Friday, June 22, 2018

Uncanny Finds -- Peanuts Edition

No, not a can of peanuts, but a can that launched a thousand (well, 2) Peanuts strips.

When I saw this old can of Neatsfoot oil, my mind jumped back to reading a paperback collection of Peanuts comic strips when I was a kid.




I had (and still have) an extensive collection of Peanuts paperbacks.  I would buy one every time we went to our local Venture (low-end department store; think K-Mart) which was usually once or twice a month.

For some reason, this strip always stood out in my memory; probably because of the silliness of the imagery Sally envisions in the last panel.

November 19, 1973

Interestingly enough, Schulz had already visited Neatsfoot oil earlier in the year.

April 3, 1973

Outside of Schulz and the Encyclopædia Britannica, everyone else, including the can itself, spells it "Neatsfoot Oil", although "Neat's-foot oil" is the more accurate term as it refers to the old English word for cattle ("neat") and "foot" referring to the shin and foot bones of cows from which the oil is made. It was (and still is) used as a leather conditioner.

By the way, I've had this can for several years and had searched ceaselessly and unsuccessfully for the strip that referenced it.  I finally found it through AMU Reprints which has a searchable database of lots of your favorite comics strips by keywords.

8 comments:

  1. I used to use that on my saddles but someone told me it rots the stitching so now I use another product.

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    1. That's my understanding; it's not actually good for leather.

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    2. When I was a teen, had a horse and would clean my saddle with this stuff, I used to think there was an animal called a neat. I cannot recall what part of the world I thought this beast was from, just some far off land where neats were raised for their feet and the fine oil they yielded.

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  2. i use neatsfoot oil (deal with it, Sparky) on my boots. great stuff. i have no memory of these Peanuts strips at all!

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    Replies
    1. Well, that's one vote for and one against.

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  3. Now if you could only discover an old Snicker-Snacks box...

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    Replies
    1. That would be the holy grail of cans, James.

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