Tuesday, February 22, 2000. 1:33 PM

My apologies for the lateness of this issue of Gravity - I've had some things I needed to lay down before I could concentrate. Among these were my dog - my constant, loving, brown companion since college - developing arthritis, and the trials of a certain young man in California whom I've never met but with whom I share, vaguely, some experiences. Michael: all peace, and get well soon!

Welcome to another strong issue of G. This isn't an issue for the kids, but Gravity was never meant to be A Child's Garden of Verse. Of particular note are poems by Gary Kuhlmann and Silvia Pérez and fiction by Frederick Zackel and Joy Kaplan. Don't miss Joy Yourcenar's column on dirty words or Carmen Butcher's on last judgments and meaningfulness.

When I was sick in 1980 (good lord, has it been 20 years?), I laughed, I remember, at two things - my father's oral rendition of "The Ransom of Red Chief" by O. Henry (which had Dad in tears as well, bas-relief freckles being a fantastic line) and a Peanuts cartoon in which Snoopy, as a runner, is clad in a too-large sweatsuit the arms and legs of which have been rolled up in huge, ridiculous bundles around his legs.

Utah Phillips talks in one monologue about the virtue of "holding on". Charles Schulz drew Peanuts for nearly fifty years, long after some in the peanut gallery started making noises about how the strip wasn't funny any more, should be retired, etc.

But Peanuts wasn't just about an easy laugh on Sunday morning. Peanuts was us, as we wanted to see ourselves. Even in college, we'd purloin someone's black and white TV and watch the same Christmas Special we'd seen two dozen times. Even this last Christmas at CNNSI.com, guess what the TVs at work were tuned to. Yeah, same lame tree, same head-tossing dance on stage. I can do that dance in my sleep.

Happiness is sticking it out...is doing that in which you believe...is in writing poems even though the odds against publication are great...and yes, Dave Cullen, happiness is a warm puppy, damn you.

Mr. Schulz, thanks. You made a sick kid laugh until he thought he'd wet his pants.

JC, 2/00