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“I cannot control my eyebrow. Sometimes when I see an interview with me I am really surprised about my eyebrow going up without control. But there is no reason for this, no accident behind it.” - Carlo Ancelotti speaking in 2017 As the clock ticked past the 89th minute in 2022, Real Madrid sat on the precipice of defeat. Riyad Mahrez’s 74th-minute goal had put Manchester City two goals ahead on aggregate and Pep Guardiola was one step closer to leading his side to the final and potentially the first Champions League trophy in the club’s history.

Happy “Love and Thunder” eve to you and yours. Wanted to send a season’s greetings this week even though things are rather insane here at Beard Missives HQ, AKA the world headquarters of Golgonooza Inc. (my S-corp named for William Blake’s city of art and imagination, because that’s how much of a nerd I am), AKA my home full of comics and toy hammers in the wilds of Kansas. I feel like for weeks now every time I’ve looked at any sort of flat surface, I’ve seen an add for THOR LOVE AND THUNDER plastered across it.

Happy Sunday! It’s a new issue of the Animation Obsessive newsletter. Here’s what we’re doing today: 1️⃣ How background painter Nizo Yamamoto rose. 2️⃣ Animating for a documentary, plus animation newsbits. Just finding us? You can sign up to receive our Sunday issues for free, weekly, in your inbox: Sign Up Now, here we go! It was a shock when the news broke, last summer, that Nizo Yamamoto had passed away.

Left to right, Peter Robbins (1956-2022) and Christopher Shea (1958-2010), the original voices of Charlie Brown and Linus Van Pelt in the 1960s Peanuts specials. This screen grab features a photo of their getting together just weeks before Christopher’s death. My friend Peter Robbins, the original voice of Charlie Brown in the Peanuts specials back in the 60s, died on this day last year. I wrote about Peter a couple of times recently and the stories can be found in my Substack archive:

You’re reading Stories from Jewish History, a weekly newsletter exploring Jewish thinkers, events, and artifacts, from the famous to the obscure. Last time, we wrapped up a series on the Geonic period in which we examined this comparatively little-known but immensely formative period. Paid subscribers, look for a new eBook of the Geonim series later thi… ncG1vNJzZmisoqKus8LIp2WsrZKowaKvymeaqKVfpXy1tMRmpquhl567tHnOn2SsnZaWv6W1jKOcsKqpYoByhA%3D%3D

by Deb Aoki Once upon a time, a little blue unicorn named Unico entered our imaginations, thanks to the boundless creativity of Osamu Tezuka.  Called “The God of Manga,” Tezuka was famous for creating many memorable characters and stories for kids, adults and almost everyone in between. The story of Unico is centered around a little unicorn who has the power “to bring happiness to the pure and true.” However, this sweet and seemingly harmless ability catches the eye of Venus, the goddess of love.

Hello! This week we’re moving beyond this fractious island to somewhere experiencing real conflict, not just fake churchy disagreement. But is the war in Ukraine about to prompt its government to make a lasting mistake by trying to tear down its largest Christian denomination? Also, is it actually true that converting fathers almost always leads to their families also joining the church, or is that a statistic that for headship-preaching churches is just too good to check?

In 1996, Tina Brown, then-editor-in-chief of The New Yorker, assigned me an investigative piece about the suicide of Wallis Franken Montana, the wife of French fashion designer Claude Montana. It was the most upsetting story I have ever reported. As the piece wended its way through The New Yorker’s rigorous editing and fact-checking process, we got scooped by Vanity Fair, and Tina killed my story. I hadn’t thought about it again until last night, when I saw that Montana, a 1980s fashion star known as the “King of the Shoulder Pads,” died, at 76.

The best third baseman of all-time is a frequent discussion topic among baseball fans. This shouldn’t come as any surprise. The hot corner is one of the premium positions in the game, requiring sharp glove work and a strong arm on defense, and a productive bat with some pop at the plate. No wonder I was quickly moved off the position in little league. I wasn’t terrible, but third base is a spot for stars, and I was definitely not one of those.