Annotations of The Complete Peanuts/1983 to 1984

==1983–1984== Annotations to The Complete Peanuts: 1983 to 1984 by Charles M. Schulz (Fantagraphics Books, 2011. ISBN 1606995235


 * p. 102 (August 24, 1983) As the strip indicates, the French term esprit de l'escalier translates as "wit of the stairway". Schulz used French terms several times during the course of his strip, mainly during its later half, and all of them were authentic.
 * p. 144 (November 29, 1983) The motion picture Flashdance was released in April 1983 in the United States and enjoyed a large success at the box office.  Bill Melendez released an animated parody of it (and of other dance films) in April 1984, under the title It's Flashbeagle, Charlie Brown.
 * p. 151 (December 16, 1983) It seems that Sally's script refers to the Christmas carol "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing", well known in English speaking countries.
 * p. 156 (December 27, 1983) "Snowperson": political correctness in the early 80s had gone quite far in its attempts to erase gender-biased expressions from the common language.   At that time, many tried to be gender-neutral to the point of sacrificing clarity, for example in sentences such as "Every man/woman shall don his/her life jacket and report to the steward/stewardess nearest to him/her."  Some common nouns disappeared at that time, for example, "fireman" was replaced by "firefighter."   In a somewhat related gag, Jim Unger in his cartoon Herman had a salesman telling a customer: "We're living in very strange times, Martha." with in the background a banner saying "Grandperson clocks."
 * p. 193 (March 23, 1984) There is a "Highland Park" and a "Selby Avenue" in Saint Paul, Minnesota.  Schulz lived at the corner of Selby and Snelling, where his father's barber shop was also located.
 * p. 220 (May 25, 1984) "Playing trivia":  Trivia games started in the early 80s, with Isaac Asimov's Super Quiz possibly being the first of them in 1982.  They became very popular by the mid-80s.
 * p. 240 (July 9, 1984) "Girls Just Want to Have Fun" was a popular song in early 1984, sung by Cyndi Lauper.
 * p. 255 (August 14, 1984) "Roy Hobbs": Although the novel The Natural, by Bernard Malamud, was released in 1952, the movie based on it was produced and released only in 1984.