The AAUGH blog

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In this issue:
*A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS TO AIR
*AAUGH.CROSSWORD
*SNOOPY STUFF FOR THE BATHROOM
*ANNIVERSARY TREASURY CORRECTION
*CHRISTMAS ORDERING STILL AVAILABLE
*HALLMARK BOOK TIPS
*BOOK LOOK: YES, SANTA, THERE IS A CHARLIE BROWN
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A CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS TO AIR
Our U.S. readers, looking forward to their annual dose of the TV special a Charlie Brown Christmas, won’t be disappointed…
unless they believe what they read. If you head over to the CBS website right now, you’ll see several places where they state that A CB Christmas will air Monday, Dec 4, at 8 PM Easter/Pacific. However, on other parts of that site they state that their normal programming will be on in that slot. What’s the truth? Heading over to the TVGuide web site, I see the special is slated for December 11th, which I believe is the real air date…
but I’ll be checking both nights, just to be sure!
(And if you’re nuts about the music from A Charlie Brown Christmas: there’s a new CD out with covers of the music from that special, done by Cyrus Chestnut and Friends…
"Friends" in this case including Vanessa Williams and the Boys Choir of Harlem. This can be found on the front page of the http://AAUGH.com catalog.)
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AAUGH.CROSSWORD
I’ve added a Peanuts-themed crossword puzzle to the site. Go to AAUGH.com and click on the Collector’s Guide link, then click on Crossword Puzzle. There the puzzle will be, ready to print out and solve. (This puzzle first appeared in issue 8 of Hogan’s Alley magazine, a magazine of the cartoon arts. As such, its non-Peanuts question lean a bit toward the comics and animation world.)

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SNOOPY STUFF FOR THE BATHROOM
We’ve just added a couple of unlikely items to our catalog. A vinyl bathtub mat (to keep you from slipping while you shower) and a child’s potty seat, both with Snoopy designs, are now available. I didn’t know where to put them, so I added them to the Toys page (which was looking a little empty, due to the unavailability of the Snoopy figurines.)
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ANNIVERSARY TREASURY CORRECTION
A few newsletters back, I refered to the Peanuts Anniversary Treasury as being a reprint of Peanuts Classics. Well, I was a little bit off on that. I swear I checked the book, I did! I counted pages, checked many pages side by side, at the beginning and the end and at many places in the middle. It’s -mostly- a reprint of Peanuts Classics…
but various individual pages of the original (which reprinted strips from 1970 and before) have been replaced with pages from the next ten years. The switched pages only have daily strips; none of the color Sunday strips from the original are missing. It’s still a very nice book.

If anyone ordered this book specifically seeking a copy of Peanuts Classics, let me know and I’ll make this up to you. And if anyone else is interested in this fine book, head on over to http://AAUGH.com and click on the link marked British Shoppe. You’ll find it there!
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CHRISTMAS ORDERING STILL AVAILABLE
There’s certainly still time to get your orders in and shipped to you (or directly to your recipients!) by Christmas. A few tips to help assure timely delivery:
1) Order only those things that are listed on their catalog page as "usually ships within 24 hours". Those things are actually in the warehouse, on-hand to ship. If you’re interested in something that "usually ships in 2-3 days", order it *now*, since processing delays are longer during the holidays. If you’re interested in something that’s "on order; usually ships in 1-2 weeks"…
well, I wouldn’t count on it arriving by Christmas or even the end of Hannukah. 2) When you’re asked for your shipping preferences, you’ll be asked whether you want everything shipped together, or if you’d be willing to take partial shipments as the items become available. Take that partial shipment option; it will assure that your whole order isn’t held up by one problematic item. 3) Gift-wrapping services are available. This way, you can have wrapped gifts sent directly to the recipient, which saves you time and trouble in receiving the gift, wrapping it, and shipping it back out. (And having received a number of gifts this way for my recent wedding, I can say that a nice, sharp job was done on the wrapping!) 4) When it gets close to the final day, remember that you can take advantage of overnight shipping. This does cost more, of course.

