When I was a boy I loved my Aiwa TP-32A reel tape recorder, but the single most satisfying piece of electronic equipment I’ve ever owned is a GE Superadio III. I bought it for $40 in November, 1994, and today it gets regular use sitting in the window next to my computer.
HD Radio and Wi-Fi Radio are coming along, and there’s satellite radio of course, but plain, old AM/FM radio remains convenient and reliable. And the Superadio III, having analog tuning, is about as plain as it gets. What sets it apart is its exceptionally good, albeit mono, sound quality.
Recently, the company that makes the Superadio III, Thomson of France, changed the brand name from GE to RCA. Or maybe it’s being made by another outfit. Whatever. The product seems to be pretty much the same as it’s been for nearly 15 years. It remains the absolute cheapest self-contained hi-fi audio system that I know of.
The photo I posted at this link, of Charles Schulz and Donna Johnson, was taken in April, 1950, before he met his wife Joyce. Yet in the video at this link, Schulz’s daughter Meredith is said to be 14.
The numbers don’t add up. The reason is that Joyce already had Meredith when she met Sparky. They married on April 18, 1951, a year after the picture with Donna was taken.
In David Michaelis’ controversial new biography, Schulz and Peanuts, he states on page 235…
Sparky now stepped forward and legally adopted Meredith, and from then on, an he was called upon to tell the story of his life to an eager public, he and Joyce lied about the year of their wedding in order to assimilate and protect Meredith’s place in their marriage. Even in official notarized documents, they ever after gave April 18, 1949, as their nuptial day, placing Meredith’s birth (on February 5, 1950) just within the bounds of propriety as Sparky’s daughter.
My friend, the diligent researcher Mr. D.F. Rogers, has uncovered proof of the document backdating, in the form of a California court listing of divorce filings. Click the picture to enlarge, and look for the yellow highlight.
If your browser reduces the image, click to see it full size. The stated year of marriage was 1949. By the time of the divorce, Meredith was an adult and knew the truth, yet the deception continued.
Long before Ergo Proxy, even before Astro Boy, the first anime to reach America, one of Bob Clampett’s Beany and Cecil cartoons made fun of Disneyland.
