Monday, April 30, 2007

The Lovepocalypse Begins

In sequence we have:

1) Warren cancels the date, because he is working.
2) Liz spits at Warren.
3) Elly telling us why Liz should have spit at Warren, i.e. he’s inconsistent because he can cancel dates at the last minute and not be bothered by it.
4) Liz does her pun on a rolling stone gather no mess. Translate that into no boyfriend mess.
5) Liz comforts April by asking the Patterson woman question to determine whether or not to drop a man: “Are you the kind of person who can let things go, get on with your life, and just be friends?” I thought this was a reference to Paul originally, but now I realize it was intended to be a reference to Warren.
6) Liz classifies Paul as “didn’t work out”, i.e. he wouldn’t do what she told him to do.
7) Liz classifies Warren as “just a friend”, i.e. she only sees him once a year.
8) Liz classifies Anthony as “It’s time to find out”, i.e. we are once again suffering from the extraordinarily slow pacing of Lynn Johnston telling a story.

Just as it took April Patterson almost the entire school year to reform her band after she broke it up, it is taking Elizabeth almost a year to do what she left Mtigwaki and came to Milborough to do.

However, you can see a trace of Lynn Johnston changing her tune about Liz and her suitors. It is not longer completely up to fate. Warren Blackwood may have picked up Liz to take her to Mtigwaki, but it is Liz who invites him to Michael’s Congratupalooza. Anthony Caine may have asked Liz to innocent sort of semi-dates during the trial, but it is Liz who invites him to Shawna-Marie’s wedding. Of course these are the kinds of dates in which it would have been considered acceptable even back in the 1920s for a woman to ask a man, so I don’t know how much credit to give Liz.

As for Shawna-Marie, she is the natural choice for wedding attendance. She lives in Milborough and she was not engaged the last time Liz ran into her over New Years’ 2005, but she had an unseen boyfriend, from whom Liz borrowed motorcycle riding gear.

Dawn Enjo would be a possibility too, since her mother is still in Milborough, but she was engaged to be married back in January, 2005; so more than a 2 year engagement would be excessive, even for this strip. Besides, Elizabeth is so out of touch with Dawn, the last time she was mentioned in a monthly letter was in Mike’s monthly letter from July, 2006. My guess is that Dawn will show up for the wedding married and pregnant.

Really the only question left is how long will it take Anthony to ask Liz to marry him? Lynn Johnston has been pacing this story so slowly; I would be very surprised if we see a proposal before August. This would still allow enough time for a wedding. Some people are under the impression that Liz would need to have a big wedding with Anthony and lots of wedding preparation strips, but I remember what a big deal was made over the evils of a large wedding with Mike and Deanna. I have a hard time imagining that the wedding will be anything but small. Not only that, but I would be surprised if Liz and Anthony are not praised for their small wedding, as being sensible.

I do have a few more questions, though. I want to know if we will ever see any strips with Liz and Françoise interacting? Will Thérèse come back for her comeuppance? And if she does, will Lynn Johnston be successful in making us hate her, or will she once again be able to make us hate Anthony and Liz even more, with the high-handed way she treats Thérèse? Will Anthony’s proposal be related at all to intolerable living conditions for Liz, predicted in Liz’s monthly letter? Will Warren come back into the picture, to be told off by Liz yet again that “seeing is believing.”? How quickly will Michael Patterson’s novel become a best-seller and be declared the great Canadian novel? How many life lessons will we get as Elly and John move their stuff out of the old house? Will April ever tell Gerald off? Will April student exchange to France, move to Winnipeg, or change residences at all? And most importantly, will Fiona Brass come back to the strip before it goes hybrid?

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