1999 Part 2 - Snoopy, Woodstock, and the times that try men's souls

Jimmy: Hey, everybody. Welcome back to the show. It's your most beloved podcast, Unpacking Peanuts, or one of your most beloved, of your top 10 most beloved. Anyway, you subscribe to this, I'm assuming. Or maybe not. Anyway, welcome to the show. It's Unpacking Peanuts. I'll be your host. Jimmy Gownley. I'm also a cartoonist. I do things like Amelia Rules, seven Good Reasons not to Grow up, the Dumbest Idea Ever. And you can read all of my, ongoing comics work right now@, gvillecomics.substack.com and joining me, as always, are, my pals, co hosts and fellow cartoonist. He's a playwright and a composer, both for the band Complicated People, as well as for this very podcast. He's the co creator of the original comic book Price Guide, the original editor for Amelia Rules, and the creator of such great strips as Strange Attractors, A Gathering of Spells and Tangled River. It's Michael Cohen.

Michael: Say hey.

Jimmy: And he's executive producer and writer for Mystery Science Theater 3000, a former vice president for Archie Comics, and the creator of the Instagram sensation Sweetest Beasts, Harold Buchholz.

Harold: Hello.

Jimmy: And making sure everything goes smoothly and keeping us out of trouble, it's producer and editor, Liz Sumner.

Liz: Howdy.

Jimmy: Well, guys, we're inching ever closer to our goal. we're at the tippy top of Mount Everest, and, we're about to jump. So I'm pretty excited. I never really thought we'd make it, I guess in some, some resources of my brain. So I'm pretty happy. Some recesses of my brain, rather. So I'm pretty happy.

Michael: Well, we haven't made it yet.

Jimmy: I should shut up about it.

Michael: Yeah, I like the idea of someone climbing Mount Everest just to jump off.

Jimmy: Do you know what? I think we would be great. The people, whoever's at the top of Mount Everest, the local municipality or whatever, they should make people, give all their life savings once you're already up there and go, sorry, you can only go these last 20ft. But you have to sign everything over for that's exactly what you deserve. If you're standing in line at the top of.

Michael: Yeah. And the money goes to retrieving all the frozen bodies that are still there.

Liz: and Poop.

Harold: Yeah.

Jimmy: Oh, my God. So, Harold, do you have anything, any back story or anything at this point?

Harold: No, not really. we we know what's coming.

Jimmy: Yeah.

Harold: and this is kind of a little bit of a quiet period for Peanuts in the News back in 1999. I think we can just focus on the strips today.

Jimmy: yeah. And there's a lot to, talk about in these strips. How are you guys feeling when you see that? This is the last time we see such and such a character. Two characters interact. There are things like that. How are those things starting to hit?

Michael: Well, I'm actually picking a few for that reason.

Jimmy: Yeah.

Michael: Yeah. That information is important to me. I mean, it wasn't important to Schulz because he had no idea.

Jimmy: Right? Yeah. But it is hugely important. You see some of these characters who have had relationships going back almost 50 years, and it's the last time they'll, have a new interaction. It's pretty special.

Harold: Yeah. the thing that struck me reading this range, which was from May 1st to the end of September. No, end of August, was that it seemed like he had this really real flurry of creativity after the hiatus. He was refreshed from his hiatus, and I'm sure he backlogged a bunch of ideas because he didn't stop thinking about Peanuts. We know that. And so there was a really lovely, fresh run of stuff. Reading this. These kind of felt a little more like treading water to me. In some ways. There's still some real gems, but that was just kind of the sense I had. And again, every time I pick these up to read them in blocks, I realize that I'm bringing me to the strip. And I don't know if I'm just in a different place when I'm reading these, but these seemed to be. I don't know how to describe it, but they. They seem to be. They weren't venturing into new territories like we always see him doing as much. That was my sense. 

Jimmy: Well, I mean, he has. You know, all we have is time and energy, and he's kind of run out of both at this point.

Harold: Well, yeah, I'm not sure how he's feeling at this point. You know, it's hard to tell, but, yeah, I don't know if what hit him, what's going to come, come that leads to the end of the strip, if that was something that he experienced quickly or if there was. There was just stuff that was dragging him down. Obviously he was stressed. We know he was stressed. And it was really hard, getting harder and harder, I'm guessing, to do these strips. And, it's taking them longer, and it was probably Very, very hard. As you're getting older and things take longer, that. That's got to put stress on you. If you have to keep up exactly the same output you've always had, you can't really adjust that.

Jimmy: I mean, he's been the same output since he's been 30.

Harold: Yeah.

Jimmy: As a cartoonist, and then every other responsibility has just increased.

Harold: Managing an empire. Yeah.

Michael: But then again, he had total power. You know, being so popular, he could have made a decision. I'm just going to do Sundays. Yeah, I'm not gonna do Sundays.

Jimmy: Yeah. That's what I think Gary Trudeau ended up doing, is just converting it to a Sunday strip. Yeah. Whatever you felt, too. Whatever you were consciously aware of. I mean, he did have cancer at this point, you know, and he didn't know it, but he had it.

Harold: Yeah.

Jimmy: But like, I was doing. I took a commercial gig recently that I've been really enjoying doing, and I was up late working on it last night because I had. Actually, today was the deadline, and, it's hard. It's a lot of work to be a cartoonist. Like, oh, all right, I penciled it great. Well, now I gotta ink it. I mean, just. There's step after step. There's really very few. Even though the whole. Since the whole thing is based on shortcuts, there's no shortcuts left. Right. You know, and you just gotta sit there and fill in all the boxes, and it's. It's a lot of work. And I can't imagine having drawn almost 18,000 strips. I mean, that's. It's an insane achievement to even contemplate.

Harold: Yeah.

Michael: I was surprised because now I hadn't read the strip at all. In the 90s, I might have seen one or two. But, you know, when. When they published that last strip, everyone saw it. It was in all the newspapers. you couldn't avoid reading it. And I was really shocked and how much, his drawing ability had deteriorated. So. And I was always assuming that it was kind of a line leading to that, that it would be a degeneration, you know, leading up to that style. And. Yeah, reading this, you know, we're four months away from the end of the strip going, no, it. It wasn't deteriorating at all. He was. These are actually almost exactly what he'd been doing throughout the 90s.

Jimmy: Yeah. I'll be curious to think what. Or to see what we think of the last few. To see if we're seeing any difference there. Right at, you know, when things.

