Annotations to The Complete Peanuts: 1967 - 1968 (vol. 9) by Charles M. Schulz
In this volume there are occasional omissions of the strip's date from the strip. In those instances, the dates appear in broackets [ ].
p. 3 (January 6, 1967) [Note that "1968" at the bottom of this page is an error] 2nd panel. Six years after Dr. Jonas Salk (1914 - 1995) developed the polio vaccine in 1955, Dr. Albert Sabin (1906 - 1993) developed the method for delivering a modified version by placing the vaccine in a sugar cube. Linus much prefers the sweet bite to the sting of an injection. Alas, these other diseases don't share polio's flexibility.
p. 6 (January 13, 1967) 3rd panel. The droopy mustache is a German stereotype, derived largely from Emperor Wilhelm II of Germany (1859 – 1941) who sported one. Wo ist der is correct German for "Where is the." "Root beer" in German is simply Rootbier. Wurzel is the German word for "root," but the Germans have simply adopted the American name for the drink. Hence, although you won't actually find one, a root beer hall would be a Rootbiergarten.
p. 8 (January 18, 1967) 1st and 3rd panels. A Fokker D7 was a World-War I era German biplane. Nieuports were the French equivalent. Unter Den Linden is a famous street in Berlin, Germany. Lined with linden trees, when you walk it you are "under the linden." Snoopy is making up a German equivalent to "Give My Regards to Broadway." (See note in vol. 8, p. 180, February 23, 1966, for more about the song)
p. 10 (January 22, 1967) 1st panel. Snoopy is dressed like a biblical-era carrier of the disease leprosy. So contagious was the disease that lepers were required to announce their presence with cries of "Unclean."
p. 12 (January 28, 1967) 1st panel. "A drag" was 60s – 70s slang for anything that "drags" you down: a bummer, something that is not fun.
p. 14 (January 30, 1967) 1st panel. "Vickers" were the British-made machines guns used by the French and British during World War I. Sopwith Camels did indeed carry them. (See note in vol. 8, p. 122, October 10, 1965, for more)
p. 14 (February 1, 1967) 4th panel. Barnstorming was an early Twentieth-century form of entertainment where pilots would fly around the countryside, usually attending fairs and other events, but sometimes simply arriving in a community. They would earn a little money by taking people for short rides in their planes and performing aerial stunts and displays of flying skill. They would "storm" (go quickly) from "barn" (community) to barn.
p. 23 (February 22, 1967) 3rd panel. George Washington (1732 - 1799), the first president of the United States, while still a small boy famously (if apocryphally) cut down one of his father's cherry trees in order to try out his new axe. When asked by his father if he knew anything about the felled tree, Washington is supposed to have replied, "I can not tell a lie" and admitted the crime. George Washington knew the truth, and Sally does too. By invoking the Father of Our Country, the paragon of virtues, Charlie Brown shames Sally in the extreme. This strip appeared on Washington's birthday.
p. 24 (February 24, 1967) 4th panel. "Racked up" is to be beaten up.
p. 30 (March 10, 1967) 4th panel. Baseball season runs from April to October; the team wouldn't be ready even after a whole season of playing.
p. 33 (March 16, 1967) 4th panel. No jury would ever convict Charlie Brown . . . of murder. That is, Lucy's sarcastic attitude is so out of line that Charlie Brown would be justified in killing her.
p. 35 (March 20, 1967) 4th panel. José Peterson. It's possible that Schulz was just having verbal fun (it's Hispanic and Scandinavian; extreme combinations are always good for a laugh: recall Robert Hegyes' (1951 - ) character in the 1970s t.v. sit-com Welcome Back, Kotter, Juan Luis Pedro Philippo DeHuevos Epstein, a Puerto Rican Jew), and Schulz himself said about the character only "That's a good name, isn't it?" in Charles M. Schulz: Conversations (ed. by M. Thomas Inge, 2000).
