Peppermint Patty's Last Peanuts Strip Is Still An Absolute Work Of Art Even 26 Years Later

October 2, 1950 – February 13, 2000 · 17,897 Strips How Well Do You Know Peanuts? “Good grief!”

⚾Charlie BrownGood Ol’ Chuck

🐕SnoopyThe Flying Ace

🧣LinusSecurity Blanket

🏈LucyPsychiatric Help

🐥WoodstockBest Friend

01

Before Peanuts launched in 1950, Charles M. Schulz drew a weekly cartoon panel for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. What was it called?

✓ Correct! Li’l Folks ran from 1947 to 1950. When the syndicate renamed the new strip “Peanuts,” Schulz hated the title for the rest of his life.

✗ Not quite! It was Li’l Folks — and Schulz never forgave United Feature for rechristening his strip “Peanuts.”

02

Which member of the gang is almost never seen without his security blanket — and waits every year in the pumpkin patch for the Great Pumpkin?

✓ Correct! Linus — Lucy’s little brother, the strip’s resident theologian, and the reason “security blanket” entered the dictionary.

✗ Not quite! It’s Linus van Pelt, whose blanket gave the English language the term “security blanket.”

03

Schroeder hammers away at his toy piano in devotion to a single composer — whose bust sits on top of it. Who?

✓ Correct! Beethoven. Schroeder even observes Beethoven’s birthday every December 16 — while ignoring Lucy entirely.

✗ Not quite! It’s Beethoven — the one thing in the world Schroeder loves more than tuning out Lucy.

04

When Snoopy climbs onto his doghouse in goggles and a scarf, he becomes the World War I Flying Ace — forever hunting which nemesis?

✓ Correct! The Red Baron — and the Sopwith Camel doghouse always goes down in flames, sending the Ace off to curse him in a French café.

✗ Not quite! It’s the Red Baron. Snoopy’s doghouse is a Sopwith Camel, and it never once wins the dogfight.

05

Lucy runs a curbside psychiatric help booth out of a lemonade stand. What does she charge per session?

✓ Correct! Five cents, please. The nickel never went up in 50 years — and the advice was never once worth it.

✗ Not quite! It’s 5¢ — “The doctor is in.” Lucy held that price for half a century.

06

Snoopy’s tiny yellow best friend went unnamed for years before Schulz finally christened him. What was he named after?

✓ Correct! Woodstock got his name in 1970, borrowed straight from the music festival held the summer before.

✗ Not quite! He’s named for the 1969 Woodstock festival — Schulz gave the bird the name in 1970, years after he first appeared.

07

The jazz score for A Charlie Brown Christmas — including the immortal “Linus and Lucy” — was written by which musician?

✓ Correct! Pianist Vince Guaraldi scored the 1965 special, and network executives were sure the jazz soundtrack would sink it. It became a permanent holiday fixture.

✗ Not quite! It’s Vince Guaraldi, whose trio gave Peanuts its unmistakable sound.

08

Schulz drew every Peanuts strip himself for nearly 50 years. What made the final original Sunday strip — February 13, 2000 — so haunting?

✓ Correct! Schulz died the evening of February 12, 2000 — and his farewell strip, signed off with “Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy... how can I ever forget them,” appeared in papers the very next morning.

✗ Not quite! Schulz died on February 12, 2000 — hours before his own farewell strip ran in the Sunday papers.

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Good grief — or good ol’ Charlie Brown? Either way, the football is still there. Wanna try again?