Harold: Yeah, there were a few in this block of four months that I was like, oh, ouch. What's. What's going on here? but for the most part, given that we have been reading these in sequence and the change is so gradual, Schulz has kind of taken me along on his journey, and I'm with him. Like, Michael, if I happened to open up a Sunday newspaper in the 90s and see the art, it was a shock. But I don't feel that way anymore. I feel like I'm nestled into where he is and what he's doing. And, it doesn't bother me the way I thought it might, but bother me because I remember how much it bothered me when I could see it just randomly, because I say, oh, my gosh, he is struggling. This is. This is hard.

Jimmy: Yeah, well, it's that, you know, that's the difference between art and content. really. Or art and even just pop culture. You know, content. Pop culture, what it was when it was coming out at the time, is meant to entertain you and divert you for a few seconds. And in those instances, you can judge things easily. And you go, nope, did not entertain me. Nope. Not the thing I liked from before. Good day, sir. But when you commit to it and you go, I'm actually going to put work in to appreciate this thing, it always ends up being better. You always end up enjoying it more. You always end up seeing things, I think, that you never saw before. but I don't know if you can do that until it's over. You know what I mean?

Harold: Like, well, certainly you can't. You can't, consume it in mass quantities because there's not. Not that much new stuff if you're. If it's happening in real time.

Jimmy: And you also don't know, like, where are we in this? Are there gonna be. Is there gonna be another 10 years?

Harold: Well, yeah. Having the context, I think, is huge.

Jimmy: Yeah.

Harold: Knowing that this is going to end, you know, obviously, you know, my. At least my head is, this. You know, I'm savoring it. Right. And you wouldn't be doing that if, you know, thinking this might go on another 12 years. Right?

Jimmy: Yep. Yep. Absolutely. Well, with all that said, let's start, taking a look at these strips. if you want to follow along with us, the first thing you're going to want to do is go over there to unpackingpeanuts.com and sign up for our newsletter. sign up for the great Peanuts reread. Little late to the game. If you haven't but that's okay. Everyone is always welcome. And you'll have access to all the old back issues, because that'll get you one email a month from us, our little newsletter that'll tell you what we're going to be covering in the upcoming episodes, which will be even more important going forward, once we get past the year 2000. So once you do that, you go online, you find the strips where you can find them, and then, I'll read them to you and we'll discuss them. So let's start off with the strips.

Jimmy: Oh, good. A real easy one to read

June 6th. Okay, so Snoopy is out, taking a little hike with the Beagle Scouts. And, it is a Sunday strip. And we see, as the, Beagle Scouts go off ahead of him, Snoopy yelling, tell Conrad not to get too far ahead. But guess what? Conrad doesn't listen. He does go far, far off ahead. And what does he come up against but a street sign that is the Don't Walk sign, meaning on a pole. There is an LED sign and has the red hand, okay, indicating do not walk. Conrad sees this, and, of course, it sends his hat skyrocketing off his head. This is shocking. He goes back to the other Beagle, Scouts to report what he's seen. And this is indicated by a word balloon with the red hand drawn in it. Conrad takes them back to the Don't Walk sign, and the other three hats are sent flying in shock at this. Then they race back to their Scoutmaster Snoopy, and they're all babbling about red hands. Snoopy goes to see it, and of course, his hat is sent flying off his head, and his ears go straight up for good measure. And he sees the red hand on top of the pole saying don't walk, or indicating don't walk. So he decides to go back home after all of this, and looking a little, shaken, he walks past Charlie Brown, who says, you're back early. What happened? And Snoopy says, everywhere we went, tall creatures with red hands.

Michael: He's only, touched on the horror genre a few times. Mostly the blanket. When the blanket came alive.

Jimmy: Yeah, yeah.

Michael: This is like a horror strip.

Harold: Yeah. And he's done this once before. That scary red hand has popped up earlier. But somehow the Beagle Scouts with Snoopy. This is just incredibly fun and charming. these little guys are responding to this unknown. This unknown hand, which strangely looks like the state of Michigan.

Jimmy: What a coincidence that is.

Harold: But it's not. It's not. I haven't seen this. This red hand. I don't know if this was the red hand in the 90s or a red hand that he remembered, but, yeah, the thumb's kind of sticking out. It's. It's a different look. And the sign is different. I don't know why the. The red hand is not in the middle of the sign. It's kind of off.

Jimmy: Oh, no, I. I think I've seen those where the green is on one side and the reds on the other.

Harold: Oh, because. Because there's a, Is there basically two different light bulbs?

Jimmy: Yeah, because there were no blue LEDs for decades.

Harold: Yeah. Yeah, that makes total sense. Yeah. So. But, yeah, it's just seeing everybody respond. I love the hat flying. Classic, cartooning.

Liz: Somebody didn't. Somebody's hat doesn't fly.

Harold: Yeah, I thought that was cool, too.

Jimmy: No, no, that's Conrad, because he's already seen it.

Liz: Oh, I see. I get it.

Michael: Did you know when your hat flies off, there's two little marks, random marks above it?

Jimmy: Gotta be. Otherwise it's not an official hat shooting off your head. Mom.

Michael: But there is no official mark. These are all, like, totally different.

Harold: Now, would some cartoonists put the. The marks below the hat, showing where it had come from, or is it always above the hat? I think it may go further.

Jimmy: For some reason, above the hat feels right to me. If it was below it, it would feel like it was being rocketed off the head more forcefully or something. Boy, the things we talk about. I have a college degree, for God's sake. This is why we're here. I'm a father, and I'm like, I don't know. When the hat flies off. Woodstock.

Harold: What do you think it is? Three cartoonists talking about the greatest comic strip of all time?

Jimmy: It is.

Harold: I mean, we're not the greatest.

Harold: Yeah. Schulz brought. I think it was Sally who was upset about the red hand.

Liz: That's when I told the story about Michael's greatest moment in his life. Or Michael told the story about the red hand.

Michael: I'm not gonna tell it again.

Liz: I can put a link to the episode where we. [1988 Part 1 at 27:07]

Jimmy: All right,

June 23rd. Charlie Brown's sitting in the, bean bag with his baseball cap on, watching some tv. And Sally's on the phone. She says to him, lucy's on the phone. She wants to know why she always has to play right field. And then Charlie Brown says, traditionally, the player who is weakest defensively plays right field. And then Sally says, he says, the dumbest player always plays right field. And Charlie Brown says, this could turn really ugly.

