Continuing a yearly Christmas tradition here on SteveandAmySly.com as well as the TannerWorld Junction discussion forums…

A Charlie Brown Christmas debuted on December 9, 1965, as the very first Peanuts television special. It's no surprise that it continues to air today!

"Linus, I wish I had some Charlie Brown audio!"

This special came to be thanks to none other than Coca-Cola, which approached the creators of a Charles Schultz documentary called A Boy Named Charlie Brown about doing a Peanuts Christmas special. While this documentary never aired on TV, it featured work from folks we now associate closely with Charlie Brown television specials… produced by Lee Mendelson, animation by Bill Melendez, and music by Vince Guaraldi. So ironically it was commercialism which brought the special to air!

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We're all pretty familiar with the 1965 television classic, A Charlie Brown Christmas. But how familiar are you with the other Peanuts specials that celebrate this time of year? In fact, there are 4 in all!

A Charlie Brown Christmas (1965)

The "sequel" to the classic appeared some 27 years later when It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown hit the airwaves on CBS in 1992. Interestingly, this was actually released to video first, via an exclusive at Shell gas stations.

It's Christmastime Again, Charlie Brown (1992)

You can tell by watching that it tried to emulate the success of the original, and by doing so, failed miserably. Once you get past the annoying smooth jazz versions of Vince Guaraldi's music, you are treated to a plotline involving Charlie Brown trying to sell wreaths and buy gloves, Peppermint Patti attempting to get out of a book report, and yes, another Christmas play… with Scripture thrown in along the way. You'll never think of "Hark!" quite the same way after watching Sally practice her lines. Intended to be broadcast in a 30-minute timeslot for years to come, it was never seen on TV again. You can find it as a bonus feature on the DVD release for A Charlie Brown Christmas. It's not a great show, but it's fun to watch… kinda.

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Last week, my sister who lives in Indiana called me up… "Hey, I found a box of Quaker Crunchy Corn Bran… want some?"

Steve enjoys Corn Bran

This was a cereal that we enjoyed as kids, and while it's still made, it's rather hard to find (as I noted in this blog post from 2002). When we got together for Thanksgiving, Karen gave me a box. Yum!

It's Election Day and being our civic duty to uphold the high level of corruption that Chicago is known for, we headed off to the polling place down the street.

Amy holds... a lame piece of paper

Unlike many of the suburbs and other parts of the city, we don't get cool "I Voted" stickers. Nope, our precinct is cheap, handing out these pieces of paper instead.

How Exciting!

I'm trying to hold back the emotion that this piece of paper evokes!

Continuing a yearly Halloween tradition here on SteveandAmySly.com…

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown debuted on October 27, 1966, as the third Peanuts television special (the first obviously being the Christmas one). It is here that most of the world who wasn't reading the comic strips was introduced to Linus Van Pelt's fascination with "the Great Pumpkin".

It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown LP from 1978

Charles Schulz thought it would be funny to see what happens if a child confused Halloween with Christmas… and the rest was history. This year, the show is celebrating its 44th anniversary.

While most are familiar with the TV version of this story, many might not know that an audio-only adaptation of the show was created on record in 1978. This shortened-for-LP version contains all the same voice talent and sound effects, but scripted as an exclusive listening experience. The original record has long been out-of-print and surprisingly has never been released on CD.

(If you listen carefully, you can hear the audio voice talent edits done to make the for-TV audio work as an audio-only experience… and note that these edits aren't done with the same voices.)

As a special Halloween treat, you can download this audio story here in MP3 format… but just during Halloween season only! Once November 1 comes around, it's gone! Enjoy

Download
It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (Part 1) [Link Expired]
(MP3, 9:38, 13.4MB)

It's The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown (Part 2) [Link Expired]
(MP3, 9:15, 12.9MB)

On June 18, we had a pretty fierce storm blow through Chicago, which brought rain and high winds to our neighborhood. When everything was calm, we assessed the area around our condo buildings and found that a large branch from one of our trees had broken off and fallen into the street.

Storm-damaged Tree (6/18/10)

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If you are reading this page, you've caught SteveandAmySly.com in the middle of a server/blog upgrade!  But don't worry, we'll have things back to normal soon, complete with new features and a stylish new look!

- Steve & Amy

This is what it looks like in my home office when I'm not in the middle of Kidology projects… or surrounded by bottles of drinks for BevReview!

Now, if I could only keep it that way!

When I was in college, for some reason I got my hands on a 5-foot-long mockup of a stick of Wrigley's Spearmint Gum, which adorned my dorm room for many years (and now adorns my parents' basement!)

Steve holds large gum with roommate Tim (1995)

The item was a very accurate portrayal of a stick of gum, complete with removable wrapper and foil underneath. There even were "do not litter" markings on the back. I'm not exactly sure what this was originally designed for, but it looked pretty official.

I mention this because today Wrigley — based here in Chicago — announced that they are dropping the use of foil wrappers on most of their gum lines. From the Chicago Sun-Times:

Wrigley cutting back on foil wrappers
April 22, 2010
Cheryl V. Jackson

Wrigley is scrapping the foil wrapping for its iconic brands.

After using foil for more than 100 years, Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co. is dumping foil wrappers and replacing them with paper for its five key chewing-gum brands: Juicy Fruit, Doublemint, Wrigley's Spearmint, Winterfresh and Big Red.

The switch began with some of Wrigley's hip, envelope-style cardboard packs late last year and will move through all packaging this year, the company confirmed.

The paper wrappers cost about 13 percent less than foil, according to the Chicago company, which says the switch won't affect the freshness or the taste of the gum.

The move should save about 850 tons of aluminum, according to Wrigley — keeping the equivalent of 60 million cans a year out of landfills. But Wrigley will keep the silver foil wrappers on its Extra brand gum and the colored foil wrappers on its 5 brand.

Wrigley was one of the first gum makers to use foil wrappers, starting around 1900. But the stick gum is a throwback to bygone times. Today, most chewing gum comes in the form of tabs, pellets or cubes.

Sad to see this era pass… but at least I still have my oversized stick of gum to remember it by!