Classic Rant #890 (January 24, 2013): Peanuts Nut

What is world really coming to, I ask you?

First, we have Beyonce supposedly not being really "live" at the Presidential inauguration, and now we have this.

Charlie Brown is in jail!

Well, sort of.

The former child actor who was the voice of Charlie Brown in several "Peanuts" cartoons has been picked up on a criminal warrant accusing him of making criminal threats and stalking.

Peter Robbins, 56, who was taken into custody at a border crossing near San Diego, was jailed in lieu of $500,000 bail, was the voice of the beloved "Peanuts" character in the first of the many animated specials featuring Charles Schulz's characters, "A Charlie Brown Christmas" way back in 1965.

Who was he stalking and threatening? The authorities aren't saying, but there are so many jokes being made about this--

"It must be Lucy."

"Well, he can't afford bail, but can he afford a 5 cent evaluation, like in the comics."

"Snoopy must have had something to do with it."

"Curse that Red Baron."

"Who is he going to be in jail with, Pigpen?"

"Will he be on the prison baseball team?"

"If he is convicted, where will he be incarcerated, in Woodstock?"

Of course, this is making light of a very serious matter, but Robbins' close association with the character is undeniable.

I watched those specials as a kid, and I absolutely loved the "Peanuts" books, although to this day, I have never been much of a fan of the comic strip, if you can believe that.

Anyway, I remember when my sister and I were really young, we were fighting over a "Peanuts" book.

My mother got so incensed, that she actually lit the book up with a match. As the flame started to eat away at the book, my sister and I came to our senses.

I don't remember what we were fighting about, or who was right in the argument, but we had that partially burned book in the house for years afterward.

Back to Robbins. He has had a successful career as a voice-over actor, with Charlie Brown probably his most famous voice.

What is going to happen to him is anyone's guess, but I guess it proves once and for all that the real world is not a "Peanuts" cartoon or comic strip.

Things happen, beyond dropping the ball, as Charlie Brown so often did.

Hopefully, this will all be resolved, but it will take more than a few panels to figure out why Robbins went into such a rage that he had to be arrested.

I guess to Robbins, happiness hasn't been a warm puppy after all.