Whew, things got a little heated around here this week! Time for other things. Let’s just go out and buy some awesome graphic novels as gifts and then kick back with some nice mulled cider! Celebrate the season! Fruitcake isn’t so bad.

10 COMMENTS

  1. Soak the fruitcake in brandy for at least two days. Flambee in fireplace. Snuggle with your cuddle bunny, drink hot chocolate laced with peppermint scnapps, as you watch the You’ll Gag log burn. Whipped cream and other delights are optional.

  2. The twins are named 3 and 4. Their older brother, 5, is the spiky-haired kid doing the hunch-dance near Snoopy. His sisters originated the open arms/sweeping-hair moves, which, decades later, Beyonce shoplifted for one of the best videos of all time. OF ALL TIME!

    Below is everything from the classic It’s A Wikipedia Entry, Charlie Brown:

    555 95472, or 5 for short, debuted in the September 30, 1963 strip, and appeared occasionally until 1981. A boy close in age to Charlie Brown and Linus van Pelt, 5 had brown spiky hair, and he wore an orange shirt with the number 5 on it. Linus first met him who introduced him to Charlie Brown, etc. 5 was given a numerical name by his father, who was upset over the preponderance of numbers in people’s lives, although when questioned, 5 clarified that this was not his father’s way of protesting, it was his way of “giving in.” His last name, 95472 (the accent is on the 4), was taken from the family’s ZIP code; it’s also the zip for Sebastopol, California, where Schulz lived at the time. He goes to the same school as Peppermint Patty.

    5 had twin sisters, dark-haired girls named 3 and 4 (“Those are nice feminine names,” Charlie Brown commented dryly); they appeared occasionally until the mid-sixties. All three siblings appear in A Charlie Brown Christmas where they have non-speaking roles, but demonstrate distinctive 1960’s dance moves during the dancing scene. 5’s dance is the famous head-bobbing, side-to-side shuffle that has been widely parodied.

    5 also played for Charlie Brown’s baseball team; it is conjectured that 5 played third base, since 5 is scorer’s shorthand for the third baseman.

    5 also has an appearance in It’s Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown and It’s an Adventure, Charlie Brown.

    At times, he has been shown as a background extra.

  3. Y’all have obviously never eaten our fruitcake, which doesn’t use any of those icky candied fruits sold in the supermarkets. We use homemade fig preserves, dried fruits such as papaya and pineapple, and lots of brandy in making our fruitcakes. Hubby used a recipe from Craig Claiborne in his New York Times Cookbook.

    I’m old enough to have watched A Charlie Brown Christmas on its very first TV broadcast – yeesh, I’m old.

    And grand-nieces are getting graphic novels for Christmas!

  4. My brother commands the Special Response Team for a local police department. For the last several years, he’s asked for fruitcakes from the family.

    He welds the cakes end-to-end and presents his team with a new “knocker” to use during forced entries. He also keeps some in an ankle holster as a backup piece.

    Last I heard, the department was testing some fruitcake-enhanced tactical gear to help protect the team when on a call. My brother says it is heavier than Kevlar, but has way more stopping power.

    (All this talk of fruitcake makes my stomach roil. I now return to my regularly scheduled pork rinds and Yoo-Hoo . . . . )

  5. this post got me thinking of how timeless the soundtrack of a CB Christmas is. it is so just right in so many ways. at times light and bright, a touch melancholy, and at times reflective. I think of it as a christmas miracle of sorts. can you imagine something that right and so perfectly integrated in a seasonal cartoon today? not to get all geezer-old times were the best times on ya, but geez, I can’t think of much that comes close to it.

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