Michael: Yeah, you don't want to get Lucy mad at you.

Jimmy: No, definitely not.

Harold: Yeah, this was one of two strips in a row where that was the punchline he had. This could turn ugly, and then this could turn really ugly. So for those. Those who were reading in sequence, they got a little Easter egg there.

Michael: Okay, that's a weird foot.

Liz: Maybe it's his hands.

Michael: they wouldn't reach that far.

Harold: Those are his hands. Yeah.

Michael: You know how long his hands are?

Jimmy: Yeah, those are definitely his hands. What? He.

Harold: Yeah, he really elongates the characters in the beanbag chair, which is interesting. again, I don't know why that aesthetically made more sense to him, because we know he breaks rules all the time for whatever he thinks looks best.

Michael: Wait, his fingers are kind of webbed?

Jimmy: Well, no, he has their intertwined.

Michael: Oh, okay, now I see it. Yeah. All right.

Harold: yeah, it's a scrunchie.

Jimmy: When in doubt, white it out. That would have been a good choice, I think, for the hands. one of the things that happens here, like I said before this, his issues with scale become really noticeable. Like, the hand are. The hands are coming from the wrong part of the body. Like, could you imagine how long the top of his arm would be? Yeah, yeah, it just. Or his. Or his wrists would have to be able to turn, at 90 degree angles.

Harold: It's like the Young Pillar strips when he had the super tall teenagers. Yeah, right. Arms that go. Go on forever.

Jimmy: I thought you said young killers. And I'm like, what strip is that? That would be amazing if he did, like, a film noir. Two people on the lam. Bunny.

Harold: Neil Gaiman.

Jimmy: Yeah, yeah.

Harold: Graphic novel.

June 29th. Charlie Brown's still in the old bean bag, and Sally comes And says to him, do you think I should go to camp? And Charlie Brown says, only if you want to. And Sally says, want to? Since when have I ever had a choice about anything? And Charlie Brown says, how about the piano lessons? And Sally says, I didn't want to. 

Jimmy: I really think when you're a kid, everything is, you know, the burden of the world being put upon you for like, hey, wash your hands. Oh my God. To wash my hands. I can't.

Michael: God, I take the garbage out once a week.

Jimmy: Oh my God. The humanity. They, they, they kids today don't understand what we went through.

Harold: Yeah.

Jimmy: And you never realize how much of it's really based all around you. The whole family structure. You know, she has a choice in everything.

Harold: I remember swimming lessons. That was a big one. I hated doing swimming lessons. Oh, that was like torture. You have to go down to the, down to the pool and get into the freezing water and, and half drowned to learn how to not drown.

Jimmy: And they're always at 8am that's the only time they have swimming lessons. No one has a leisurely afternoon swimming lesson.

Harold: No, no, this is, this is the off hours when no one in their right mind would be at the pool. An appointment.

Jimmy: Right. I took them all the way up to life guard training where you had to jump off the tie dive fully clothed. I'm sure we discussed this at some point wearing like jeans, a boots.

Harold: I had to get to swimmers. Swimmers. That was the one I had to get to.

Jimmy: There. you go. 

June 30th, Sally's on the phone again, and she says, camp. No, I don't want to go to your camp. Stop calling me. So then she says to her big brother, I told them I didn't want to go to their camp. And Charlie Brown, who's sitting in his chair, reading, says, good for you. And then Sally says, as she kind of climbs up on the edge of the chair to look over, she says, really? You mean that I did the right thing? And Charlie Brown says, absolutely. And then Sally says, good for me.

Harold: It's cool that he's doing something he has not done in 49 years. He's not had a kid crawling over the top of, an easy chair before, or tucking her head underneath the bottom of the oversized armrest.

Jimmy: This looks like, he challenged himself. And because of the challenge, it elevated it, I think, you know, and I further feel like that was something observed. You know, a little kid running around, hopping up on the armchair of his, his easy chair or something like that. This is a great life lesson. you know, I mean, she just. Forthright. Someone called and said something. She forthrightly said her opinion and said, that'll be the end of it. That's actually the mature way to handle everything. And it's the first way that first person, possibly in Peanuts. Is this the first time anyone acted reasonably?

Harold: And you say that this was a strip where it looks like he kind of pushed himself to do something different and unique. And what's interesting is this. This run of strips we mentioned. The lettering occasionally goes super wonky here. It's really strong. I mean, that's good lettering. I mean, he's. You don't see any trouble with this lettering here. So I don't know if it's one of those things. This is a good day. This is. The lettering seems to be my guide to how he's feeling, because it's. It's the thing. You know exactly what it's supposed to look like. And. And then you kind of see it in connection to how far off it is from what he. We know he's shooting for.

Jimmy: Yeah. 

July 4th. It's a symbolic panel, I assume, but maybe not of Rerun reading a gigantic book. Like, not in terms of page count, but in terms of the physical size of the book. It's bigger than Rerun. and then we have another panel on this top tier of the Sunday, where Rerun just begins saying, last night. And Linus is next to him holding his blanket. Then the strip begins for real, with Rerun and Linus sitting there, Linus in classic thumb and blanket position. And, Rerun says, grandpa, read it to me. It was in a story by Leo Tolstoy. This woman had four children, see? And this is Rerun continuing. And they all slept together in a big cradle. Linus is making no reaction to this, just sitting there with his thumb and blanket. And Rerun says when she put them to bed, she gave each one a sucking rag. Linus perks up at this, doesn't like the sound of it. And then there's a silent panel with Linus sitting there and just looks at Rerun, who isn't saying anything, seems to be just keeping to himself. But then as Linus gets up to leave, Rerun turns and says, enjoy your sucking rag. And then from off panel, Linus throws the blanket at Rerun, hitting him in the head. And Rerun is delighted at his little dig at his older brother.

Harold: That's a great little moment. That's something we haven't seen with Rerun and Linus before.

Jimmy: Yeah. Well, now this year he has shown them together much more.

Harold: Yes.

Jimmy: and I think it's cool because, you know, one. The other thing. We keep thinking of Linus as his big brother, which is true, but Linus has now become a middle child, which is talking about. We were talking about in a recent episode how people change depending on the group dynamic they're in.

Harold: Yeah.

Jimmy: well, you know, there's no more delicately balanced group dynamic, I don't think, than probably three siblings. 

