Lucy, Charlie Brown, Football Part 11: 1999 The End

1999: Close the Gate



43. October 24, 1999 
At the end of Kafka's "Before the Law" the man from the country is dying. He asks the gatekeeper why no one else has ever sought access to the law through this gate.  I picture this scene as the final panel of a football routine. The Man from the Country assumes Charlie Brown's posture. "He can no longer hold up his stiffening body," so he waves for the gatekeeper.  The gatekeeper leans over the dying man; he has to "bend way down to him."  The gatekeeper shouts his punchline, and it is worthy of Lucy. "Here no one else can gain entry, since the entrance was assigned only to you. I'm going now to close it." What the man from the country thought was an access point to the law was really a blockage. I like to think that his final, unrecorded thought is "RATS!" We are never told what the gatekeeper does after he closes the gate, but we can assume that his job is finished. With no one to seek access through this specific gate, both the gate and the gatekeeper have become redundant.

Charlie Brown and Lucy depend on one another. They, and the football, are all integral to the football routine. The final football routine strip knows this. Charles Schulz, though, resists sentimentality, nostalgia, and closure in this final football strip by interjecting Rerun, of all characters, into the routine. Rerun did not make his debut in Peanuts until March 26, 1973 (even though he was born on May 23 1972). Rerun quickly became the third wheel of the Van Pelt family. He looks like a younger version of Linus, but Lucy never establishes the same antagonistic, loving, complex relationship with Rerun that she has with Linus. Anyway, the first two panels of October 24, 1999 offer no hint that this is a football strip, let alone the last football strip. The first panel shows Rerun standing on the steps of his house call out "Lucy!" She must not here him, because in the second panel he is walking through the grass calling out "Lunch time!" In the third panel he wanders into the football routine. We see Rerun on the left; Lucy is in the center, kneeling with the football, while she makes the usual proposition to Charlie Brown, who is standing on the right side of the panel. Rerun speaks, and since his speech bubble seems to be slightly behind Lucy's, he is probably speaking after her. He says "Mom says to come in for lunch." In the next panel, he tells Lucy "She says right now!" Lucy frowns, shuts her eyes, picks up the football and says, "Oh, good grief!" We next see a close up of Charlie Brown. He says, "That's all right . . We'll do it some other time . ." Will this or will this not be a football routine strip? In the next panel, Lucy says something truly astounding. She hands the football to Rerun and says "No, Rerun can take my place . ." Rerun then tees up the football and Charlie Brown begins to walk away from it. He finds confidence in this new situation. "This time I'll kick it . . Rerun will never pull it away . . . He just wouldn't . ." As Charlie Brown begins to run toward the football he says "So here we go!" And then Schulz pulls the football away from readers. The next panel cuts to Lucy at the table, eating her lunch. Rerun approaches, holding the football in front of him. Lucy asks "Did you pull the ball away? Did he kick it? What happened?" Lucy implies that Rerun knows about the football routine, that he knows that he should have pulled the football away. Did he? Rerun gets the punchline in the final panel. He turns away from the table and says "You'll never know . . ." Lucy can only respond with "Aaugh!" The joke seems to be on her, but I hold that it really is not. Even if Rerun did not pull the football away, even if he let Charlie Brown kick it, there would be little significance to the kick. The whole point of the football routine is that it consists of Lucy, Charlie Brown, and the football. Rerun is a red herring. When Lucy is not around, Charlie Brown has kicked and punted numerous footballs. My 10-year old son Max, who fancies himself the Peanuts expert in our house, pointed me to the strip from September 12, 1956. In it, we see Schroeder teeing up a football in the first two panels, while Snoopy looks on in the background. In panel three, we see Charlie Brown following through on a kick with a solid "THUMP." Schroeder is not Lucy. Rerun is not Lucy. Charlie Brown will never kick a football held by Lucy. The gate is closed.

Lucy, Charlie Brown, Football: Part 10: 1995-1998

1995-1998: Thermodynamics



39. October 29, 1995
1995 starts out in traditional form. Lucy call out "Charlie Brownnn . . ." He responds "Again?" and Lucy makes the same proposition. Like he as often done, Charlie Brown exclaims about what will happen when Lucy pulls the ball away. "I fly through the air, and land on my back, and kill myself . . . That's what happens!" Lucy's rationalization in the next panel has unintended consequences. She says "You could always sue . . ." As Charlie Brown walks away from the football in the second to last panel, he says "If she pulls the ball away, I'll sue!" He has not even turned around to run toward the football yet and we only have one panel left. In the final panel, Charlie Brown runs silently toward the football. He seems to be running slowly. He does not look particularly intent. There are no lines behind him signifying speed. In fact, running close at his heels is the World Famous Attorney (Snoopy in a bowtie and bowler hat, carrying a briefcase). Charlie Brown has lawyered up! The World Famous Attorney, of course, loses all of his cases. We never see Charlie Brown attempt to kick the football in 1995. Unlike previous years, when we did not see the attempted kick but were able to hear it, this year the strip stops in the middle of Charlie Brown's run toward the ball. How will Lucy react to the Attorney's presence? Will she be sued? We will not be told. When Josef K., after his arrest,  talks to the painter who has spent much time around lawyers, K is told that three forms of acquittal are possible: "Absolute acquittal, apparent acquittal, and deferment" (182). K is quickly told that "absolute acquittal" is impossible. "Apparent acquittal" is described as a convoluted legal process that offers little chance of actual acquittal. "Deferment," then seems the best option. In a deferred judgment, the trial is kept open but it never passes its initial stages. Preliminary interviews take place, but the trial never proceeds. As the painter says, "the trial's been artificially constrained inside a tiny circle, and it has to be continuously spun round within it" (192). Josef K. chooses this option, and so does Charlie Brown. From year to year, his straight lines toward the ball become a circle. He kicks; he misses; he kicks again; he misses again. By this point readers do not even need to see the attempt to know that it is always taking place.

40. October 20, 1996

Once again, we start with the giant football. This time Lucy and Charlie Brown appear to be lying asleep on opposite sides of the football. Are they finally becoming exhausted with this routine? Do they just want to rest? Panel two shows Charlie Brown looking to the left. Hand held over his heart, he says, simply, "Me?" We can finally see that Charlie Brown is playing a role just as much as Lucy is. Of course it is you Charlie Brown. Who else could it be? Lucy offers the usual proposition and Charlie Brown responds with the same indignation. To convince Charlie Brown that things might be different this year, Lucy returns to one of Charlie Brown's old themes: symbolism. In 1982, Charlie Brown goes on and on about the symbolism of the routine. He wonders if he has "missed the symbolism." This year, Lucy returns to that theme. "Symbolism, Charlie Brown! The ball! The desire! The triumph! It's all there!" Charlie Brown of course falls for this challenge. He repeats part of what Lucy says and adds "She may be right . . " as he walks away from the football. As he runs toward the football he says "The ball? The desire! I see it!" Charlie Brown feels like he has finally found meaning in the routine at this late date. He quickly sees his error. "Aaugh!" "Wump!" He is on the ground. Lucy has not smiled during this whole routine. In 1982, her reply to Charlie Brown's wondering if he missed the symbolism of the event was a purely literal statement "You also missed the ball, Charlie Brown." It has taken fourteen years, but Lucy finally closes the hermeneutic circle around Charlie Brown's neck. "No, you missed the symbolism, Charlie Brown" First, in 1982 he missed the ball; now he misses the symbolism and the ball. He asks, dizzy and propped on his elbows, "How about the reality?" You, Lucy, and the football are the only reality.

