Just as I was about to sit down to write my 1999/2000 "Year in review," I learned of Charles Schulz's death. Like everyone else, I was stunned. I was also demoralized, and felt at first like abandoning the attempt to write my review, as it seemed such a triviality under the circumstances. But as I reflected a bit more, I thought, "What better way to pay tribute to this great artist than by cherishing the last year of his work?" So here it is---a poor thing, but the best I have to give. I will begin, as before, by listing the number of times each character appeared. The tally is based on all of the (non-rerun) strips in 1999 and 2000, except for the very last Sunday strip, which I have seen but unfortunately don't have in front of me. 160 Charlie Brown 158 Snoopy 96 Rerun 76 Sally 64 Lucy 48 Peppermint Patty 40 Linus 34 Marcie 31 Woodstock 28 Spike 23 Little girl with braids 10 Schroeder 6 Andy 6 Olaf 5 Franklin 3 Emily 1 Pigpen (9/8) 1 Lydia (3/23) 1 Peggy Jean (7/11) 1 Conrad (6/6) 1 Little Red Riding Hood (10/20) I've heard several people express mild disappointment that the final strip did not tie up loose ends. But while I was looking over this past year's strips, one thing that struck me was that many characters and themes *did* make beautiful "curtain calls." This is all the more striking because, of course, Schulz did not consciously plan things that way. Several important characters that don't appear all that often any more did appear this year, bringing closure: Pigpen, as we would all expect, was "absolutely filthy" to the end; Franklin, making more appearances this year than he has for a while, got a chance to put in a final word about his grampa (7/17: "He's given up trying to shoot his age...now he's trying to shoot the temperature. It was hot yesterday..he shot a 102."); Schroeder's mind, as always, was on Beethoven, even when he was playing baseball (4/15: "I was just thinking how different this world might be if Beethoven had married Antonie Brentano. But, then, what if he had married Giulietta Guicciardi? I just don't know."); Andy and Olaf, to our relief, turned out to be safe, but, after a hilarious encounter with Rerun and a wheelbarrow (9/24), wandered like Stuart Little into the distance in search of a banjo (9/27). It would be hard to think of better ways to say goodbye to all these old friends. Similarly, many classic themes went out in a blaze of glory. People say that Charlie Brown never got to kick the football, but Rerun took Lucy's place this year, and we never got to see Charlie Brown's last attempt (10/24). Did he kick the ball at last? Well, we'll never know! What a brilliant finale to the king of all Peanuts themes! Halloween (10/31) fell on a Sunday in 1999, giving Linus one more chance to get his hopes up for the Great Pumpkin, only to to have them dashed by a zamboni. Schulz's overuse of the zamboni idea over the years worked to his advantage here: what else could have made us groan louder? Lucy's final psychiatric booth session made me laugh out loud (4/4: Charlie Brown asks, "So I'm wondering, could I ever learn to be the life of the party?" Lucy: "YOU? HA HA HA HA HA! I'm sorry..I shouldn't have laughed...where were we? Oh, yes, now I remember..you? The life of the party? HA HA HA HA!"); despite her "mellowing" over the years, she can still pack a cruel punch when she wants to. (Note that she bullied Rerun into doing more reading (8/19)---is this why Rerun seems to know so much about Tolstoy (7/4) and Hardy (11/6)?--- and, when Charlie Brown said, "Something must be on fire," chimed in without missing a beat, "Well, it sure isn't our pitcher!" (7/14)). Charlie Brown was still no "Joe Houdini" when trying to untangle himself from his kite (3/6) and he was undressed by a line drive twice this year (4/20, 6/13). And several of Snoopy's alter egos made strong showings: his last stint as the WWI flying ace was a zany rendezvous with Spike, who got them kicked out of a cafe by blowing a wrapper off a straw (11/28); his adventures as a revolutionary war patriot were some of the most visually beautiful Sunday strips ever (8/1, 12/19, 1/16/00); his attempt to sue on behalf of Little Red Riding Hood (10/20) was equally uninspired as his previous attempt to defend Peter Rabbit; his recruiting of Rerun into the foreign legion was another brilliant, laugh-out-loud episode (5/23); and his writing plummeted to new lows (2/19: