Lucy sticks with this fussbudget thing for a good while. I don't think she ever gets it into her head that her mother wasn't complimenting her.
March 15
Back in the first fussbudget strip, Charlie Brown seemed like he understood that Lucy's mother was complaining when she called her daughter a fussbudget. It's not as obvious here if Charlie Brown is in on the joke. He's either forgotten, or he's exceptionally straight-faced in his sarcasm. It could really be either -- there are other strips in which Peanuts characters say sarcastic things without breaking expression even slightly. When I saw the fussbudget strips as a kid, I didn't get that the joke was on Lucy. (And to this day, I'm not sure on the origins of the word, or even how it's said. Is it really "fuss-bud-jet"?)
March 16
Snoopy seems awfully pleased about his pink collar. I dunno, it doesn't seem really like a Snoopy sort of color.
March 17
Schroeder's mania continues. His Beethoven fixation is slowing being made an object of fun, which culminates, I think, in his carring around signs informing people as to how many shopping days it is until Beethover's birthday.
March 18
Why is Charlie Brown sighing here? Should that be coming from Schroeder instead?
March 19
I think this is the first time Lucy really, really rags on Charlie Brown, which of course becomes a common event in the strip. It's a chase strip, but going by the rather silly and idiosyncratic rules I've made up, not really a turnabout strip.
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ReplyDelete"Fussbudget" is indeed pronounced that way. I'd never thought to look it up before, but it does have a pretty interesting etymology. Its first use was in 1904, and similar words such as "fusspot" and "fussbox" were invented at around the same time. Why budget, though? It turns out that the original French meaning of "budget" is "little bag." Pretty cool.
ReplyDeletehttp://fussbudgets.weebly.com/fussbudget-defined.html
I think that Charlie Brown is sighing about the inevitable clash that he knows is coming between Schroeder and Lucy, rather than because he's moved by reading about the travails of Beethoven.
ReplyDeleteThe pink-and-charcoal gag was a reference to a popular men's wear style at the time.
ReplyDeleteChris
@Billy Smart I see something similar but that he's preparing for Schroeder yelling at him and there's a hint of surprise that it gets directed at Lucy instead.
ReplyDelete