41. September 21, 1997
There are only three football routine comics left. This one starts in the traditional way. Lucy call Charlie Brown. As he walks toward her, he asks "Why me?" He answers his own question, "Because I'm stupid, that's why!" Lucy makes the usual proposition. Charlie Brown looks especially glum, in the fourth panel, as he states what will inevitably happen. His eyes are drawn close together and his mouth is a tight frown. Lucy offers him some hope. "Not necessarily . . . people change . . Times change . . . You can feel it in the air . ." Charlie Brown is convinced. He agrees with Lucy. "I think she may be right . . . I've noticed the same feeling . . " he says, as he walks away from the football. He runs toward the football with confidence, intent to "kick that ball clear over the border!" Are times changing because the football routine is reaching its end? Has Lucy's nostalgia and depression of the last few years led her to rethink pulling the football away? Will Lucy give in to sentimentalism? Not this year. "Aaugh!" She pulls the ball away and Charlie Brown flies through the air. But Lucy has done something different! As she pulls the football away, she turns her head and shouts out "Where? Where ?!" Charlie Brown lands with a "Whump!" The final panel shows Charlie Brown sitting up, a curling line and three stars floating around his dizzy head. Does his sitting up signify that more time has passed than usual? Has he recovered enough that he no longer needs to lie down? As he sits, Lucy kneels next to him and says "Sorry Charlie Brown . . . I thought I heard someone say the millennium is coming . . ." Yes, Lucy has made a Y2K joke, and nearly three years early. She clearly had this one planned out. It is worth noting that this is one of the few times that Peanuts makes reference to a specific year, even as there is nothing specifically millennial about this particular strip.

42. November 15, 1998
This is the penultimate football routine strip. The first panel gives the the final appearance of the giant football. Charlie Brown reclines, his head resting against the bottom of the football. Lucy peers around the top of the football. Is she floating? Is she holding onto the football? All we can see is her head. In panel two, a kneeling Lucy calls out "Over here!" She makes the proposition. Charlie Brown has a new response "I can do that . . ." Lucy looks slightly surprised in the next panel where we see a close up of their faces. "You can?" she asks. "Absolutely! I have a new positive attitude!" Charle Brown answers. Does he truly believe he can kick the football? Or is he trying to outsmart Lucy? Does Charlie Brown believe that his baseball team will win a game? Does he believe that he can fly a kite and avoid he kite-eating tree? Does he believe he will get a Valentine? As Charlie Brown walks away from the football, Lucy says "I can't believe it . . You are truly amazing! You talk the talk and you walk the walk!" Charlie Brown runs silently toward the football. "Aaugh!"Lucy pulls the football away but her face shows little emotion. She is neither smiling nor frowning. She is simply doing what she has to do. In the final panel, she stands over Charlie Brown, who is propped up on his elbows, and says "But you don't kick the kick . . ." Lucy has finally stated the fundamental truth of the football routine.  Charlie Brown will never kick a football held by Lucy. His best chance was in 1979, but he missed. His missing the football is a basic physical truth, like the "Wump!" of gravity made by his falling body. This year's strip omits Charlie Brown's landing. We know it is there, though, just like we know that energy is neither created nor destroyed, only transferred from one form to another, but never from Charlie Brown's foot to the football.

Lucy, Charlie Brown, Football: Part 9: 1990-1994

1990-1994: The Return of the Giant Football



1990
There are a series of strips involving Charlie Brown, Peggy Jean, and a football, but since Lucy is not involved I will not write about them here.


35. September 9, 1991


In the first panel, the giant football is back. Charlie Brown precariously holds on to it on the left side while Lucy ascends the right side. She looks to be peering past the football's laces, looking for Charlie Brown. Charlie Brown looks like he is about to fall off. Panel two shows Lucy singing out "Charlie Brownnn!" with three "n"s, an exclamation point, and three eight notes! Lest we get distracted by her enthusiastic singing, we have to note the open book that sits on the ground next to her. Lucy clearly has a plan. She makes the usual proposition to Charlie Brown as he looks at her. The book is visible between them. Charlie Brown does not seem to see it. He tries a sarcastic response. "Congratulate me! You have just nominated me 'most stupid kid of the year" Lucy sets the trap. She holds up the book as she tees up the football. She tells Charlie Brown that she has been reading a book about "holding the ball . . ." She stands, and tells Charlie Brown that the book "tells how to hold it for the kickoff, for field goals, and for extra points . . . ." We have never been told if Lucy and Charlie Brown are pretending that they are in a real football game? Is Charlie Brown imaging the opening kickoff? Is Lucy envisioning a game-winning field goal? We have never been given a scenarios beside Charle Brown running up and kicking the ball. Charle Brown has sometimes said how far he will kick the ball, such as today when he says he is going to kick the "ball all the way to Onaha!" He seems to have given up the dream of kicking it to the moon. Before we reach this moment, we see Charlie Brown walking away from the football; we see that he has fallen for the power of the written word once again. "If someone is reading a book about something, I guess you have to trust her . . ." Has Charlie Brown not learned that this is true? Is he just convincing himself? "Aaugh!" "Wham!" The final panel returns us to a recurring tableau. Charlie Brown lies prone, with lines and asterisks over his head. He looks toward the reader. Lucy stands over him, the book in her right hand, the football in her left. She leans over and says "I wrote the book, Charlie Brown!" Lucy asserts her power. She makes a claim to be the rule-maker. Has she actually written a book that lays out the rules for the football routine? Has she written down her various methods of getting Charlie Brown to run toward the football? Has she codified her justifications and rationalizations for pulling the football away? Has she written the book on Charlie Brown? As readers do not see the pages of the book, we cannot know. Every day, Lucy writes the book.

36.  October 11, 1992


The giant football appears again. It has a tooth-bearing grin as it looks toward its left, where we see Charlie Brown's head and neck.  He glances to his right. He looks scared. In panel two, he looks toward the left. Lucy must have called him, but we do not see her call. All we get is Charlie Brown asking "Why me?" At the end of his life, the man from the country asks the gatekeeper of "Before the Law" a similar question. "How is it in these many years no one except me has requested entry?" The gatekeeper answers, "Here no one else can gain entry, since this entrance was assigned only to you." The football is only for you Charlie Brown. Is the football the law itself? Lucy makes her proposition. In a panel that is about a quarter the size of a usual panel, Charlie Brown says "She sounds sincere." As he walks away from the football in the next panel, he continues this thought, "If a person sound sincere, then they must be sincere . . . ." Has Charlie Brown been talking to Linus too much? Lucy has played the sincerity card before. On September 1, 1963, she offers Charlie Brown a handshake and then says "Let's shake on it . . . This proves my sincerity . . ." The same thing that happened in 1963 happens again in 1992. Lucy pulls away the football, but she has only smiled once in the last four years. The smiling football in the opening panel seems even more ominous. Who is enjoying the football routine? Lucy clearly enjoys her punchlines, but these are becoming less frequent. This year, we get the requisite "Wump" followed by three more panels. Lucy is gone, though. Inexplicably, Sally walks in from the left, and asks Charlie Brown, who is now propped up on his elbows with his head still spinning, "You're not in love with Lucy, are you, big brother?" Charlie Brown answers "I should hope not." Sally seems to have been watching. She seems to know about the football routine. She has appeared once before, as one of the figures holding a football in the Kafka-esque final panel of 1983. Has Sally been watching, out of the frame, this whole time? We will see her again in two years, and the answer seems to be yes. Back in 1992, she tells her brother "I've discovered that love makes us do strange things . ." Sally seems to be looking for a parallel in her relationship with Linus in Charlie Brown's relationship with Lucy. Charlie Brown simply replies "So does stupidity" He is sitting up; there are lines around his head. He looks dizzy. The first panel of the smiling football looks more and more ominous. And why has Lucy walked off without offering a final word. Things are getting weird.

37. October 3, 1993

Once again we start with the giant football. Lucy is atop it, her arms stretched over the top of the ball. She smiles, as if she has climbed a mountain. While the football dwarves her, she seems to control it. In panel two, she points the football to the right as she calls out "Over here!" Charlie Brown appears, and listens with his hand to his chin as Lucy prefaces her normal proposition by saying "This is a brand new ball, Charlie Brown!" Like usual, Charlie Brown falls for any line Lucy offers. As he walks away he says "A brand new ball! Wow!" As he runs toward the football he says "This is a real treat!" Lucy pulls the football away and watches Charlie Brown land with a hard "Wump" that causes his whole body to vibrate. Lucy looks completely indifferent to Charlie Brown's pain. In the final panel, Charlie Brown lies prone and looks out toward the reader. Lucy continues to kneel. She looks not at Charlie Brown but at the football. "It suddenly occurred to me that if I let you kick it, it wouldn't be new anymore." Neither of them should be surprised. There should be no sudden occurrence. We are back on November 15, 1952 and Lucy's very first reason for pulling the football away. When toddler Lucy pulled that football away from Charlie Brown she meant it when she said she did not want her new football to get dirty. Whether she remembers 1952 or not, 1993 gives us a different Lucy and a different Charlie Brown. 1952 was two kids playing. 1993 is a choreographed scene, burdened by the past. Time is running out; the power of routine holds on.

