.
So movies that came out in the year 1999, to give you context, The Phantom Menace, Star Wars Episode 1, The Matrix.

Michael (02:00):
Oh boy.
Did that really blow to my childhood nostalgia?

Jimmy (02:07):
Wait, hang on a second.
How old were you when Star Wars came out?

Michael (02:11):
No, I was five years old.

Liz (02:13):
Twenty-seven.

Michael (02:16):
I thought I could have that youthful enthusiasm brought back.

Liz (02:22):
Yeah, we got our tickets in advance, I remember.

Michael (02:25):
Yeah.
It was just like when you realize one of the greatest works of all time was like a fluke.

Harold (02:35):
Are you talking about The Matrix or are you talking about both?
Both, actually.

Jimmy (02:41):
Well, I'll tell you, I remember seeing Star Wars in the theater, or Phantom Menace, six times in the theater to convince myself it was great.
That explains a lot.

Harold (02:53):
Is that when Jar Jar started to grow on you?

Jimmy (02:55):
I was burned out so bad.
We were working at the TV station changing it from, it was real interesting, from WHTM News Center to ABC 27, which seems like that should be a relatively simple thing.
It was not.
It was requiring like 16 hour days.
The only solace I had was the Phantom Menace was coming out at the end of all of it.
So that'll be at least exciting.

(03:17):
And one day, just the sixth viewing, me and my two buddies, Jeff, who worked out with me at the ABC 27, went and saw it and cut work for the afternoon.
And I remember sitting there thinking, you know, I just don't think it's very good.

Liz (03:34):
This was the sixth time?

Jimmy (03:37):
Sixth time, yeah.
Yeah, well, I had, first time was, well, it must be me.
Then the second time was, yeah, that wasn't so bad.
Then the third time through like the fourth and halfway through the fifth time, you're full in Stockholm Syndrome.
And then I was so beat by the end of that sixth day, I'm like, you know what, I just don't think it's very good.

(03:58):
But you know what I do think is very good, going through comic strips with my pals and talking about it.
And if you guys have enjoyed it as well, we would love for you to stick with us after we wrap up the regular section of this podcast.
Isn't that right, guys?
Yes, please.

Harold (04:14):
Yeah.

Jimmy (04:15):
So, we're going to announce right now, big excitement here, what we're going to do after we wrap up this series.
No.

Michael (04:29):
Thank you for taking that.

Jimmy (04:32):
And get a snack.
We always have to get a snack.
But other than that, we're going to convert to a twice a month schedule.
And they're going to, at least initially, appear on Patreon, and you will have three months start on anyone who does not subscribe to the Patreon.

(04:52):
The Patreon isn't going to increase for just a few bucks a month.
You can kick in and you can get those episodes three months earlier.
Eventually, then they will be released to our regular feed as bi-weekly episodes.
So we would love for you to come back for that.
Before that happens, we're going to be able to do this season, 1999.

(05:15):
We're going to do 2000, which of course only goes through half of February.
We're going to have a special guest.
Nat Gertler is going to come on to the show.
If you know anything about Peanuts, you know he is the guy who knows more than you.
He is co-author of the Charles Schulz's 100 Years and 100 Objects books with our old pal Benjamin Clark.

(05:40):
It'll be great to have Nat on the show.
Then we're going to do a double-size episode, or is it a two-part episode, something like that, of our finale, and then we'll be converting to the bi-weekly Patreon model.
That's a lot to take in now.
Don't worry, we'll tell you about it a lot between now and then.
But why don't you avoid the rush?

(06:01):
Go over, sign up for our Patreon right now.
Just do that over at Unpacking Peanuts.
We are also going to go over right now, and you're going to sign up for the Great Peanuts reread.
Late to the party, still counts as attending the party.
So sign up, and that'll let you know what we're going to be doing as we go forward.
And while you're there, if you want to, sign up for the Patreon now.

Harold (06:22):
Avoid the rush.
And thank you in advance.
We appreciate your support.

Jimmy (06:26):
So with that out of the way, now you know what we're doing.
Let's get back to the comic strips.

Harold (06:34):
Yeah, do you want to do a little...
I just got one little brief thing.

Jimmy (06:37):
Absolutely.

Harold (06:39):
I had mentioned there was a poll that was going on every year.
A researcher, Jeffrey Lindenblatt, was kind of seeing who had the biggest reach in the newspaper markets in the United States.
He was keeping people apprised of where the comic's reach was.
He changed his methodology this year, this fifth year, on determining which strips were reaching the most people in the newspapers.

(07:06):
What he did is he had a point system that was based on the top 30 markets in the United States, and then he looked at the secondary and third and fourth and fifth most popular newspapers in those markets, and then he said he had a point system.
It was all very complex, but it was his way to kind of see who was really reaching the most readers in this time.

(07:31):
Peanuts was number one for the number of newspapers he was in for Schulz, but he came in fourth for reach in 1999, according to this guy.
The biggest reach strip, and I was saying this was in part because Peanuts has been around for almost 50 years, and so the strips that got it when it wasn't so hot, were often not the biggest newspapers, and so it kind of favors the strips that came a little bit later, that were closer to where things settle out now.

(08:04):
So for better or for worse is the biggest reach, according to him, followed by Garfield, then Dilbert, which is not that old a strip.
That's very surprising.
Then Peanuts, and then Doonesbury.
Looking through the list, it was really interesting to me where we are in 1999 with the other strips, and then which ones are like the legacy strips that have been around forever, and often not by the original artist.

(08:28):
But number six is Kathy, which was always done by the same creator.
And Hagar the Horrible was now being done by Chris Brown, the son of Dick Brown.
Blondie, number eight's a legacy strip.
The Family Circus is still being done by Bill Keane.
Sally Forth, I was surprised that Sally Forth was the 10th biggest reached strip in 1999.

(08:52):
That was one of those strips that was kind of this quiet presence on the newspapers, I thought.
But the fact that it was in the top 10 in 1999, over Dennis the Menace, Shoe, Foxtrot, Beatle Bailey, Wizard of Id, BC., Zits, Mother Goose and Graham, Non-Sequator, Marmaduke, Baby Blues, Ziggy, Jumpstart, Mutz, and High and Lowes is kind of a surprise.

(09:17):
And High and Lowes is 25th.
I thought High and Lowes was like everywhere.
So there were some surprises in here for me to see, you know, who was actually getting to the biggest audience in this end of Schulz's career.

Jimmy (09:30):
Yeah, that is interesting.
I would have put some of those legacies strips up higher, I would have thought.
I mean, everywhere I ever lived, it seemed like they were there.
Oh, that's great.
Okay.
Well, now that we know we have a little bit of a lay in the land thanks to Harold and his impeccable research, let's hit those strips.

(09:51):
January 3rd.
We start with one of those symbolic panels, and it's a box that says, do not open until someday.
And just peeking out of the top of it is Charlie Brown's head.
And then we cut to an escalator at a department store, and Charlie Brown and Linus are taking it upstairs.
And there they are in what looks like a fancy perfume slash maybe the gift wrapping counter, very nice section of a department store.

