If you’ve tried to visit AAUGH.com over the past 24 hours, you may have found it was down. We’re having some trouble with the company that services our domain name (and they’re blaming the California power outages.) However, you can still get to the site; just go to:
http://www.AAUGH.com
That "www" (or sextuple-u, as I like to call it) makes all the difference. We do expect to have the usual address working within a week.
And now on with our newsletter…
IN THIS ISSUE:
*ANOTHER REPRINT BOOK SCHEDULED
*PEANUTS AND BRIDGE
*(www.)AAUGH.com UPGRADE
*SAD ANNIVERSARY
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ANOTHER REPRINT BOOK SCHEDULED
PEANUTS 2000, reprinting the 1999-2000 strips, has been out since December. IT’S A DOG’S LIFE, SNOOPY, reprinting all the 1998 strips, is coming out in April, as we announced a while back (that one is already available for preorder using http://www.AAUGH.com .) But before that one comes out, the publisher has already announced a date for the next book! August 2000 is the scheduled date for the third book in this set, collecting the strips from 1997. What’s it called? We don’t know yet! At this point, the publisher is calling it UNTITLED PEANUTS COLLECTION #3. Somehow, we doubt that will be when it hits the rack; I hope to have a real title for it soon.
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PEANUTS AND BRIDGE
The paperback "Learn to Play Bridge in 9 Minutes", which has (the cover announces) "illustrations by Charles M. Schulz", was not due out until today. However, my alert network of elves (and one ogre) got a copy into my hands a week early.
The "illustrations" are (unsurprisingly) Peanuts strips; there are ten bridge-related Peanuts strips peppered through the book, and certain panels are re-used as illustrations, particularly where the pictured bridge hand can be used as a basis for discussion. The text of the book does not ignore the characters, either; they are used as the example players throughout.
The book is short and seems easy to read, but I haven’t actually tried to learn playing bridge from it yet. The folks who write it (Pamela and Matthew Granovetter) are respectable bridge folks, editors of Bridge Today magazine, and even run an online bridge school.
Anyone who is interested in this book can, of course, order it from the front page of http://www.AAUGH.com
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(www.)AAUGH.com UPGRADE
Our current site problems are actually coming in the midst of some behind-the-scene improvements that should have some visible benefits for you friends of the site. Eventually, some of the pages will look better and load faster, and there are a few other features that I hope to add as well. The techno-nerd side of me was actually having a lot of fun, until this snafu with the address.
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SAD ANNIVERSARY
Next Monday is the first anniversary of Schulz’s passing. Take a moment to spare him a good thought, and then go have some fun with friends or family. I hope I can be forgiven for quoting another strip at this time, but as Walt Kelly once wrote in Pogo: "Don’t take life so serious, son…
It ain’t nohow permanent."
–Nat Gertler proprietor http://www.AAUGH.com (I hate having to put that www. in there. AAUGH!)
