And then Snoopy would place his old typewriter on the roof of his doghouse and indisputably become the best writer on the planet. His novels always started the same way: It was a dark and stormy ...

“‘Twas a dark and stormy night. Somewhere in the distance a dog barked.” Snoopy had it right, except I couldn’t hear a dog barking.

In popular culture, "It was a dark and stormy night" is most often associated with Snoopy, the comic strip character made famous by Charles Schulz. Snoopy sat atop his doghouse with an ancient ...