But . . . at the time a number of Latin American baseball players were making inroads and earning impressive statistics in American Major League Baseball. Players like Roberto Clemente (1934 - 1972), a 12-time Golden Glove Award winning player from Puerto Rico who spent his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates; and Tony Pérez (1942 - ), a Cuban-born third-baseman then with the Cincinnati Reds, who was renowned for his runs batted in and who, in 1967, would be the All-Star Game's Most Valuable Player, must have been on Schulz' mind.
p. 35 (March 22, 1967) New Mexico has a high Hispanic population while North Dakota is almost exclusively Anglo. Jose's batting average improved because he was playing against weaker (i.e. non-Hispanic—see p. 35, March 20, 1967 above) pitchers in North Dakota. Your batting average is calculated by dividing your number of hits by the number of times you’ve gone up to bat. Ty Cobb (1886 - 1961) holds the record with .366, meaning that he hit the ball approximately one-third of the time. 1.0 would be a base hit every time. Jose's .640 and .850 are 64% of the time 85% of the time, respectively. Remarkably good no matter whom he was batting against.
p. 39 (March 30, 1967) 4th panel. The late 1960s saw a decrease in the formality of many aspects of American culture, including church services. The Catholic Church's Second Vatican council (1962 - 1965) led the way with such then-groundbreaking changes as allowing services to take place in each church's local language instead of Latin. Also guitars began to replace organs in supposedly less-stuffy "contemporary services." Guitar players (and a generally informal atmosphere) were also hallmarks of coffee houses at the time. Violet's parents' church has become so informal that they felt just as at home in a coffee house, and so decided to spend their Sundays there.
p. 41 (April 3, 1967) 4th panel. The CIA is America's Central Intelligence Agency, which gathers information about (spies on) foreign governments. Over the years, the CIA has paid local populations to fight against rulers America wanted to overthrow, and it has spent millions of dollars on various propaganda enterprises. We don't know what they are paying Lucy for. Is she a consultant to a psychological (psychiatric) warfare project? Is she reporting what happens in her sessions with Charlie Brown for some nefarious purpose? The joke is either that child Lucy's work is so important that the U.S. government will pay for it or that the government will try anything to defeat its enemies.
p. 46 (April 16, 1967) 12th panel. Sandy Koufax (1935 - ) was a baseball pitcher for first the Brooklyn, then the Los Angeles, Dodgers in the 1950s and 60s. He retired in October of 1966 due to arthritis.
p. 47 (April 18, 1967) Linus is reading from Lewis Carroll's (pen name for Charles L. Dodgson, 1832 – 1898) Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). In the book, the cat is able to disappear, leaving only his grin behind.
p. 51 [April 28, 1967] 4th panel. Snoopy has drawn two famous doodles: the back view of a cat (famous for its simplicity: two circles, whiskers, ears, tail, and a line for a collar) and Kilroy. Kilroy's face peeping over a wall, often adorned with the phrase "Kilroy was here" were a graffiti mainstay of World War II. The joke is that even Snoopy can't resist the urge to doodle.
p. 51 [April 29, 1967] 4th panel. The birds are playing dominos.
p. 54 (May 4, 1967) 4th panel. Charlie Brown has put a spin on "How sharper than a serpent's tooth it is to have a thankless child!" That line is from Act 1, Scene 4 of William Shakespeare's (1565 – 1616) play King Lear (ca. 1606). If reflects a parent's pain (emotional pain here being greater than even the physical pain of a snake bite) at the thanklessness of children for all that their parents do for them.
p. 56 (May 9, 1967) "Blighter" is British slang for someone who is in a bad situation—namely, World War I infantrymen. (See note in vol. 8, p. 279, October 12, 1966)
p. 68 (June 5, 1967) 4th panel. "Twiggy" [Lesley Hornby] (1949 - ) was a popular fashion model of the 1960s who was known for, and got her nick-name from, her particularly slight (twig-like) build.
p. 69 (June 8, 1967) 3rd panel. General John J. Pershing (1860 – 1948) was the commander of United States troops in Europe during World War I. At its height, he led nearly 2,000,000 men.
p. 72 (June 17, 1967) 4th panel. "Give My Regards to Broadway" is a song by George M. Cohan (1878 - 1942) about missing home. (See note in vol. 8, p. 180, February 23, 1966, for more about the song).
p. 77 (June 27, 1967) 4th panel. "Let A Smile Be Your Umbrella" is a 1927 song written by Sammy Fain (1902 – 1989) and Irving Kahal (1903 – 1942). The song's Depression-era optimism doesn't hold up to Linus' test.
p. 81 (July 6, 1967) 2nd panel. The word Linus wants is not "grassture," but "pasture"—though pastures do, by definition, have grass.
