The one-and-only D. D. Degg pointed me toward this obituary for cartoonist Linus Maurer, who passed away earlier this week at the age of 90. Mr. Maurer was, of course, the person whose name Schulz nicked when giving Lucy a baby brother (and I always thought it was a great choice; Linus is not a common name, not a freaky name, one that carries some gravitas – it works.)

Remember folks, if you want to do any research into the background of the pop culture you love, the time is now, it’s always now. The past does not stay with us in useful forms. With Peanuts, we are hitting a horizon soon. Schulz is gone, many of the people who were involved in its launching and success are gone. We still have plenty of people who knew him, but each day brings another loss of potential information, as people forget and people pass. We are in an era that is doing a great job of keeping a record of the present, as chronicles are stored online and may (or may not) be available for centuries to come. It is easy to forget that even the recent past was not so throughly stored.

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