(10:17):
And Charlie Brown says to the woman behind the counter, Yes, ma'am, I'd like to return something I bought here.
And then Linus chirps in, It's a Christmas present for a girl, but he was too shy to give it to her.
And Charlie Brown adds, It was never opened.
And then he answers the off-panel question and says, Yes, I was going to give it to a little red-haired girl in our class.

(10:38):
And Linus says, You know her?
Charlie Brown says, You're her mom?
You work here in this store?
You're her mom and you work here?
And then Linus says, When we first saw you, we thought you were her older sister.
And then they walk out of the store and Charlie Brown says, Why did you tell her that?
And Linus says, She let you return the present, didn't she?

Harold (10:59):
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Hold on, hold on.
That's the win?
He's right there with her mom holding a gift for her daughter.

Michael (11:08):
Come on.
Well, first of all, you're talking to her.

Harold (11:11):
Give her the gift.

Jimmy (11:12):
You know what I'm saying?

Michael (11:14):
Like, Oh, you look like you're eight years old.
It's not necessarily a compliment.

Jimmy (11:19):
Well, here's what I think happens, though.
All right, here's your fan fiction you can write.
If you want to do this, he returns it.
But then the mom keeps it, pays for it herself, and then says, this is from that little boy at school.

Michael (11:33):
Oh, well, first of all, I have a problem here.
I didn't notice this on my first read, but he doesn't say anything.
He just says there's a little redhead girl in our class who doesn't know these kids.

Jimmy (11:48):
How do you know she doesn't know the kids?

Harold (11:49):
Well, I think the mom might attend a therapy, too.

Michael (11:51):
Is there one redhead girl in all the school district?

Jimmy (11:56):
If someone describes...

Harold (11:57):
Well, maybe the little redhaired girl is aware of Charlie Brown.

Jimmy (12:01):
Yeah, it's so simple.
She knows who's in school with her kid.

Harold (12:06):
That's all.

Jimmy (12:08):
She's seen Charlie Brown a million times stalking around, hiding behind trees.

Michael (12:15):
He's stalking the house.
He must know it's her.

Jimmy (12:18):
Clearly he does not.
That's not how it works.
Adults know every kid in their kid's life.
Kids are clocking every adult in the world.

Harold (12:25):
Oh, how would you know, Jimmy?

Jimmy (12:26):
I have some experience of buzz, both.

Harold (12:30):
Well, we'll have to give this to you.

Michael (12:32):
Yeah.

Harold (12:33):
But still, come on.
Well, maybe.
Yeah, maybe.
OK, that's a good fan fiction.
I like your fan fiction.

Jimmy (12:39):
Yeah, right.

Harold (12:39):
I like that the gift did wind up in the little redhaired girl's hands.

Jimmy (12:44):
Extend it past that panel.

Harold (12:45):
I mean, that is the likelihood, right?
The mom's at the counter.
Yeah, she can afford to pass that on to her daughter.

Jimmy (12:52):
She probably knew when he bought it.

Harold (12:56):
Maybe she switched it out to the scent that she likes.

Liz (13:00):
Yeah, we don't know that it's perfume.

Harold (13:03):
Well, that is true.
We're only guessing.

Liz (13:05):
We could be gloves.

Harold (13:06):
There could be something.

Jimmy (13:08):
He's big into the glove giving.
Or at least the glove purchasing.
All right.
Hey, you know, that's a Sunday page.
And we've picked a few Sunday pages.
And we've been picking a lot of Sunday pages lately.
And so that made me want to go and dig up this book, which is the 50th anniversary book, Peanuts, a Golden Celebration.

(13:34):
We went, in a recent episode, we went into town just trying to describe how the comic strips were colored back in the day.
And so this has a beautiful two-page spread.
If you have the book, it's on page 234 and 235, that has three photos of Schulz's hand done colored pencil ruffs and the chart.

(14:01):
I'm gonna read something for you and see if you guys pick up on it.
This explains how it's done.
The Sunday Colors.
Editors note, today the Sunday strips are colored on computer.
After Sparky draws the strip, a photocopy of it is hand colored and numbered according to the printer's color chart.
That's anything?

(14:23):
No?
How we magically, subtly switch to The Passive Voice.
Sparky draws the strip and then the strip is color.

Liz (14:31):
Oh.

Jimmy (14:35):
Sparky ain't coloring these.
The black and white line art, along with the color guide are sent to the syndicate for editing before going to the printer.
The printer uses a scanned image of the line art, adding color according to the color guide.

Harold (14:49):
Are you saying he's not doing the coloring guide itself?

Jimmy (14:51):
Yeah, clearly not.
Because they've absolutely switched to the passive voice for one sentence in this book.
Sparky draws the strips and a photocopy of it is hand-colored, as opposed to Sparky draws the strips and hand-colors the photocopy.

Harold (15:10):
We had a theory, I think we'd heard that some Zip-A-Tone was done by someone who was not Schulz.
Maybe that only makes sense, that that's essentially like coloring, right?
Zip-A-Tone.

Jimmy (15:21):
Yeah.
And the other thing about it is I am not saying this as a gotcha.
First, what it has at this point moved to Photoshop coloring.
It would be insane for him at this point to be expected to learn Photoshop so that he could just indicate these colors.
You know, anyone can color the sky blue and put 003 next to it.

Harold (15:44):
Well, this is an odd strip to use as an example of the coloring because this is the only time I can remember where every single panel's background is essentially the same color but in three different shades.
It's like yellow, light yellow, and darker light yellow.
I've never seen that before.

Jimmy (16:05):
Well, you're going to see it in the next strip that we choose, which is, wow.
So see what I'm saying?

Harold (16:11):
Which would also suggest it's not Schulz because the season has not been done before.
Yeah.
But how long ago do you think he gave this up?

Jimmy (16:19):
Well, how long does it take to print the book?
Right?
So if this is the 20th or the 50th anniversary book, and the copyright is 1999, it means they made it in 1998, right?

Harold (16:34):
Yeah.

Jimmy (16:34):
So he gave it up in 1997 or 8 at the latest.

Harold (16:39):
Right.
Okay.

Jimmy (16:41):
I bet if you go back, I bet it's 1996.
I bet it's when you go back and you start seeing gradients in the sky.

Harold (16:50):
Oh, yeah.

Jimmy (16:51):
Purple, pink, and stuff like that.
That's not him doing that.

Harold (16:55):
Right.
That's when they got the new formats and everyone's expected to use those color gradients.
And remember those in the paper, how they, by our eyes today, I think they look amateurish because it was early, early cartoon coloring by people who weren't used to doing it.
And so you'd have lots of gradients and things that didn't quite seem to be the level of aesthetic we'd expect today.

(17:23):
It's like you got a new toy to play with, and so you can do some cool things, and they're doing it.

Jimmy (17:30):
January 10th, so Snoopy and Rerun are jumping up and down on like a colored mat or something that's lots of different colors lying on the ground.
And then Rerun points out to Snoopy how to do it.
He's like, over here, and indicates where he wants Snoopy to jump on it.
And then there's several panels of them just both jumping back and forth up and down on what looks like some sort of, I don't know, colored floor mat.

(17:56):
Until the next to last one, we can sort of see some jigsaw pieces flying out of it, and we realize it's a jigsaw puzzle.
And then Lucy comes in to see what's going on.
And Rerun says, it's a jigsaw puzzle.
If the pieces don't fit, we make them fit.