Leaping onto his horse, he galloped across the prairie. Gallop Gallop Gallop Gallop. "Don't leave me!" she cried. Gallop back Gallop back Gallop back Gallop back). I was also impressed by how Schulz, humble to the end, dedicated so many strips to those he admired, including Patrick McDonnell ("Mutts"; 1/28/99), Andrew Wyeth (1/29/99, 8/1 [the latter is a very subtle tribute; Wyeth fans may enjoy scrutinizing the strip for the Wyeth allusion before looking up the answer in the book _Peanuts:_A_Golden_ _Celebration_]), Mark McGwire (2/25, 2/26, 3/10, 4/1 [and 4/15?]), his Aunt Marian (9/18), Ernie Pyle (11/11, Veterans Day), and Joe Torre (12/27). There were more subtle touches that made me smile. Sally, confused as ever, spoke of the "Book of Reevaluation" (6/18), wrote to Harry Potter (11/8), and spouted increasingly bizarre philosophies (1/20/99: "We'll always have Minneapolis"; 5/4: "Wolves are making a comeback"). Linus, who has lately not been as big a player in _Peanuts_ as he used to be, nevertheless enjoyed some quiet triumphs: Lydia finally admitted that she liked sitting behind him (3/23), and he was finally able to stand up to Lucy sometimes (5/16: "What? I'm sorry..I was yawning and stretching..I can't hear when I'm yawning and stretching."; 6/10: He agreed with Lucy that he should "always" share cake with her, "but not every time.") Peppermint Patty soared to new heights with the "D-minus Hall of Fame" (4/6) and the "Nobel Prize for Fiction" (12/9) but remained undaunted by Marcie's cutting remarks (12/20: "Everybody in the whole world probably told you, but you never listen..") and found solace in football even when everybody else had gone home (1/2/00). Only Rerun, who jumped to #3 on the above chart, seemed to me to have had his life prematurely cut short. We will never know the name of his girlfriend with the braids, who made an amazing (for an unnamed character) 23 appearances. His yearning for a bicycle and his burgeoning relationship with Snoopy will have to be fulfilled only in our imaginations. But I was glad to see his artistic gropings finally finding their home in basement...I mean, underground comics (9/9, 9/13, 9/15, 1/30/00). For me, though, the most poignant moments of the year were those of my hero, Charlie Brown. While he has always made a strong showing in terms of number of appearances, I have felt that in recent years he has usually receded into the background. But this year I think he made a wonderful comeback. Not only did he surge past Snoopy in total number of appearances, but we saw him in his true colors. Whose heart is so callous that it was not stabbed when Peggy Jean reappeared, only to casually mention that she had a boyfriend (7/11), or when Charlie Brown seemed so close to meeting the little red-haired girl, even talking to her mom (1/3/99), but still unable to find a better pickup line than a remark about his bottle-cap collection (11/29)? And whose heart did not break when his baseball team lost by forty to one (4/16)? We can all identify with Charlie Brown the loser. Yet it was not only his failures that touched me; it was his indomitable spirit. When Lucy poured ice water on his head for no reason, his only reaction was, "Did we win?" (4/25) I was delighted to see him getting ever so slightly more assertive in the face of Peppermint Patty's bullying (1/11/99: "I can't hear you..I'm on my car phone driving along the Amalfi coast in Italy..can you hear me? Who is this?"; 2/22: "What happened was the Pony Express lost their best pony, and then there was a robbery, and then some bad weather, and.."; 4/12: he refused to be the person on her team who lets himself get hit on the head by the ball) and of Sally's cruelty (4/1: he ignored her when she said "April Fool!"). I'm sure the world views Rerun as an idiot for thinking that "If I'm going to be a pitcher, I want to learn from the master.." (6/13), but in my book, when it comes to dealing with life, Rerun can find no better role model. It was heartening to me that the 2/6/00 strip left open a ray of hope; who knows, maybe when the rain stops and he checks the mailbox, he will find the Valentine that he has longed for all these years. (From Emily perhaps?) Sparky, we salute you. Emily's question (8/13) is my own: "Will I see you again, Charles?" I can almost hear your reply, "Yes, someday... we'll meet by the green light at the end of Daisy's dock..."