Peanuts by Charles Schulz for December 22, 2023

It was a dark and stormy night, and Peppermint Patty was looking for a book to read, suddenly a shot rang out.

“Someone is Going to Come " by Jon Fosse.

PP, you’re asking Snoopy to recomend a book to read? Obviously you forgot what happened 3 months ago when you asked him for help on a good school to get into.

Are you sure it’s a Gothic? Are you sure it isn’t a garbage?

A Wrinkle in Time begins with the dark and stormy night.

It was a dark and stormy night. A crossbow twanged out.

Wonder who finally got around to making Snoopy’s story into a book…

Edward Bulwer-Lytton lives!

Give her a book about sports. I think she would enjoy that.

In Snoopy’s book, the heroine wears berkenstocks. Can I get an Amen?

Peppermint Patty probably couldn’t even finish a board book.

I still say that “It was a dark and stormy night” is a great opener, despite what critics might say.

It sets the mood perfectly.

You already had snoopy as your “lawyer” now he’s your “librarian”?

It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents—except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the housetops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness- Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s Paul Clifford. Despite some overblown Elizabethan prose it is a decent read.

It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly a shot rang out. A ship appeared upon the horizon. The maid screamed!

Back in the 1980s, there was a brilliant Batman comic in which the only narration is the collection of clichéd opening lines. Hilarious.

“He was a dark and stormy knight …”

Could have been an ice hockey game…

Maybe I should’ve used that sentence as the first line in my new book…

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night

by Snoopy

Part I

It was a dark and stormy night. Suddenly, a shot rang out! A door slammed. The maid screamed.

Suddenly, a pirate ship appeared on the horizon! While millions of people were starving, the king lived in luxury. Meanwhile, on a small farm in Kansas, a boy was growing up.

[“In Part Two, I’ll tie all of this together.”]

Part II

A light snow was falling, and the little girl with the tattered shawl had not sold a violet all day.

At that very moment, a young intern at City Hospital was making an important discovery. The mysterious patient in Room 213 had finally awakened. She moaned softly. Could it be that she was the sister of the boy in Kansas who loved the girl with the tattered shawl who was the daughter of the maid who had escaped from the pirates?

And so the ranch was saved.

THE END

I’m reading a Sherlock Holmes mystery novel set at Christmas time. The plot includes a real arctic explorer, Fridtjof Nansen, who led the team that made the first crossing of the Greenland interior in 1888, traversing the island on cross-country skis, per Wikipedia.

everyone’s a critic

Nice to see he finally got published.

It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.

Snoopy’s expression in Panel 4: “Talk to the paw!”

It was a dark and stormy night, The thunder rolls, and the lightnin’ strikesAnother love grows cold on a sleepless nightAs the storm blows on out of controlDeep in her heart the thunder rollsSnoopy goes cross country ( or crosses with country)

Edward Bulwer-Lytton, created the ""It was a dark and stormy night" opening that Shulz parodies here. He also created the sentence, “The pen is mightier than the sword.” He was so popular, in fact, that a number of his stories were made into plays, and even operas (by Verdi and others). He refused being appointed to the nobility, because it would have cut into his writing income (writing was considered beneath the dignity of the nobility). He even turned down becoming the king of Greece, when it was offered him. His personal life was dark and stormy at times, though. He was anything but a talentless, wannabe hack writer. The final irony was that, against his express wishes, he was buried in Westminster Abbey, the final resting place of over 30 kings and queens. His son, Robert, became the Viceroy of India. He really is a fascinating character. Look him up in Wikipedia for more stories.

The only book she would like has not been written yet.

I gave my niece a pop-up book of The Night Before Christmas one year, try that.

Suddenly a Batarang shot out….