p. 83 (July 12, 1967) 4th panel. Hippies were members of a youth counterculture movement that started in the mid-1960s. It emphasized peace, love, and "doing your own thing" as opposed to what they felt was the conformity of the times. Male hippies frequently grew their hair long. This was partially to express freedom and naturalness. The fashion was so prevalent that a 1968 musical about hippies by James Rado (1932 - ), Gerome Ragni (1935 – 1991), and Galt MacDermot (1928 - ) was named simply Hair.
p. 84 (July 13, 1967) 4th panel. Hippies, with their attempts to break away from the social constraints of previous generations frequently complained that their parents' generation didn't understand the good they were trying to do. The joke is that while human generations are about 20 years removed from each other, dog generations are rarely more than five years apart—hardly enough time for great societal change.
p. 93 (August 3, 1967) 4th panel. (See p. 56, May 9, 1967, above)
p. 93 (August 4, 1967) 4th panel. A doctor holds the degree of M.D. (doctor of medicine). A deity is a god—a performer of miracles.
p. 95 (August 8, 1967) 4th panel. (See p. 24, February 24, 1967, above)
p. 97 (August 13, 1967) There are several Apremonts in France. Snoopy is most likely in one of the northeastern ones, Apremont Ardennes or Apremont-la-Forêt, because they are closest to Germany where he will be fighting the Red Baron. Garcon is French for "waiter." Mademoiselle is French for "young (unmarried) woman." "It's A Long Way To Tipperary" (1912) was a popular song during World War I. Written by English / American writing team of Jack Judge (1878-1938) and Harry Hiram Williams (1879 – 1922) it's the song of a young man in London who misses his sweetheart back in Tipperary, Ireland. Vive le France is "Long live France"; Vivent les Americains is "Long live the Americans" (that is, "a blessing on them for helping to liberate France"). For the Dawn Patrol, Fokker Triplane, and Red Baron see notes in vol. 8, p. 122, October 10, 1965.
p. 100 (August 20, 1967) 14th panel. Snoopy was most likely pretending that he was part of the French Foreign Legion. (See notes in vol. 8, p. 192, March 21, 1966, for more on the Legion)
p. 102 (August 26, 1967) 4th panel. To rend is to tear. There are various references to rending garments in the Bible, including Leviticus and 2 Samuel. Linus, being the theologian that he is, sometimes uses biblical language.
p. 104 (August 29, 1967) 4th panel. The A.M.A. is the American Medical Association, an association of doctors whose goal is to promote public health. In 1964 the U.S. Surgeon General published a report on the dangers of smoking. This led to the beginning of a decline in smoking, which would have pleased the A.M.A.
p. 108 (September 7, 1967) 4th panel. Snoopy is wearing a fedora hat and trench coat, items worn by "hardboiled" detectives, spies, and other tough guys in many films of the 1930s and 40s, most notably Humphrey Bogart (1899 - 1957) at the end of Casablanca (1942).
p. 110 (September 11, 1967) 4th panel. As Lucy says in the next strip, that's a trash burner. In less environmentally aware decades, trash and garden waste (especially leaves) were simply burned to get rid of them.
p. 121 (October 8, 1967) 10th panel. Bobby Hull (1939 - ) was a Canadian hockey player at the height of his success at the time. A slap-shot is way a hitting the hockey puck by bending the hockey stick behind it (slapping it on the ice) and using the pent-up energy of the bend to project the puck. Hull was a master of the technique. (See also p. 279, October 11, 1968, below.)
p. 122 (October 10, 1967) 4th panel. Prior to the advent of rock and roll, the most popular American music was "big band" music (a.k.a. "swing") played by large bands and led by musician/band leaders like Tommy Dorsey (1905 - 1956) and Xavier Cugat (1900 - 1990). Big band music was more "danceable" than the pop music of the late 1960s (i.e. the Beatles, Jefferson Airplane, etc.)
p. 125 (October 17, 1967) 4th panel. In the Army, there are various grades within each rank. "Buck" means the lowest grade of a particular rank. A buck sergeant ranks below a staff sergeant, for example. Privates are the lowest-ranking servicemen, and buck privates rank below even Privates First Class, making them the absolutely lowest-ranking soldiers. As such, buck privates take orders from everyone.
p. 125 (October 18, 1967) 2nd panel. A casaba is a type of melon. It's only vaguely football shaped, and no one refers to a football as a casaba. They're more likely to say, "pigskin."
p. 128 (October 24, 1967) 4th panel. Snoopy's note is a paraphrase of the standard rejection notice received by writers. As a writer, Snoopy would have received many of them.