The free-shipping-for-orders-over-$100 deal is still going. Remember that you can mix items that you find on the AAUGH.com site with items that you find on Amazon once you click through. All of the items do have to go to a single location, however. (Time to get that DVD player!)
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HALLMARK BOOK TIPS
Last newsletter, I mentioned the nice The Joy Of A Peanuts Christmas book that I couldn’t offer, but was available at Hallmark stores. While some shops sold out on the first weekend, others still have a plentiful supply. Here’s a few quick tips for getting one:
1) Call ahead and make sure the store has some in stock. 2) Customers can get 1 free copy of this book by purchasing any 3 cards in the store. These can be *any* cards, they don’t have to be Peanuts cards (although there are plenty of those to be found!) While most of the cards cost $1.50-$2, you should be able to find a rack of 99 cent cards pretty easily. If you look toward the bottom of the Thank You and Condolence card sections, you may actually find thirft cards that cost 85 cents each. Even with tax, that would bring the cost of your book to under $3. 3) Hallmark will sell you additional copies for about $6, and the book is certainly worth it. However, if you want another copy more cheaply, just come back another day and buy another 3 cards; the limitation is one per customer *visit*, not one per customer total. 4) If you don’t have a Hallmark store within access, you can now order them from hallmark.com — they cost $5.95 plus shipping, but they do come with three free Peanuts greeting cards. They’ll only ship within the U.S., however. (Foreign buyers will find plenty of them for bid on eBay, and few bidders bidding. However, not all eBay auctioneers will ship worldwide; check before you bid.)
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BOOK LOOK: YES, SANTA, THERE IS A CHARLIE BROWN
Since the Christmas season is zooming closer, I figured that this issue I’d take a look at one of the many Christmas-themed Peanuts books out there. Yes, Santa, There Is A Charlie Brown is a small hardcover book that Hallmark issued in 1971. It uses Schulz character drawings and gags from various Christmastime strips, but places the characters against the background of Victorian-era (or at least Victorian-style) woodcut drawings. The characters are in black-and-white, while the backgrounds are in black and one other color (different on each spread.) The art styles actually make for an interesting mix, and it certainly looks like no other Peanuts book. This 28-page volume cost $1.50 when it was issued.
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Well, that’s all the news for this time. Keep letting me know what you think of the newsletter and of the site…
and if you like them, let your friends know about them as well!
–Nat Gertler proprietor http://AAUGH.com nat@aaugh.com

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In this issue:
*PEANUTS 2000 CORRECTED EDITION
*FREE SHIPPING FOR EARLY HOLIDAY ORDERS
*THE ORIGINAL YAGMCB ON CD
*A PEANUTS BOOK WE CAN’T SELL
*SNOOPY SNO-CONE MAKER AND LIFE JACKET
PEANUTS 2000 CORRECTED EDITION
As we warned you before PEANUTS 2000 was released, the first printing did not reprint the final daily or the final Sunday strip, despite claiming on the cover to have the farewell strip. However, the second printing is now out, and it does include the final Sunday. (It doesn’t include the final daily, but the final Sunday had the same text as the daily, and included the recycled art that was included in the Sunday as well.) This new printing has now been out long enough that there shouldn’t be any more first printings laying around the warehouse. If you were waiting for the corrected edition to come out before ordering your copy, now’s the time! Head on over to http://AAUGH.com — there’s a link for the book on the front page of the site!
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FREE SHIPPING FOR EARLY HOLIDAY ORDERS
No, Christmas is not all about the presents. Nor is Hannukah, for that matter. (Boxing Day actually is all about the presents, and you have to admire its purity in that.) Still, presents are part of the fun of the holiday season, and most of us are starting to get into the shopping mood.

