Dick York (or, Leggo My Legumes)

Who names a kid "Peppermint Patty," anyway?

I just wanted to mention something, since we're going to be inundated with holiday specials very soon and the topic of Peanuts has been trending on Twitter. People have noticed from last week's Thanksgiving special that the Peppermint Patty character is kind of a jerk (you just noticed this? Really?) and seem convinced that an online shaming campaign will take care of this problem. Yeah, good luck with that. I'm pretty sure fifty year old cartoons are immune to your cancel culture.

Honestly, I wasn't a huge fan of Peppermint Patty growing up. She wasn't as bad as Lucy Van Pelt, because nobody could be as bad as Lucy Van Pelt, but she was coarse and tactless and her relationship with the long-suffering Marcy struck me as controlling, perhaps even abusive. (Who refers to their classmate as "sir," anyway? Someone who's gotten one too many swirlies from said classmate, I suspect.)

That's kind of the beauty of Peanuts, though. Charles Schulz freely acknowledged that people aren't perfect, and illustrated this through his cast of characters. Charlie Brown is morose and easily discouraged. His sister Sally is selfish, asking Santa for enough toys to turn her letters into queen-sized pillows. Linus is quietly insightful, but sanctimonious and insecure enough to carry a blanket with him wherever he goes. Even the dog is demanding, quick to anger, and a hopeless daydreamer.

The warts and all approach to character design is refreshing in a Christmas special, really. While other shows around this time of year shove object lessons and merchandising in your face, Peanuts offers a bunch of simply drawn cartoon kids who are sincerely flawed, sincerely quirky, and sincerely human. Peppermint Patty can't possibly be a pleasant person to be around, and she barged into that Thanksgiving dinner uninvited, but you can't tell me you've never had someone like that at one of your own holiday parties.

Oh yeah, this is a gaming blog, isn't it? Well, I broke down and bought that Genesis Mini, because of course I did. I'm hoping there will be a hack available that opens the system up to a wider selection of games, but until that happens, I suppose forty and some change will do. Also, I grabbed a cheap copy of Forza Horizon 3, and you can too if you follow this link.