p. 128 (October 25, 1967) 4th panel. "Thrillsville" is a term of sarcasm meaning that one is not thrilled by something. (See note in vol. 7, p, 215, June 15, 1964)
p. 131 (November 1, 1967) 4th panel (See p. 83, July 12, 1967, above). Note that the bird is wearing love beads, for which see p. 268, September 15, 1968, below.
p. 136 (November 12, 1967) 7th panel. (See p. 69, June 8, 1967, above)
p. 141 (November 25, 1967) 4th panel. The New York Mets are a baseball team. From 1962 – 1968 the Mets were infamous for playing poorly and loosing game after game. Consequently, at the time of this strip, they, like a little brother, received no respect or consideration.
p. 142 (November 26, 1967) 4th panel. Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) was the 16th president of the United States. Born literally in log cabin, many biographies (especially instructive biographies aimed at children) stress the hard physical labor he endured growing up on the frontier. As a farm boy he undoubtedly brought in firewood. He did indeed have an older sister, Sarah (later Sarah Lincoln Grigsby), who was born two years and two days before him on February 10, 1807 and died in 1828.
p. 146 (December 4, 1967) 4th panel. Sonja Henie (1912 - 1969) was a Norwegian figure skater who won numerous Olympic and World Figure Skating Championship awards during the 1920s and 30s. She appeared in several Hollywood films during the 1930s and 40s, including One In A Million (1936) and Sun Valley Serenade (1941). These, along with her touring performances helped to popularize figure skating.
p. 146 (December 5, 1967) 1st and 2nd panels. In figure skating, an "outside eight" is the more difficult version of a figure eight. Instead of a figure where the skater crosses a point he has already reached in order to complete the eight, here the skater forms first one circle then another. The circles do not touch in the center, resulting in a shape more like a very slim-waisted hourglass. Snoopy is looking forward to the February 1968 Winter Olympics held in Grenoble, France (as we will see in the December 7, 1967 strip).
p. 147 (December 8, 1967) 2nd panel. [We are open to a good description of an "outside forward roll."]
p. 149 (December 11, 1967) 2nd panel. In figure skating, an "axel" is a jump where the skater rotates in the air before landing. In a "double axel" the skater rotates twice before landing. The move was created by Norwegian skater Axel Paulsen (1855 – 1938).
p. 152 (December 18, 1967) 3rd panel. The birthday of classical music composer Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 -1827) is December 16th—two days prior to this strip.
p. 152 (December 20, 1967) 4th panel. (See p. 97, August 13, 1967, above)
p. 154 (December 24, 1967) 3rd panel. The 28th president of the United States, Woodrow Wilson (1856 - 1924)—like many people at the time—assumed that World War I would end quickly. It lasted four years.
p. 155 (December 25, 1967) 4th panel. Each individual snowflake is supposedly unique, so that (under a magnifying glass at least), no two look exactly alike.
p. 156 (December 30, 1967) 4th panel. Oui is the French word for "Yes."
p. 159 (January 5, 1968) 4th panel. A postage meter allows companies to rapidly print postage directly onto envelopes instead of using individual postage stamps. Businesses (and occasionally individuals who have a lot of postage) that use postage meters pay a premium (the actual cost of the postage that the post office would collect plus fees to the meter company) for the convenience and speed that come with them. That Snoopy has one is just another way of showing how busy and sophisticated he is. We know that he sends out a lot of manuscripts to publishers.
p. 161 (January 9, 1968) Snoopy is singing two popular songs from the World War I era. "Over There" (1917) was written by George M. Cohan (1878 - 1942) and tells of American pride at going "over there" (to Europe) to fight for liberty in World War I. "Pack Up Your Troubles in an Old Kit Bag and Smile, Smile, Smile" (1915) was by English brothers George and Felix Powell (1880s - 1950s). A kit bag is your army backpack. The song encourages soldiers to keep on marching because "What's the use of worrying?" (See also vol. 8, p. 237, July 6, 1966)
p. 164 (January 15, 1968) 4th panel. Zorba the Greek was a 1946 novel by Nikos Kazantzaki. More famously it was an Academy Award-winning 1964 film starring Anthony Quinn (1915 – 2001) in the title roll. Throughout the film, dancing is used to celebrate the joy of life that is part of Zorba's Greek peasant culture.