38. October 16, 1994


1994 starts with Lucy breaking the routine, seemingly out of impatience. Instead of waiting outside with the football and calling to Charlie Brown, Lucy, football under her arm, rings his doorbell. Sally answers the door. Lucy holds out the football as Sally says "What's up?" Lucy offers her proposition to Sally to give to Charlie Brown. "Tell you brother to come out . . . Tell him I'll hold the ball, and he can come running up and kick it . ." Sally looks perplexed, but she does what Lucy asks. Sally finds Charlie Brown sitting in his bean bag chair. He looks back over his shoulder as Sally says "She's here again . . Why does she think you're dumb enough to be fooled again?" Charlie Brown says nothing. In the next panel, we see Lucy walking on the lawn, followed by Charlie Brown a few steps behind on the porch. Sally, a few steps behind him, sticks her head out the door and says "You don't really believe my brother is that naive, do you? Neither Lucy nor Charlie Brown say anything. They do not even turn back to look. Sally steps onto the porch and the point of view remains with her. She call out "How often do you think you can fool someone with the same trick?!" In the next panel Sally puts her hands to her mouth as we hear an "Aaugh!" with the speech bubble coming from the left of the panel. The next panel gives us a "Wump!" as Sally jumps into the air. We have reached the point where an exclamation and the sound of a body hitting the ground tell us all we need to know. Next, we see a dizzy Charlie Brown walk past Sally, a curling line and an asterisk over his head. He goes inside, and Sally offers the punchline to no one "Pretty often, huh?" What was Charlie Brown doing when Lucy rang the doorbell. Often, one sitting in a beanbag chair in Peanuts is watching tv. The right side of the panel is cut off, though, so we cannot know what Charlie Brown is doing in the beanbag chair. The way he walks silently past his sister strongly implies that he is returning to the beanbag chair and continuing to do whatever he had been doing before the football routine interrupted. He probably has a headache, but he seems otherwise unaffected by what has just happened. Likewise, we neither see nor hear Lucy in the final five panels. We do not know how she reacts when she pulls away the football. She has nothing to say. Routine goes on for the sake of routine.

But there is something strange about Sally appearing in two of the first four 1990s strips. In the series of strips from 1979, Linus offers commentary about the football routine. And, as noted above, Sally, Woodstock, Snoopy, Peppermint Patty, and Marcie all hold footballs in 1983. 1992 and 1994, though, provide the most commentary by another character about the football routine. Sally seems somewhat indignant, as she asks the questions that Charlie Brown has stopped asking.

Lucy, Charlie Brown, and 43 Footballs Part 8: 1985-1989

1985-1989: Lucy is Sad



31. October 19, 1986

This year starts off with a contemplative Lucy. Kneeling, with the football in her hands, she stares off into the distance. She looks plaintive, nostalgic. She thinks "Once a year . . . just once a year . . ." The strange thing about this reflection, though, is that there was no football routine in 1985. It has been two years. Did Lucy forget last year? Has she forgotten that she forgot? If Schroeder can forgot Beethoven's birthday--three times, no less, 1957, 1961, and 1967), nothing is impossible. So why is she thinking "once a year" anyway? Somehow, the missed year (and the missing of the missed year--the absence of a football routine in 1985 is never commented on) has made Lucy nostalgic. She will continue in this mood for the rest of the 1980s. This seems like a good place to remember that Charlie Brown has long shown an awareness of the recurrence of the football routine--witness his numerous "again" statements over the years. Lucy has reflected on past years less frequently. Time, as I have frequently discussed, flows strangely in Peanuts. Most of the main characters were introduced as babies or toddlers. When Lucy first appeared on March 3, 1952, she was a toddler who could not even count to two. Charlie Brown was noticeably older than her. In the first football routine in 1952, Lucy is still a toddler, and still noticeably younger than Charlie Brown. By 1956, when she clearly pulls the football away with the intention of making Charlie Brown miss, Lucy has aged to roughly Charlie Brown's age. Schroeder, Linus, and Sally are all introduced as babies. They reach their "mature" age within a few years, and they then stay this age for the next forty or so years. But not all the characters age in the same way. For example, Sally first appears as an infant on August 23, 1959, but she quickly ages to become a first-grader, which she remains until the end of Peanuts. Charlie Brown does not age at all as Sally gets older. The same thing happens with Linus, and later Rerun, in relation to their older sister, Lucy.  While time does not progress chronologically in the strip (it is almost impossible to imagine a 60-year-old Charlie Brown), it does proceed in a cyclical nature. Certain days are noted nearly every year: New Year's, Valentine's Day, Easter, the first day of baseball season, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Beethoven's Birthday, Christmas. Occasionally, previous years are at least obliquely referred to--Linus is  clearly aware that he has waited for the Great Pumpkin numerous times; Charlie Brown remembers past baseball seasons. By 1986, past football routines seem to be weighing on Lucy. Perhaps she is running out of ideas, out of justifications, tricks, and reasons to pull the football away. Or, maybe, Lucy works to conquer her own nostalgia by turning it into one more reason to pull the football away.

By the second panel, Lucy has returned to form. She looks off to the right and sings out "Charline Brownn . .  ." When he appears, she makes the same old proposal, and Charlie Brown offers a similar response. "You must think I'm really stupid!" Lucy then springs her newest trap--she justifies the routine by noting that it is indeed a routine. "Please Charlie Brown . . . I look forward to this special moment all year . . . ." Her ploy works. Charlie Brown turns; as he walks away from the football, he says "I suppose if someone looks forward to something, it's wrong to spoil it . . ." Lucy has convince him. Since they have done this before, they should do it again. "Aaugh!" "Wham!"Charlie Brown's head spins as Lucy kneels next to him. She frowns and says "How depressing . . . You look forward all year to a special moment, and before you know it, it's over!" But, unlike most every other year, Lucy's statement made over a prone Charlie Brown is not the final panel--it's second to last. In the final panel, we see Lucy walking away with the football under her arm. She says, "It's so depressing." Behind her, Charlie Brown rises to his elbows, lifts his head, and says "I can't stand it!" What can't he stand? I think he cannot stand that Lucy has used nostalgia against him. He knows that she does not feel depressed. He knows that this will all happen again.

There is another difference worth noting in this strip. Charlie Brown proclaims that he is going to kick the football "clear to Bullhead City!" this year. While he has claimed that he would kick the ball out of the universe, or the moon (numerous times), Charlie Brown has never said he would kick the ball to a specific city. (He will come back to this idea a few more times). I had to go to my atlas to find Bullhead City. It is in the Mojave desert in Arizona, just across the river from Needles, California, which, of course, is the home of Snoopy's brother, Spike. The specificity of place mentioned here by Charlie Brown emphasizes the non-determined place of Peanuts. Most readers take for granted that it takes place in Minnesota, but we are never told that. Peanuts is often weirdly out of time; it is also out of place.

32. October 4, 1987

Lucy looks happy this year as she calls out "Charlie Brownnn . . . ." with three "n"s. Charlie Brown looks toward her and states, somewhat oddly, "Baseball season isn't even over yet." Charlie Brown's baseball team's season is indeed over; they lost their last game in the strips from September 21-25. Baseball season has been over for almost two weeks. What does Charlie Brown mean? Perhaps he is referring to a different baseball season. The last regular season game for Major League Baseball in 1987 was October 4. Depending on the time of day one read this strip, baseball season may or may not have been over. If you were from  Minnesota, and were a Twins fan, baseball season was in fact, not over. The Twins clinched the American League East on September 28; they had been in first place for the whole month of September, so maybe Charlie Brown is making an oblique reference to the Twins making the playoffs. Of course, the Twins won the World Series in seven games over the Cardinals, so their season did not end until October 25. Has Schulz included a shout out to the Twins?    This year and last year's football routine both reference specific places. Last year, Charlie Brown claimed he would kick the ball to Bullhead City; this year he claims that he will kick it "all the way to
Mount Rushmore." Maybe the "baseball season" line is another real-world place reference. Regardless, both Lucy and Charlie Brown note that they are doing the football routine "kind of early."  A few football routines take place in early October (and a few take place even earlier, in September, and once in August), but many do happen later in October, and even in November and December.  Lucy takes out her calendar and tells Charlie Brown "my appointment book is just about filled . . . " That is all that Charlie Brown needs to hear. As he walks away from the football Lucy says "This is the only time I can really fit you in . ." Charlie Brown replies "I guess everybody is busy these days . . . ." Neither one of them have said that they remember the faith Charlie Brown placed in documents in the 1960s (see especially 1964), but I bet they remember. "Wump!" Lucy is ready with her deadpan punchline. Like last year, she delivers it in the second to last panel, a close up of her from the shoulders up, as she looks at her appointment book. She says "I think I made a mistake . . . I have an open spot during the first part of November . . . Shall we try it again then?" The final panel shows us Charlie Brown lying prone, as he says "November will be fine . . . in the year 2000!" Thirteen years later, this line would have a strange poignancy. The last football routine strip ran on October 24, 1999. Charles Schulz died on February 12, 2000. The last Peanuts strip was published on February 13, 2000. Charlie Brown and Lucy did not meet up in November, 2000.

