Mardi Gras/Shrove Tuesday

Today is Shrove Tuesday, or, as it is known in the French speaking world and sometimes elsewhere, Mardi Gras. I was not sure what to share today about it, so I just thought instead of just picture of pancakes (by the way I refuse to call today Pancake Day), I would share one page from Charlie Brown's Fourth Super Book of Questions and Answers. One of the best sources of information I had as a child, before the internet, even though a friend of mine had the on people and culture. Anyway, so there is more info on the next page, but all the same, here is some interesting facts about today.

Reese's for Halloween

 At last! I was getting desperate since the start of the countdown: I could not find any Reese's chocolates for Halloween. I mean yes, I could find some, but not the one with pumpkins, just normal ones and (shudder) Xmas ones. The latter have no place on the shelves right now. However, a short trip to the nearest Aldi changed it: not only do they have bags of Halloween Reese's, but they have loads of different figures: the usual Jack O'Lanterns, bays and ghosts. I'm in high protein and sugar heaven. It's not Halloween without Reese's. It is a brand I rediscovered in adult age, but for some reason I really got hooked on it.

Reese's Pumpkins

 It's a staple of the season: Reese's chocolates. Especially the ones shaped like pumpkins. I see them from time to time in the local sweet shop, but come October, they are everywhere. They are among the earliest sign of the season. I don't see Reese's given for trick or treat anymore, probably because of peanut allergies. As a child, I don't think I ever ate them except during Halloween, after trick or treat. Now, as an adult, I always buy some when I see them. I share them with Wolfie of course. Hey, it's not so bad: the peanut butteris full of proteins.

Les arachides de l'Halloween

 Oh des fois l'Angleterre offre des trucs cools pour l'Halloween. Ce n'est pas encore assez célébré à mon goût, mais il y a de l'espoir. Toujours est-il que j'ai trouvé à Lidl une gamme de produits spécialement conçus pour l'Halloween, avec un emballage parfait: un épouvantail à tête de citrouille en guise de mascotte avec une maison hantée en arrière-fond. J'ai acheté pleins de trucs, de desserts surtout, mais aussi ce sac d'arachides à différentes saveurs. Pas si tant génial, je préfère les arachides salées "ordinaires", mais ça se prend bien avec une bière et je l'ai acheté rien que pour l'image.

Peanut butter and proteins

Yesterday I went downtown for a quick grocery shopping as we were short on a lot of things. It was a simple top up. On my way back, I bumped into one of Wolfie's teaching assistants, maybe his favourite TA (and I think he is her favourite pupil too). We had a quick chat, she told me: "I need to go to the shop. I have two boys, one 28, the other 25 and they just eat all the time. The quantity of proteins they need every day, it's mad!" I told her that it was similar with Wolfie as he was growing up and seemed to never feel full. Then I told her: "The males in our household live mainly on a diet of peanut butter." I think it deserves to be a new great unknown line. She agreed that peanut butter was great anyway, because of the protein intake. Anyway, that made my evening. I feel safe knowing that Wolfie has a TA that understands boys so well and knows what's good for them. And I also now that peanut butter is going to be an important part of family life for years to come.

Reese's: first sign of Halloween

Something made me very happy recently when I went to the local sweet shop: I found Reese's chocolates. The ones Jack O'Lantern shaped. Which makes it officially the very first sign of Halloween I have seen this year. Okay, so I could see ones shaped as Christmas trees too, so they probably were from last year anyway, but all the same, it still counts. Reese's is a staple of treats during trick or treat in any case, so it is all the more fitting. Especially since it has been feeling borderline autumnal recently.

ZHON-bah-TEEST

Today is Saint John the Baptist's Day, Québec's National Day. I thought I would give my Anglophone readership a bit of information about it, I found this tidbit in Charlie Brown's Fourth Super Books of Questions and Answers. I love the book, but the information on it regarding my nation and my people is grossly out of date. In fact, even when the book was published, it was inaccurate. Still, it gave me a good laugh, so I am sharing it here with you today.

May Day (and Maypoles)

Today is May Day, so happy May Day everyone. Here it has to be a happy one from the start: it is a bank holiday. It also a time for Maypoles, but I have never seen any in real life. Even though I have been living about 20 years in this country. All the same, here is one from a picture in Charlie Brown's Fourth Book of Questions and Answers. Snoopy and Woodstock are very cute, as always.

Countdown to Halloween, the book

For today's countdown to Halloween reading suggestion, a book aptly called... Countdown to Halloween. And for once it's not horror but something for the whole family to enjoy. I bought it for Wolfie's birthday and we have been reading it since the beginning of October. it is a sort of Advent calendar for Halloween, with the Peanuts gang, one story a day, including the big day. It's just not Halloween without Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus and the rest. And for a North American like me who grew up with them, I find it important to share this with my son.

May Day, Maypole and Snoopy

 Today is May Day. And what better way to celebrate it than with a Maypole, albeit a virtual one (and a drawn one at that) and of course Snoopy and the Peanut gang. I got this image from Charlie Brown's Fourth Book of Questions and Answers. They have a short entry on May Day, giving little info, but the sweetest image to go with it. You just can't go wrong with a cheerful Snoopy.

Why Saint-Patrick's Day?

Happy Saint Paddy's Day everyone! I will not be able to celebrate much this year sadly, because of this and because I am still recovering from a cold. But I am sharing with you two pages from Charlie Brown's Fourth Super Book of Questions and Answers. It gives you a lot of info about Saint Patrick's Day, and it's aimed at children, so it should also be a reminder that today is not only about drinking (although that can be fun too).