p. 164 (January 16m 1968) 1st and 4th panel. The feel crabby is to feel annoyed. The 1960s – 70s were a time of __-ins. There were "sit-ins" where, for example, students would protest a college's policy of allowing Army recruiters on campus by occupying the college president's office and just sitting there. The hippie, "flower power" reaction to these were "love-ins" and "be-ins" where people would gather together in, for example, San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, just to spread love. By 1968, a __-in was simply a gathering of like-minded people.
p. 166 (January 21, 1968) 1st panel. "Mac," like "pal" or "Buddy," is a term of address used in the place of man's name when you don't know it. For example, "Hey, Mac, move your car!" All of these have a slight connotation of impoliteness (you pointedly aren't saying "Sir"). Here it reinforces the idea that, to Lucy, Charlie Brown is just another customer off the street and not a friend.
p. 167 (January 24, 1968) 4th panel. The dove has long been a symbol of peace. During the 1960s politicians started differentiating between "hawks" (those who favored military solutions to problems) and "doves" (those who favored non-military solutions). Linus is claiming to be a "peaceful knight."
p. 168 (January 26, 1968) 4th panel. Gauche is French term meaning unfashionable and tacky. It literally means "left" and comes from La Rive Gauche, the Left Bank of the river Seine. The river Seine runs through Paris, and in the late 1800s – early 1900s many writers and artists lived on its left-hand side, giving the area an air of disreputability.
p. 168 (January 27, 1968) Schulz' father, Carl, actually was a barber and owned The Family Barber Shop on Selby Ave in St. Paul, Minnesota.
p. 178 (February 18, 1968) 10th panel. See p. 146, December 5, 1967, above.
p. 179 (February 20, 1968) 4th panel. A la mode is French for literally "in the manner." In the U.S. it generally means (as here) that a dish is served with vanilla ice cream.
p. 180 (February 22, 1968) 4th panel. There isn't any particular joke aside from the fact that General Pershing (See p. 69, June 8, 1967, above) would rather his soldiers be more serious.
p. 181 (February 25, 1968) 10th panel. Tossing playing cards into a hat (in those days most men still wore hats) was a cliché of someone just killing time. Today's equivalent would be tossing balled-up pieces of paper into a waste paper basket.
p. 188 (March 12, 1968) 3rd panel. Lucy means "chasing" rainbows. A rainbow is an optical illusion, so—like looking for a leprechaun's pot of gold at its "end"—chasing a rainbow is a fool's errand. Someone who chases rainbows follows their dreams, but is doomed to failure. Lucy really doesn't know what she's talking about. Snoopy didn't leave to pursue a loft goal.
p. 194 (March 25, 1968) 1st panel. Linus' teacher, Miss Othmar, was named for a friend of Schulz's in Santa Rosa, Othmar Jarish.
p. 195 (March 29, 1968) Myopia is nearsightedness, where distant objects are out of focus. An ophthalmologist is an eye doctor.
p. 195 (March 30, 1968) It's possible that this strip is just what it seems. Leap Year is every fourth year when February has 29 days instead of 28. This allows us to keep our dates synchronized with the sun. The earth actually orbits the sun every 365.25 days, and, if not for leap year, set dates like the summer solstice would soon slip from June 21st to the 22nd, 23rd etc.
But it is also possible that Lucy means something else. In some high schools, Leap Day (February 29th) was the one day every four years when it was socially acceptable for a girl to ask a boy out on a date. If that's the case here, then 1) Lucy is a month late and 2) it looks like she chickens out.
p. 199 (April 7, 1968) 7th panel. Lucy is paraphrasing "The hand that rocks the cradle rules the world," the 1865 poem by William Ross Wallace (1819 – 1881). The poem is actually about how important mothers are in shaping the next generation. Lucy interprets it to be about raw power.
p. 200 (April 8, 1968) The Masters is one of the most important golf tournaments in the United States. It is held in Augusta, Georgia every year.
p. 200 (April 9, 1968) 4th panel. Arnold Palmer (1929 - ) was one of the most famous golf players of the 20th century, and Winnie was his wife. He won the Masters four times.
p. 200 (April 10, 1968). All very famous professional golf players. Arnie is Arnold Palmer (See p. 200, April 9, 1968, above). Sam is Sam Snead (1912 – 2002). Ben is Ben Hogan (1912 - 1997). Gay is Gay Robert Brewer (1932 - 2007), who won the Masters in 1967. To "outdrive" is to hit the ball farther than anyone else.
