The Job Interview
The second part of Howard moving in with Becky occurred today with the job interview. It was supposed to have occurred at 5 pm, but I could not get into Blogger for the longest time. When I finally did, it was past 7 pm. qnjones had mentioned that Elly Patterson might show up at the interview because of the free food, so I took that as a sign that qnjones wanted to write that part. So, I gave her the lead-in line of Krystle saying "pastries" and had Elly march in the door. qnjones finished it in her usual superlative style and then aprilp_katje nicely picked up the line qnjones left her with her April and John get the Elly aftermath.
The only other thing Howard did today was snark on the coffee/pacifier relationship from today's strip by playing it back to a running joke I have about Merrie Patterson being a coffee addict. That running joke stems from a strip done awhile back that showed Merrie grasping for her parent's coffee cup. I enjoyed this particular snark because it gave me an opportunity to show that Mike and Dee blame everyone else for their troubles except themselves and Elly.
Constable Paul Wright and Jeremy Jones did not post today, nor were they mentioned by any other characters, so I didn't feel the obligation to make up something with them in it. On my part, I know it was because I was unable to relate coffee or pacifiers to either character.
Tomorrow's strip: The first appearance of Beatrice Alfarero in the strip since she was hired on October 1, 2004. The coloured version is interesting, because I didn't picture Beatrice as being black. With the last name Alfarero, I presumed she would have more Latina features. Now, I know the real reason Eva had features so similar to Beatrice's.
The only other thing Howard did today was snark on the coffee/pacifier relationship from today's strip by playing it back to a running joke I have about Merrie Patterson being a coffee addict. That running joke stems from a strip done awhile back that showed Merrie grasping for her parent's coffee cup. I enjoyed this particular snark because it gave me an opportunity to show that Mike and Dee blame everyone else for their troubles except themselves and Elly.
Constable Paul Wright and Jeremy Jones did not post today, nor were they mentioned by any other characters, so I didn't feel the obligation to make up something with them in it. On my part, I know it was because I was unable to relate coffee or pacifiers to either character.
Tomorrow's strip: The first appearance of Beatrice Alfarero in the strip since she was hired on October 1, 2004. The coloured version is interesting, because I didn't picture Beatrice as being black. With the last name Alfarero, I presumed she would have more Latina features. Now, I know the real reason Eva had features so similar to Beatrice's.
posted by howard at 10:53 PM
7 Comments:
I know you asked Howard and not me, but I'm guessing they're not related--just sharing a common face template. ;)
Elly's Letter, October 2004 had this to say about Beatrice:
Well, our quest for another coworker has ended. We've hired a lovely young woman, her name is Beatrice Alfarero ("Potter" in Spanish!) She's originally from Argentina, moved to the United States with her family and then to Canada with her two daughters when her husband, a pilot for the US Navy, was killed in Afghanistan. Her daughters are 7 and 9. I hope to learn more about this story.
Bea has a brother in Toronto and a sister in Guelph. She has wonderful credentials. She graduated from Ohio State University with a degree in archaeology and worked in the Yucatan uncovering parts of Tulum - a temple we visited while on holiday. She met her husband in Cancun while he was on military leave and moved with him to San Diego. Being a mom made working in the field or working full time difficult. Like me, she volunteered at the public library and became familiar with books - which she loves. She speaks English, Spanish and Portuguese. Although I told her she was overqualified, she assures us the job will hold her interest and is exactly what she was looking for. I hope this relationship works out. Moira, April and I like her very much, and in the short time we've known her - she appears to be one of the "nuggets" we were seeking!
Based on this, I was expecting someone who looked Argentinian, not African-American. What may have happened is one of 2 things: (1) The colourist got the skin colour wrong or (2) The backstory presented in the monthly letter has been retconned to make her African-American. Aprilp_katje is quite correct; I meant that they share a common face template. They also have the common characteristic of appearing once and disappearing.
qnjones,
Thanks for the compliment on the interview. Yours was excellent.
To me, there's nothing about the B/W strip that suggests Beatrice is black. I took a peek at the colored strip based on your comments, and to me, her skin coloring seems almost arbitrary.
But this also has me thinking of something else. Or rather someone. Shawna-Marie Verano. In Lives Behind the Lines, Lynn writes that Shawna Marie's pareents emigrated from Argentina in the sixties. And Shawna-Marie is definitely black. (I've noticed these details about Shawna-Marie's background do not appear in her character profile, though.) But anyway, what I'm wondering is whether Lynn has some odd idea that all/most Argentines are black? I can tell her that this isn't true. . . .
For that matter, are any of her Latin-American characters ever not black? Is she going for two-fers on the racial-ethnic minority front? (I wouldn't put it past her.)
Asked Stephanie about Bea. Says Stephanie:
"Beatrice is Argentinian by birth, which would logically make her either a Native from a South American people, or Hispanic. She's not meant to be black, no. We do offer a colour palette to the colouring houses, and
generally they're fairly good with skin tones, but it's entirely possible that Bea's colour just didn't translate well when the graphics were converted for the Web."
Aprilp_katje,
The Shawna-Marie Verano reference is very interesting as is Stephanie’s response. By the way, thanks for asking Stephanie, oh continuity goddess. She does love you best, after all.
When I was hunting for information on the subject, I found a very informative article on the subject at:
http://www.cwo.com/~lucumi/argentina.html
In it, it states that Argentina is considered South America's "whitest" nation with 97% white. You may find this quote interesting:
Of course, whiteness itself is relative. Many Argentines who proudly consider themselves white come to America and are shocked to find that in American racial discourse they are considered "Latino," "Hispanic" or vaguely "Spanish," and not white. Says Paula Brufman, an Argentine law student and researcher, "Argentines like to think of themselves as a white nation populated by Europeans. I was surprised when in the US, people — especially Latinos — told me I was not white but Spanish."
Certainly, the pictures I have seen of Eva Perón, do not match Beatrice’s skin colour, but it would be foolish to presume that every Argentinian woman had skin like Eva Perón. I doubt it will ever come up in the strip, but if it does, I will be happy to snark it.
That's interesting, Howard. I can't help but wonder if Shawna-Marie's been retconned so she's no longer Argentinian. Or whether Mt. Foob generally considers what's in The Lives Behind the Lines non-canonical, at least where nothing in the strips themselves corroborate what's written. Witness the Sobinski immigration change.
The Argentines I've met are, I guess, on the tan side of Caucasian.
You're very right.
A classic case is the difference in the backstory between Eugene Lee, the unseen Dr. Patterson associate and Everett Callahan. Eugene Lee got a huge backstory about ancestors immigrating to Canada because of cruel treatment. Everett Callahan got a line about what car he drives.
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