33. October 23, 1988


This year's routine returns to contemplation, even sadness. Lucy cradles the football and looks off to the right. She does not sing; she does not say anything at all. She is not smiling; she looks somewhat plaintive. Charlie Brown approaches, walking right to left in the next panel. He does not say anything either; he is virtually expressionless. Lucy's and Charlie Brown's eyes  line up across the panels, even as Lucy is kneeling. It weirdly seems like they are making eye contact. Charlie Brown remains silent for the whole strip. Lucy does not speak until the last panel. Her face, especially considering that her eyes are just dots with a line next to them and her mouth is a short straight line, is incredibly expressive in this year's strip. In the third panel, she holds the football ready, but looks at Charlie Brown. He stares at the football. As he walks away, Lucy turns her gaze to the football. She looks sad. She has a small frown and her head is turned down. Charlie Brown looks determined as he runs toward the football. His mouth is partially open; his brow is furrowed. Lucy still looks sad as she pulls the ball away. Her expression has barely changed. She is not smiling; she does not look remotely pleased. Charlie Brown looks shocked as he flies through the air. But he remains silent! He does not exclaim "Augh!" Lucy watches him fall hard to the ground with a body-shaking "Wump" But even the "Wump" has no exclamation point. The final panel returns us to prone Charlie Brown lying on the ground, looking out toward us readers. But, as she speaks, Lucy does not lean over Charlie Brown. She does not even look at him. She kneels to his right, but she is staring into an empty space in front of her face; her look is downward, so she is not looking toward the reader, as Charlie Brown is. She is in her own mind. She says "It's so sad . . . Eventually everything in life just becomes routine . ." I cannot read this as a punchline. Lucy genuinely looks sad. This strip is the saddest of all the football routines.

34. October 1, 1989

Lucy seems to be in a better mood in 1989. She calls out "Charlie Brownnn . . . ." in a sing-songy way; she smiles when she makes the familiar proposition. Charlie Brown seems pretty much normal too. He cannot "believe it . ." when Lucy calls him. He replies to Lucy's proposition in the usual way "You'll pull it away, and I'll kill myself!" Lucy is ready with a response. "But think how the years go by, Charlie Brown . . Think of the regrets you'll have if you never risk anything . . . ." Charlie Brown falls for this speech. He holds his hand to his chin as he thinks about what Lucy says. As he walks away from the football, he says "Maybe she's right . . Before you know it, you're old and you haven't really done anything" Charlie Brown has been the same age since the 1950s; he does not get old. He runs up, planning to "kick the football all the way to the North Pole!" "Aaugh!" "Wham!" But maybe Lucy has not overcome last year's sadness. She has almost the same exact look on her face as she pulls the football away as she did in 1988. And she has no punchline. She does not get a chance to say anything after she pulls the football away. The second to last panel shows Charlie Brown crashing to the ground. The last panel shows a close up of Charlie Brown, propped up on his elbows with his head raised. He does not turn his head toward the reader, nor does he turn back toward Lucy. He looks past the left edge of the panel and says, "On the other hand, maybe it's better to just let the years go by . . . ."  What is Lucy thinking? Is she sad again? She will take 1990 off from the football routine. There are only nine Charlie Brown and Lucy football strips left.

Lucy, Charlie Brown, and 43 Footballs Part 7: 1980-1984

1980-1984: Before the Football Kneels Lucy



26. November 16, 1980

Last year's promise has been forgotten (or ignored), kind of.  Lucy does not offer her proposal to Charlie Brown in 1980 (unlike almost every year save 1974, and some of the 1950s strips), and Charlie Brown is silent through most of this strip. The "football" only gets mentioned in the final panel. Instead, Lucy returns to scripture. The first panel shows us Lucy looking at the football, which she has ready for Charlie Brown to kick. She says "Ecclesiastes . . Third chapter . ." Lucy is alone in this panel. Is she talking to the football? to herself? to readers? In the second panel, Lucy is holding the football when Charlie Brown walks in. Lucy has not called him this year; she does not sing out his name to get his attention. When Charlie Brown appears, Lucy simply says "Ah! Just the person I wanted to see." Charlie Brown has no response. Lucy begins her recitation of Ecclesiastes 3 in the next panel, and she directly addresses it to Charlie Brown. "'To every thing there is a season.' Charlie Brown . . ." He looks at her but does not respond. Lucy continues with the verse as Charlie Brown turns and walks away from the football. "A time to be born, and a time to die." Lucy continues with one finger of her right hand on the football, one finger of her left hand pointing upward; her eyes are closed as she recites. The view draws back in the next panel, as Charlie Brown stops and Lucy continues with "A time to weep and a time to laugh . ." This view has rarely been presented. Usually, when Charlie Brown turns toward the football, we can not see how close or far he is from it. Usually, we only see this distance closing as Charlie Brown runs toward the football. But here, in the panel, the distance does not look all that great; Charlie Brown is at most ten steps from the football. He is still silent. As he runs up, he looks determined but he does exult; he does not claim that he is about to kick the ball to the moon, or out of the universe. It is almost as if he does not want to interrupt Lucy's recitation, which continues "A time of war, and a time of peace" Charlie Brown's first, and only, word in this strip, is his involuntary "Aaugh!" as he flies through the air after missing the football. "Wham!" Lucy is done reciting, but she adds her own line in the final panel, as she looks down on a prone, frowning Charlie Brown, who looks out at us. "And a time to pull away the football" The time to pull away the football, of course, is in the moment when Charlie Brown has committed to kicking it, the moment when he cannot stop, but also the moment when he will miss the ball. If Lucy pulls the ball away too soon, Charlie Brown will presumably stop. If Lucy waits too long, Charlie Brown will presumably kick the football (or her hand, as we saw last year). Lucy is precise in her timing.

But what about the broader sense of time she appeals to in invoking Ecclesiastes 3, when she says "'To everything there is a season?'" Why does she directly address these lines to Charlie Brown? She must be referring to the recurring time of the football routine, and not just the moment when she pulls the football away. Over the more than forty years of this routine, the majority of the football strips--23-- happen in October. 12 happen in September; a mere one happens in December (and that was December 16, 1956, only the second appearance of the football routine, and thus, its first recurrence); only one happens in August (August 2, 1979, when Charlie Brown gets out of the hospital); the other five occurrences happen in November, like 1980's. In fact, 1980 is the third latest in the year the football routine happens; only November 29, 1981, and the aforementioned December 16, 1956 are later. Why did the time for the football routine happen so late in 1980? Why does it happen even later in 1981? Only Lucy knows and she is not telling us. Instead, she references to Old Testament book that reminds us "One generation passes away, and another generation comes; / But the Earth abides forever. / The sun also rises, and the sun goes down / And hastens to the place it arose." No matter the time scale--be it the generational one of humans, the geological one of the Earth, or the daily one of the Earth turning--nothing will change. The football routine has already happened, it is happening, and it will happen. "That which has been is what will be / That which is done is what will be done, / And there is nothing new under the sun." Lucy's timing will always be perfect. She is the true biblical scholar of Peanuts.

