I’m dreaming of a wet Christmas

I find it interesting how the whole nation embraces the wintery image of Christmas – including here in this southern California town where I live, and where there probably hasn’t been a half-inch of snow in the past century. Even folks who have always lived around here are putting plastic snowmen on the lawn and penguins on the roof. This isn’t the Christmas of their memories for many folks here; it’s the Christmas of the TV specials, of Rudolph and Frosty and, yes, A Charlie Brown Christmas.

As I write this and probably even as you read this, there are still a few hours left to order gifts from Amazon and have them reach their destination by Christmas eve even with the Free Super Saver Shipping option. So you can still get one of these:

or one of these:

or even one of these:

…and have it in time for gift-giving, without paying rush shipping charges.

As long as I have you here, I’ll mention that the interview I did with Mr. Media a few weeks back now has a permanent home here. So if you’re longing to find out if I have the dulcet tones that are now required of anyone getting a blogging license, this is your chance to find out!

General
Peanuts publisher buyout

Sources are reporting that KKR is buying Simon and Schuster, probably currently the biggest publisher of Peanuts thanks to their Little Simon-published storybooks, from the current owner, Paramount. Sometimes, when one company buys another, it makes no real difference, just a slight change in letterhead. However, KKR isn’t a media …

General
Correct the record

While searching for something else, I stumbled across this announcement of the Kaye Ballard Peanuts album in the Chicago Sunday Times Magazine for January 15, 1961. Now, let’s take a zoom in on that drawing… and its caption. Magazine sections are generally created with a long lead time, allowing them to …

General
Spot the Dog

I publish things. I also research things. And really, the two efforts are often one and the same: I research stuff and find that it’s worth publishing; I publish stuff and in the process I’m doing research. That all just happened for me with a syndicated comics panel called “Spot” …