Harold (18:14):
And this big smile is on their faces looking at Lucy.
I like when Snoopy enters into Rerun's logic, and they...
That's really charming.

Jimmy (18:28):
Yeah, so here we have another example, though, of three different shades of yellow, maybe even only two different shades of yellow here, acting as the entire background.

Michael (18:38):
I think it's interesting, yeah, because, I mean, we start out with two Sundays, which we usually don't do.
And, yeah, noticing that yellow, whoever's doing the yellow really likes varying it.
And I could see where that worked.
For some reason, it does work, at least on the computer screen.

Harold (18:56):
Yeah, but if Schulz had done this, if all of these things we're saying are adding up to something that's correct, Schulz was not afraid to jump from a green to a blue to...
No...
.
to a pink.
And this is all the same color.
That does seem like somebody else's aesthetic choice.
Not that he seems to be against it, but it's not something I think he would have thought of.

(19:19):
Plus, the percentages, I think we were like, there were 25, 50, 75 and 100.
Well, at this point, they had more.
Magenta, well, that's what I'm saying, the sand, magenta, yellow and black were the choices in quarter increments, which means you couldn't have done this because this looks like it's changing in like 10% or something.
And that's a new toy to play with.

Jimmy (19:40):
I also can't imagine coloring in the little tiny pieces of the in perspective puzzle in anything other than Photoshop.
No one would be going in cutting Ruby lists to like have one tiny section of a jigsaw puzzle, right?

Harold (19:58):
It's a commitment.

Liz (20:02):
Why is the board green, only green in two panels but multicolored in the others?

Harold (20:12):
That's a good question.

Jimmy (20:13):
I think because that's just the side of it.
And you know, it's just one of those things like, you didn't, here, well, here's another thing.
Assuming this isn't Schultz coloring yet, you look at that and you go, what?
Okay, well, we got to color the side of a jigsaw puzzle, because that's what it is.
Now, of course, a jigsaw puzzle is two-dimensional.
It doesn't, they're not that thick, you know?

(20:34):
So I think they just picked something that kind of went with the yellow.
You know?

Liz (20:40):
Yeah, makes sense.

Harold (20:42):
Yeah.

Jimmy (20:42):
They are, you know, because they look almost like sticks in some thing, in some panels, if you don't have the full context.
January 18th, it's a daily, and here we have Linus and Rerun out walking in the snow, and Linus says to Rerun, you can tell a lot about someone by following their tracks in the snow.
And then we see that's what they're doing.
You can see this footprint's ahead of them.

(21:04):
And then they stop and Linus says, now what do you think we can tell about this person?
And then Rerun says, I think maybe he was a dancer.
And we see, in fact, the footprints look like little Arthur Murray style, how to dance footprints.

Michael (21:21):
Now that you wouldn't see after 1960.

Jimmy (21:25):
Do you know what?
In LeMoyne, Pennsylvania, in the year of Our Lord 2025, they opened in, or no, I didn't say open, but open right now is an Arthur Murray dance studio in a huge storefront in downtown LeMoyne.
Like, and it just came out and it came there in the last few years.

Harold (21:47):
Wow.

Liz (21:48):
I know several women who love going to dancing.
They go to competitions all over the world.
They love their sessions at Arthur Murray.

Michael (22:00):
Do they use these little footprint things?

Liz (22:03):
Probably not.

Jimmy (22:08):
I don't know what kind of dance this would do either.
I don't think you'd be a very good dancer or whatever this maneuver is.
But here you go.
This is what you guys wanted more of.
Linus interacting with his younger brother.
He does this several times.
Well, not several, but a few times over these months.

Harold (22:25):
Why do you think it is Linus with Rerun this time instead of Lucy?
Because Rerun is the one making the statement and Lucy would not be the one to...
She would offer it?

Jimmy (22:37):
Well, the difference I could say at least is that Linus asks Rerun, what do you think?

Harold (22:43):
It's a Socratic method.

Jimmy (22:46):
Whatever she wants it to be.
So Rerun is a step ahead of the game.

Harold (22:52):
And you can't argue with his observation.

Jimmy (22:55):
No, not really.
I think he's probably on top of it.
Here's another Sunday.
I love this one.
January 24th, Rerun finds a little stick on the ground.
And then he thinks, well, he says, where's that puppy dog?
And then he must see Snoopy off in the distance.
And he says, here, puppy dog, jump over the stick.

(23:17):
And he holds the stick out in his hand.
And Snoopy comes running up and grabs it right out of his hand.
Then runs, God knows where, and takes it to a cliff.
Just as around in the Peanuts neighborhood.
And he throws the stick over the cliff.
And then he trots back and then says to Rerun, or at least thinks at Rerun, I am not a puppy dog.

Harold (23:43):
My wife and I are guilty of this.
Every dog to us is a puppy.
Doesn't matter what age it is.

Jimmy (23:48):
Yeah, absolutely.

Michael (23:50):
I do have an observation, though.
It's really strange in the panels four and five.
It's not really, his mouth isn't closed.
So like he's sort of like balancing the stick on his lower jaw, which seems interesting.

Liz (24:08):
Maybe his tongue is pressing it down.

Harold (24:11):
Maybe.
That's an interesting observation.
I'm not sure why Schulz chooses that as his drawing option.

Michael (24:20):
I don't know.
Snoopy's, his head is very different than the way it used to be.
So when the view of him throwing it over the cliff, his mouth is what seems kind of unsnoopy-like.

Harold (24:34):
Well, that second to last panel is like classic.
What a classic drawing.
Yeah, that's beautiful.

Jimmy (24:43):
And I really like the color.
I think, yeah, you can see this.
They're getting a little into those dusty colors I was talking about.
Yeah, and it looks good.

Harold (24:53):
Yeah, which, yeah, I guess was not available before.
You know, you couldn't get below that 25.

Jimmy (24:58):
So you just had to hope your newspaper was dirty and then you could get the right effect.
Now, here's something special in anybody's book.
January 28th, the gang is at a museum or an art gallery.
And by the gang, I'm saying it is Sally Charlie Brown, Lucy Linus, the pigtailed girl, and Rerun.

(25:24):
And the gang is all looking at, well, what is a photo of something, but I can't make out what painting it is.
But it's a big old school masterpiece.
And then over on the right, Rerun is looking at a little picture of a dog.
And the little picture of the dog, it is actually the dog from Mutts by Patrick MacDonald.

(25:44):
Oh.
Which is as big of a tribute as you can get from.

Harold (25:51):
Yeah.

Michael (25:52):
Well, I don't know that strip that well.
I thought it was Snoopy.

Jimmy (25:56):
No, it is definitely the little dog from Mutts.

Harold (25:58):
It's Earl, Earl from Mutts.
Yeah, boy, what a sweet tribute to Matt McDonnell.
You can't ask for a greater tribute from Schulz.

Michael (26:08):
I mean, if that's his dog character, the one black spot on the back is Snoopy's signature.

Harold (26:15):
Yeah, Earl does have his own unique kind of angular look.
Well, this is such an interesting strip because Schulz is making some statements on different levels, right?

Jimmy (26:29):
Yeah, yeah.