Harold: Linus has largely been checked out, but we're seeing a little bit more of engagement here. And. But you certainly haven't seen Rerun take the initiative to make a point to Linus. other than. At least he's done some stuff like that, maybe you could say, with both Linus and Lucy around him, but specifically Linus. it's. It must be in the Van Pelt genes to. To dig. To do digs on people. I don't know.

Jimmy: Well, I think it's, It's. It's a classic sibling, thing. Right? I mean, people joshing each other. Well, this is also. This is the only way me and my friends spoke to each other was like teasing. And I don't think anyone ever said anything sincere in my entire childhood. That's crazy. I would. Oh, really? Like. Oh, yeah. Like, no, there's. Sometimes I slip into talking just the way I talk to everyone I knew, growing up, including my parents and grandparents and you. Delicate flowers, like wilt. It's really weird.

Harold: Yeah. It seemed like, you know, I'd have friends where we would be looking alongside each other at something. It was very like Mystery Science Theater. You know, we. I remember when I was like nine years old, we had gotten a, one of those gigantic, heavy, cassette tape recorders with the plug in mic. That was the best thing for our family to have. So, you know, we'd invite a friend over and we would be doing parodies of TV commercials and stuff in the recorder, but we wouldn't be digging on each other.

Jimmy: Oh, yeah. So you'll. You guys. Right. Because you will make fun of people who are either dead or not present. Got it? Yeah.

Harold: Well, yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah, we were, we were looking at stuff together. We weren't. We weren't trashing each other. We were looking at.

Jimmy: But that was the love. Like, I love those guys. Like that There was.

Harold: Oh, no, I know a friend from Youngstown, Ohio. who, who said. Yeah, that was, that was absolutely. And the fact that we allowed each other to say the most horrible things that certainly in. In a PC culture, absolutely would not fly. but, I mean, he made impassioned arguments for why it was so important that the things that we had in common and what we had different, we were able to dig each other incredibly hard. And that signified something to them. that they were really close, that they had the right to do that with each other.

Jimmy: Well, yeah, and if an outsider does it, it does work, right?

Harold: Yeah, but that. But it defines you as an insider. Yeah, yeah.

Jimmy: And you also talk to an outsider like that. If you don't have the closeness and you don't have the friendship to build on, you're just me.

Harold: Yeah.

Jimmy: And that's. That's the hard part. And that's why I think it's hard, like, because those cultures and those. Those groups like your friend and I had, they're not everywhere.

Harold: Right. So, you know, some people will look at you, what you grew up with, and have absolutely no idea what you're talking about or where you're coming from. Right, right. And it's weird. The little Rerun in that fourth panel, the parentheses are gone around his eyes. He has little eyebrows instead. And, yeah, he. He just looks. He looks different. It's almost like, visually, he's graduated into something in this strip as well as in terms of the theme and the, what's going on in the strip. That. That him being hit with the, blanket in the last panel and with the big smile on his face, his tongue sticking out, is adorable and absolutely new. We have not seen that with any character. I don't think I remember ever seeing a character happily being hit or something. Yeah, it's just. It's really special. And it's. It's like, oh, this is a Peanuts I've never seen before. And that's cool seeing that this late in 1999.

Jimmy: And that's one of the things with cartooning that's difficult to do is, like, you know, because the. There's not dialogue in that particular panel. Right. But a lot of times your. The facial expression, like it is in this is different than. Or it implies something different than the overall content of the panel. Right. So if someone says something but. And the character's smiling, it's different than if they say the same exact thing, but the character's frowning. Right?

Harold: Absolutely.

Jimmy: And if Rerun just had, like, an open mouth, like, shocked look, it would be a totally different thing.

Harold: Oh, yeah. This is a joyous strip in a strange way.

Jimmy: Yes.

Harold: Even though he's ticked off, Linus.

Jimmy: Right. Who isn't that ticked off? Probably either.

Harold: well, yeah. And in a way that. It's like being healthily ticked off.

Jimmy: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Harold: And very cleverly ticked off by this little Rerun who is. He's got a lot of interesting insights.

Jimmy: Absolutely. 

July 11th. Charlie Brown's at camp, and he's standing at the end of a dock. Then he sits down, and who should appear next to him but good old Peggy Jean? And, he says to her, Peggy Jean. And she goes, Brownie, Charles. And they both look very happy to see each other. And Charlie Brown says, I didn't know you were here at camp, Actually, I was just thinking about you. And then Peggy Jean leans on one of the pillars of the dock and says, I wasn't going to camp this year, but my boyfriend said he'd be here. And then she walks off the deck saying, anyway, I promised to meet him over by the soccer field. And Charlie Brown says, boyfriend. And then he calls out after her, but remember when, Remember when, Remember? And then there's just a silent panel as he watches out after her. And he goes to a payphone and calls his sister and says, sally, put Snoopy on the phone, will you? And she does. And Snoopy says, woof. And Charlie Brown says, thanks. I needed to hear a friendly voice. 

Jimmy: That's a good one.

Michael: And, of course, that is the final Peggy Jean.

Jimmy: Wow. Well, that's a great one. Sad.

Michael: I always thought it was very odd that she just disappeared.

Jimmy: Yeah.

Michael: It looked to me like Schulz was taking a big gamble on really changing one of the characters. And, yeah, he just kind of dropped it. So he wraps it up here.

Jimmy: Yeah. When you see that, I mean, wrapping it up is exactly what's going on. And I mean, as you see these next couple months, it's hard to not feel like things are getting wrapped up, even though they couldn't have been consciously, you know. But if you were going to write a good ending to Peggy Jean that fits with Charlie Brown, and you don't want it to make it a happy one. This is a great one.

Harold: Yeah. I mean, it's crazy. He's sitting out, by himself on the dock at this camp. And then he turns to his right, and she is kneeling next to him at the end of the dock.

Jimmy: Yeah.

Harold: And she's just shown up to tell him that she wasn't going to go to camp, but her boyfriend, so he's got to go meet him. That was it. She doesn't. That she just Says his name. And she doesn't go, hello, doesn't say great to see you. she just came to tell him that she's got a boyfriend and she's got to go. Oh, well, yeah, Charlie Brown.

Michael: And here's the big twist.

Jimmy: Next one, 

July 13, Charlie Brown and Linus are hanging out at the thinking wall. And Linus says, I just saw the little red haired girl down at the playground. We had a nice talk. She sure is cute. And Charlie Brown says, did she say anything about me? And Linus says, did she what? And Charlie Brown says, I can't stand it.

