Saturday, November 15, 2025
To read Part 1 of this Trip Diary, click here.
Brinke and I had breakfast Saturday morning at a wonderful place to have breakfast if you’re ever in Santa Rosa. It’s called Americana and it serves some of the best-tasting (and prettiest) meals with which I’ve ever started my day.
We then Lyfted to the Charles M. Schulz Museum and Research Center for a gathering of folks from the Schulz organization and folks who’d contributed to the book in different ways. My name’s on the cover of the book but others had a lot to do with it, especially my buddy Charlie Kochman, who was its editor, and Chip Kidd, who with Shawn Dahl, did the wonderful design work. Some of us went on a brief tour conducted by the museum’s expert Curator Benjamin L. Clark. Benjamin’s vast knowledge of All Things Schulz made him invaluable on the book. On the tour, he showed us some of the museum’s newest acquisitions, which is kinda amazing. I mean, you see this building and you think that they must have every single item in existence pertaining to the life, times and cartooning of Mr. Schulz…but nope. They’re still finding fascinating (to folks like me) things.
I was then hustled into a conference room and told to begin signing my name. There’s so much demand for this book we’re here to celebrate (and sell, to be honest) that our publisher is going to issue a special signed and fancier limited edition. I’ll tell you more about it when I know more about it. For this weekend, it involved signing my name 550 times on a special plate that will be bound into 500 copies that will be available for purchase — when, I do not know.
Fortunately, I was not alone in this labor. Chip Kidd was there signing as was Patrick McDonnell, author of the great strip Mutts, who also wrote the foreword to the book. The signing turned into a competitive race though I felt Patrick cheated by only signing his last name and Chip cheated by having a shorter name. I was cheered on by my lovely friend and Plus-1, Brinke Stevens.
We got through about half the plates before it was time to prep for the 2 PM event — a panel discussion with Chip, Patrick, Paige Braddock, Benjamin Clark and myself, moderated by Lex Fajardo. Lex is the Editorial Director for Publishing & Experiences at Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates and Paige is the Creative Director Emeritus for the Schulz Studio. We had a sold-out audience of Peanuts fans for the panel — and yes, it was recorded on video. I dunno if or where it’ll be available for viewing so it’s another one of those “I’ll tell you when they tell me” matters. For now, here’s a photo and it’ll get bigger if you click on it. Lex is at the podium, then the folks on stage are, left to right: me, Patrick, Paige, Chip and Benjamin.
Then it was out into the museum to sign copies of the book for folks who’d purchased them. I call to your attention the above photo credit. Brian Fries, who was there that day, is the creator of a lot of fine works including The Last Mechanical Monster, A Fire Story, Whatever Happened to the World of Tomorrow?, and Mom’s Cancer. He wrote about the afternoon over on his blog so I’ll let him describe the line and what went on during the signing.
I didn’t count but Brian says we had thirteen people who were involved with the book in some way signing. And I spotted Brinke obligingly signing a few autographs for folks who recognized her.
I was especially pleased to spend some time with Jean Schulz, widow of the man the museum is name for and the author of one of the best parts of the book. I’d met her previously and all through the writing of the book, had it well in mind that I needed to please her. My happiest moment of the whole trip was her telling me I had.
In the evening, we all went to a very fancy and renowned restaurant, John Ash, for a celebratory dinner/party. Present were about thirty folks involved in the book and/or Peanuts — and I must admit I’ve never attended a dinner quite like this one. It was a “tasting” feast with six courses, each accompanied by a different wine selected to complement the cuisine of that course. The entrees included suckling pig with black garlic foam, slow roasted lamb loin with white bean purée and merguez sausage, and canard confit with pommes robuchon, petit mirepoix and sauce bordelaise.
I’m sure this all sounds grand and gastronomic to any gourmets reading this and Brinke was delighted with the chow, though overwhelmed by the sheer volume. Me, I have many, many food allergies and didn’t dare gamble on any of the six courses. So I would not go hungry, the chef was nice enough to make me a steak and french fries and the pourers of all the fine wines honored my request to opt out and stick with my beverage of choice, which is H2O.
I have dined in establishments that prided themselves on their wine selection and wouldn’t accept “I don’t drink wine” as a sincere request. One insisted on filling my glass with very expensive (and untouched by me) vino and adding it to the bill. There was some claim that I didn’t tell them early enough that I wouldn’t be having wine so they’d opened one more bottle for our table than necessary. Fortunately, they’re more respectful of non-drinkers at John Ash.
The Peanuts-related people there were wonderful. There were some speeches and presentations and just a wonderful feeling of camaraderie. Here’s a photo that Brinke took of some of us and it’s another one you can click on and make bigger. For some reason, Chip Kidd is sitting on my lap.
The festivities continued after Brinke and I — both pretty tired from the long day — headed back to our hotel. The next day, one of the attendees (I’ll not say who) told me that he’d consumed my allotted share of the wine. And later, someone else I won’t identify told me that he did it.
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