Harold (26:30):
One is that comics are art.
Yeah.
Number two, Mutts is worthy of being treated as the highest form of art.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And so, Schulz is in a way patting himself on the back and patting Patrick McDonnell on the back.
And the fact that he shows a character with like that black spot you're talking about, that you can almost, there's that third in between thing that Mutts was inspired by, my strip.

Jimmy (27:02):
Yeah.

Harold (27:03):
It's all there and it's lovely.
I mean, this strip kind of melted my heart when I saw it.
I go, boy, I love Mutts.
And I love Mutts from this era when it was pretty new.

Jimmy (27:20):
And it's saying all that in one wordless comic strip.

Harold (27:24):
Yeah.
Yeah.
I just think it's great.
And it says yet another thing.
It's about rerun.
Because rerun is an artist himself.
The others are really not established as artists.
So he's going off to look at the thing that we learn he wants to be when he grows up.

Michael (27:42):
Yeah.
Oh boy, I didn't get any of that.
I thought he's looking at it because in his world, dogs are really important.

Liz (27:52):
Yeah.
He wants a dog.

Harold (27:53):
Well, there's a fourth level.

Michael (27:55):
And the kids are all looking at the other one because they're going, how come it doesn't have a frame?

Jimmy (28:04):
What do you think that painting is?

Michael (28:06):
It's a landscape of the city and it looks like some kind of water.

Liz (28:13):
Yeah.
I was thinking Venice with the first time I saw it.

Jimmy (28:17):
Yeah.

Harold (28:18):
But is that a ship we're looking at with sail rigging?

Michael (28:22):
I don't think there's anything there you can identify, but there's definitely a house off to the right.

Harold (28:27):
Oh, yeah.

Jimmy (28:28):
I see the house.
And is that like a bridge?

Michael (28:31):
A bridge or...
I mean, it almost looks like a dam.

Harold (28:36):
Or a long pier that a sailboat is attached to somehow.
Yeah, it's interesting.

Michael (28:43):
It looks like he meant a Xerox.

Harold (28:45):
Yeah.
So, listeners, do any of you know art?
Does this look like a piece that you're familiar with?
I'd love to know.

Jimmy (28:52):
I wonder if you could reverse image search just that little section.

Harold (28:57):
Probably, yeah.

Jimmy (28:58):
Probably.
Now, there are interviews with Patrick McDonnell where he's talked about this too and what a thrill it was for him to see it in the newspaper, which I can't even imagine.

Harold (29:09):
I can't.
That is just so sweet of Schulz to do this.
And yeah, it does work on a lot of levels here.
When we think about it, we'll probably think of some more of it.
It's cool.
And not any major stretch.
I don't think we're stretching too much.

Jimmy (29:25):
No, I think every single thing that we thought, some people thought the day they saw it.
Some people thought it looked like Snoopy.
Some people thought it was because Riren wants a dog.
Because all of these things are true.
And then the other level, if you're aware that it's Mutts and then it's Earl from Mutts, then you get that.

(29:46):
I mean, it's great.
I wish, if I could do that much with one drawing ever, I'd be pretty happy.

Harold (29:55):
I agree.

Liz (29:56):
Lucy looks funny from behind.

Jimmy (29:58):
Yeah.
How often does he think he's even done that?

Harold (30:01):
Yeah.
And that little pig-tailed girl, she's pretty tall.
She's as tall as Linus.

Michael (30:06):
Yeah.
Oh, well, yeah.
And Riren's actually probably the same height as these kids.

Jimmy (30:12):
His head's pretty lumpy.
But that's a van Pelt trait anyway.
I guess so.
February 5th, Riren and Snoopy are playing cards, and Riren is looking at his hand and saying, if I play the two, he'll probably play the four.
But if I play the six, maybe he'll play the nine.
And Snoopy thinks, if I play one of these with the red spots, he'll probably play one of the black spots.

(30:38):
And then Riren says, I know he can be very clever.
And then Snoopy says, I don't have the slightest idea what game we're playing.
That just made me laugh.
I love that Snoopy's got the shades on.
He's got the visor.
He has no idea what he's playing now.

Harold (30:57):
He's got the accoutrements.

Jimmy (30:59):
Yes, exactly.

Liz (31:00):
But usually, neither of them knows what game they're playing or it doesn't matter what the rules are.

Harold (31:08):
Riren's growing up.

Jimmy (31:11):
Very cute.
And then, taking us into some more Van Pelt behind-the-scenes family stuff.
Good old February 8th.
Linus, Riren, and Lucy are all sitting on a couch at the Van Pelt and Lucy's eating some popcorn, it looks like, or something.
Some snack out of a bag.
And they're watching TV and Lucy says, I'll have to admit that in many ways, we are a close family.

(31:37):
Brothers and sisters just naturally tend to be that way.
Such closeness is very admirable.
Then in the next panel, having said that, this sends both the brothers' hair straight up in the air and then they disappear by the next panel.

Harold (31:54):
Where is this going?
I don't.

Michael (31:59):
I just can't imagine Lucy actually saying this.

Harold (32:04):
I would have stuck around to hear what she had to say because I have no idea what she's about to say.

Michael (32:08):
I'm going to put the word ballooning at the TV, so maybe it was somebody talking on the TV.

Jimmy (32:16):
Well, why do you think she wouldn't say this?
Because she's clearly setting it up for an insult, really.
They just leave before they get there.

Liz (32:23):
Yeah.

Michael (32:24):
Well, what would you?

Harold (32:25):
Do you think it's an insult?
That's what most people do.

Jimmy (32:27):
Wait, do you guys not really see that?

Liz (32:29):
No, I see it.

Harold (32:30):
No, I don't know where she's going with it.

Liz (32:32):
They know to take off because danger is going to happen.

Michael (32:37):
Yeah.

Harold (32:39):
It seems like to be that scared, you'd have to have a sense of what the danger is.
If I were sitting there, I would actually be intrigued to know what she has to say.
Yeah, because it is a little bit out of her character to go into this long preamble about closeness.

Michael (32:51):
Well, let's add a fourth panel after two.
What does she say?

Jimmy (32:57):
Nothing good.
Having said that, if I see either of your two faces tomorrow, I'm going to scream.
Having said that, if either of you steals one of my comic books again tomorrow, I'm going to beat you to a pulp.
Having said that...

Liz (33:09):
No, it's not tomorrow.
It's right now.
That's why they have to leave.

Jimmy (33:13):
Yeah, well, they're leaving now because of what she's going to say.
She could be saying anything.
It's just going to be something insulting.

Liz (33:20):
But the danger is imminent.

Jimmy (33:23):
Yeah, they don't want to hear us even, you know?

Michael (33:26):
Okay, so you have to really think about that having said that.

Harold (33:30):
It's a thinker.

Jimmy (33:33):
Guys, I'm worried because I don't think it is.

Michael (33:35):
That's right.
Having said that, it's not a thinker, but if you don't know English really well, having said that is a bridge to an insult.

Jimmy (33:47):
Yeah, it's like I don't mean to be rude.
Guess what?
Whatever the next words out of your mouth are, are going to be incredibly rude.
Having said that is I'm now going to say the opposite.
Having said that.

Harold (34:00):
But it's in relationship to closeness.

Jimmy (34:02):
Could be.
Having said that, get off this couch.
We're too close to get like, you know, I'm baffled that there's a mystery here.