p. 201 (April 11, 1968) "Snoop's Squad" is a twist on "Arnie's Army," Arnold Palmer's many fans. "Winter Rules" mean using a tee to hit your ball after your first shot. Usually you only tee off on the first stroke of a hole and make the rest of you drives from exactly where the ball lands (using a tee would give you the advantage of more control—especially in water or sand traps). But, at some golf courses, during winter or any time when the turf might need extra protection, you are allowed to use the tee in further drives. The joke is that Snoopy's ball didn't land in a particularly easy place for him to hit it, so he'd like to make his next shot easier by using a tee.
p. 205 [April 21, 1968] 10th panel. Lucy is misquoting "Don't cry over spilled milk," which means that you can't change the past (crying over spilled milk won't put it back in the bottle).
p. 206 (April 22, 1968) Wrist Wrestling is what we today call Arm Wrestling. Petaluma is a small town in Northern California near Sebastopol and Santa Rosa where Schulz lived.
p. 206 (April 24, 1968) 4th panel. "There's fear and trembling in ___ tonight" is an old sports expression. It means that the local team is worried about losing to the visiting team because they know the visitors are so much better than they are.
p. 221 (May 27, 1968) Goop is a generic term for … stuff. That's the joke. Lucy's sign might as well read "Stuff." [If there's more to this, we'd like to know.]
p. 227 (June 10, 1968) 4th panel. A popular television program at the time was Mission: Impossible. Each episode began with the M:I team receiving that week's instructions in the form of an audiotape. The message always concluded with "The message will self-destruct in five seconds," and then the tape began to smoke.
p. 227 (June 11, 1968) 4th panel. Rally stripes are stripes painted on the roof and hoods of a car. They began in the sport of auto racing in the 1950s. Originally they were a way of more easily identifying vehicles from a distance (i.e. the blue car with the green stripes is X). They soon became a fashion statement, the implication being that any car with rally stripes was a race car, and therefore extra cool. Lucy is trying to make Schroder's piano cool.
p. 237 (July 5, 1968) 4th panel. Snoopy is referring to a political convention where political parties choose their candidates. Today, the winner is usually known going into the election. But, in earlier times, it was common for the field to be "wide open," with the candidate chosen from many possible contenders.
p. 237 (July 6, 1968) 4th panel. The late 1960s were a time of increasing social awareness. Civil-rights protestors carried signs proclaiming "Black Power" and featuring a clenched-fist logo that looks remarkably like the paw symbol we see here. "Women Power" or feminist logos had the fist inside the circle of the Venus symbol (the mirror of Aphrodite). (See p. 239, July 8, 1968 for "Paw Power.")
p. 239 (July 8, 1968) 4th panel. (See p. 237, July 6, 1968, above.)
p. 240 (July 13, 1968) 4th panel. (See p. 168, January 26, 1968, above.)
p. 242 (July 15, 1968) 4th panel. Groovy was a slang term from the 1960s meaning that something was "in the groove." In other words, it was great, hip, and very much of its time. Indeed, in 1968 Snoopy was very groovy. His image was everywhere: on posters, books, and stuffed animals. The Off-Broadway production of the musical You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown, which had opened in 1967, would run for three years, and in 1969 "Snoopy" would be the callsign of the lunar module for the Apollo 10 moonshot.
p. 244 (July 21, 1968) An aerodrome is an aircraft hanger. Rembercourt, Verdun, St. Mihiel, and Bar-le-duc are towns in the Meuse region of northeastern France. In 1916, at The Battle of Verdun, the French held out against German forces for ten months. In October of 1918 the war was winding down. Le Rhone Rotary Engine powered many French and American planes of the era. The Gotha Bomber was a biplane used by the Germans during World War I.
p. 248 (July 30, 1968) 4th panel. Aloha is Hawaiian for both "Hello" and "Goodbye."
p. 248 (July 31, 1968). The first appearance of Franklin, Peanuts' only black character. Several Southern newspapers refused to run the strip because it depicted Charlie Brown's world as integrated.
p. 249 (August 1, 1968) 2nd panel. The Vietnam War raged from 1959 to 1975, ultimately resulting in the death of 58,159 American soldiers and millions of Vietnamese, Laotian, and Cambodians. This is one of only a handful of references to the conflict by name.