But Lucy and Charlie Brown are in this together. Maybe Charlie Brown is the one who has perfect timing. Ecclesiastes 10 tells us, "He who digs a pit will fall into it, / and whoever breaks through a wall will be bitten by a serpent. He who quarries stones may be hurt by them, / And he who splits wood may be endangered by it." She who holds a football will get kicked in the hand (see 1979). He who tries to kick a football will try again (remember that this whole thing was Charlie Brown's idea in 1952).

27. November 29, 1981

The time of the football routine in 1981 occurs exceptionally late in the year, November 29. Has Lucy contemplated giving up? Have 1979 and 1980 convinced her that the "time to pull away the football" has passed? Lucy seems less invested in the routine this year. In the first panel, she no longer sings out Charlie Brown's name; she looks toward him and calls out, as she kneels and holds the football, "Over here! I'm over here!" Like last year, she cannot quite bring herself to make the proposal. Instead, once the football is ready, she just looks at Charlie Brown with a smile. A smile is all he needs? Unlike his silent acquiescence of last year, Charlie Brown resists the impulse to try to kick the football--at least in his words. He says all the right words of resistance. "Does she really think I'm such a fool?" "Am I dumb enough?"  He repeats the phrase "Not again!" four times! But his body betrays him. He walks away from the football like he usually does. But the turn back toward the football he makes in panel six is masterfully drawn. The still image, by showing his feet (and his elbows) pointed in opposite directions, implies an unwilled movement toward the football. The two lines that follow the curve of his left arm show the change in direction that his body has undertaken, seemingly on its own. The routine has become a matter of muscle memory. Whatever he says, Charlie Brown cannot and will not stop. As he runs toward the football he asks "Is it really happening again?"  This question reminds me of a scene from season 2, episode 7 of Twin Peaks, which aired nine years after this strip, on November 11, 1990. The character then known as The Giant, appears in a vision to Agent Dale Cooper, and says twice, "It is happening again." Time loops through weird repetitions in Twin Peaks, especially given Cooper's question, "What year is it?" in the final episode of Twin Peaks: the Return, in 2017. Time loops through weird repetitions in Peanuts, too. After he misses the football, "Wump!"Lucy leans over him and says "Again Charlie Brown . . . . and again, and again and again." Charlie Brown looks toward us with a frown. This strip might be the eeriest of all the football routine strips. Look again at panel six. Charlie Brown cannot control his own body. What possesses him?

28. October 10, 1982

1982 returns immediately to the "not again" phrasing of last year; this year, Charlie Brown asks it as a question in the first panel, "Not again?" as he stands in the grass and looks toward the left, presumably at Lucy. He walks in the direction he is looking in panel two as he says "I can't believe it." We do not even see Lucy in the first two panels. When we finally do see her in panel three, she does not even have to speak. She looks at the football she is holding as Charlie Brown speaks. She remains silent, turning her head to watch Charlie Brown as he walks away from the football. He wonders about the symbolism of the football routine. He says "there has to be something deeply symbolic in that." He cannot figure out what it might mean, though. Even as he has "tried to study it from every angle. . . ." he says, as he runs toward the ball, "somehow, though, I've missed the symbolism . . ." Why has Charlie Brown suddenly become so interested in "symbolism?" Is he trying to find a previously hidden meaning to this act? Does he think it reveals something about his character? About his life? Perhaps. But why now, in the 28th occurrence of the routine?

In Franz Kafka's short story "Before the Law," a man from the country seeks access to the law. He meets a gatekeeper at the door that he hopes will allow him to "entry into the law." But the gatekeeper  tells the man that he cannot be given access to the law "at them moment." The man asks if he we be allowed to enter later, and the gatekeeper says "It is possible . . . but not now." The man continues to wait and to try to gain access any way he can. "He makes many attempts to be let in" but never is. In one way, Charlie Brown is the man from the country and Lucy is the gatekeeper. The football is the door and kicking the football is the entry into the law. This reading, though, only makes sense when looking at a specific year's comic. In any given year, Lucy controls and denies access; Charlie Brown tries to gain access but fails again and again. But the parallel between "Before the Law" and the football routine points to a more interesting connection in a larger context. "Before the Law" appears in Chapter Nine of Kafka's The Trial, where a priest tells Josef K. "a story" about the man from the country and the gatekeeper. After he tells the story, Josef K. and the priest discuss the story's meaning. From this discussion, it seems clear to me that Lucy is the priest and Charlie Brown is Josef K. The football routine, played out over nearly fifty years of Peanuts, is both the story and the subsequent discussion of it. The priest tells Josef K. that "it talks about self-deceit in the opening paragraphs to the law." Likewise, Charlie Brown tells himself, in 1982, that he's missed something "symbolic" about his exchange with Lucy. In The Trial, the priest and Josef K. discuss many interpretations of the story, so many, that the priest eventually tells Josef K. that he does not believe any one interpretation of the story that the "commentators" have put forth. He tells K. "Don't get me wrong . . . I'm just putting out the various opinions about it. You shouldn't pay too much attention to people's opinions." That last sentence sounds like something Lucy might say as she leans over Charlie Brown in the final panel of a football routine strip. Instead, this year she says, in response both to Charlie Brown's claim that "I've missed the symbolism" and his attempt to kick the football ("Wump!"), "You also missed the ball, Charlie Brown" The priest tells Josef K that "the text cannot be altered, and the various opinions are often no more than an expression of despair over it." That expression of despair is Charlie Brown's repeated "Augh!" every year. Later the priest tells Josef K. that "you don't need to accept everything as true, you only have to accept it as necessary." Lucy has been telling Charlie Brown the same thing every year, when she lies to him and when she avoids lying through a justification, often centered on a document. K's reply to the priest is embodied in Charlie Brown's facial expression in the last panel, or more precisely, in every one of Charlie Brown's facial expressions over the years in the last panel, as he looks toward his readers. "Depressing view . . . the lie made into the rule of the world." He knows that the lie is a lie; he knows that Lucy will pull away the football, but still he "stud[ies] it from every angle," and still he tries to kick it. Before the football kneels Lucy.

29. October 16, 1983

In he opening panel of October 16, 1983, Charlie Brown stands in the same posture he did in 1982, hand at his side as he faces toward the left, presumably looking at Lucy. There is a tree in the background this year, and Charlie Brown's words are different, too. He says "She's got to be kidding!"  Just like last year, he walks toward Lucy and the football, and says "She must think I'm really dumb . . .," a variation on a theme he has stated many times before. Lucy greets him with a smile and says "Here we go, Charlie Brown . . ." before she makes the same proposition she has made before. In response, Charlie Brown spreads his arms wide and begins to pontificate. In the next panel, he faces Lucy, and with his arms gesturing before him, he says, "Well, I have news for you . . . Never again! Forget it!" Lucy frowns ands begins to panic. She picks up the football and exclaims "Wait!" Charlie Brown walks away. He does not turn back; he controls his body. He turns his head, but only his head. As he continues walking, he says, "I'm just glad you're the only person in the world who thinks I'm dumb enough to fall for that trick again . . . " CHARLIE BROWN DOES NOT TURN BACK! HE DOES NOT RUN UP! HE DOES NOT TRY TO KICK THE FOOTBALL!! FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE 1973 (and for one of the few times ever) THERE IS NO "AUGH!" THERE IS NO "WUMP!" OR "WHAM!" This is the beginning of the end of the football strip as it has existed since the 1950s. In 1984, we will not see Charlie Brown try to kick the football, and the football strip takes place in a single weekday four panel strip. There is NO FOOTBALL ROUTINE in 1985. Most of the rest of the strips in the 1980s will be reflective on the football routine itself, even nostalgic. While the 1990s strips will return to earlier themes and ideas, there is no football routine with Lucy in 1990, and in three years of the 90s there is either no attempt to kick the football, or the attempt takes place off-stage. The last football strip will run in 1999, but 1983 is the beginning of the end. But I'm getting too far ahead of myself.

Something else happens in 1983. After he turns back and tells Lucy that he is glad she's the only person "in the world" who thinks he would fall for "that trick again, " Charlie Brown walks into the last panel and into perhaps the most Kafkaesque panel that Charles Schulz ever drew. In "Before the Law," the gatekeeper tells the man from the country that the gatekeeper is only one of many gatekeepers standing between the law and the man from the country. The gatekeeper says "And I am only the most lowly gatekeeper. But from room to room stand gatekeepers, each more powerful than the other. I can't endure ever one glimpse of the third." The man from the country cannot simply sneak past or walk away from the gatekeeper. Charlie Brown looks shocked as he realizes that he cannot just walk away from Lucy and the football. Arrayed before him in the final panel are five kneeling, smiling figures looking at him--Woodstock, Snoopy, Sally, Peppermint Patty, and Marcie. Each holds a football ready to be kicked. Woodstock's football is tiny.