Michael: Oh, ouch. Yeah. Linus man stabbing his friend in the back.

Jimmy: Yeah.

Harold: Is he?

Michael: Yeah.

Harold: Or is he just talking to the little red haired girl who happens to be in the school?

Michael: Don't tell Charlie Brown that he talks.

Liz: You do if it's innocent.

Jimmy: It's never in it. Well, if you're weird, that sly smile on Linus face.

Liz: That's not sly. It's. It's just happy.

Jimmy: He's. He's a devil, as my mother would say.

Harold: I'm with Liz.

Jimmy: No, I mean, obviously he was doing nothing wrong. And clearly the little red haired girl is, you know, just the bee's knees. But he could have mentioned Charlie Brown. It wouldn't have hurt him, you know.

Harold: Well, when you're living your life, I'm assuming we who read Peanuts would, would think that Charlie Brown's pining. But Linus is only around for part of his pining. So he's just living his life. He's out on the, he's on the playground. I mean, come on.

Liz: And in the next panel after Charlie Brown repeats himself, Linus can say, yes, we had a long talk about you. He just misunderstood.

Jimmy: Yeah.

Harold: Linus has given Charlie Brown a lot of chances with the little red haired girl and has tried to push him forward. And I think, it would not be in a appropriate to wash your hands of that and just go on.

Jimmy: Well, I wouldn't. Yeah. Oh, but I wouldn't say she was cute. And I wouldn't talk. I wouldn't say, hey, you know that girl you pine about? I talked to her day. Boy, she is cute. And also I didn't mention you.

Harold: I, I would especially you agree that she's cute. That's something you got in common. That's not bad.

Jimmy: I guess. I guess we'll agree to differ.

Harold: Okay. Great drawing of Linus in second panel.

Jimmy: Yeah.

Harold: It's up to you to decide if he's being sly or not. Listeners, Is he looking sly?

Jimmy: He's definitely looking.

Harold: He's a little. He's off. Off in another. Another place. It seems like in that this is.

Liz: That’s why he doesn't understand what Charlie Brown said.

Harold: Yeah, right.

Jimmy: He's contemplating. Contemplating making out with Charlie Brown's one true love. I know what's happening. 

July 14th. Moving on. So we're out here on the old pitcher's, mound, and there's Schroeder, Charlie Brown, and Lucy. And Schroeder says, that sounds like a fire engine. And Charlie Brown, ever the quick mind, says, something must be on fire. And Lucy says, well, it sure isn't our picture. And then she laughs as he walks back out to right field. And Schroeder says to Charlie Brown, let her get about 10ft away, then throw your glove at her.

Michael:, knowing he's not gonna hit her. She's 10ft away.

Jimmy: Yeah, not if he lets her get as far as 10ft away. But this I picked because this is the last time we, see Schroeder and Charlie Brown together.

Michael: Really?

Jimmy: Yeah.

Michael: Wow, I missed that note.

Jimmy: Yeah.

Michael: Breaks my heart. Yeah. There's going to be a lot of heartbreak coming up.

Jimmy: Yeah.

Michael: A lot of goodbyes. Many, many partings.

Liz: Let's just stop the podcast now. I don't want to have this much pain.

Jimmy: Be of good cheer.

Harold: Yes.

Michael: And this next one is a heartbreaker.

Jimmy: Well, how about we take a break. Okay. And then come back?

Liz: a Heartbreak.

Jimmy: and yeah, we'll take a heartbreak and come back. And that sounds like we're going to have baby aspirin. all right, we'll take a break and then we'll come back and we'll check mail and do stuff like that. Okay.

BREAK

Liz: Hi, everyone. We may have finished the Great Peanuts reread, but we're not finished talking about these strips. We have lots more to say about the characters, the art, the humor, the pathos, and how the strip developed over the 50 years. Starting in September, new episodes will be available twice a month, exclusively on Patreon. After the 3 month season is finished, they'll be available for everyone without a paywall. We hope you'll stay with us on this amazing ride. To sign up, go to patreon.com/ unpackingpeanuts.

Jimmy: All right, we're back. Liz, I'm hanging out in the mailbox. We got anything?

Liz: We do. We got an, email from super listener John Attema, who writes, here is what happens when a tangent of the podcast intersects with a tangent of Peanuts and he sends us a YouTube link which is Vince Guaraldi and Brazilian jazz guitarist Bola Sete playing I'm a Loser.

Jimmy: Beautiful version, of that. I have that album, well, I have the Greatest Hits album, and, there's a couple of his collaborations, with that guitar player. I really like that. I think it's real good.

Liz: Oh, yeah, I really didn't.

Jimmy: Oh, you didn't?

Liz: No. I love bossa nova. I love Brazilian music. But I. That. That version of I'm a Loser did not work for me at all.

Jimmy: Well, there you go.

Harold: Wow.

Jimmy: That's it. This email has divided Unpacking Peanuts to agree to disagree.

Harold: Once again.

Jimmy: Once again.

Harold: There we are. I have a. I have a shout out. Okay. So I was. I got a job at Archie Comics. I. I was helping them out, trying, to figure out their business because they. They lost a bunch of people in upper management, and I just got pulled in to kind of help them sort things out, and then I got hired. And, the very first day after I signed the contract was the first day of the New York Comic Con. And so I was invited down to the. to just be at the booth because I still lived in Virginia, and we were getting ready to make the big move, but I was down there. I think Stan Lee showed up, got to shake his hand. It was cool. And then this couple walked up into the booth, and this lady asked about one of the guys who had been running, running, the second generation of this family owned Archie business. And I had to tell her that he passed away. Well, she had dated him.

Jimmy: Oh, my God.

Harold: And she was like, I'm sorry. So sorry to hear that. Do you have any more details? As I said, I'm sorry. I just started at Archie, like, yesterday. And, and then the guy who was with her said, so you just got a job? The Archie's in Mamaronack. New York, right? Just north of us. And I said, yes. He said, are. So are you moving to the area? I said, yeah. and he said, what areas are you looking at? I said, I'm looking at a, town called Rye. He says, oh, I live in Rye. You do? I said, yeah. And, he said, is there any place in Rye you're looking at? It says, well, there's this beautiful little cottage on 9 Beck Avenue in Rye. And he said, that's across the street from me.

Jimmy: Oh, my God.

