April Fears Education
Today's For Better or For Worse was once again, another joke made, which only worked if you ignored the character's demonstrated background. April has talked about going to university several times in her monthly letters, and Elly has made a big deal about the importance of the university education she missed because she got married and started making babies. Both Elizabeth and Michael went to University and got at least 4-year degrees. John went to school for his DDS, which would be even more education than 6 years. Laura is currently going to school for her pre-vet and Auntie Bev is already a veterinarian. The idea that April would be taken aback by a 6-year education is patently ridiculous. If Uncle Danny had said, "There are only 4 vet schools in all of Canada, and they severely limit the number of accepted applicants, so that many students wait year after year to get in; then I can understand. But as presented, the joke is another attempt at humour taken at the sake of April's own history. After 2 weeks of this, we get that (1) April can't handle horses, (2) April can't handle roosters, (3) April can't even clean out a barn without falling into horse poop, (4) April is slightly disturbed by the smells of surgery, and (5) April is coddled by Laura and Dr. Simmons in the veterinary office. Judging just on the basis of what is presented in the strip about April and animals, I would have to agree with the assessment of Dr. John Patterson. I am surprised she didn't pass out.
No posts from me today. I got up early in the morning and took the kids to a Boy Scout outing to which mothers and sisters were invited, a float down the Salt River in Mesa, Arizona. It was more adventurous than I thought it would be. The person preparing us for the trip, told us we would be 3 hours on the river. As it turned out, we were 5 hours on the river with the blazing sun beating down upon us on the nice reflective water. I slathered my daughter and son in sunscreen and had them reapply a few more times as we were floating down the river and they still got burned. I got burned too. Anyway, we arrived back home, got supper, bought groceries including burn relief spray. After all that was said and done it was too late to do any April's Real Blog posting. Maybe tomorrow.
Tomorrow's strip: The Return of Pillow-Fighting. The last time a pillow was used in combat in For Better or For Worse was in this strip: http://www.fborfw.com/strip_fix/archives/000056.php. It was not nearly as amorous as Elly and John in the Sunday colour. Pillow fights used to be a Patterson standard, however, the last fun pillow fight was all the way back in this strip: http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComic.mpl?date=2002/12/28&name=For_Better_Or_Worse.
One of the things I was struck by, when I first discovered the Houston Chronicle's on-line back strips of For Better or For Worse went back further than the FBoFW website's archive, was that John and Elly, back in 2001 and 2002, used to show affection for each other quite often. My theory, based on the artwork, was that Lynn Johnston's stake in the art and writing of the strip significantly diminished in February 2002. A writer, other than Lynn, would not feel the same urges Lynn does to show John and Elly in love. Because of this, I was convinced this was the reason Elly and John were more often shown to be cold to each other, because the new writer liked this type of marital relationship better. I am quite happy to see the pillow fights return. It means Lynn is starting to become more active in her strip in the last year of its existence.
If you were to monitor the FOOBiverse Journal's recent snark, you will discover that many of the snarkers have begun to find strips they like, and for which they have no snark. If Lynn is truly working on the strip again, we can expect a fine year ahead of us. I, for one, am looking forward to it.
No posts from me today. I got up early in the morning and took the kids to a Boy Scout outing to which mothers and sisters were invited, a float down the Salt River in Mesa, Arizona. It was more adventurous than I thought it would be. The person preparing us for the trip, told us we would be 3 hours on the river. As it turned out, we were 5 hours on the river with the blazing sun beating down upon us on the nice reflective water. I slathered my daughter and son in sunscreen and had them reapply a few more times as we were floating down the river and they still got burned. I got burned too. Anyway, we arrived back home, got supper, bought groceries including burn relief spray. After all that was said and done it was too late to do any April's Real Blog posting. Maybe tomorrow.
Tomorrow's strip: The Return of Pillow-Fighting. The last time a pillow was used in combat in For Better or For Worse was in this strip: http://www.fborfw.com/strip_fix/archives/000056.php. It was not nearly as amorous as Elly and John in the Sunday colour. Pillow fights used to be a Patterson standard, however, the last fun pillow fight was all the way back in this strip: http://www.chron.com/apps/comics/showComic.mpl?date=2002/12/28&name=For_Better_Or_Worse.
One of the things I was struck by, when I first discovered the Houston Chronicle's on-line back strips of For Better or For Worse went back further than the FBoFW website's archive, was that John and Elly, back in 2001 and 2002, used to show affection for each other quite often. My theory, based on the artwork, was that Lynn Johnston's stake in the art and writing of the strip significantly diminished in February 2002. A writer, other than Lynn, would not feel the same urges Lynn does to show John and Elly in love. Because of this, I was convinced this was the reason Elly and John were more often shown to be cold to each other, because the new writer liked this type of marital relationship better. I am quite happy to see the pillow fights return. It means Lynn is starting to become more active in her strip in the last year of its existence.
If you were to monitor the FOOBiverse Journal's recent snark, you will discover that many of the snarkers have begun to find strips they like, and for which they have no snark. If Lynn is truly working on the strip again, we can expect a fine year ahead of us. I, for one, am looking forward to it.
posted by howard at 11:54 PM
2 Comments:
It would be nice if today's affectionate John and Elly were a harbinger of things to come. I guess we'll have to wait and see. :)
I have a hard time imagining Lynn not wanting to take a stronger hand in her strip in its last year. It has run a little downhill over the last 5 years, so it would be nice to have someone who knows what they are going back in control of it.
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