deeper goodness away because she wants to be admired for such superficialities as 'being a good conversationalist." She admitted that she used to be an avid reader until she started getting too busy. Frieda Rich, the character's namesake, was once asked whether she bore any character resemblances to her cartoon counterpart. She replied "I recognize myself," adding as an example that while talking to Schulz once about Universalists and Congregationalists, she had jokingly called herself a "conversationalist," and Schulz borrowed that for the strip. Relationships with other characters Charlie Brown Frieda was usually nicer to Charlie Brown than most of the other girls in the neighborhood. Unlike Lucy, Patty, and Violet, she seemed to be mindful of his feelings and never teased him or put him down to his face (except for rare moments in the Peanuts specials), though she did get mad at him a few times. She eventually joined Charlie Brown's baseball team as an outfielder, but refused to wear a baseball cap because it would hide her curly hair. She seemed to be one of the few characters that Charlie Brown felt confident enough to stand up to, as he did once when she was badgering Snoopy about chasing rabbits and he told her to mind her own business. Linus van Pelt Linus was the first character in the series that Frieda met. She sat behind him in school, and after they became friends, he introduced her to some of the other kids in the neighborhood. Not much is shown of their friendship beyond those strips that introduce her, but this early in their relationship, they seemed to look out for each other. Linus tried to protect her the first time she unintentionally upset Lucy (see below), and she in turn was one of the few kids who didn't see his need for a security blanket as a bad thing, for which he was so grateful that he kissed her hand. Lucy van Pelt Frieda's relationship with Lucy got off to a rocky start when Frieda, as usual, brought up her naturally curly hair almost as soon as they were introduced. Lucy became visibly offended by this, to the point where Linus (performing the introductions) felt it necessary to beg Lucy not to slug her. Despite Frieda's faux pas the two girls eventually became friends, and when they played baseball for Charlie Brown's team they often spent