Liz (34:11):
I'm with you.

Jimmy (34:14):
March 1st.
It's a panoramic panel.
Sally is sitting in the beanbag chair watching TV.
And Charlie Brown comes in from some place.
He has a backpack with him and his jaunty hat.
And he says to her, so how was the movie?
And Sally says, as soon as it started, it was too long.

(34:36):
I just feel that way about every single movie.

Michael (34:38):
I found that this funny because, yeah, actually, that's my feeling.
Like, oh, my God, it's only been three minutes and I'm already like screaming.

Jimmy (34:46):
Oh, my God.
This is funny.
I'm so glad you mentioned this because a few months ago, you're like, I tried to watch The Hateful Eight.
And I'm like, oh, okay.
And you're like, that's shot with the crucifix in the snow.
And it goes, what is that all about?
I'm like, oh, I don't remember.
You realize that was the credits, right?

Michael (35:05):
Yeah, but it was like five minutes.

Harold (35:08):
Okay.

Jimmy (35:11):
So Michael gets this exactly as I do as well.
Yeah, the credits.
March 14th, the two little birds come up to a sign on the grass and it says, Pats.
And then they walk over and we see they are being patted on the head, but not by Linus, by Rerun.
And then Lucy comes over and says, Rerun, what in the world are you doing?

(35:34):
And he says, I'm patting birds on the head.
This is too much for Lucy, who says, nobody pats birds on the head.
And then Rerun says, Linus told me he used to do it all the time.
Lucy says, your brother is a blockhead.
Do you think I want everyone in school saying to me, your brother pats birds on the head?
Stop it.
Stop it right now.
And then she shoes the birds away and says, and you guys go on home, get out of here.

(35:59):
Go fly with some ducks or something.
But then another little bird comes up to Rerun.
And then Rerun pats the bird on his head and says, is often the direction of his sister, I can't help it.
He already had an appointment.

Harold (36:15):
I love rerun logic.

Michael (36:16):
This is funny because this strip acknowledges the continuity of this strip.

Harold (36:23):
Yeah.

Michael (36:23):
Of course, ignoring the fact that that was 40 years ago.

Harold (36:29):
Yeah.
It's cool to see him take on a role that Linus took on and see a different response, how he's his own unique character.

Jimmy (36:39):
You see that Linus, another instance where Linus is off-screen this time, but he has shared stuff with them.

Harold (36:46):
Yeah.
I influenced him in some way, or he's just a chip off the same block.

Jimmy (36:50):
Well, no.
He specifically says that Linus told me.

Michael (36:53):
It's genetic.

Jimmy (36:55):
How about we take a break right there?

Harold (36:57):
Sure.

Liz (36:57):
Sounds good.

Jimmy (36:58):
All right.
We'll see you on the other side of this.

Liz (37:01):
Hi, everyone.
I just wanted to repeat our plan for the future after we finish reading this trips year by year.
Starting in August, we're switching to a schedule of two new episodes a month.
Starting in September, the new episodes will be available exclusively on Patreon for three months.
After that, they'll be released for every month.

(37:24):
If you can't stand the wait, you can sign up at patreon.com/unpackingpeanuts.
We'll let everyone know what we're up to in the newsletter and on social media.
We'll still be here and we hope you will too.

Jimmy (37:38):
And we're back.
Hey, Liz, I'm hanging out in the mailbox.
Do we got anything?

Liz (37:42):
Yeah.
We heard from super listener Deb Perry who writes, We all know that Peanuts went on a hiatus from November 27th through December 31st for Charles Schulz's vacation.
But as he drew the strips in advance of their publication date, when would his actual vacation have been?
Was it actually on those dates?

(38:03):
It feels like if he weren't drawing the strip during that time, he would have missed his scheduled date to return to Peanuts.
So I would assume his actual vacation began at the very latest, a few weeks before Peanuts went into reruns.
Overall, I suppose this question isn't terribly important, but I wondered about it when you mentioned his vacation a few episodes back.

Jimmy (38:23):
Well, first off, none of this is incredibly important.

Michael (38:26):
I think it's a very important question.
The entire history of this trip depends on the answer here.

Jimmy (38:32):
What is it, Michael, or not Michael Harold?

Harold (38:34):
Well, I think we did mention the date that they announced he was going on his vacation.
Was it August?
Anyway, so he knew it was coming.
So Deb, I would think we were told what, six to eight weeks, something like that, for Sundays and maybe four weeks for dailies.
So I'm guessing that if you drop off, yeah, it would have been that not new ones are not there means that he actually started his vacation earlier.

(39:02):
That would make sense to me.
The actual vacation was not the days that we see the reruns.

SPEAKER_2 (39:08):
Right.

Liz (39:09):
And Ice Cream Hero made a comment on YouTube referring to the 1998 part two episode.
And Ice Cream Hero says, Them playing the hokey pokey at the dance makes me think of Diary of a Wimpy Kid.
It was the third book, The Last Straw.
The school had a school valentine's dance in the middle of the day.

(39:33):
The adults picked the songs and they picked the most kiddy songs like the hokey pokey.
The adults all tried to dance to get the kids to dance and they refused.
Then the gym teacher came out and threatened to dock their grades if they didn't dance.
The kids started dancing.
Then they went up to each kid with a clipboard to make sure they were dancing.

Harold (39:53):
Yeah, I think I would bet Jeff Kenny would say he's a big Peanuts fan from what I've seen in Diary of a Whimpy Kid.
So I wouldn't be surprised if there's a little trigger of some memory to do that.
That's clever.
There's a lot of clever stuff in the Diary of a Whimpy Kid.
The story behind that, I don't know if we ever mentioned it, but I think maybe we did because we're talking about Schulz writing for adults.

(40:18):
He said, I could never write for kids, which blows my mind.
But having said all of that, Jeff Kenny, when he wrote the Diary of a Whimpy Kid series, the very first book he was going out trying to sell it, he was trying to sell it to adult publishers because he thought it was too advanced for kids and it wouldn't work for kids.
Fortunately, the publishers looked at it and said, are you kidding?

(40:40):
This is great for kids and the rest is history.

Liz (40:45):
I do want to point out that Harold just said, having said that.

Harold (40:50):
Did you guys take off?

Liz (40:52):
Yes.

Jimmy (40:53):
No, because you were talking about Jeff Kenny, so I wasn't concerned.
But while you were talking about Diary of a Whimpy Kid, I was looking at this book again and as luck would have it, on the color section I was just talking about for the 50th Anniversary book, one of the color guides that they print is the strip we just discussed about.

(41:16):
We run Padding Birds.
You can actually see what it looks like.

Harold (41:20):
That's cool.

Jimmy (41:21):
Yeah, directly.

Liz (41:22):
Can you take a picture of it and we can post it?

Jimmy (41:24):
Yeah, I sure can.

Liz (41:26):
Oh, but Harold, where are you going to be this month?

Harold (41:29):
Oh, okay.
So for the month of July, these are just a few highlights on the 12th, Saturday.
I will be at the Colonial Theatre.
This is in Phoenixville, Pennsylvania for Blobfest.
They've got a street fair and I will be on the street selling my wares at Blobfest.
This is the celebration of the 1958 Steve McQueen Blob movie, where he actually filmed it at this theatre.