Harold: And I'm like, what? And he said, yeah. He says, and by the way, I'm the pastor of the Trinity Presbyterian Church in Rye. If you're looking for a church home. He gave me his business card, and, he said, I'd love to see you. And I was kind of floored by it. And I saw that evening, I called up Diane, who was down in Virginia, my wife. And I said, I just met this guy. He's the senior pastor of the Trinity Presbyterian Church, and he would be our neighbor across the street if we get this cottage, which we did get. But when I was telling Diane, it's like, yeah, this guy's the senior pastor of Trinity Presbyterian Church. She says, I was just online today trying to find a church, and I picked Trinity Presbyterian Church. I was like, you're kidding me. So that was just really cool because, that. That was the first neighbor, first friend, and my church and my. And pastor, all in one little meeting. I don't tend to run into senior pastors of churches at Comic Cons. I don't know about you guys. It's kind of. Kind of unusual. And we did wind up, going to that church. That's my church today. And I just want to send a shout out. Craig is also a super listener of unpacking Peanuts and Craig Higgins, and he just retired after 30 years at our church, so I just wanted to give him a shout out.

Jimmy: That's fantastic.

Michael: Wow.

Jimmy: Well, enjoy your.Your retirement. That's. That's wonderful.

Liz: Congratulations and.

Jimmy: And thank you for listening 

Liz: and writing. He communicates, too.

Jimmy: Yes. So that's, that's the mailbox if you want to reach out. I would love to hear from a lot of you as we reach the end. Here's the other thing I would love. Do this for me for a favor. I have read to you. How many strips have I read to these people over the air? Lots.

Liz: Let's see, like, 20 for 150 episodes. 160. Something like that. 20 each.

Jimmy: Using my, math skills. That's a lot. So if you want to thank me for reading those Peanuts strips poorly to you in your ear, give us a review. I would love for us to get a whole bunch of reviews here as we wrap this thing up. It's been a huge, joy for us, but it's also been a lot of work. So if you've enjoyed this, let, us know. That would be, just. I would consider it a personal favor. And also, remember, if I don't hear, I worry. So you don't want to insult me and make me worry.

Liz: And we're not going away. No, we're just coming to the conclusion of a season.

Jimmy: Yes, exactly.

Harold: A season of seasons.

Jimmy: But I want you to do this before we wrap up. So if you got a chance to leave it a review for us, anywhere, wherever you listen to it, in the next week or so, go ahead and do it. That'd be great.

Liz: Yeah.

Harold: Thank you.

Jimmy: All right. What do you say we get back to the old strips? 

July 17, Charlie Brown and Franklin are hanging out at the thinking wall. And Charlie Brown says, is your grandpa still playing golf? And Franklin says, yes, but he's given up trying to shoot his age. Now he's trying to shoot the temperature. They walk away. Franklin, says, it was hot yesterday. He shot a 102.

Michael: And so we bid farewell to one of the favorite characters, the thinking wall.

Jimmy: No.

Michael: Yep. This is the last appearance.

Harold: Wow.

Jimmy: Oh, wow, that hurts. For some reason, he never made the thinking wall think, did he? That's really good. Like, when everything was thinking, like the school was thinking and Rocks were thinking, the thinking wall itself never. We never heard.

Michael: Yeah, it was a good old wall.

Jimmy: It was a good old wall.

Liz: It continues on our T shirts and our logo.

Jimmy: Yes.

Harold: Wow. And reading this one, of course, again, based on Schulz being at the end of his life. And it's kind of. It's also poignant, shooting your age.

Jimmy: Yeah. I like this drawing, though. I like them at the thinking wall. And I like the little gate, even though the gate's super rickety. But that's okay for a gate.

Harold: You like the stripes on, on Franklin's, shirt.

Jimmy: Oh, my God, that's so weird. I didn't even recognize it.

Harold: It's a 90s thing, I'm guessing.

Jimmy: Yeah. Really weird. But that's the good looking comic strip again. When you see Charlie Brown's head, like, you're not seeing any tremor.

Harold: No.

Jimmy: Like you see though the gate, and it looks like it's barely held together. It's held together by his sheer willpower.

Harold: Yeah. But Charlie Brown, beautiful zipatone, that. That kind of complements it.

Jimmy: Yeah.

Harold: Again, I don't know anybody who did zipatone quite the way this was done, whoever was doing it. It's nice.

Liz: Well, wouldn't it have been Photoshopped by at this point?

Jimmy: No.

Michael: Really?

Harold: It doesn't look. Doesn't look it. I'm guessing so.

Jimmy: No, I mean, I'm sure this was still that way. To do it, Photoshop, zipatone, you'd have to actually scan the zipatone in and then, you know, move it around like a texture. You could just, like, paint with it. So I think it'd probably be easier.

Liz: I Get it now.

Jimmy: You can in Clip Studio Pro. By the way, if anyone's ever been playing around with Clip, Studio Pro, as a cartoonist who, you know, there's a whole setting where you could just like create a layer of tone and then draw with your stylus. Stylus. Rather, zipatone to look however you want. Shadows in the wall that perfectly match your purse.

Michael: I had no idea did that.

Jimmy: Are you serious? I'll show you how when we hang up.

Harold: I'll tell you how.

Jimmy: Yeah, but it's, it's really cool. Like, I, I actually, when I was working on some stuff recently, I was really into it and then so I finished all my stuff up and then gave it a day before I handed it in and I went back and I took all the zipatone out. I was just having fun doing it. I'm like, well, this looks like a crazy person.

Harold: It's an amazing, amazing program. I'm, I'm assuming a lot of our artists, listeners know about Clip Studio Paint, but for those of you who are not artists or cartoonists, it was made in, I believe in Japan specifically for manga artists. And it, it's amazing to have a program that's made for cartoonists. It also has other capabilities. You can.

Jimmy: Yeah, you can do animation on it.

Harold: Yeah. Crazy. It's crazy what you can do. You can bring in 3D modeling and all sorts of stuff for layers. And it's, it's cool to have a program made for cartoonists. And it's also cool that Clip Studio paint works just as well in an iPad as it does on a, on a Mac or a PC, which is not very common for software, the art software. So it's, it's incredibly cool. I'm super grateful to have it. I just, I'm working on a Sweetest Beasts picture book right now in there. It's great.

Jimmy: Yeah, I just spent a whole. I'm working on a secret project. I got hired to do something that has been really fun. Put a little cramp on my other schedule. But, but I've been really enjoying what Clip Studio is able to do. It's great. 

