FROM WIKIPEDIA COMMONS
The Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center is a museum dedicated to the works of Charles M. Schulz, creator of the Peanuts comic strip. The museum opened on August 17, 2002, two years after Schulz died, and is in Santa Rosa, California.
The museum is home to many of the original Peanuts strips, as well as other artwork by Schulz. Two works by Japanese artist Yoshiteru Otani dominate the Great Hall: a 3.5-ton wood sculpture depicting the evolution of Snoopy and a 22 ft (6.7 m)-high ceramic mural made of 3,588 Peanuts strips which combine to form the image of Lucy van Pelt holding the football for Charlie Brown to kick it. Among the museum’s permanent exhibits are a work by Christo which depicts Snoopy’s doghouse wrapped, an exhibition of foreign language editions of Peanuts books, Schulz’s personal studio and tributes to Schulz from other artists. Inside the museum are three rotating galleries with exhibits that change every year.
Charles Monroe “Sparky” Schulz (/ʃʊlts/; November 26, 1922 – February 12, 2000) was an American cartoonist and creator of the comic strip Peanuts (which featured the characters Charlie Brown and Snoopy, among many others). He is widely regarded as one of the most influential cartoonists of all time, and cited by many cartoonists as a major influence, including Jim Davis, Bill Watterson, Matt Groening, and Dav Pilkey.
“Peanuts pretty much defines the modern comic strip,” states Watterson, “so even now it’s hard to see it with fresh eyes. The clean, minimalist drawings, the sarcastic humor, the unflinching emotional honesty, the inner thoughts of a household pet, the serious treatment of children, the wild fantasies, the merchandising on an enormous scale – in countless ways, Schulz blazed the wide trail that most every cartoonist since has tried to follow.”
TODAY’S ALMANAC
Cat Nights Begin
Cat Nights begin on August 17. This term harks back to the days when people believed in witches. A rather obscure old Irish legend said that a witch could turn herself into a cat eight times, but on the ninth time (August 17), she couldn’t regain her human form. This bit of folklore also gives us the saying, “A cat has nine lives.” Because August is a yowly time for cats, this may have prompted the speculation about witches on the prowl in the first place. Also, nights continue to get longer. Cats, crepuscular creatures, are nocturnal hunters. Their superior night vision means that the nights belong to them.
Question of the Day
In cooking, how exactly should I “macerate” something?
This term means “to soften,” and the method for doing so involves soaking something in a liquid. You are soaking it either to soften it or to flavor the liquid. Dried fruit, for instance, can be soaked in wine. The wine will soften the fruit, but it also will be flavored by the fruit.
Advice of the Day
Talk does not cook rice.
Home Hint of the Day
To keep raccoons out of your garbage, stretch a rubber bungee cord tight from one handle over the top of the lid to the other handle.
Word of the Day
Dewpoint temperature
The temperature to which a given parcel of air must be cooled before it becomes saturated; the temperature of an object when dew first forms on it.
Puzzle of the Day
The Prairie State.(Name the U.S. state!)
Illinois
Born
- Davy Crockett (frontiersman) – 1786
- Samuel Goldwyn (producer) – 1882
- Mae West (actress) – 1893
- Rudy York (baseball player) – 1913
- Maureen O’Hara (actress) – 1920
- Robert DeNiro (actor) – 1943
- Belinda Carlisle (singer) – 1958
- Sean Penn (actor) – 1960
- Donnie Wahlberg (actor) – 1969
- Dustin Pedroia (baseball player) – 1983
Died
- Vivian Vance (actress) – 1979
- Ira Gershwin (songwriter) – 1983
- Pearl Bailey (singer) – 1990
- Connie Reeves (America’s oldest cowgirl at 101, died 12 days after being thrown from her horse, Dr. Pepper. She was one of the first women to study law at the University of Texas and she started one of Texas’s first girls’ drill teams) – 2003
Events
- The Clermont, a steamboat designed by Robert Fulton , departed NYC heading to Albany– 1807
- Solyman Merrick granted wrench patent– 1835
- First official U.S. airmail was carried by balloon– 1859
- Blacksmith F.P. Cahill fatally wounded by Billy the Kid– 1877
- The Wizard of Oz made its east coast premiere in NYC. Its use of a relatively new method of technicolor dazzled audience members– 1939
- Indonesia proclaimed itself independent from the Netherlands– 1945
- Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center opened in Santa Rosa, CA– 2002
- U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps became the first person to win eight gold medals in a single Olympics– 2008
- Collision of 2 neutron stars about 130 million years ago created ripples in space-time that traveled to Earth and set off detectors in the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory– 2017
Weather
- A hurricane prevented a sea battle between the British and the French, Rhode Island– 1788
- The temperature in Amos, California, reached 130 degrees F– 1885
- Hurricane Diane hit Carolina Beach, North Carolina– 1955
- Hurricane Camille hit the Mississippi Gulf Coast killing 259 people and causing $1.5 billion in damage– 1969
COURTESY www.almanac.com