30. October 13, 1984

October 13, 1984 was a Saturday. Peppermint Patty lies on a beanbag chair and speaks on the phone. "Hi, Chuck," she starts. She complains about how Marcie is "driving me crazy" because "she'll never be a football player." In panel two, Patty is drawn closer up, like a camera is zooming in on her. She says "Some people just never learn, do they Chuck?"  Where is this going? How is this a football routine strip? Except for the special case of 1979, every football routine strip has been a Sunday strip, a longer stand alone story that takes place mostly outside the plot of the daily strips. The Sunday football routine strips refer to each other more than they do to the strips that surround them on the calendar. Nonetheless, and to continue the filmic metaphor of the close up, there is a jump cut between panels two and three. We no longer see Patty talking, but we do not see the expected cut to Charlie Brown responding over the phone from his house. Instead, we see Lucy. She is kneeling and holding a football, but she is right outside of Charlie Brown's house. She calls out, with a pair of eighth notes to show that she is singing out his name "Charlie Brown . . . C'mon outside . . . I'll hold the ball, and you kick it . . ." Suddenly we are in the midst of the football routine. The final panel of the comic takes us to the expected scene of Charlie Brown speaking into his phone. He says "No, we don't" He does not say, "No, they don't." He says "we." He knows he is one of the people who "just never learn." Charlie Brown is standing near a window. His eyes are looking toward the window and away from his phone conversation. He has heard Lucy's call, which, given the time frame of the comic and the way it cuts from place to place, she must have been making either as Patty was talking or in the moment after she finished talking and before Charlie Brown responded. The comic ends. If readers were expecting a Sunday football routine strip in 1984, they were disappointed. If they were expecting the Monday, October 15 strip to pick up where the Saturday, October 13 strip left off, they were disappointed. On October 15 we are with Spike in the desert. The next football routine strip is two years away!

Lucy, Charlie Brown, and 43 Footballs Part 6: 1979

1979: A descent into chaos




25. July 30, July 31, August 1, August 2, 1979

1979 begins a sort of opening out of the football kicking strips. They have always been a two person operation between Charlie Brown and Lucy. They have always taken place on one day, with no lead in or follow up strips; they have always appeared on a Sunday. They could stand alone. Not in 1979.
In 1979, the actual attempt to kick the football develops over four daily strips, from July 30 to August 2. There is also a long setup this year, a story that starts on July 3 (!) during baseball season (!) when Charlie Brown suddenly feels "kind of woozy" on the pitcher's mound. Lucy walks in from right field and says "You've probably been hit on the head with too many fly balls." Things escalate quickly from here. Charlie Brown goes to the "Ace Memorial Hospital" Emergency Entrance by himself because his parents are "at the Barber's Picnic" (July 9). We are never told, and neither is Charlie Brown, what ailment he has. On July 14, he says "I wonder if I'm dying . . . I wonder if they'd tell me if I were dying . . ." as he lies in bed. He continues in the next panel, " I wonder if they'd tell me if I'm not dying . . . maybe I'm already dead." You are not dead Charlie Brown. The next day he seems to have escaped his dread, as he calls himself "Joe Patient." Except for a brief appearance in the first panel on July 22, we do not see Charlie Brown again until Sunday, July 29 when he returns home and greets Snoopy. July 29 also reminds us of one of Peanuts' best running gags--Snoopy does not know Charlie Brown's name. He stares, from the top of his doghouse as Charlie Brown talks to him. In the final panel, Snoopy thinks "Now I remember! He's that round-headed kid who always feeds me. ." (There are two dots after this thought--neither the full-stop of a period or the gesture toward continuation of ellipses.) Snoopy here reminds me of the narrator of Kafka's "Investigations of a Dog" (which becomes a really interesting story if one imagines that Snoopy is the actual writer of the story, but that is for a different post), whose investigations center on "the question [of] what the canine race nourished itself upon." Unlike his fellows, Kafka's dog seeks to know where his food comes from. Snoopy has his own personal answer; it comes from the round-headed kid. Anyway, the two weeks of July 1979 when we do not see Charlie Brown (except for the one panel on July 14 as noted above) focuses on how his friends respond to his hospitalization. Sally, his sister, feeds his dog, but also moves into his room. Marcie and Peppermint Patty are denied a visit to Charlie Brown because they are two young. They instead sit on a park bench outside the hospital, upon which Marcie confesses her love for Charlie Brown and even says "In fact, if he asked me, I'd even marry Chuck!" Peppermint Patty then tries to check Marcie into the hospital for being "sicker" than Charlie Brown.

But what about Lucy? What does Lucy do when she finds out that Charlie Brown is in the hospital? Her first response, when Linus tells her that Charlie Brown is in the hospital, on July 16, is "I'm glad it wasn't me!" She says this with a frown, her elbows perched on the small brick wall that the characters often converse at, her hands at the side of her frowning face. A few days later, on July 19, she is crying on Schroeder's piano. "He's got to get well! He's got to! OH, BOO HOO HOO HOO! SOB!" Schroeder nonchalantly responds to her emotional outburst by saying "It's interesting that you should cry over him when you're the one who always treated him so mean!" Does Schroeder think Charlie Brown is dead? Why does he use the past tense? He does not seem too concerned, as he then tells Lucy "And stop wiping your tears with my piano!" Everybody has their own obsessions. It is just under five months until Beethoven's birthday. Almost a week later, on July 26, Lucy tells Schroeder that she "can't eat or sleep" because she's so worried about Charlie Brown. Lucy is traumatized by Charlie Brown's continuing illness. She lashes out. "Maybe I could send him a threatening letter" she says, as Linus rolls his eyes. Two days later, at home, Linus tells her "I just talked with Charlie Brown's mom . . . He's not any better." Maybe Lucy briefly, or even unconsciously, remembers telling Charlie Brown in 1975 "I'm not your mother, Charlie Brown!" Mouth agape, arms thrown in the air, Lucy has a three panel meltdown. "What's wrong with a world where Charlie Brown can get sick, and then not get any better?" Lucy cares deeply for Charlie Brown. Maybe, Lucy loves Charlie Brown. This month of strips should be read by anyone who complains that the kids in Peanuts are mean and cruel to each other, and especially to Charlie Brown. They might be, but a sense of belonging and togetherness underlies the meanness and cruelty. They know each other; they are friends; they play out the same routines year after with love. Lucy returns to form in the last panel. With a fist raised and sweat flying from her face, she exclaims through an open mouth and clenched teeth "I NEED SOMEBODY TO HIT!!," with the word "hit" nearly the size of her head.

July 27, though reveals the true depth of Lucy's caring for Charlie Brown. In the first panel, Lucy stands outdoors, solitary in a pitch black night. She is in what Maurice Blanchot, in The Space of Literature, calls "empty night," a space of darkness beyond "the first night" of mere darkness and sleep. It is the paradoxical appearance of "everything has disappeared" experienced in the first night. Lucy, in her desperation, meets this appearance of disappearance, embodied by  "apparitions, phantoms, and dreams" with a finger raised and a promise to Charlie Brown. She sees what she fears most--the apparition of Charlie Brown's foot connecting with the football, the dream of the smile on his face when he finally kicks the ball. And Lucy is willing to endure this darkest night for Charlie Brown. Panel two of the comic draws in on her solemn face; we can no longer see the ground, only the black space behind her head. Her eyes are shut in straight lines; her mouth is a small oval, as she raises her right hand and says "If you get well, I promise I'll never pull the football away again!" The repercussions of this promise will echo forward through every strip that follows for the next twenty years. In panel three, Linus walks out of the darkness into the frame and tells his sister "That's quite a promise" With this statement, Linus has become part of the football-kicking routine. He will serve as guarantor of this promise. He has notarized it. The next day, on July 28, Linus asks Lucy to confirm her promise in the mundane light of day. As she sits in her beanbag in front of the television, Lucy once again raises her right hand and confirms "That is my solemn promise!" The very next day Charlie Brown is home; he spends this Sunday strip talking to Snoopy. The beginning of the reckoning will start the next day.