p. 250 (August 4, 1968) 8th panel. "Muscle Beach" is the nickname for a stretch of Southern California beach in Santa Monica. Since the 1930s it has been famous as a place to see weightlifters honing their craft. American International Pictures' series of beach movies in the 1960s starring Annette Funicello (1942 - ) and Frankie Avalon (1939 - )—Beach Party (1963), Muscle Beach Party (1963), etc.—helped spread the idea and image of Muscle Beach.
p. 251 (August 6, 1968) 4th panel. "Chloe," also known as "Song of the Swamp," is a 1927 song by Gus Kahn (1886 - 1941) and Neil Moret (1878 – 1943). It tells the story of man looking for his love, who he can't find in "the dismal swampland." In its heyday, it had been covered by everyone from jazz impresarios Bessie Brown (1895 – 1955) and Duke Ellington (1899 – 1974) to the musical parodist Spike Jones (1911 – 1965) and early rockers The Everly Brothers. It was even referenced in comedian Jack Benny's (1894 – 1974) 1956 pre-Christmas radio show.
p. 254 (August 14, 1968) 4th panel. A neurologist is a nerve specialist.
p. 257 (August 19, 1968) Jogging—slow running done for purely for exercise as opposed to speed—became very popular in the 1960s and 70s. "My thing" means simply that someone enjoys something. Snoopy is being very topical and hip in his choice of activity and lingo.
p. 259 (August 25, 1968) 5th panel. Cat food traditionally tastes like, and can in fact be, fish, usually tuna. Moby Dick, a character in the 1851 novel of the same name written by Herman Melville (1819 - 1891), is not a fish, but a whale—a mammal.
p. 260 (August 27, 1968) 4th panel. Sherlock Holmes is the fictional private investigator ("consulting detective") created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859 - 1930).
p. 265 (September 8, 1968) 10th panel (see p. 168, January 26, 1968, above).
p. 266 (September 10, 1968) 4th panel. Tiny Tim (born Herbert Khaury, 1932-1996) was a novelty singer popular at the time. His wild, theatrical persona and intentionally faulty falsetto singing voice set him apart from other musicians (all rock stars) of the time. His biggest hit, "Tiptoe through the Tulips," reached #17 on the Billboard 100 in 1968. His marriage to "Miss Vicki" (Victoria Mae Budinger, 1952 - ) on Johnny Carson's evening talk show The Tonight Show on December 17, 1969 was seen by over 40 million viewers.
p. 266 (September 11, 1968) 3rd panel. Actually Linus' blanket is made of outing flannel. (See vol. 2, p. 281, October 17, 1954)
p. 268 (September 15, 1968) Love Beads were just one of the many fashion statements popular among young people—and especially hippies—at the time. They were usually a simple string of beads, usually of different colors. Occasionally a peace sign or flower would hang from them.
p. 277 (October 6, 1968) 13th panel. Once again, Snoopy isn't really "punting." To punt you drop a football and kick it in midair. He's just kicking balls that are lying around unattended. (See also vol. 5 p. 306, December 12, 1960, and vol. 6, p. 272, September 24, 1962)
p. 278 (October 7, 1968) 3rd panel. Linus is using pseudo-biblical language. "Doth" means "does" in the King James translation of the Bible. Wormwood is an extremely bitter herb. It is mentioned in Jeremiah 9:15.
p. 278 (October 8, 1968) 2nd and 4th panels. In the game of hockey, the two blue lines separate the rink into center ice and the two end zones. Snoopy is going on the attack. Montreal, Canada is the home the Montreal Canadiens, hockey's winningest team. Because it is Canada's national sport, it is a cliché (or possibly the truth) that the best hockey players are Canadians. But Snoopy is so good that it makes even them nervous. For more on this see G.B. Trudeau's Doonesbury anthology, The Doonesbury Chronicles (1975), the 20th strip.
p. 278 (October 9, 1968) 3rd panel. Hockey is renowned for being a very rough, physical sport. Despite protective headgear, players frequently lose teeth to the puck or their opponents' sticks.
p. 279 (October 11, 1968) 2nd and 4th panels. For slap-shot see p. 121, October 8, 1967, above. The professional ice hockey players who appreciated Snoopy's moves are Stan Mikita (1940 - ) and Bobby Hull (1939 - ) of the Chicago Black Hawks, both renowned for the strength of their slap-shots and at the height of their skills in the late 1960s. Maurice Richard (1921 – 2000), who played right wing for the Montreal Canadiens and was the first man to score 50 goals in one season. He had retired eight years before this strip appeared, but remains a powerful figure in the history of the game.
