December 29th, 2008
Here’s the cover for this spring’s new release in the Complete Peanuts series:
The volume has an introduction by the talented Kristin Chenoweth (whose enjoyable TV series Pushing Daisies is going away, sniff!)
I hope that Santa Claus, Hannaklaus, or whatever powers that be have been good to you this holiday season… but if it’s not been going well, remember that we’re about to see the end of this bumpy year, start fresh with a new calendar. May your 2009 be filled with the pleasant sort of surprises! (At this point, things are looking a little quiet in the Peanuts book field… but there may be pleasant surprises there as well.)
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December 23rd, 2008
What’s that Linus is saying in that panel from 40 years ago, yesterday? Well, he’s talking in shorthand… Gregg shorthand, to be precise. Schulz used shorthand a number of times in the strip, when Woodstock (and occasionally Linus) was acting as secretary. And being one to pay attention to the details, Schulz got it right. The shorthand in the strip is accurate (or so those in the know tell me), sometimes just recounting what’s being dictated, sometimes with little jokes of its own. The one above? It says “Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.”
And that seems the right message for the moment, in this the last pre-Santa AAUGH Blog entry. If you’re worrying about getting a gift, well, of course there are still gift certificates. One thing which I do when I’m running late on gifts is order something shipped, and then on the day just give a picture of the item which will soon arrive. (It also lets you fool them into thinking their getting something dinky and then they’re surprised that it’s truly a big gift on the way.)
And if you don’t celebrate Christmas? Have a Merry one anyway. Hang out at the 7-11 and watch all the frantic folks coming in trying to find walnuts or some sort of suitable present for Aunt Clara whose voice mail sure sounded like she was saying that she wasn’t going to show up…
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December 19th, 2008
I was in the supermarket today, and noticed that the box of Cap’n Crunch’s Christmas Crunch had a deal on it — send in the appropriate proofs of purchase for one of the current, Warner Home Video edition of the Peanuts DVDs, and get $3 back. Of course, you have to buy a box of Cap’n Crunch’s Christmas Crunch to do this, and that’ll probably take up the $3, but really, it’s the best maritime-themed yuletide cereal on the market. So be sure to save the receipt from your Amazon box!
Meanwhile, time is ticking down on getting gifts, but you still have time to get things sent using two-day shipping. On the other hand, you can go the gift card route. Amazon has gift cards you can print out on your printer, for giving directly. They can even just email the gift card immediately to the recipient, making it the perfect last-minute gift - order and get it delivered on Christmas day. One of the print-it-yourself card designs depicts it as being for buying MP3s; I bought on of those myself this year, for someone who likes music but whose specific tastes I don’t know.
And remember, I Want A Dog For Christmas, Charlie Brown is on again Saturday night. Since that’s the second time this year, I guess Rerun is in reruns!
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December 18th, 2008
That’s how I’ve greeted my wife at the door about every other day for the past couple weeks. And she knows the answer now. “A Charlie Brown Christmas. A book adaptation!” Ever since putting together the guide to book adaptations of A Charlie Brown Christmas, I’ve been filling holes in my new collection, including new discoveries. And I’ve been updating the guide. Some of the finds are new editions of existing adaptations. Some are really just small variations. But they go in the guide. (And once another one or two arrive, I’ll be updating the front photo.)
And you AAUGH readers have been a help. For an example of the sometimes silly little things this effort covers: loyal reader Jim pointed out to me that he’d just bought a copy of the little Running Press adaptation at a store, and it didn’t have the built-in bookmark with the metal tree charm. Not only that, alert Jim noticed that his book had slightly different portion of the text on the spread from the book I had pictured on the site. So I picked up a new copy, noticed things like fewer stars on the front cover and some resized pictures in addition to the re-flowed text, and decided to count this as a variation worth considering. Yes, yes, I’m that nerd. So it has its own entry in the guide (which has also been redesigned slightly for easier navigation.)
I also got a nice note from Dale Hale, the artist on the original adaptation. If you want to see some of Dale’s own cartooning, head here.
Meanwhile: you’ve missed free shipping in time for Christmas (you may still be able to hit the tail end of Hannukah, although it’s probably not worth converting religion just for that…) but today (and today only) you can still expect Standard Shipping to get your gifts there in time (he says, crossing fingers in hope that snow-based airport closures doesn’t mess with that too much.) So order that Elmo Live, that Blu-Ray player, that pedal-based cat compactor (or whatever that is) today. There will still be options tomorrow, but they get more expensive.
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December 17th, 2008
You missed it, didn’t you? Beethoven’s birthday was yesterday, and you forgot to get your gifts out in time! Tsk, tsk.
Don’t let the same thing happen for Christmas or Hannukah. And as Amazon says today’s the last day for you to place an in-stock order with Amazon and have Free Shipping get it there by Christmas, perhaps it’s time to be shopping. But what to buy, what to buy?
One of the things I enjoy about running AAUGH.com is seeing what people are ordering (and let me make it clear I don’t know who is ordering what, or who is ordering at all for that matter. I just see aggregate sales.) Of course, people are buying a lot of Peanuts stuff (most popular thing: the Peanuts Holiday Collection DVD set.) Folks are buying some of those one day specials I’ve highlighted; in fact, not only was yesterday’s Arrested Development deal our biggest seller of the season, but you AAUGHers (and other folks) bought ‘em up so quickly that by the time I got around to actually ordering mine, they were gone. (Today’s deal is a $89.99 TomTom GPS.) And people are buying standard gifty stuff: an iPod, a bracelet, a little Sinatra.
But what I love seeing are the odder things:
Now, some of these may not have been gifts… but somehow, I get the feeling that the ones that are gifts are exactly the right things for the people they’re for.
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December 16th, 2008
We’re now in the last two days of placing orders so that they get where they’re going before Christmas via Free Super Saver Shipping. And really, if you’re gonna spend money on the gift, isn’t it better to spend money on the gift than on the shipping? Of course, you have to order things that Amazon actually has in stock… but with things like the Peanuts Holiday DVD set and the most recent Complete Peanuts box set and A Treasury of Happiness in stock, this should not be too harsh a limit.
And it’s an utter coincidence - believe me, Amazon doesn’t warn me what they’re going to have on sale. But today’s one-day-only sale is on the complete DVD set for Arrested Development, the show whose Peanuts references we featured here just a few days back. Get all three seasons of a show that I really liked (and which builds its story well across the series) for $28.99… and as I said, free shipping getting it to you before Christmas. Note: this is not an all-ages series. I’m certainly not saying “if you like Peanuts, you’ll like this.” Even though I myself am a big fan of them both. (If you want to share this deal with your friends, just send this link - http://AAUGH.com/to.htm?B000JJ3Y78 - to them.)
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