On July 30, Lucy, reclining in her beanbag in front of the television, hears a "KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK" at the door. In the third panel, she opens the door to Charlie Brown's smiling face. She exclaims "Charlie Brown! You're back!! You're well!" Her late-night promise has worked and her happiness at Charlie Brown's return is about to turn into something else. Noticeably, we can only see Charlie Brown and Lucy from the chest up; we cannot see their hands. Panel four takes a wider perspective, and we can see that Charlie Brown is lightly tossing a football up with both hands. His illness, and Lucy's despair at it, are now forgotten. He turns away from her and says over his shoulder "I heard something about a promise . . ." Lucy can only respond with a frown and an "Oh, good grief!" as they both stand on her front porch. Linus has told Charlie Brown about Lucy's promise. But this is not a Sunday strip, so we are left with this scene for a whole day, with the football, Charlie Brown, and Lucy all poised, frozen in the moment before they walk to the grass where the football kicking will take place.

July 31 shows us that Linus has indeed taken an interest in Lucy's and Charlie Brown's routine. He stands on the left side of the first panel, as Lucy, in the middle, kneels and holds the football. Charlie Brown, on the right, points at the football and says what Lucy usually says. "You hold the ball, and I'll come running up and kick it" He does not even need an exclamation point. Lucy stares at the ball. In the second panel, Charlie Brown, in profile, eye closed and finger in the air reminds Lucy of her promise. As he turns and begins walking away from the football in panel three, Lucy, holding the football in both hands, not yet ready to place one end of it on the ground and balance the other end with her finger, asks "Can't I change my mind?" Charlie Brown, once again without an exclamation point, says as he walks, "No, you can't break a promise to a sick friend" Lucy cannot deny her promise and she cannot deny her friendship. Charlie Brown walks off panel and Linus exclaims "Ha!" at his sister, as he asks her what she is going to do. She responds "Quiet! I'm thinking!" She is in trouble. She will not renege on her promise and she has no plan. She has no document, no banana, no sunglasses. She has no verbal weapons to throw at Charlie Brown, no appeals to her innocence, no tears, nothing. She still holds the football in both hands, reluctant to tee it up.

On August 1, she has given up. The football is ready to be kicked. Charlie Brown continues to walk away from the football, with Linus right behind him. Charlie Brown says "This time I'm really gonna kick that football. He is resolute. His hands in front of him, he looks like he is about to clap in anticipation. As if Charlie Brown's doubt cannot be fully erased, Linus embodies it and gives it voice. "You're crazy Charlie Brown! She'll pull it away like she always does! Don't trust her!" he says, his arms spread wide. Charlie Brown must recognize these words as his own from years past; nonetheless, he responds to Linus by spreading his own arms out wide and simply says "But she promised she'd never pull it away again if I got well . ." He starts to run toward the football with confidence. "I feel great! Here I go!!" He voice no hyperbole--he's not going to kick the football to the moon or out of the universe; he is just going to kick it. Charlie Brown, as he always has, trusts Lucy. In the background, Linus covers his eyes and says "I can't look. ." Which is stronger? Charlie Brown's faith in a promise from a friend? Or Linus' doubt of his sister (a doubt, of course, that is well-earned by Linus)? Spreading the routine over four daily panels raises the tensions and the stakes. I cannot even imagine what it was like to read these comics in 1979 in a newspaper. Did the world come to a stop on August 1st? Were people waiting at their doorsteps for the daily paper to arrive early on the morning of August 2? I might  have read these strips in the newspaper; I was eight years old in 1979 and I know that I had been reading Peanuts. I do not remember, though, maybe I was only reading the paperback compilations I checked out of my school library.

August 2, 1979. Lucy, her head framed by three fluffy clouds, kneels in the center of the frame, one end of the football on the ground, one end held by her finger. She looks off to the right and we all know what she sees. The look on her face seems to say that she cannot pull the football away and that she cannot believe that she cannot pull the football away. While every comic panel is a static image, this particular panel seems frozen in time, stuck in the moment before anything happens. And then chaos. Panel two makes no sense, like a hieroglyphic without a Rosetta stone. In the lower left corner, Charlie Brown swings his leg into the air.  The football is somehow behind him. Lucy is flying through the air over Charlie Brown's head, feet facing upward, her screaming "AAUGH!" filling the upper left quarter of the panel. The expected recurrence of Charlie Brown flying through the air, of the football being pulled away by a kneeling Lucy is missing. Its absence denotes its choreography--the curving lines tracing Charlie Brown's ascent echoed by the smaller curved lines of the football as Lucy pulls it away from his foot. Here there is just chaos. Charlie Brown does not ascend; his foot only kicks up to the level of his chest. Lines radiate out from Lucy in three directions. The disjunctions of this panel make me nauseous. . . Panel three offers explanation but not resolution. The football sits unmoving on the ground in the background. Charlie Brown sits on the ground next to it  with a "?" to the left of and slightly above his head. He looks stunned as he sees Lucy in front of him, her head turned back, her mouth agape, her right hand held in her left, as she screams, surrounded by stars, "My finger! My hand! my arm!" She dances in pain. Her words fill the top half of the final panel. "You missed the ball, you blockhead! You kicked my finger! You kicked my hand!" In a smaller speech bubble below this, she screams "Ow! Ow! Ow!" The football lies on the ground, and Charlie Brown sits next to it; he looks down at it with another "?" and a chagrined look. He is tiny in the background, barely taller than the signature "Schulz" that runs up the right edge of the panel next to him. Lucy has kept her promise. She did not pull the ball away. Charlie Brown missed the football and kicked Lucy's hand. On August 3, she says "I kept my promise, didn't I? I didn't pull the ball away" Charlie Brown agrees. We see Lucy's right arm encased by a gigantic cast. Why did Charlie Brown miss the football? Was it an athletic failure, akin to his striking out with the winning run on base in the bottom of the 9th? Was it more of an inevitable turn, like his kite finding its way into the kite-eating tree? Did he miss on purpose, to keep the routine alive? Who knows? What was Charlie Brown sick with? Did Lucy's promise cure him? Have we witnessed a miracle? Is Lucy halfway to becoming a saint? Is Charlie Brown? Is John Coltrane?

Lucy, Charlie Brown, and 43 Footballs Part 5: 1975-1978

1975-1978: Gender and other troubles



21. October 19, 1975
Lucy sings with glee and with four eight notes. Charlie Brown rolls his eyes. Lucy gives him a short version of the proposition. She doesn't say Charlie Brown's name. There are no exclamation points or ellipses in her offer, only a comma as Lucy says with a smile "I'll hold the ball, and you run up and kick it. In fact, the end of her statement has no punctuation whatsoever, a rare occurrence in the iterations of this statement in the football strips, and a relatively rare occurrence in Peanuts as a whole. Charlie Brown responds to this simplicity with utter contempt. He shuts his eyes tightly and scowls; his hair obscures it, but he may be furrowing his brow. He looks disgusted as he says what he always says. This actually seems like a moment when he might just walk away from the scene. But he does not. Lucy waves her arm at him, accusing him of "mistrust." "That's mistrust of me as an athlete, a person, and a woman! Do you mistrust all women?" Then she adds the kicker, "Do you mistrust even your mother?" And she has him. As he walks away from the football, Charlie Brown exclaims "Good grief, No!! If there's anyone in this world I do trust, it's my mother!" Lucy clearly is a psychiatrist; she has, in one panel, convinced Charlie Brown to transfer his trust of his mother to her. Charlie Brown runs silently toward the football. Is he thinking about his mother? We will never know. "WAM!" Lucy's final comment is inevitable. "I'm not your mother, Charlie Brown!" Charlie Brown looks out toward the reader with both eyes open. He knows that Lucy can manipulate him at will. As we have seen in 1968, 1969, and 1971, Charlie Brown cannot handle 1970s-era gender politics. He falls, literally, for Lucy's performative gestures of tears, innocence, and motherhood. Or does he? He does not look stunned in the final panel. There are no pencil swirls, no staring up at Lucy. His look seems knowing, or at least accepting. Lucy has not lied to Charlie Brown. She is not his mother. What about his mistrust of Lucy as an athlete? As a person? Is Lucy an athlete? Is she a person? Is Charlie Brown?