(41:55):
It's a fun event.

Jimmy (41:56):
It's not just Harold making a disparaging comment about comic comics.
I'm not going to be at Blob.

Harold (42:04):
It's a Friday to Sunday event.
If you guys are into it anywhere near Pennsylvania, I highly recommend if you like that sort of thing.
The 19th from 4 to 12, I will be at Queen's Night Market again, where they have over 90 different countries worth of food that you can choose from.
From $6, it's like the max that they'll charge you for any one item.
Very cool.

(42:25):
Then if you were in the Trenton, New Jersey area, I will be at the New Jersey Punk Rock Flea Market.
On the 26th, from 10am to 5pm, of course.

Michael (42:32):
Yeah, of course.
Harold goes without saying.
You know me.

Harold (42:37):
You know me.

Michael (42:38):
All going.

Harold (42:38):
I'm mixing it up this month.
If you want to check out just in general, that's just some strange highlights of my July.
Go to haroldbuchholz.com and on that page, you will find all of the events that I'm going to be attending.

Michael (42:51):
Yeah.
Well, you should go to that punk thing just to see a mid-bang.
He's got really great hair.

Jimmy (43:01):
Yeah.
You got to go in full on punk regalia if you're going to be there.
That would be amazing.
Oh, no.

Harold (43:09):
That would be anti-punk to wear punk at a punk bar.
You have to be rebelling against whatever the majority is.
There you go.

Jimmy (43:18):
All right.
Well, if you're going to be out in those places, go say hi to Harold or make it a point to go to them just to say hi.

Liz (43:25):
Yeah.
When he doesn't hear from you, he worries.

Jimmy (43:29):
Yeah.
Exactly.

Harold (43:32):
Where is everybody?

Jimmy (43:33):
And speaking of that, if you want to get in touch with us, you can call.
Nothing from the hotline this week.
So if you want to give us a call there, 717-219-4162.
Why don't you call and leave a voicemail?
No one's done that in a couple of weeks now, so I'm getting concerned.
Or you can leave a text message there, but if you do, identify yourself.

(43:53):
And you can also email us unpackingpeanuts at gmail.com.
So we would love to hear from you, because remember, just like Liz said, when I don't hear, I worry.
So let's get back to these strips.
March 16th, Rerun is at the front door of the Brown family, and Sally answers the door, and Rerun says, is it Spring yet?

(44:17):
And Sally says, you came over here to ask me that?
And then she says, you have a brother and a sister at home.
Why didn't you ask them?
And then Rerun says, they get mad when I ask stupid questions.
So Sally says, Spring is next week.
And then she goes back in her house, leaving Rerun on the front steps to say, thanks for not getting mad.

(44:39):
That just kills me.
I just found that really poignant, just this thanks for not getting mad.

Harold (44:46):
No, I can't find out if it's Spring in his own household.

Jimmy (44:51):
It's a rough situation.

Harold (44:52):
Although I'm kind of surprised that Sally knows the answer.

Jimmy (44:59):
March 19th, Charlie Brown is giving a report in front of the class on his dog.
And there is Snoopy who is carrying a shepherd's hook, a crozier, as we'd call it in Catholic school.
And Charlie Brown says, And that is my report on my dog.
Are there any questions?
And then Charlie Brown answers one, which is by saying, No, he's not a sheepdog.

(45:21):
Why is he carrying that stick thing?
And then the next panel.
And then Snoopy comes back, eyes closed, holding the stick thing.
And Charlie Brown says, Any more questions?

Harold (45:37):
This is one of those strips that I think might be a little too real if it was in the animated specials.
Well, maybe this was put into a special for all I know.
But I'd love to know how they exactly dealt with the anguish for the child Snoopy is dealing with.

Jimmy (45:58):
Bonk right on the head.

Liz (46:00):
What's with the pointer that has a little string attached to it?

Jimmy (46:05):
Oh, I think he's just trying to get it off the panel to show that it's coming from off panel.
I mean, these are some pretty rough looking word balloons.
I mean, if you really want to take a look at those word balloons in those first two panels.

Harold (46:18):
Yeah.
But his lettering is holding up.
It's hanging in there.

Jimmy (46:22):
But even there you can see, and that is mine.
You can see the ink slowly run out of the pen nib.
Yes, you can.
Because he overloaded it at the beginning.

Harold (46:29):
Yeah, he didn't do that early in the run.
He's allowing that, has been for a while.

Jimmy (46:34):
Yeah, there's a lot of fatigue.
I mean, 17,897 comic strips.
I can't imagine.
What you're doing is seeing one person take their life on earth and turn it into ink on paper for us to read.
Yeah, that's amazing.
It's a lot more than a good five-year run and then I wanted to quit on top.

(46:58):
Well, okay, but this is something else and it's amazing to watch actually.
Oh, I should probably announce, if you're excited, if you ever came to this through Amelia Roles by any chance, you can right now order the 25th anniversary editions of the first two trade paperbacks wherever fine books are sold.

Liz (47:20):
Oh, wow.

Jimmy (47:21):
So I can't wait to see what's going to happen with Amelia in 2025.
March 23rd, Linus and Lydia in class.
And Lydia with a smile on her face.
She looks just adorable in this strip.
She says, I like sitting behind you, Linus.
And Linus says, I'm glad.
And then she says, you have nice hair.
And Linus says, thank you.

(47:42):
And then Lydia says, and you smell like erasers.

Harold (47:47):
Yeah, Linus would rock the punk rock flea market as well, right?

Jimmy (47:51):
Do you think she means rubber erasers like a pink pearl?

Liz (47:55):
That's what I wonder, like chalk.

Michael (47:57):
I was thinking black border erasers.

Jimmy (47:59):
Black border erasers.

Harold (48:01):
I thought black border erasers.

Michael (48:02):
The question is, is that an insult?

Jimmy (48:05):
I don't know.

Harold (48:06):
Well, it goes back to that whole talcum powder thing.

Liz (48:09):
Well, if she likes sitting behind him, she wouldn't like it if she didn't like the smell.

Michael (48:15):
Well, unless she's trying to get his goat.
He's not buying it because he's ignoring her.

Harold (48:21):
Yeah, well, she is.
Yeah, she's like, I like it.

Liz (48:23):
He's a little shook in that last photo.

Michael (48:26):
He's really shook, but I think she's losing her punch here.
That is not a strong...

Jimmy (48:33):
I think she's being sincere.

Harold (48:35):
Well, she's got that little...
This thing that he does not do a whole lot with the half-closed eye on her in the last panel.
It's a really emotionally rich, this one.
So you can kind of have to take it.

Jimmy (48:48):
Yeah.
Oh, I think she's into it.

Harold (48:54):
There was something about that whole of chalkboard erasers.
Now, see, those who were younger than us, you guys had dry erase marker boards, and those smell nasty.
Yeah, that's like nail polish remover.

Jimmy (49:08):
And they look terrible in cartoons about classrooms.

Harold (49:12):
Right.
We went from black to green to white boards.
But chalk kind of has an interesting smell.
It does take you back to school.
If for us older folk.
Oh, yeah.
It's not an offensive smell, I don't think.

Liz (49:31):
It's not quite as addictive as mimeograph.

