Category: Charles M. Schulz

The all-time greatest comic strip

Obama deploys troops to stop Charlie Brown

What a shame that “A Charlie Brown Christmas” was preempted this week by President Obama’s speech at West Point, announcing the deployment of 30,000 additional troops in Afghanistan.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2009/DEC/ColbertCharlieBrownXmas.flv 512 384]

Russell Wiseman, the mayor of Arlington, Tennessee, was apoplectic about “A Charlie Brown Christmas” not being shown Tuesday night.

“Ok, so, this is total crap, we sit the kids down to watch ‘The Charlie Brown Christmas Special’ and our muslim president is there, what a load…..try to convince me that wasn’t done on purpose. Ask the man if he believes that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and he will give you a 10 minute disertation (sic) about it….w…hen the answer should simply be ‘yes’….”

http://www.commercialappeal.com/news/2009/dec/04/mayor-fires-at-obama-online/

But if Russell were a wise man, he would have checked the TV listings and seen that “A Charlie Brown Christmas” was already scheduled to be repeated this coming Tuesday night. Not only that, a second showing has been added for December 15th to make up for the one missed this past week.

The ABC Television Network will celebrate the joy of the holidays with the classic animated Christmas-themed PEANUTS special, A Charlie Brown Christmas, created by late cartoonist Charles M. Schulz, airing TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8 (8:00-8:30 p.m., ET) and TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15 (8:00-9:00 p.m., ET).

“It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” was aired twice in October by ABC. I wonder what Mayor Wiseman thinks of Linus’ singular belief in the Great Pumpkin?

Wacky Wallowheen!

Halloween 2009

Well, another Halloween has come and gone. We had a good crowd show up, yet we have more leftover candy than ever, because one of our neighbors dropped some off so we could cover for them while they went to a party. There’s plenty for me to leave in the break room at work on Monday!

Here is what I posted last Halloween ,and the year before that, and three years ago. This year I added the video projector to the decorations, in rear projection mode with an old sheet hung from the garage door for a screen. I played the 1953 movie “War of the Worlds,” and the original “King Kong .” It was very windy tonight! On the video you can hear the wind, and some kids up the street.

[flv:http://www.dograt.com/Video/2009/OCT/WarOfWorlds.flv 512 384]

I was pleased that ABC -TV ran “It’s the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown” twice this week. Being the fan that I am — Great Pumpkin is my favorite “Peanuts” cartoon — I watched it both times, and the commercials too. There was a loud hum in the soundtrack towards the end that I don’t recall ever hearing before. And I had to think of the promo in an ironic way, because I refuse to accept it as a sincere attempt at updating Charlie Brown!

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This Side of Monte Schulz

Amazon.com says my copy of Monte Schulz’s new novel, “This Side of Jordan,” is on its way. Monte has been on a book tour, mostly making the rounds in California. I couldn’t catch him at one of his book signings, but here’s Monte in an audio interview with Mr. Media.

I really liked Jane in Monte’s novel, “Down by the River.” Jane is a good example of an idea that I’m fond of, which is the big external events of a story being window dressing for something deeper.

I was pleased when the TV series “The X-Files” had Mulder actually come out and say it, for those who were missing the point. I’m paraphrasing, but the point was, “Don’t you see, Scully? It’s not about aliens, and abductions and the government cover-up. It’s about you, Scully.” The same sort of theme was explored in Alan Moore’s “Watchmen,” relating to the character Laurie.

That’s what I took away from “Down by the River.” There was an assault, and a murder, and corruption in town, but the story really was about Jane. I don’t know if “This Side of Jordan” has a character as appealing as Jane, but I’m looking forward to reading it.