A TRINITY OF FRIENDS

OUR FRIEND 'PEANUTS' GETS ADOPTED

After more than 50 years of playful freedom, Peanuts has been scooped up and adopted by strangers. And no one even asked him...!

The rights to the iconic little guy -- and his flock of friends like Linus and Lucy -- have been sold for $175 million. This doesn't mean we won't get to visit, but now visiting rights come under a new name. Which is a little sad, for it's something like when your family moved to a new city and never asked you.

Some famous comic characters such as Blondie and Dick Tracy have been given a second life under the pens of new artists. Peanuts's father, Charles Schulz, is no longer with us. So fans will have to satisfy themselves with re-runs. But, then, when the originals are so great, there's no problem. Fans still love re-runs of everything from Gone With the Wind to The Godfather to The Way Were.

Oh, and other great re-runs like Hamlet, The Marriage of Figaro. and the Bible. I bet when Peanuts grows up, he'll enjoy such re-runs too...

EVERYONE HAS MEMORY-FRIENDS

Soothsayers and scientists have studied our dream zones for centuries. But few seem to bother with what happens in our twilight zones. Those momentary times when wisps of long-ago memories and faces and conversations flutter across the screens of our mind, only to get swallowed up in the events of the moment.

Think about it. Isn't there a suite of memory-friends inhabiting your twilight zones year after year? The little blond girl in fourth grade who blew you your first kiss after she read your Valentine card...the campus jock in high school who stared down the team's laughter when you tumbled all over yourself trying for that fly ball....the boss at the ad agency who bought you that celebratory cup of coffee the morning your idea was first used...and all the hundreds of other friends and strangers alike, whose smile or nod came at just the right scene in your play.

The funny thing about memory-friends is they rarely ever know about these friendships. They just happened to be crossing the stage of your life as bit players whose unrehearsed moments have become forever enshrined in the cathedral of your soul.


THE FRIENDS YOU EAT WITH

Like they say -- some of us eat to live, others live to eat.

Count me in the latter legions. A robust Italian heritage will do that to you. But if you're Italian, eating is not a real celebration until you're celebrating it with the ones you like or (better yet) love. And so it is that this second-generation Italian celebrates best when eating best with best family & friends.

Something extraordinary happens when the antipastos, salads, pastas and wines are loudly shared at table. Not only does it happen right down to the bottom of your tummy, but right up to the top of your theology.

Bono appetit.