Parents Are Human Too (At Least John Patterson, Anyway)

I think today’s strip was intended to draw humour from the situation where John Patterson, who just this year lectured April unsuccessfully on internet use, and was embarrassed by her pointing out he had done the same things he did not want her to do, has now been shown to try to save face by lecturing April to not do something that she can’t do, since she doesn’t have a driver’s licence. My majour difficulty with the strip had less to do with speeding, which is a minor offence, and in the town in which I live, where the whole town is practically a speed trap, due to the fact there is so little crime, the police don’t have anything better to do and it is difficult to avoid getting a ticket at some point. I have been pulled over for (a) going over the line in the middle of the road without signaling at a time of night in which there was no other traffic (b) going 5 miles over the speed limit. Neither of these things were hardly safety items. In John Patterson’s case, he is clearly going at a much higher rate of speed since Duncan and Gerald make multiple comments about it, while they are riding with him. This is the part that bothers me. As a parent, from time to time, I am called on to drive not only my kids, but their friends (i.e. children of other parents), and I find the idea of John Patterson intentionally and excessively speeding and thus endangering their lives to be a far worse thing than if he had simply been speeding when driving himself. Contrary to Dr. Patterson’s opinion, the problem is not the speeding. The problem is the irresponsible handling of someone else’s children. This is not a really a lesson for April. However, April probably learned a lot about her dad, when she saw how defensive he got over the matter. So, John Patterson has tried to be a good dad to April, 2 times this year and he has failed both times. Tomorrow's strip finally recognizes that safety was the issue, not speeding.

In the meantime, it’s Victoria Day. Most of my characters beat up on John a bit, and then most of my snark today shifted onto what would the people in Milborough, suburb of Toronto, be doing on this day? We don’t have Victoria Day in the States, and as near as I can tell Toronto has a fireworks display every night of the weekend alternating through the north, east, west, and south parts of the city. Constable Paul Wright caused me to research Ontario fireworks laws.

qnjones finally unleashed her hysterical “Thora has a hysterical pregnancy” storyline today, which caused me to go back into Howard the future mother/father mode. I enjoyed researching about sperm counts and the like, and I found it amusing that Howard would have already had his fertility tested in preparation for an event that won’t occur for another 3 years.

Tomorrow’s strip: The keyboardist Luis (birthday beret guy I expect) arrives at last, so I hope this means an end to this particularly awful story arc, but there is the possibility that the next day’s strip will have John talking to Elly about his guilt. Follow the band! Follow the band!