This is Peanuts from the day Monte Schulz was born…
… and this is Peanuts from exactly nine months before. POW indeed!
Year: 2008
Happy Birthday, Monte Schulz!
Click to see complete comic strip
“It all started when my oldest son, Monte, was in high school and was involved with an art class where the project was a coat-hanger sculpture. He was telling me about it one day while we were riding home in the car from school, and he said that he was going to transform a coat hanger into the figure of a baseball pitcher. It sounded like a good idea to me, and I was anxious to hear about the final results.
“Several weeks went by before he mentioned it again, and this time he told me that the teacher had handed back the projects and he had received a C on his coat-hanger sculpture. I remember being quite disturbed by this, because I could not understand how a teacher was able to grade this kind of project. I thought about it as the months went by, and finally translated it into the Sunday page where Sally expresses her indignation over receiving the same grade for her piece of coat-hanger sculpture.”
– Charles M. Schulz
Mortgage Mess Monster
60 Minutes recently had a good segment on the mortgage crisis, and why it’s had such a big effect on Wall Street.
‘Great Escape’ Survivor Dies
Recently I posted this item about the real-life escape in WWII from Stalag Luft III that was the basis for the movie The Great Escape. After seeing the movie on TV (one of those two-night specials) I bought a huge poster of Steve McQueen sitting on the motorcycle he stole from a Nazi soldier and rode around the countryside.
One of the few men that escaped — and who wasn’t shot after being re-captured — has passed away. Bertram “Jimmy” James was 92. The Guardian has the story at this link. Here is a video, apparently recent, with Mr. James.
Shielding Stephen Colbert
It’s no surprise to this old comic book fan that the death of Captain America wouldn’t last very long. There’s a new hero in action, taking Cap’s place. But what of the indestructible shield that belonged to the original Captain America? Isn’t it now in the possession of none other than Stephen Colbert?
[flv:/Video/2008/JAN/ColbertMarvel.flv 440 330]
Beatles: Nothing Israel
Yes, I know Ringo has been on the TV talk show circuit, and that he walked off the Regis set. I know Paul had a heart procedure. And I know there’s an invitation for Paul and Ringo to visit Israel. No, I haven’t been blogging about these things. Sorry! I’m a bad Beatles blogger.
What caught my attention about the Israel invitation is that Israel’s banning of the Beatles back in the 60’s sounds so much like something the Taliban would do today. And let’s not forget that fundamentalist Christians burned Beatles records after Lennon’s infamous comment “The Beatles are bigger than Jesus.”