The AAUGH blog

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IN THIS ISSUE:
* NEW ANIMATED SPECIAL ON THE WAY
*PRINT OUT THE BOOK GRID
*SCHULZ BIO: A REVIEW
*GET PEANUTS POSTERS, WALL-HANGINGS, T-SHIRTS
*ODD PEANUTS BOOK: WOMEN’S SPORTS FOUNDATION’S COOKBOOK
With the new Snoopy stamp now available in US post offices, I figured it would be a good day for a short newsletter.

The key piece of news?
NEW ANIMATED SPECIAL ON THE WAY
Coming for Valentine’s Day, 2002 will be the first new all-animated Peanuts special made for TV in quite a while. (After all, the last two all-animated Peanuts specials were released directly to the home video market.) This new special is being made with the full approval of Schulz’s estate, and the script will be built completely out of Schulz’s strips. The working title is -A Charlie Brown Valentine-, and in the US it will air on ABC (who have the rights to air the most popular existing Peanuts specials as well.)
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PRINT OUT THE BOOK GRID
The most popular page of the AAUGH.com Peanuts book collectors guide is our Primary Reprint Grid, which tells you which Holts are reprinted in which Fawcetts, how the Peanuts Parade books are broken down into Peanuts Classics books, and all that sort of craziness that arises from the various sequential Peanuts strip collections. A number of folks have told me that they print out the grid to have as a handy reference — but the web page is not really well designed for printing out.

Now I’ve uploaded a version of this chart just for you folks who want to print it out. It’s in PDF (Adobe Acrobat) format, and runs about 5 pages. You’ll find a link to it at the top of http://AAUGH.com/guide/grid.htm
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SCHULZ BIO: A REVIEW
As a maniacal collector of Peanuts and Peanuts-related books, I picked up a copy of CHARLES SCHULZ, a hardcover in the Checkerboard Biography Library of Children’s Authors. This is not a book that I recommend to anyone except maniacal collectors; it’s clearly aimed at school libraries, something for the kids to read and write book reports about. The biography is less than 2000 words total, so it’s not likely that you’ll learn anything that you wouldn’t find in any of the many Schulz obituaries published. If you want your kids to learn about Schulz, you’ll be far better off getting them a book of strips.

If you are a maniacal collector and want to order this book in North America: http://AAUGH.com/go.htm?1577654250 order from England: http://AAUGH.com/uk/go.htm?1577654250
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GET PEANUTS POSTERS, WALL-HANGINGS, T-SHIRTS
Looking for a zig-zag-striped shirt like Charlie Brown wears, or a t-shirt with Snoopy as Joe Internet? Want to hang some Peanuts posters on your wall, or send someone a nice framed print as a gift? I’ve found some sites that offer these things, and you can find links for them at: http://AAUGH.com/guide/grid.htm
(Yes, they’re giving me a kickback for sending customers to them. I’ll admit it, I’m evil. But I make good turkeyburgers!)
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ODD PEANUTS BOOK: WOMEN’S SPORTS FOUNDATION’S COOKBOOK
Charles Schulz was a big supporter of women’s sports, and was even a trustee of the Women’s Sports Foundation, an organization aimed at encouraging females into sports and advocating public interest in women’s sports. As such, it came as no surprise that they tapped him to provide illustrations for their fundraising cookbook in 1993. The cookbook is full of recipes by female athletes and supporters of women’s athletics (so we get Billy Jean King’s Refried Beans, Wilma Rudolph’s Dinner On The Run, Bob Hope’s Favorite Chicken Hash recipe, and even OJ Simpson’s recipe for Chili Cheese Souffle.) Each chapter opens up with a relevant Snoopy illustration (which makes sense, since Snoopy has coached sports women — remember him training Peppermint Patty for skating competitions?) Schulz himself provided one recipe, but it ended up on the front cover: how to make Cold Cereal! It includes not only tells you how to prepare your bowl of cereal, it contains such vital extra information as "Cold cereal may be enjoyed late at night when feeling lonely and recalling your high school days". This one is somewhat hard to find, presumably because it’s of interest to sports fans and cooking fans, as well as Peanuts fans. (This wasn’t the only recipe that Schulz would ever contribute to a cookbook; in The Cartoonist Cookbook from 1966, he contributes the idea of adding a half cup of syrup into the pancake batter when making pancakes. It’s accompanied by a picture of Snoopy staring happily at a huge pile of flapjacks in his dog dish.)