August 1st. Interesting that this is an August strip because we see Snoopy at Valley Forge and he is in his Revolutionary War getup with a super tiny Woodstock, also in Revolution, Revolutionary War get up next to him and, he's sitting on Snoopy. they both are sitting on a log, half buried in the snow and warming themselves at a fire. And they both are called from off panel and Snoopy says he wants us. And then we see him, salute him and Woodstock saluting outside a log cabin. And they're both dressed in their Revolutionary War finery. And, Snoopy says, Patriot Snoopy and Patriot Woodstock reporting, sir. And he's just talking to whoever is in the log cabin. Snoopy continues, yes, sir, we can do that. Then he turns to Woodstock, who is carrying a giant rifle that is, what, five times the size of him, four times the size of him. And Snoopy says to him, General Washington wants us to deliver this message to Thomas Paine. Snoopy then reads the message, which--

Jimmy: What's the ethics of this? I'm not sure.

Harold: It's not an envelope. I guess that's not sealed with wax.

So Snoopy, reads it, and it says, dear friend, I'm concerned of your welfare. Are you well? tell me your thoughts. And then Snoopy arrives at Thomas Paine's house and says, Mr. Paine, a message from the general. Do you have a response? And then, apparently Thomas Paine gives him a response, because Snoopy reads, these are the times that try men's souls. And Snoopy reads it and goes, that's too depressing. I'll change it a little. And then he brings it to Washington, says, here you are, sir. And Snoopy says to Woodstock, as they walk away, see, my message made him feel better. And Woodstock asks a question. And Snoopy says, I said, no problem. Have a nice day. 

Jimmy: I don't know why, but that really makes me laugh.

Michael: The strip. I mean, the Woodstock with the gun is why I picked this strip. The Woodstock is so cute because it's a tiny gun for Snoopy, but it's just, like, humongous for Woodstock.

Harold: Yeah.

Jimmy: And he never stops carrying it at his shoulder. He is ready.

Harold: Yeah.

Michael: It seems to fall in this weird netherland of-- It seems more real than most of his fantasies. Yeah, it's really developed. So it's almost like he's positing. There was a Snoopy and a Woodstock back then.

Jimmy: Oh, wait a second. That's amazing. If you could do, like, a universe of Snoopy's all appearing throughout.

Michael: Yeah.

Jimmy: Which, of course, it kind of does, but this is, like, a really extreme version of it. Yeah.

Harold: Well, what's unique about this version of Snoopy is usually Snoopy is doing something that's got aspiration in it. Right. He's gonna be. I'm gonna be another animal, because that's cool. I'm gonna be a world 1 flying ace. I'm gonna be Joe Cool. And even though playing those Characters can have their downsides. There's something about it that is, I think, more aspirational than this is. This is.

Liz: Patriot Snoopy isn't aspirational?

Harold: Well, he's Patriot Snoopy, but he's Patriot Snoopy with bandaged feet.

Jimmy: Yeah, yeah. Right.

Harold: And it just seems like he's in a place of hardship, baked in hardship whenever we see him in this space. And so, yeah, you got. And then now you got Woodstock. Look at that little drawing of Woodstock on the bottom tier. The third panel in that is just insanely adorable and strange at the same time.

Jimmy: I like all of. I love the panel, in the second tier where they're walking past the tree.

Harold: Yeah. Gosh, he. And he did spend a lot of time on this. You can see a lot of thought, extra trouble, to make this strip. And we've seen that a lot with these ones that have to do with war. And again, you think about somebody who went through that early in life, and it's something that never leaves you. Right. And he is processing it on top of that. This is one of the strips that jumps out to me as art, artistic struggle. I noticed whatever size he's working on the Sundays versus the dailies, he has a lot more trouble with the lettering. If he's struggling on the Sundays because of the size of whatever he's writing compared to the daily, it's. It's not the same size, but he's using, I think, the same tool. So that very. Like that upper right hand corner throwaway panel, Patriot Snoopy and Patriot Woodstock reporting, sir. That is. That's struggle. And that lettering, it's. It's just. Doesn't look like his traditional lettering. But then you've got that little centerpiece one where he's reading Washington's note to Thomas Paine. And that looks pretty darn good. So, yeah, this. This one made me think of struggle. And then, of course, the whole theme is struggle. And then Snoopy trying to take some of the struggle out in his letter. I don't know. It works really well. It's got of a piece. It's super special.

Jimmy: Yeah. I love the little birds in the background. you know, the other thing, it's like it's August that this came out. Right. Is that right? And it's all winter.

Harold: Yeah. And it feels cold, reading it.

Jimmy: Yeah. I. I don't have anything further, really, to say about that. But that's just.

Harold: Well, the thing that hits me when you say that is he. He's not going to get another winter.

Jimmy: Yeah.

Harold: He hadn't done it now, we wouldn't have it. Yeah, that. That's sad.

Jimmy: Yeah, it really is.

Liz: Well, he gets November through February. That’s winter.

Michael: in California, not too much.

August 11, Emily, Snoopy and Charlie Brown are all dancing. And then we see the Arthur Murray school step diagrams explaining what they're doing, which is a chaotic, crazy mess with girl's feet below his feet and dog paws.

Liz: But it's two kinds of dog paws. Is that true?

Jimmy: well, it's left feet and right. Like, I don't know.

Michael: The black and white must be left and right.

Liz: Or front and back.

Jimmy: Years ago I said I had five strips that were like the all time greatest and this is one.

Michael: This is not one.

Jimmy: No, this is. This is one.

Michael: What?

Jimmy: I'm only kidding. I don't understand it. Yeah, I don't really understand it, but.

Harold: I guess I picked this one. I. It's just. Yeah. Well, again, I'm, I'm. Again, we're in context reading this. It's like, okay, he's got a. He's got a little nice last minute burst of joy here. Well, and the only joke is, I mean, when I first read it, because I'm so used to the language of what he's doing, it's like there's no joke. But of course the joke is you've got Snoopy's paws in the mix of the Arthur Murray.

Jimmy: Oh yeah.

Harold: And all. And three of them are dancing and it's this crazy diagram.

Jimmy: The drawing of them dancing is great. Yeah, I love the drawing of them dancing. And like, you know, whoever is doing this. Zipatone adding the little like white.

Jimmy: Well, actually, hold on a second. I wonder. All right, this is going to. Can I speculate wildly and, sure. I will say I'll probably. I'm probably wrong about this, but when you put Zipatone down on paper and then let it sit there for years, it shrinks. It doesn't always line up perfectly. I wonder. So this is either someone very delicately. No, you know what? Yeah. It Must, be someone.