22. September 12, 1976

This one ranks with 1972, the year that neither Charlie Brown nor Lucy admitted their psychiatrist-patient relationship in the context of football, in what is unsaid. The opening panel introduces a variation. Lucy faces to the right, bouncing the football in her hands, and whistling (at least that is how I read the two eight notes speech bubble connected to her closed mouth). Charlie Brown approaches in the next panel. He must see Lucy because his speech bubble is a question mark: "?" Does the question mark signify speech? Maybe, just maybe, it is meant to sound like "huh?" or some other interrogative sound, but it might just be a means of signifying a curious look on his face. Regardless, Charlie Brown does not say any actual words in this questioning panel. Charlie Brown does not say any words in this whole strip, except for the involuntary "Aaugh!" that will come as he is flying through the air.  CHARLIE BROWN DOES NOT VOLUNTARILY SAY ANY WORDS IN THIS WHOLE STRIP. In panels two, three, and four, he looks expressionless. He is drawn in profile each time, but his mouth is not visible. His eyes are just dots. His eyebrows are not visible. The hair on the top of his head curls slightly forward like a question mark of its own. Lucy is brilliant. She describes exactly what she is going to do.  "I'm going to pretend to hold the football, Charlie Brown . . ." she tells Charlie Brown, who looks expressionless at the football. As he turns and begins to walk away from the football, Lucy says "But when you come running up to kick it, I'm going to pull it away . . . Okay?" Charlie Brown does not respond. And, judging by her facial expression, Lucy speaks matter-of-factly. She is not really smiling; her mouth is open just enough for her to say the words. Charlie Brown comes running. "WUMP!" Even as he has moved mechanically through the routine, Charlie Brown still feels the pain of the fall. He hits the ground hard. His tongue, which, remember, has not uttered a word, sticks out. Three lines and four starts radiate outward from his body. The final panel returns to a familiar tableau. Lucy, holding the football under her arm, leans over a prone Charlie Brown, looks him in the eyes, and says " Men never really listen to what women are saying, do they?" Charlie Brown, in pain, two lines near his eyes, can only look up in pain as Lucy offers a gender-inflected comment for the second year in a row. Maybe Charlie Brown thinks it would be better if Lucy said nothing in the last panel. They both seem to know that something more than a gender-difference joke is at stake here. The roteness of this year's routine does not work to alleviate the pain of the fall to the ground. Charlie Brown becomes purely reactive in this strip; he does what he is expected to do, what he expects himself to do, what Lucy expects him to do, with no thoughts and no words. While lying on his back, Charlie Brown should think of Nietzsche's question, "How well disposed would you have to become to yourself and to life to crave nothing more fervently than this ultimate eternal confirmation and seal?" If he thought of this question, he would see the answer when he looks up at Lucy. She calls herself a "fanatic" in 1965. Once a year, all that she craves is the recurrence of these events. Charlie Brown might join her in this affirmation, when Lucy tells him that the "confirmation and seal" was not notarized. Time is the shape of a football.

23. October 9, 1977

Charlie Brown takes the first panel this year. "Not again!" he says, eyes rolled toward the sky. Lucy, holding the football in both hands, calls out from panel two, "Over here! I've been waiting for you!" Has she been waiting a whole year? Maybe. But this year is slightly different. After more than twenty years of wearing the same dress, Lucy wears pants for the first time. But the routine remains the same. After Lucy makes the proposition and Charlie Brown responds with doubt--"Oh sure!"--Lucy offers Charlie Brown a "tip." "Just watch my eyes . . ." Charlie Brown looks her in the eye and says "Your eyes?" Lucy offers up a platitude that she knows will get the job done. "You can always tell what a person is going to do by watching their eyes!" As he walks away from the football, Charlie Brown convinces himself of the truthfulness of Lucy's statement. "Watch the eyes . . . I should have thought of that before . . ." He runs toward the football, exclaiming that he is going to "kick that ball out of the universe!" "WUMP!" He hits the ground hard. His legs fly up; his tongue sticks out of his mouth. FIVE lines and FIVE stars radiate from his body. In the final panel, Charlie Brown is granted the silence that he might have welcomed last year. Lucy kneels, holding the football, and for the first time ever in a football strip, faces directly outward, not in profile like usual, and not even in 3/4 profile like in the panels when she reads a document. Charlie Brown, too, looks outward and lets out a "Sigh." There is no eye contact. Lucy is wearing sunglasses. Specifically, she wears Snoopy's sunglasses, his Joe Cool sunglasses. Has she borrowed the sunglasses from Snoopy? Is Snoopy in on her joke? We do not know. There is something eerie about Lucy's eye-obscured silence. When did she put the sunglasses on? As Charlie Brown was walking away from the football? In the moment he tries to kick it. Once again, we do not know. Unlike every other year, we do not see Lucy pulling the football away. All we see is a panel of Charlie Brown flying through the air with an "Augh!!" Where were the sunglasses before Lucy put them on? I bet they were in her pants pocket. We are still left to wonder what she is thinking in a rare speechless (for Lucy) final panel. If you stare at the final panel long enough, it is haunting. Stare at it for five minutes and see.

24. October 1, 1978

This year starts strangely. Lucy is back to her dress. She holds the football with one finger and calls out "Over here!" But there's something else in the first panel. A banana? Is Lucy becoming a prop comedian? As Charlie Brown approaches, Lucy says "I have a bonus for you, Charlie Brown . . ." The bonus is indeed a banana, which she gives to Charlie Brown during her usual proposition. "I am not only going to hold the ball for you so you can kick it, but I am also going to give you a banana!" In the next panel, Charlie Brown is walking away from the football, holding the banana, now peeled, in his hand. Before he begins his run toward the football, there is a one-panel pause. Charlie Brown eats the banana, and says, inexplicably, "if someone gives you a banana, I guess you have to trust her." As we all know by now, Charlie Brown will accept, and/or create, any justification to run towards the football. He runs. "WHAM!" Tongue out; legs up; body vibrating. Lucy kneels near Charlie Brown in the final panel, further away from him than usual. She does not lean over him; we can only see the end of the football on the right; the rest of it is out of the panel. On the left, we can only see Charlie Brown from the stripe in his shirt to the top of his head. He looks outward as Lucy says "Bananas are high in potassium Charlie Brown, which promotes healing of muscles!" Lucy is not lying. She even acknowledges the physical pain Charlie Brown must endure as part of the routine (foreshadowing 1979!) and offers him a bit of relief. To my great chagrin, I just learned that Groucho Marx never said "Time flies like an arrow; fruit flies like a banana." Instead, a slight variation on these sentences first appears in a mundane place: an article called "The Uses of Computers in Science" by Anthony G. Oettinger, in Scientific American, Vol. 215, No. 3, September 1966. The sentences are used as an example of teaching generative grammar to computers, based on work that Oettinger did at Harvard with Susumo Kuno. The gist of the discussion is that "flies" is a verb in the first sentence and a noun in the second, even as the sentence structures look ostensibly the same. Therefore, syntax alone would not allow a computer to understand these sentences. Semantics and context become necessary, which Oettinger says are "all too nebulous" and thus much more difficult to teach to a machine. This post would be funnier if Groucho had said those sentences. What does a football fly like? Nothing, if it's not kicked. Time does not fly either, if Charlie Brown does not kick it. Last year, he said he would kick the ball "out of the universe." This year he talks to the ball and reduces the proposed kicking distance. "Get ready, Ball! You're going to the moon!" The football is sitting on the ground in the last panel. On the earth. Where did the banana peel go? Were we expecting Charlie Brown to slip on it? No. These football comics are not a joking matter. Here is a joke from A Night at the Opera. Groucho says, "That's in every contract. That's what they call a sanity clause." Chico replies, "Ha ha ha . . . There ain't no Sanity Clause." Imagine Lucy saying Groucho's line as she shows Charlie Brown a contract to get him to try to kick the football. Then imagine her saying Chico's line in the last panel. No. Do not imagine that. Lucy does not do accents.  Oettinger tells us "it is, after all, only an accident of nature , or for that matter merely of nomenclature, that there is no species of flies called 'time flies.'" True enough. But there are time lords. And they like bananas. The Tenth Doctor said, "Always bring a banana to a party." Time flies like an unkicked football; fruit flies like a TARDIS.