For Auld Lang Syne

Today is the New Year, so Happy New year everyone! And of course as it is tradition I am sharing with you Auld Lang Syne. Brought you this year by the Peanuts gang.

Two Sinister Witches

For tonight's countdown to Halloween post, I am blogging again about this book, Charlie Brown's Fourth Super Books of Questions and Answers. Not the book itself, but a specific picture in the book. As I mentioned before, I was obsessed as a child with its section on Halloween. I did not have the book myself, a friend of mine had, and I tried to check it every time I could when I was visiting him. He thought very little of it. And there was a picture in there, not of the Peanuts gang but of two witches around a cauldron, tending it, that both terrified and fascinated me. I think it gave me a few nightmares, yet I still wanted to know more about them. I don't know where they took this picture, but I was shocked to see in a book featuring my beloved comics characters something so lifelike and belonging to a horror story. I look at it today and it still gives me shivers. I know there is a scary story or more to be written about these two obviously evil witches.

Reese's for Halloween

For today's countdown to Halloween post, something I found in the local sweet shop. They have lots of Halloween sweets (or candies as Americans call it) and a few classics. I don't know much about Reese's, I mean I had some in the past, but I understand this is a classic for trick or treaters in the US. For me, it tastes like a spoonful of peanut butter, coated in chocolate.I do remember having some from time to time, I ate then dutifully, but otherwise I never felt overly impressed by them. Well, it turned out they invented the most perfect Reese's for Halloween: shaped like a jack o'lantern. In milk or white chocolate varieties. It still tastes like chocolated sweetened peanut butter, but all the same, I could not help but buy them. And I really enjoyed eating them. Because they were shaped like pumpkins.

Is there really a Great Pumpkin?

I blogged back in September about Charlie Brown's Book of Questions and Answers Book series, and the fourth book in particular, which I always wanted to have. There are many reasons for it and I am sharing one now: there is a whole section about Halloween in it. A whole section with a lot of useful information, some strips from Peanuts and some really, really, really gorgeous pictures not related to the comic strip. It has been haunting me, literally, ever since childhood, so I am so, so, so happy to own a copy of the book now. I will probably come back to it another time, right now I just wanted to share with you this very important question about the holiday: "Is there really a Great Pumpkin?" The book provides the best possible answer, based on all the knowledge we have on this subject which is so important for Halloween lovers.

Charlie Brown's Books of Questions and Answers

I don't know if I am the only one remembering them, but back in the days, like inthe early 80s, there was a series of books, called "Charlie Brown's Great Books of Questions and Answers" It featured the Peanuts gangs in their usual comic strips, of course, but with lots of educational articles about thigns: means of transports, biology, traditions, etc. We had the book on transports, I remember one of my friends had a few of them, including the fourth one, about customs and traditions in various cultures around the world. It is the one I liked the mos and I spent a lot of time reading it when I was visiting him (I know, I was a lousy, socially inept friend). He thought little of it, but then again he was not as much of a reader as I am. Anyway, I found it online, second-handed, at a decent price, so I decided to buy it for my son, because I think it is quite educational. Yes, that's the excuse. I have another reason which I will explain in another post, when I receive it. But going through this will taking another pleasant trip through memory lane.

About peanut butter sandwiches

When I started working from home, peanut butter quickly became the main part of a quick and easy meal. Well, I had started using it again in the office of my previous job, the one I hated, but it is since lockdown that it became my main mean of sustenance, at least for lunches. It is in many ways going back to uni. I either use it on toasts, or in a sandwich, if I have a good enough bread. A peanut butter sandwich is quick and easy to make, it is filling, it gives you plenty of energy, it is also delicious. Peanut butter sandwiches have many virtues.

Of caviar and salted peanuts

 I did not have time to blog about it, but two days ago was the birthday of Mickey Spillane. And I found on social media this delicious (forgive the pun) quote from him, which explains in a nutshell why I always come back to crime fiction. You probably heard of it too. Here it is: "Those big-shot writers could never dig the fact that there are more salted peanuts consumed than caviar". I don't know for you, but I can relate. Fittingly enough, two days ago, I was blogging about peanut butters. Anyway, I only read one book of Spillane so far, but I intend to read more.

ManiLife peanut butter

Since I have been all out of Kraft peanut butter for some time, I try to find the best possible peanut butter here as this is the main part of my diet for breakfast and often for lunch as well, especially since I have started working from home. My wife does not understand this love of peanut butter, which is shared by Wolfie, and how we can get through jars of the thing so quickly. I explained to her that it is a family thing: "With any luck, this will get him through uni life, just like it did to me and my mother and he will never know hunger". This deserves to be a new great unknown line, by the way, but I digress. Anyway, last weekend I bought in one of the local food shop one of the best peanut butters I found in this country: Manilife's original roast smooth peanut butter. Like many posh peanut butters, you need to stir it with a spoon before spreading it. But it is worth it and absolutely delicious. It is thick, creamy, filling, in sum everything it says on the jar. It is not cheap, nevertheless it was worth the investment for quality breakfasts and lunches.

Joe Cool

Well, nobody's cool like Joe Cool. Joe Cool being of course the alter ego of Snoopy, the imaginary cool (well of course) college student, who spends his time doing very little, especially study wise. He was first featured in Peanuts 49 years yesterday. When I was a child, I thought Joe Cool was funny, but I was not certain why. At college and uni, I saw what the appeal of the character was: he lives the ideal life of any college student. And he's just so perfectly laid back, so darn cool. I wish I had been like him and could have spent my years in education like he did, without a care in the world.