Status Updates From The Complete Peanuts, 1971-...

December 31. A cliffhanger that leads into the 1973-74 collection!

October 24. Another excellent unintentional Sally quip, and this one targets my own worst nemesis: math!

Sally's written school theme malapropisms are some of the most reliably funny Peanuts strips.

September 11. This analogy of life being like golf is so spot-on for how I feel right now.

August 11. I love the subversive twist at the end of this one. Deep down we knew Snoopy would never bite Charlie Brown, even as a reflex to pain.

August 6. The analogy of security as being able to sleep in the backseat of the car as a child without worry, is a powerful concept. When that security and sense of being cared for ends, it ends for good. This is one of the more resonant strips in this collection.

July 25. A classic Lucy comedic observation about Charlie Brown's "cute fingers"!

July 5. Oh, for the days of simple fun and games, not needing every little aspect of life to be fully vetted...

May 31. Did Linus actually name his brother on this date, or is "Rerun" just a nickname? The strip seems to put the name in quotation marks the way it did for so long when calling "Pig-Pen" by name. Curious...It's been a long while since I saw "Pig'Pen" in any of these chronological Peanuts collections.

May 30. There it is! They said his name...though not in direct reference to the new Van Pelt boy. It's coming...

May 23. I believe this is the first strip where Rerun is mentioned, though no name is given and we haven't seen the babe.

May 21. An interesting Sunday strip, complex in development. What Charlie Brown describes is something at least close to a Mandela effect.

April 2. Another classic bit of lore from the Easter Beagle!

January 16. It's easy to be so miserable in loneliness, or in expectation of what personal fulfillment would or should look like, that we don't even notice the one who loves and wants us.

January 15. Who knew Peppermint Patty's last name is Reichardt? We learn it for the first time in today's strip.

January 10. Sometimes we all feel like opting out of life's stresses by keeping our eyes shut and letting it all pass us by: the good, bad, and ugly...

January 5. So true...at times it feels the only way to avoid this world's persecutions is to exit the planet entirely.

January 3. What's a top-shelf Peanuts collection without a hilarious (albeit unintentional) Sally Brown quip?

December 3. Oh, man...simple and heartrending. Never fall in love with a snowflake, which will evaporate into nothingness in a matter of moments.

December 2. More comedic ingenuity, this time in the form of throwing a whole loaf of bread outside for the birds.

November 18. This collection is a true wonder, brilliance every few pages. In this one, Lucy states a universal truth: In all of mankind's history, there has never been more damage done than by people who "thought they were doing the right thing".

November 14. Incredible insight into the reality that no matter where we run to, we're trapped by our core identity, traits, and desires. We are who we are.

November 12. This is one of the most hilarious strips in Peanuts history. I laughed so hard I have tears in my eyes, after reading Linus's extremely specific pronouncement supposedly from a medical journal!

Same strip: Snoopy has Linus's blanket made into a sport coat! This must be a sly reference back to the A Charlie Brown Christmas television special.

November 9. Here's a rarity: a typo in the strip, using "Do you here me?" instead of "Do you hear me?". I assume the error belongs to the original comic syndicate rather than this book.

November 1. Going backwards, I know...but this observation about spiders on the moon is just so uncanny and personally relatable.

November 3. What is claustrophobia, in truth, if not discomfort caused by feeling constricted and constrained? As Charlie Brown points out, that can happen even when you're not in a tight physical space. Life can give you claustrophobia...

September 20. This is simply brilliant. "What you need, Charlie Brown, is an unlisted life!" How often I've felt the same but hadn't the words to express it, when troubles started piling up on my doorstep...

September 16. This Lucy moment reflects how muddled you can get when a romance turns out wrong.