PEANUTS

Yesterday I went to The Beguiling and bought a new entry in the Fantagraphics series of Peanuts reprints. (I also got a few more Mad magazine paperbacks, including Snappy Answers to Stupid Questions.)

I'm now up to the mid-'70s in the Peanuts series.  It's now past the years that I read in past paperback reprints, but I remember it surprisingly well from reading it in the newspaper.  I remembered the very odd story of Sally conversing with the school building, as well as the one where Charlie Brown got so obsessed with baseball that he developed a rash like the stiches on a baseball (which his round head already resembled) and went to summer camp with a bag over his head and people called him "Mr. Sack" and elected him camp president!

Yesterday afternoon I went to the memoir slam and the two subjects were "The joys of senility" and "Forbidden fruit." On senility I talked about how I wasn't yet old, but visiting London last year my feet got sore from all the walking.  On forbidden fruit I mentioned how my parents kept me away from scary stuff, but I wasn't sure that was best for me.  I mentioned that Nick Nolte in Rich Man, Poor Man put a snake in his son's crib so he wouldn't be afraid of snakes when he was older and said, "Sometimes I wish someone had put a snake in my crib."