Harold: That would be too much serendipity every single time.

Jimmy: Right. It wouldn't have worked with the lines and stuff. Right. So. So someone is going in and putting those little highlights in her hair, which is with an X Acto knife, which is not easy.

Harold: This is the best use of Zipatone I've ever seen.

Liz: Really?

Harold: Whoever's doing it. Yeah. Because of the using the edges to not go up to the line art itself, but creating little highlights by cutting short of that over and over again, really good choices. Whoever's doing it looks amazing. Yeah, it looks better. There's zipatone in lots of comic strips and all of those duo shades and all of that. But the more I look at this, the more I'm like, this is, this is a real artistic use of shading. It's nice.

Jimmy: Just, I'm gonna just ask you guys right now, what are your thoughts? I don't think I've ever talked to either about that. What do you guys think of Duo Shade for our friend, for our listeners out there? That's when to get those dots effects that you would get right there in her hair, you know, to give it a tone. that's where the paper is already printed with dots that you can't see. And then you put a chemical on it and it develops the dots. But it gives a very different kind of grungier look. What do you guys think of that?

Michael: my personal feeling is it looks terrible in black and white, but with color over it, it looks great.

Jimmy: If you put the color over it, it does make a difference. That's interesting.

Harold: For me, all I can think of when I see it is, are the original strips that I've seen, what they look like now. Boy, 70 years later and all I just smell chemicals and, and, and toxicity whenever I see it.

Jimmy: So toxic, so toxic. I can't imagine people using those, you know, several times a day.

Jimmy: Like poor old, Roy Crane.

Harold: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't envy anybody who committed to that and had to live with it. And, and the strips don't hold up well.

Jimmy: Do you think that affects the, the value of the original art? Like Howard Chaykin's American Flag is considered a classic of the 80s comics. Right. you know, I'm not talking about like Buzz Sawyer and stuff, which obviously is going to have value because you know, it's within the pantheon of things and Crane's a great cartoonist. But do you think it takes like if, if you're just a regular, level cartoonist that has pages to sell that are all yellowing and stuff, do you think that hurts the value?

Michael: Oh yeah, I'm sure, yeah, I would.

Harold: I would think so. I think it's, it hurts it less than if it's like in the world of comic books. It's crazy. Like when, when I first got involved in comic book collecting, this would be like early 80s. The difference between something that was in just ratty condition and really good condition was like, three times.

Jimmy: Yeah.

Harold: And then all of a sudden, the collectors get into it, and they're like, no, I want the ultimate one. And so the value of the one that's in ratty condition kind of stays low. The ones that are, like, the 9.9 graded by professionals, against all standards of comics, all of a sudden that you. It's like 20, 40, 100 times.

Michael: Yeah, but original art it's different because each one is one of a kind.

Harold: Yeah, but that was my point, was if you have somebody who always did the same thing and you only have the ratty version, then it probably doesn't hurt as badly because it is what it is. Yeah, it's like.

Jimmy: Like.

Harold: Like Walt Kelly, whenever he would send off a Pogo strip, apparently he would fold them. And if you could get an unfolded one and then there were, like, a hundred folded ones, then the unfolded ones would go through the roof, Guessing for some strange reason, because someone's looking for the rare unfolded one he handed to somebody versus mailing it.

Jimmy: Schulz did that for years as well. Sent them to the syndicate, folded in half, which is just.

Harold: So, Yeah, this trip he'd have a hard time doing that.

Jimmy: Yeah.

Harold: So it's one panel.

Jimmy: Yeah. you gotta have that space between panels two and three. You can fold it. And finally, 

August 19, Rerun is sitting there, and Lucy comes in holding a book, and she's yelling, why are you just sitting there? And she holds up a book and yells at him, this is a book. You know what a book is, don't you? And this ends Rerun flying butt over teakettle. And, she sits next to him as he's dazed and confused. And she calls off panel, nothing, Mom. I'm just encouraging him to read.

Michael: Man, this kid's gonna grow up really messed up.

Jimmy: He's gonna have some, nervous tension.

Harold: Become an underground cartoonist.

Jimmy: Yep.

Harold: Well, given that he was just being read Tolstoy, Lucy's being a little hard on him, I think.

Jimmy: Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, Lucy has probably never read a book in her.

Harold: Yeah. And this is the last appearance of Mom.

Jimmy: Oh, there you go. Well, guys, we have one more episode left, of this year, and then one more episode left of the whole shebang. Is that right?

Liz: No, actually, it's not right. Because after we recorded this, the guys picked so many strips to talk about that we're doing a fourth episode from 1999. So based on what I know in this moment, we've got three more episodes of the reread, plus the Season finale, and then we go into our new format.

Jimmy: Then we've already. We've decided what our first, post reread series is going to be, right?

Liz: Yes, but we shouldn't tell them now. We have to--

Jimmy: All right, we're not gonna tell them, but we figured out what our next season's gonna be. how we're gonna approach this, having read, all 17,897 strips. So, we'll probably reveal that in the next episode or two. So, you know, please, no wagering. 

And we'll also have two new, T shirts for you to buy. Soon we have The Great Peanuts reread 17,897, t shirt indicating how many strips he drew. And we also have an Automatic for the Beagles shirt, which only I want, but we're having it anyway. so with all that said, as we approach the end, this has been a joy. It's a joy every week, not just because I get to hang out with my pals and talk about what I love, but also because all you find people are out there listening, and I love it. It's just been so great. and I think I can say that for all of us, we have had a wonderful time. So it's not over yet. Come back next week where we're going to be wrapping up 1999.

Liz: No, we're not wrapping it up.

Jimmy: So with all that said, come back next week for Michael, Harold and Liz. This is Jimmy saying, be of good cheer.

Liz & Michael and Harold: Yes

All: Be of good cheer. 

Unpacking Peanuts is copyright Jimmy Gownley, Michael Cohen, Harold Buchholz and Liz Sumner. Produced and edited by Liz Sumner. Music by Michael Cohen. Additional voiceover by Aziza Shukralla Clark. For more from the show, follow Unpack Peanuts on Instagram and threads. Unpacking Peanuts on Facebook, Blue sky and YouTube. For more about Jimmy, Michael and Harold, visit unpackingpeanuts.com have a wonderful day and thanks for listening.

Harold: Ah, well.