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Notations used in this guide:

* = There's a copy of this book in the AAUGH.com reference library.

(HB) = The copy in the reference library is a hardcover (may not be noted on books available solely in hardcover.)

CB = Charlie Brown

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The AAUGH blog:

Museum of Odd Peanuts Books

Peanuts for odd purposes

As you first enter this museum, you see the most expensive Peanuts book ever created. This 12 page booklet was sent out for free, but only to folks who had plunked the down the price for a new Ford Falcon, circa 1963. The Peanuts characters were spokesmen for the Falcon line for years, appearing in their brochures and newspaper ads. In fact, the first time the Peanuts characters were animated was for a series of Falcon TV commercials.

The text describes not only features that make the car special, but in a joking way discuss the worldwide acclaim that the line of vehicles has received. The handful of Peanuts gags scattered throughout are designed to be associated with the text on that page. This means that we get gags on such vital topics as brake-fluid drainage holes.

Why is there a Charlie Brown's Encyclopedia of Energy? Some publishing executive said "you know who should be our symbol for our energy encyclopedia? We need that cartoon characterÉ you know, that bald guy, with the perfectly round head and those zig zag lines below!" And because no one could remember the name of Reddy Kilowatt, they hired the only cartoon character they could find who met that description.

Okay, I made that part up. Still, the linking of Charlie Brown and energy is a tenuous one indeed. This book was basically an add-on to the five book series Charlie Brown's Super Books of Questions and Answers. The material from those books was then recycled into The Charlie Brown Cyclopedia, which was then recycled into an updated version of the Cyclopedia, and once again recycled into the five book series Snoopy's World. So maybe what we really need is Charlie Brown's Encyclopedia of Recycling.

The credits for this 1982 book include a 1978 copyright for the Rafael Macia cover photo, which begs the question: what cover photo? (And the answer, Rafael emails us, is the sun and sky. Despite it's rather sharp edges around the sun's circle, this is an actual sunset shot from along either the Saw Mill River Parkway or the Taconic, he can no longer recall which.)

The Snoopy Doghouse Cookbook from 1979 is not, as the cover image suggests, recipes that your dog can cook. Nor should you read the blurb "59 recipes for your dog" to mean that there are recipes for Poodle FlambŽ or Kentucky Fried Chihuahua.

No, this book is chock full of fancy meals that you can cook for your dog to eat. If Fido considers Alpo to be dŽclassŽ, you can use this guide to prepare creamed chipped beef, London broil, or even chicken and matzoh if you want your pooch to celebrate Passover.

The author, zoologist Dr. Evelyn Shaw (now Òsenior head cowgirlÓ of video game developers Hyperspace Cowgirls, Inc.), had the recipes taste-tested not only by Max, her German shepherd, but also by Fred, her husband. Charles Schulz supplied the illustrations (primarily recycled images from the strip.)

Apparently, having one major icon just isn't enough for some people, particularly when confronting an issue as vital as the handicaps that so many of us are stuck with. When the people at the United States Golf Association wanted people to be informed about that least-damaging form of handicap, the golf handicap, Snoopy was apparently not icon enough for the task. No, they had to combine him with that other golf icon, Uncle Sam, to bring us the booklet Uncle Snoopy wants you to know how to use your Handicap.

The bizarre cover shot is probably the best part of this brochure. Schulz drew it as a black and white drawing, and it was then colored, giving us an Uncle Sam hat with black and blue stripes. The pose, with Uncle Snoopy pointing off into the distance, makes sense only if you assume that someone told Schulz "Do him as Uncle Sam pointing forward" without noting that they meant that famed design in which Uncle Sam is pointing toward the reader.

Remember, if your golf ball does happen to land on another player's hat, it's probably best to take the penalty rather than playing it where it lies.

And from handicaps, we move on to GMP's. No, not gimps, but the "Good Manufacturing Practices for Human Foods" as prescribed by the Food and Drug Administration, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, U.S. Government (part 128, Title 21, Code of Federal Regulations.)

What does that have to do with Peanuts? Why, it's The GMP's According to Peanuts! That's right, in this specialty booklet, the Peanuts characters show examples of the requirements in proper food handling, via a 52-panel color comic in which Charlie Brown starts his own lemonade bottling concern.

Why should the typical Peanuts fan care? They shouldn't. It's not for them. This booklet was issued a couple decades back to folks who work at Coca-Cola bottling plants. In the end, I think they drove Charlie Brown out of business with their Minute Maid-brand lemonade.