p. 284 (October 21, 1968) 4th panel. In college—not in elementary school—a student may audit a class. That means he or she is not taking it as a requirement for graduation, but merely to learn "for fun." The student is not tested, and does not receive credit towards graduation.
p. 284 (October 22, 1968) 4th panel. A Master's is a Master's Degree, a degree one can earn after receiving a Bachelor's Degree. It is lower than a doctorate (Ph.D.) and usually requires at least two years of work and the writing of a Master's thesis—a long, but not book-length, work of research.
p. 285 (October 26, 1968) 2nd panel. All books that one might study in college. The Odyssey by Homer (ca. 9th Century B.C.) tells the story of the adventures and return of the ancient Greek hero Ulysses (Odysseus) after the Trojan War. Lord Jim, by Joseph Conrad (1857 - 1924) is a 1900 novel of fall and redemption. Bleak House by Charles Dickens (1812 – 1870), published in 1853, is an exploration and attack on the British legal system.
p. 288 (October 31, 1968) 4th panel. The Generation Gap was a term applied to explain the differences in attitude and behavior between the Baby-Boomer generation (who were in college and / or being hippies in 1968) and their parents, who had grown up during the Depression and fought in World War II.
p. 289 (November 3, 1968) 1st panel. Minnesota Fats is the fictional world-famous pool player created by Walter Tevis (1928 – 1984) for his 1959 novel The Hustler. The 1961 film version starred Jackie Gleason as Fats.
p. 295 (November 17, 1968) 9th panel. Linus' watch probably won't rust . . .unless it's made of iron, which is unlikely. If there is a lot of copper in the watch, however, it may turn green, that form of oxidation being called verdigris. Cheap jewelry which at first appears to be gold may actually have a lot of copper in it. That can react with a person's perspiration or other fluids and turn green.
p. 298 (November 24, 1968) 11th panel. Menthol is a chemical compound derived from mint. It is added to some brands of cigarettes to improve the flavor and decrease throat discomfort, making the experience "smoother."
p. 299 (November 25, 1968) 4th panel. Andrew Wyeth (1917 - ) is a famous American painter. He is most famous for the haunting Christina's World (1948). Even in 1968 a Wyeth would have fetched considerably more than 20 cents. Snoopy is quite an art collector. He also owns a Van Gogh. (See also vol. 8, p. 76, June 26, 1965)
p. 300 (November 28, 1968) 4th panel. To garnish is to force payment of a debt by taking a portion of someone's paycheck. The government / person you owe gets paid before you do. Lucy should say, "I'll garnish . . ." because the garnishee is the person (here, Snoopy) having something taken away, not the person taking.
p. 300 (November 29, 1968) 2nd panel. The American Medical Association, or A.M.A, would be concerned with psychiatry since it is a branch of medicine. All psychiatrists have medical degrees. Psychologists have Ph.D.s.
p. 305 (December 11, 1968) 1st and 3rd panel. Sally is attempting to recite "A Visit From St. Nicholas," (more commonly known by its first line: "Twas the Night Before Christmas") written by Clement Moore (1779 - 1863) and first published in 1823. It should be "St. Nicholas" who "soon would be there," but Sally has confused him with Jack Nicklaus (1940 - ), the world's most famous golfer at the time.
p. 308 (December 18, 1968) 4th panel. In the 1941 Orson Welles (1915 – 1985) film Citizen Kane, Kane's boyhood sled—the object of reporter Jerry Thompson's (played by William Alland [1916 – 1997]) investigation—is named "Rosebud."
p. 310 (December 22, 1968) Linus is using shorthand, a method for taking dictation where symbols replace words, thus increasing the speed with which they can be written down. The writer can quickly draw, for example, and arch-like symbol instead of writing out the word "good" (see the same arch symbol in the 4th and 8th panels). Schulz has correctly used the Gregg method in transcribing Lucy's letter. In the 1st panel, Linus says, "Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night." (A misremembering of the last line of "A Visit From St. Nicholas," (see p. 305, December 11, 1968, above) which actually ends with "Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night.") In the 8th panel he says, "Good grief." For a long time women had been relegated to the lowest rungs of the business world. In the 1960s they slowly began to move into positions of authority. For a woman to have a male secretary was seen as a sign of her power because she was giving orders to a man. Linus thinks that, once again, Lucy is drunk with power.
-4 December, 2008
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