Friday, March 16, 2007

Back from Seaworld

My family returned from Sea World, San Diego, late Thursday night. It had been about 5 years since we were last there. We spent 2 days there, which is actually long enough to do everything you can do in Sea World, aside from the high dollar items like the Dolphin Interaction programs. I finally was able to release myself from a debt to my 11-year-old son, from the last time we were at Sea World. 5 years ago, we had purchased a Shamu popsicle for him and I had fooled him into sitting in what they call the “Soak Zone”, the first 16 rows of seats at the Shamu show, which Shamu promises to spray with water during the course of the show. He had sat through the Shamu show once before when he was 4 years old, but he didn’t remember it. After we got soaked by Shamu, he was the most upset by the fact the soaking had ruined his Shamu popsicle and he declared I owed him one. 5 years later, the debt was paid. Oddly enough, my children have gotten old enough, where they want to sit in the soak zone for the shows. It was a good trip. I have returned, but Jeremy Jones will probably not be back until Sunday. I take a certain delight in the idea that evil Jeremy Jones gets a March break with a real vacation, and April Patterson gets ditched by her parents every year.

Today’s For Better or For Worse seems to be ignoring the March break this year, by putting April in school. Lynn Johnston has been pretty good about doing a March break each year, so it was a surprise to see her miss this one. Maybe it will happen next week. In the meantime, she set the trend for Shannon Lake this week, leading into what will probably be a hug and a big farewell to Shannon in this strip tomorrow with 4 days in a row. Not counting her introductory year, Shannon’s appearances have run about 2 days in a row, and it is interesting this time, that it is Elizabeth and not Becky, which causes the need for the Shannon intervention into April’s life. I think this is the variation Lynn Johnston is going for. Last time, it was the callous and unthinking Eva and Gerald over Grandpa Jim’s stroke; and this time, it is erratic Elizabeth. All the Shannon appearances over the last 2 years have had the same basic premise though: Shannon shows up because her April sense tingles telling her something is wrong in April Land, and then tries to comfort her; while April tries her best to get away from her. I am afraid we are long past the point where April might try to talk to Shannon when there is nothing wrong.

My longish Howard post had a number of obscure references:

The Disgruntled vs. Gruntled groups at Portrait Magazine and the descriptions of the freelance work of Chris, Ben, and Harriet come from Mike’s letter March, 2006.

The names of Margaret Atwood, David Suzuki, Don Cherry, Jean Vanier, Gen. Roméo Dallaire, and Stephen Lewis came from a CBC survey in 2004 of the most famous Canadians. I started from number 1 most famous and went down the list, removing any singers, actors, athletes and dead people. The joke is that Michael would not know who they were.

Pesach is celebrated on the Jewish calendar the 15th day of Nisan. This is an old, standard joke. “What day is Pesach this year? Answer: The same as always. The 15th day of Nisan.”

The on-line aspect of Portrait magazine has never been mentioned in any of the Mike strips or letters, so it is an obvious choice for magazine improvement, considering Lynn Johnston’s technophobia.

Mike’s description of the “sylphan lovely” advertisement and its use of an underage naked model and the money generated to pay for the publisher’s implants come again from Mike’s letter, March, 2006, a classic in Mike’s letters.

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