The End of the Poop (or the Poop Comes Out of an End)

In today’s For Better or For Worse, we saw one of the odder jokes that has been presented in the strip, and by odd, I mean, across the message boards, people were stymied in interpreting why the final panel of the strip was supposed to be funny or what it meant. I finally came to the conclusion that the hot dog was an important part of the puzzle, if for no other reason, a hot dog has a somewhat poop-like look in its shape, and it could cause Meredith Patterson to think that her body was a sort of food-to-poop transmutation device. aprilp_katje took the anti-Michael stance which is typical for April’s Real Blog April, so I decided that Michael Patterson would come to the conclusion that there was no problem with his kids and their understanding of poop, even though his explanation to Robin, overheard by Merrie, stank…and not just from its proximity to poop either. Then I had Howard drop in one of his patented, my aunt Winnie and my uncle Melville Kelpfroth posts explaining how they, and not Mike or Dee Patterson had straightened out his kids. I sent out the posts in reverse chronological order, so hopefully there was some element of surprise from reading Michael’s post and then reading Howard’s post from Winnie and Mel.

There wasn’t much Jeremy / Zeremy Jones could do with today’s strip, except comment that no matter how bad Michael Patterson is as a dad, Jeremy’s deadbeat dad is worse, which is true. Constable Paul Wright had to satisfy himself by making it seem that Elizabeth Patterson would be jealous of the attention Mike would get for paying the plumbing bill.

Tomorrow’s strip: I wrote up a late night post from Constable Paul Wright for this explaining away the just-announced-in-the-monthly-letter of Elizabeth going to Mtigwaki (Land of Trees) for Christmas with Paul. To have Paul get his transfer and then to have him visit at Christmas, where he will get to see everybody associated with Elizabeth, is not only a fairly substantial reversal of what was presented in the monthly letters for December, but it is a significant difference from the direction we have been seeing over and over during the trial sequences with Anthony Caine.

My late night post has made the assumption that Paul is coming to Milborough for Christmas, even though it could be interpreted from Elizabeth’s wording in the strip that her plans to visit Paul at Christmas, which she announced months ago, could still be in effect. Not to fear. If I am wrong in my interpretation, then I will retcon it away. The fact that the monthly letters spelled out Elizabeth’s Christmas travel plans so explicitly leads me to believe that whatever occurred during conversation could be reversed by a plaintive letter from Jesse Mukwa via Aunt Marg, or something to that effect in the strip.

I, however, do not believe for an instant that Lynn Johnston would spend months building up the character of Anthony Caine in Liz’s eyes for no good reason. However, I do believe the timing of Paul coming for a visit just before he would actually take that transfer is not a coincidence. My predictions are now:

1. Liz and Anthony get together again for Howard Bunt’s trial verdict and Liz realizes she is actually in love with Anthony and not Paul.
2. Paul comes down at Christmas and Elizabeth breaks up with him in favour of Anthony (qnjones should be excited. It would be a Warren Blackwoodesque type of break-up, which she predicted)
3. Paul cancels his transfer at the last minute and stays in Otter County.
4. Sometime later, Liz goes to Mtigwaki to fulfill her promise to visit Jesse Mukwa.
5. When she does, she finds Paul there with Susan Dokis and doesn’t feel nearly as bad that she broke up with him. Maybe she will even invite Paul and Susan to come to her wedding to Anthony or vice-versa.

There are several problems with this idea:
1. It would make Elizabeth look really bad if she broke up with Paul without having something reasonable to blame on him. The most likely blameworthy item of not getting the transfer is gone, and it would be difficult to catch him cheating with Susan Dokis, if he is in Milborough. I would like to think that Elizabeth would not possibly break up with Paul because he was not there for her during the trial, since her monthly letter seemed to understand the situation. However, this is the most likely reason and it is also a basis for comparison between Anthony Caine and the good constable. When Elly and John suggested this in the strip, the message boards went crazy. Imagine how it would be if Liz did the same thing and to Paul's face.
2. It would mean that John Patterson’s monthly letter prediction that Paul was from the sticks and wasn’t meant for Southern life didn’t come true, and John Patterson monthly letter predictions have been right on the money so far.

An alternate idea, which would reconcile the John Patterson monthly letter prediction issue would be if Paul does transfer to Toronto, but finds after a very short period of time, he hates it and wants to move back. This could cause a split, and still keep John Patterson’s monthly letter prediction intact. The problem with this idea is that it would take so much time for Lynn to establish this before September. She’s had Mike miserable with the Kelpfroths for 1½ years, and he still works at Portrait Magazine and he still lives there. 9 months would not be enough time for Lynn to pull Paul, miserable in Toronto, off. Some authors could do it, but not Lynn.