As you’re watching A Charlie Brown Christmas this year, think about what these two minor Peanuts characters have in common in 2020. They don’t interact with each other very much, so that can’t be it. Well, they each have a major event happening this year.
December 16, 2020 is the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s birth. You can bet that Schroeder would be celebrating it in a big way if Charles Schulz was still alive and penning new comic strips. Classical music stations across the country are celebrating it, too. Detroit station WRCJ 90.9 FM has played Beethoven music all week, with one piece per hour on the 15th. On December 16, they will play 100% Beethoven. Schroeder would have his radio tuned in so he can listen when his hands get tired of playing Beethoven. Hopefully Lucy got him a gift for the big event this year.
What about Pigpen? He is perennially in a dust cloud of his own making. For the last nine and a half months of 2020 the American people have been focused on how to avoid getting COVID-19 and spreading it to others, especially the most vulnerable, the elderly and people with underlying health conditions.
Imagine that your breathing out carbon dioxide and water vapor is like Pigpen’s dust cloud. By wearing a mask, you can keep most of the “dust” confined behind the mask. The six-foot social distance came from how far water droplets from a sneeze can travel before hitting the ground. So the safe distance is probably more like 3 feet, or the size of Pigpen’s dust cloud. Turning away and sneezing into your sleeve is now the polite thing to do.
So remember Pigpen and Schroeder and have a merry Christmas and happy New Year. Dut dut dut dah!
