April Through the Looking Glass

Thanks to the inexplicable non-reversing zits in the today’s strip mirror image, we were able to play that into a very fun day on April’s Real Blog with the introduction of April Patterson’s mirror self. It’s not an original idea, I admit, but it is highly unusual for the strip to get such details so wrong, particularly when the whole story arc revolves around zits and does not appear to be going anywhere else. In Thursday’s strip, April does her Duncan imitation because of zits. Sigh. When such are the strips, you takes your snark where you gets it.

The best part of it was that at the end of the mirror April story, it allowed me to focus Jeremy a little on what he wants in life, that being Alexandra Love. In the previous days’ postings, Adrianne_p and I did a little he-said, she-said sequence where Adrianne_p’s Alexandra Love told a nearly completely different story from the one that Jeremy had told about the same situation. They were so different that I was unable to reconcile the differences into a coherent storyline from the two perspectives, as I have been able to do in the past. I just couldn’t do it without Jeremy admitting he made up most of his story. The Jeremy of the strips is notorious for saying truthful things in an obnoxious manner. In his last appearance he enjoyed pointing out to April that Becky was going to break up their band, before Becky had actually said anything about it. There was also another strip sequence where Jeremy sat outside the room where 4-Evah was practicing. This marked him as a loner with no friends. Therein lays my themes for Jeremy: 1. He has poor social skills. 2. He is obnoxious. 3. He does not lie. Given those themes, it was impossible for me to have Jeremy admit that he lied in telling his story about Alexandra, because by my view of Jeremy, he always tells the truth. However, because he so desires to be with Alexandra, he cannot call her a liar. He’s smart enough to know that would not work. So, Jeremy has to skirt the he-said, she-said issue, play the victim, and try to appeal to the possibility that Alexandra actually likes him enough to back down. Today, Jeremy laid it out for Alexandra that in no uncertain terms he wants to be her boyfriend. The next fun part is to see how Adrianne_p reacts.

As far as the other characters go, Howard Kelpfroth has now come back as a black Newfoundland dog, currently in the custody of Becky McGuire. This gives qnjones so many possibilities for humour. I am reminded of the original Shaggy Dog movie, where the younger brother upon discovering that his older brother has turned into a dog, starts treating him like a pet he always wanted. There’s no telling what qnjones will do with Becky in the same situation, as her Becky is a lot sneakier than a Disney movie character. I am anxious to read it. I received many suggestions for future Howard stories yesterday. I want to thank each and every one of you for supplying me with so many story possibilities. It will take awhile to work through them all, so don’t be impatient.

Constable Paul Wright. His Ojibwe conversations get more and more explicit each day and schmoosie posting as Liz has been matching me and raising the ante each time. My poor little Freelang translator is smoldering after I read each new post. It’s a challenge to keep up with schmoosie in being naughty. In the meantime, my researches of the Ontario Provincial Police show that revolving work shifts are standard procedure. In real life, there is a good chance that the constable would not be able to get off work on weekends, when Liz is off. So, his next trip to Mtigwaki is scheduled for Monday. This will give him a chance to interplay with the Mtigwaki characters a little and do something different with Liz than long distance love letters, which are by necessity a staple of his posts. If they ever bring the good constable back in the strip and explore his life or his police partner a little, then Liz could visit him and do some snark in that area.