Harold (49:33):
School paste.
No, no.
That was a sweet, a sweet, dangerous smell.

Jimmy (49:40):
That's the best smell.
I love it.

Michael (49:42):
Yeah.
And I'm wondering if this is the last Lydia.
Yeah, because he was keeping her like one a year, but he hasn't done anything for a couple of years.

Harold (49:52):
Yeah.
Can I ask you guys, if you had to choose between the smell of crayons and the smell of chalk dust?

Jimmy (49:58):
Crayons.
I can't be near crayons.
I hate them.

Harold (50:02):
Yeah, I think I'd choose the chalk dust.

Jimmy (50:04):
I hate the paper.
The paper that they're wrapped around, or that's wrapped like a Crayola, like just thinking about it gives me goose bumps.
I can't stand it.

Harold (50:13):
I get you.

Liz (50:14):
I don't particularly like chalk dust.

Jimmy (50:17):
No, I don't like that either, really.
I think I'd pick the chalk, though.

Harold (50:21):
In the school pot of paste, that was also an acquired interesting smell.

Liz (50:26):
Tastes good.

Jimmy (50:28):
So all of these things are the reasons we don't have as many brain cells as we should.
March 27th, it's a single panel strip of Rerun and Snoopy just throwing cards and marbles up in the air and smiling like idiots.
And there's a caption that says, Rerun and Snoopy attempts to revive the ancient Roman game of cards and marbles.

Michael (50:51):
Now, the caption doesn't appear very often.

Harold (50:55):
Very rarely.
No, this is a rarity.
He must love that drawing.
He must have made a sketch and said, I don't care what I need to do to make this work.
I'm going to show that sketch.

Jimmy (51:06):
Yeah, probably.
That's probably exactly what happened.

Harold (51:10):
I mean, what if he had just done that without any wording at all?

Jimmy (51:15):
That would have been great too, actually.
That would be real fun.

Harold (51:19):
I mean, maybe it's too merchandize-y, t-shirt-y.
He had to have something in some other level of intellectual.

Jimmy (51:29):
Yeah, I guess he would have felt too, he was just, it wasn't enough.
He needed to make something.

Michael (51:36):
Well, he didn't have to make the marbles read as marbles, which he's trying to do.

Harold (51:41):
Well, that's true.
The bags, he's got the little bags.

Michael (51:43):
I mean, otherwise, it could be like Snickers snacks.

Harold (51:49):
I would like to see that just without the lettering.
There's just something about it, that would make such a statement.
But you're right, we wouldn't know what the marbles are unless he had to write marbles on a bag, which I guess would have been his time lettering.
I guess he could have tried to use jacks, but then there would have been people writing in about them hurting their eyes with flying jacks.

Jimmy (52:14):
April 1st, it's April Fool's Day, and Sally comes into Charlie Brown's room and says, Wake up, big brother, Mark Maguire is at the door.
He wants to play in your team.
April Fool.
But Charlie Brown doesn't register the April Fool, and he goes to the front door and says, Mark, Mark, and Sally says, April Fool.
Then Charlie Brown in his Sergeant Pepper pajamas goes back out, goes out further in the front steps and says, Mr.

(52:38):
Maguire, are you out there?
And Sally says, April Fool.
And then Charlie Brown goes back to bed saying, Rats, I guess he left.
And then Sally just yells, There's a spider on your back.
April Fool.

Michael (52:51):
And after this, she gave up on the April Fool's joke.
This is the last one.
Last one.

Jimmy (52:59):
And this is a Peanuts obscurity that I can do.
It's Mark Maguire.

SPEAKER_2 (53:04):
Peanuts obscurity is playing.

Jimmy (53:09):
Now Mark Maguire is a guy who played for the A's and he played for the Cardinals.
And he was one of the people that was involved in the big race to break Roger Maris' 61 home run season.

(53:29):
It was him and it was Sammy Sosa.
And he ended up getting 70 home runs in 1998.
And he was ahead of Sammy Sosa who had 66.
And Barry Bonds broke it a few years later and with 73 home runs.

(53:50):
Now the problem is they were all juiced to the max.
They were roided out of their minds.
All of them using performance enhancing drugs.
Because previously, these guys were hitting 20 home runs a season.
And suddenly they're hitting 70.
So eventually, so that's breaking one rule of baseball.

(54:12):
Then McGuire was brought before Congress to testify, where he gave a prepared speech.
And his opening remarks were, well, if I say I was using them, people will get mad at me.
And then if I say I wasn't using them, you guys will think I'm lying.
Like, okay, Mark, we're just asking you to tell the truth.

(54:35):
And then he burst into tears, breaking the only rule that's really important.
There is no crying in baseball.
But this is why I stopped being a baseball player at the time.
It was just rampant, obvious cheating.
Not only did these guys get, their arms get bigger, their heads got bigger.

(54:56):
It was wild.
Terrible, terrible time in baseball.

Michael (54:59):
I never forgave Roger Maris, myself.

Jimmy (55:05):
But there's just something about seeing this big, roided up goofball crying in Congress, saying, you're making me look bad.
Well, you know.
Actions have consequences, Mark.
What do you think of her joke, though?

Liz (55:20):
He should have known.

Jimmy (55:23):
Do you think he does know and is just playing it?

Michael (55:26):
I mean, she's just saying April fool's too fast.
You got to wait till there's an effect, till he's April fool's.

Jimmy (55:32):
Yeah, that even threw me off when I was reading it.
Very strange.
I love that Charlie Brown's still sticking with these Sgt.
Pepper pajamas.
I mean, the worst.

Harold (55:43):
Well, it's kind of weird.
I mean, this is six panels in a daily.

Michael (55:48):
Yeah.

Harold (55:49):
And Sally's pointing off to the right, deep into the rest of the strip as Charlie Brown is in bed.
And then we have to assume that Charlie Brown has outpaced her and is going off to the right in that second panel because we just see her going equal fool.
When the same direction she was going, then we see him facing the opposite direction at the door.

(56:14):
It's just some really interesting design choices on how to put this over.

Michael (56:19):
The door is always on the left side.
Like in Dick Van Dyke, you can't have the door on the other side.

Harold (56:26):
Right.

Jimmy (56:26):
That's weird.
Yeah, the door is always on the left side in these comics.

Harold (56:30):
That's really strange.

Liz (56:32):
But he really does ruin her joke.
She doesn't get any pleasure out of fooling him because of his denseness.

Harold (56:42):
Yeah, I was reading it.
He was sincerely into the moment.
But I could see.

Jimmy (56:47):
The only reason.

Harold (56:48):
It would be brilliant if he actually was playing it.

Jimmy (56:51):
The reason I think you're probably right that he was just fooled by it is just the parentheses in the next to last panel by his eyes.
That gives him that look of being upset and a little forlorn.
If he didn't have that, I would 100 percent say he was just messing with her.

Harold (57:09):
Because we know with sports and kicking the football and all that, it just seems like, yeah, that's in character for him when it comes to sports.
You get that carried away.

Jimmy (57:22):
April 12th, Pepper and Patty and Marcy are hanging out.
Pepper and Patty is on the phone and she says, Hey, Chuck, you want to play on my team this year?
She continues, Well, I need someone who'd let himself get hit on the head with the ball, you know, to get on base.
Then she says, No?
Well, okay, I understand.
Then she concludes with, Anyway, good luck this year with your own so-called team.