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Well, that’s all the news for today, and besides, the cat is demanding my attention. Keep thinking good thoughts, let me know if you have any questions, suggestions, tribulations, or congratulations!
–Nat (nat@aaugh.com) Proprietor AAUGH.com

In this issue:
* COUPONS! SAVINGS! WOOHOO!
*ANOTHER PEANUTS MUSEUM BOOK
*A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE OF THE AAUGH.COM GUIDE
*ODD PEANUTS BOOKS: DR. SNOOPY
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COUPONS! SAVINGS! WOOHOO!
I know, I know, it’s only been a week since the last newsletter. However, I got a good deal that’s only good for a short while, and after seeing some of the nice mail I got about our Alibris deal, I knew that some of you would want this.

The big deal is $10 off any $50 purchase — it doesn’t even have to be things in the AAUGH.com catalog. You can click through any item and order things from the Amazon.com catalog — books, videos, electronics, games, you name it! This deal is only good through May 13 (Mother’s Day — and there is still time to order Mother Day’s gifts). Get the coupon code from the front page of http://AAUGH.com and be sure to enter that code in the promotional code field. (I suggest you copy and paste the code, rather than trying to retype it.)

For those of you hunting for out of print items, we’ve got a coupon for Half.com — but it’s only good if you’ve never ordered from Half.com before. Order at least $10 worth of items (not including shipping), and get $5 off. For details, see: http://aaugh.com/guide/half.htm
(And remember, that $15 off any $30 used book purchase at Alibris is still going! For details, see http://aaugh.com/guide/alibris.htm )
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ANOTHER PEANUTS MUSEUM BOOK
When museums have exhibits, they often issue catalog booklets reproducing the pictures they display. If the museum is displaying Peanuts strips, then the catalog would be a Peanuts strip reprint book!
That’s just what the The Ohio State University Cartoon Research Library has done, publishing the strips from their (already ended, alas) Peanuts exhibit. The catalog includes a couple of essays, including one by M. Thomas Inge, editor of the book Charles M. Schulz: Conversations.

These aren’t available for sale through the AAUGH.com catalog, I’m afraid. You can only get the from Ohio State University itself: http://www.lib.ohio-state.edu/OSU_profile/cgaweb/publicat.htm
(Thanks to AAUGH.com pal Tim Chow for pointing this one out!)
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A LOOK INTO THE FUTURE OF THE AAUGH.COM GUIDE
The AAUGH.com guide keeps getting bigger. I keep listing more books. I keep listing more types of books. But that’s not enough. Ultimately, I want to list more detail about each book. My goal is to keep the guide much as you see it, but turn each book title into a link, which will take you to more info about that book. This will involve a lot of work, and it’s not something you’re going to see next week or next month. You’re not likely to see it in 2001.

I’ve posted a mock-up of the sort of record that I’d like to end up with. Take a look at it and let me know what you think!

http://aaugh.com/guide/goal/goal.htm

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ODD PEANUTS BOOKS: DR. SNOOPY
I was just looking through the back issues of the newsletter, and I realized that I never wrote about the book Dr. Snoopy’s Advice To Pet Owners. This 1993 hardcover collects silly answers to pet owner questions from the pages of The Beagle Bugle, the newsletter of the Snoopy Fan Club. It has dozens of colored drawings by Schulz, featuring dogs (including Snoopy and Spike, as well as non-Peanuts dogs.)

What makes this book odd? A couple of things. First, some of the cartoons feature adults, something we had seen little of from Schulz in the 25 years leading to this book. One even has Snoopy interacting with a army sergeant, making it a particularly rare Peanuts/adult interaction.

But the other thing that makes it odd is the letter that goes with that seargant shot. Due apparently to some typesetting error, all of the apostrophes are missing from that page. Because of this, phrases like "He’ll teach him to salute" and "He’ll give your dog, Willie, a tough time" come across as invective-filled commands that one would not expect from Peanuts!
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That’s all the news for now. When I have enough new news, you’ll have a new newsletter!
Thank you all again for the kind, kind letters, the questions, and the suggestions. If there’s anything I could be doing better, let me know at nat@aaugh.com
–Nat proprietor http://AAUGH.com