For those of you who are planning early, we have a little incentive: if you place an order totalling at least $100 before November 22nd (that’s Wednesday), and have it shipped to a single U.S. location (such as your house), you get free shipping!
But what if you don’t need $100 worth of Peanuts stuff? (And why not? I’d think that copies of A Charlie Brown Christmas: The Making Of A Tradition would be a great gift for existing Peanuts fans, while copies of A Peanuts Treasury make a great and cheap gift for those who aren’t already fans.) Well, worry not! As you may know, orders from the AAUGH.com catalog are processed by Amazon. Go to AAUGH.com, click through on the Peanuts items you want, add them to your shopping basket, then continue your shopping on the Amazon.com site. You can order videos, toys, CDs, electronics…
they all count to the $100!
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THE ORIGINAL YAGMCB ON CD
We’ve offered a CD of You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown on the site for a while — but that’s a recording using the cast from the recent Broadway revival of the show. If you grew up listening to the original cast recording with such fine artists as Gary "Radar O’Reilly" Burghoff, it just doesn’t sound right!
Well, the original cast recording is FINALLY on CD. Oh, it doesn’t have the song "Glee Club Rehearsal" (which wasn’t on the old vinyl recording, either), but it does have some great bonus tracks. When the idea of a Peanuts musical was first being pitched to Schulz, composer Clark Gestner recorded some of the songs from the show as demos. This CD has four bonus tracks of those demos!
This CD is listed on the front page of http://AAUGH.com (and if you like the music to You’re A Good Man Charlie Brown, click the Music link…
by the entries for the YAGMCB recordings, you’ll find a link for a CD of Clark Gesnter’s non-Peanuts songs!)
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A PEANUTS BOOK WE CAN’T SELL
AAUGH.com works hard to offer every Peanuts book that is released to the bookstore channels. Unfortunately, that’s not quite the same as every Peanuts book; from time to time, there are books that are only available outside of the bookstore market. This is one of those times.

THE JOY OF A PEANUTS CHRISTMAS is a nice little book. Its 120 pages collects 95 Christmas-themed Peanuts strips from as far back as 1951. The reproduction quality is good, and the Sundays are in color. I really wish I could offer this one, but it’s only available through Hallmark stores.

The good news is the price is cheap: $6 is a real bargain for a hardcover with a dust jacket and color on the interiors, and you can even get one for free with the purchase of three greeting cards. The bad news is that you may have a hard time finding one; they reached stores last weekend, and apparently some stores were out of them before the weekend was over. You can find the address of your local Hallmark store using their store locator:
http://www.hallmark.com/hmk/Website/AboutHallmark/gc_store_locator_frameset.jsp
Because of the scarcity of the books (although there are stores that still have them), I suggest calling ahead and checking before you head out to the store. (And hey, if you’re the hyper-obsessive collector that I am, check out the book rack at the store. Hallmark has their own versions of a few of those little square Harper-Collins Peanuts gift hardbacks. For example, I found a paperback version of Happy Birthday And One To Glow On, and a tall version of Love Isn’t Easy.)
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SNOOPY SNO-CONE MAKER AND LIFE JACKET
If you go to AAUGH.com and click on the Toys link, you’ll see that we have the fabled Snoopy Sno-Cone Maker available once again. You’ll also see that we have a Snoopy Flotation Vest (what we used to call a Life Jacket), which has a rather sharp-looking Snoopy design on it. The vest is available in a kid-size only, alas…
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Well, that brings us to the end of another newsletter. As always, I welcome your questions, suggestions, comments, compliments, and slices of pumpkin pie!
–Nat Gertler proprietor http://AAUGH.com

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In this issue:
*INTERVIEW WITH SCHULZ AIDE DALE HALE
*NEW CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS BOOK OUT
*ULTRADISCOUNTS ON PEANUTS CHRISTMAS BOOKS
*PEANUTS STAMP IS ON ITS WAY
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Cartoonist Dale Hale was one of Schulz’s aides during the late 1950′s. In addition to helping out around the office, he wrote and drew Peanuts stories for comic book magazines. I interviewed him earlier this year, and now the interview is on the Web site. (Note: this is the same interview that appeared in the most recent issue of Hogan’s Alley magazine.)