(57:45):
Then Marcy says, Had to say it, huh, sir?
Why didn't Charlie Brown let himself be plunked on the head?
I love that Pepper and Patty here knows that if he's going to get hit, it's definitely going to be on that big round noggin.

Michael (58:02):
But she's totally unethical.
I mean, despite all the cheating in school, nobody will let themselves get hit in baseball.
That's bad stuff, potentially getting hit.

Jimmy (58:17):
Oh, I know many people who would potentially let themselves get hit in baseball.
Many people?
Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_2 (58:23):
Not in the head.
Really?

Jimmy (58:25):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_2 (58:25):
Wow.

Jimmy (58:27):
Wait, that's a legitimate strategy to lean into it.

Michael (58:30):
I mean, is there a law?
I mean, what if somebody in the World Series blatantly stuck out his arm and let it hit the ball hit it?

Jimmy (58:39):
Yeah, you can't cross the plate like that.
But I mean, if you get hit with the ball, I mean, I don't know what would happen if you were actually acting like, you know, a mime or something and flailing around.
But yeah, no, if someone's out there pitching 40 miles an hour and it's going to hit you in the shin, yeah, a lot of people will just stand there and get hit.

Harold (59:00):
Oh, yeah.

Jimmy (59:02):
I am shocked by the amount of things that are shocking to people.

Harold (59:07):
Well, we're shocked at your shock about our own.
My Lord.

Jimmy (59:12):
April 15th, they're playing baseball.
Schroeder comes out to the mound and says to Charlie Brown, you know Charlie Brown, baseball is a real thinking game.
I was just thinking how different this world might be if Beethoven had married Antony, okay, Italian people.
Can you help me out?

Michael (59:29):
Antony Brenton.

Jimmy (59:30):
Okay.
But then, what if he had married?

Liz (59:33):
Giulietta Guiciardi.

Jimmy (59:36):
I just don't know.
This ends with Charlie Brown saying, catchers have too much time to think.

Michael (59:42):
These must be historical.
I didn't know there was any women he was able to even talk to.

Jimmy (59:50):
Beethoven?
Yeah.
I have no idea who these people are.
Probably should have looked that up.

Liz (59:56):
Harold, have you looked it up?

Jimmy (59:58):
Peanuts obscurity.

Harold (59:59):
Well, I can tell you that our first candidate was an Austrian philanthropist, which goes back on what Lucy was often talking about.
You get someone to pay the way.
Maybe things could have been a little easier on Beethoven.
I don't know.
Maybe that's what he's thinking about in his spare time.

(01:00:21):
Then the other one is in Wikipedia in Italian.
An Austrian or French or something.
What's going on here?
She was for a short time a piano student, and he dedicated a piano sonata number 14, Moonlight Sonata to her.

Jimmy (01:00:40):
That's one of your top ranked sonatas right there.

Harold (01:00:43):
Yeah.
Frank Sinatra.
Sorry.
She was born to count and countess, so that also could have worked out well for him financially.

Michael (01:00:54):
He would have said, dude, you're too weird.

Harold (01:00:59):
But man, if he wrote the Moonlight Sonata.

Jimmy (01:01:01):
Yeah.
That's pretty good.
Could you imagine and still not get the girl?
Like, what does it take?
April 30th, Pepper and Patty is on the phone again, and she's talking to Marcy and she says, so the teacher said she could always tell when you were guessing at the answers.
And Marcy is upset by this and says, you told her I guess at the answers?

(01:01:25):
And then Pepper and Patty says, sure Marcy, I had to protect myself.
You made my answers look stupid.
You understand, don't you?
You forgive me, don't you?
This has caused Marcy to just pass out.
She's lying on the ground and she says, I guess.

Harold (01:01:40):
What is going on with this teacher?
There's blatant, blatant cheating, which is what brings this all up.
And the concern with Peppermint Patty and Marcy is the fact that Peppermint Patty knows that Marcy was just guessing.

Liz (01:01:58):
Why would Marcy have to guess?
Marcy's brilliant.

Jimmy (01:02:01):
Well, I think sometimes everybody has to guess.

Liz (01:02:06):
Why is Marcy still friends with this woman?

Jimmy (01:02:09):
The Peppermint Patty?

Liz (01:02:10):
Yeah.

Harold (01:02:10):
That's a good question.

Jimmy (01:02:11):
Well, you know, the heart wants what it wants.
Our friends are our friends.
That's just the way it is.
I love that first panel.
I think that's a great drawing of a rumply Peppermint Patty in that cool ruffled pillow.
I love the little cable on the phone.

(01:02:33):
Everything about it, I like.

Harold (01:02:35):
The teacher could always tell when you were guessing at the answers.

Jimmy (01:02:40):
I think she added always or no, maybe not.
She could always tell when you're guessing.
I think Peppermint Patty, this was a larger talk about Peppermint Patty's faults and problems, and that she is calling Marcy and making about this one little moment where the teacher probably said, yes, I know when people are guessing, Patricia.

Harold (01:02:58):
Anyway.
Well, I know when people are guessing at the answers, it's when they're wrong.

Jimmy (01:03:03):
Well, you could tell easily when someone's just guessing at something.
I mean, that's not a Jedi mind trick.
I think Peppermint Patty is just trying to move some of the misery around.

Harold (01:03:14):
Yeah.
That's Peppermint Patty.

SPEAKER_2 (01:03:17):
Yeah.

Jimmy (01:03:19):
Anyway, real good-looking comic strip.
You know what?
I think we're going to call it there, and we'll come back next week and talk about some more cool comic strips.
As always, this is my favorite day of the week.
If you want to make some time to hang out with me next week, I would much appreciate it.
My pals will be here too.

(01:03:39):
We're going to be talking about 1999, part two.
Between now and then, if you want to keep this conversation going, there's a couple different ways you can do it.
The first thing you can do, go to unpackingpeanuts.com, sign up for the great Peanuts reread, get on our once a month email list, let you know what we're going to be covering.
You can email us, we're unpackingpeanuts at gmail.com.

(01:04:01):
You can call us on the good old Peanuts hotline where we're 717-219-4162.
You can also leave a text message if you want.
And we're on social media over there on Instagram and threads.
We're at Unpack Peanuts and on Facebook, Blue Sky, and YouTube, we are at Unpacking Peanuts.
That's it for this week.

(01:04:21):
Come back next week where we'll talk about more fun stuff.
Until then, for Michael, Harold, and Liz, this is Jimmy saying, be of good cheer.

Liz (01:04:29):
Yes.
Be of good cheer.
Be of good cheer.
Unpacking Peanuts is copyrighted by Jimmy Gownley, Michael Cohen, Harold Buchholz, and Liz Sumner.
Produced and edited by Liz Sumner.
Music by Michael Cohen.
Additional voiceover by Aziza Shukralla Clark.
For more from the show, follow Unpack Peanuts on Instagram and threads.

(01:04:50):
Unpacking Peanuts on Facebook, Blue Sky, and YouTube.
For more about Jimmy, Michael, and Harold, visit unpackingpeanuts.com.
Have a wonderful day, and thanks for listening.

Jimmy (01:05:01):
Having said that.