To read the interview, go to http://AAUGH.com and click on the Collector’s Guide link. There you’ll find a link for the interview.
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NEW CHARLIE BROWN CHRISTMAS BOOK OUT
The new book on the making of the classic animated Peanuts special is now shipping. Rather than giving you my opinion of it, let’s hear from Scott McGuire, the Peanuts animation expert who has a great guide to Peanuts animation and video at http://web.mit.edu/smcguire/www/peanuts-animation.html
> I just received my copy of "A Charlie Brown Christmas – The Making of > a Tradition" by Lee Mendelson et al. and I thought I’d pass along the > details and a few thoughts. > > It’s a nicely laid out book, in full color with lots of stills and > photos, measuring 9" x 9" with 192 pages. > > The book includes: >
*The entire script of the show, with lots and lots of stills; >
*A history of how the show came to be, and its debut. This includes > some nice stuff like original TV Guide coverage and advertising; >
*Reflections on working with Charles Schulz by Lee Mendelson and > Bill Melendez; >
*Interview with Bill Melendez about how he became the Peanuts > animator and the animation process; >
*Short chapter on Vince Guaraldi; >
*Reproductions of production materials – a few storyboards, a few > sketches, "bar sheets" describing the timing of the action of the > first scenes; >
*Sheet music for "Christmas Time is Here" and "Linus and Lucy" > (note: these are transcriptions, not the original sheet music); >
*Some unique photos and material, such as a few stills from one of > the Ford Falcon ads; >
*A "flip book" animation of the show opening on the corners of the > pages (that’s kind of cute). > > Unfortunately, the expected interviews with the actors who performed > the original voices for the show are rather brief, consisting of just > a few quotes from Peter Robbins (Charlie Brown) and Christopher Shea > (Linus). > > While much of the information in the book has appeared in previous > books and TV documentaries, it’s fleshed out with additional and it’s > nice to have the information together in one place in an attractive > package. (And I admit my perspective on what is "new" info may be a > bit skewed!) > > It’s a great gift book, and if you’ve ever wanted the script of the > show, this book is for you.

Thank you, Scott, for that solid report!
Please note that while the cover design matches the style of Peanuts: A Golden Celebration, the book is a different size. While the books will look nice together on the shelf, they won’t serve as matching bookends!
You can find this book on the front page of http://AAUGH.com
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ULTRADISCOUNTS ON PEANUTS CHRISTMAS BOOKS
Long-time AAUGH.com users may remember that we used to have an ULTRA-discount shop with Peanuts books that were as much as 50, 60, even 70% off of cover price. We had to close that a while back due to lack of material…
but now we find that we can offer the same great deals on a number of Peanuts books, including a number of small hardcover Christmas strip collections for under $3 each! (There’s even the Peanuts Christmas Ornament Book, which isn’t actually a book but unfolds to reveal a set of five cardboard ornaments.)

But I’m not going to steer the general public to these deals…
not yet, and maybe not ever. Instead, I’m hiding a link to it on the site, so that just you newsletter readers can find it. Go to http://AAUGH.com and on the index on the left side, where it says "Books about Peanuts", click the "s" in "Peanuts". And remember, this is a separate shop, so you can’t mix items from there with items from the main AAUGH.com site when ordering.
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PEANUTS STAMP IS ON ITS WAY
The U.S. Postal Service has announced a Snoopy stamp for next year! It will depict Snoopy as the World War I flying ace. Since it’s not part of a stamp set, you’ll be able to easily buy a whole pile of ‘em without having to buy other stamps. (Note: DON’T buy these as an investment. Modern stamps make very poor investments. Buy them to use them, or to own them.)
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Describing the Christmas Ornament Book left me thinking about how my new household is going to have its first Christmas tree this year. I’ll have to decide whether to take out my two favorite ornaments and put them on the tree: they’re a pair of miniature versions of Peanuts books (Christmas Is Together Time and Love Is Walking Hand In Hand). On one hand, they’re the perfect ornament for me. On the other hand, if they’re on the tree, then Putt-Putt The Destructo-Cat might get at them…

Well, that’s about it for this time out. Sorry about the long time between newsletters, but I’ve been busy getting married, honeymooning, and moving. Things are back to almost-normal now, though…
and I’m much happier for it!
–Nat Gertler proprietor AAUGH.com