Tired of Blaming the Pattersons
I have been reading FOOBiverse Journal entries for the last 2 weeks of this Iris and Jim therapy-athon, and I can tell you I have simply gotten tired of reading, “Elly should be helping Iris out and visiting more often. She sucks! April is the only decent one. All the other Pattersons suck, especially Mike. He sucks.” I can take these in small doses, but 2 weeks of it has been a little much. Iris played her poor, poor pitiful me act in the strip again on Thursday, and I found myself losing all sympathy for her and the Patterson attackers.
The reasons are simple. Lynn Johnston has shown all the Pattersons visiting Grandpa Jim, except for the great grandkids, who appear in the strip even less than the dogs do but more often than the rabbit does. That’s all she has time to do, with the house-switching storyline, and the Liz love life storyline, and the April is not really a slut even though she looks like one storyline, etc.
The monthly letters are the real problem. They try to retcon in more appearances by the Pattersons than the strip can show, but list Elly as once a week or twice a week visitor, which is not often enough for a retired woman living in Milborough. Also, the monthly letters from Iris are depressing and sad, as Iris is clearly depending more on her daughter than the Pattersons. It is the letters that are messing me up. If I just went from the strip, I would see all the Pattersons have visited, and the rate of subsequent visits doesn’t matter. The last 2 weeks has certainly proved to me I don’t need to see too much of Iris and Jim.
The other majour reason is that Jim and Iris live in a retirement community. It has been shown Iris can wheel Jim around to doctor’s appointments and he has recovered a lot of his physical capability. So, why can’t she wheel Jim to the recreation center and play a game of cards with friends? You don’t have to be able to talk to play cards, and Iris can yack away with her friends. When I see Iris begging the speech therapist to stay, I don’t feel pity. I think to myself, just throw Jim in the wheelchair and go socialize with him, and quit playing the martyr!!
The reasons are simple. Lynn Johnston has shown all the Pattersons visiting Grandpa Jim, except for the great grandkids, who appear in the strip even less than the dogs do but more often than the rabbit does. That’s all she has time to do, with the house-switching storyline, and the Liz love life storyline, and the April is not really a slut even though she looks like one storyline, etc.
The monthly letters are the real problem. They try to retcon in more appearances by the Pattersons than the strip can show, but list Elly as once a week or twice a week visitor, which is not often enough for a retired woman living in Milborough. Also, the monthly letters from Iris are depressing and sad, as Iris is clearly depending more on her daughter than the Pattersons. It is the letters that are messing me up. If I just went from the strip, I would see all the Pattersons have visited, and the rate of subsequent visits doesn’t matter. The last 2 weeks has certainly proved to me I don’t need to see too much of Iris and Jim.
The other majour reason is that Jim and Iris live in a retirement community. It has been shown Iris can wheel Jim around to doctor’s appointments and he has recovered a lot of his physical capability. So, why can’t she wheel Jim to the recreation center and play a game of cards with friends? You don’t have to be able to talk to play cards, and Iris can yack away with her friends. When I see Iris begging the speech therapist to stay, I don’t feel pity. I think to myself, just throw Jim in the wheelchair and go socialize with him, and quit playing the martyr!!
posted by howard at 11:29 PM
9 Comments:
Yes, it seems LJ is going for sympathy for the olds, but it's backfiring.
... and doesn't Iris have friends in her building/community that she can invite for coffee? And what about her phone, is it broken?
We haven't seen Iris and Jim socialize in their building/community since the New Bentwood Rockers dropped out of existence. However, Iris' monthly letters indicated they were starting to be social again, after people temporarily shunned them from Jim having a stroke.
Then there's that phone too. Lynn Johnston is just pushing this thing until it is getting silly. But I suppose somewhere there is an old lady who couldn't get her husband's speech therapist to have a conversation with her, and she is clipping this strip like mad to send the speech therapist a message.
Howtheduck, I was able to view the websites you posted yesterday. Another interesting twist is that Liuba apparently teaches Spanish in the continuing-ed program at the college. We know that learning Spanish has been a "Lynn" ambition for many years. Just as Elly took courses in writing and in photography, I imagine Lynn probably took Spanish classes--and maybe that's how she met Liuba and wooed her over to Team Corbeil. Hmmmm.
Considering the stories about how Laura recruited her fellow graduates, I wouldn't be surprised if you are exactly right about Liuba. It makes perfect sense.
I wonder why Lynn had Liz go to Nippissing in North Bay.
I noticed that the Canadore College article included some strips from Liz's time at Nipissing and that, according to the captions, these strips contained people and locations that were actually from Canadore. My guess is that if Canadore College had had a teacher-ed program, Liz would have gone there. But maybe there's a more interesting story. :)
A quick check of the Canadore website shows a degree in Early Childhood Education but not in general education. It appears to me your guess is correct.
howtheduck, I've decided that the other person in the pillow-fight re-enactment is most likely Jackie. Check out that hair. Much too short to be Kate's.
aprilp_katje,
You're probably right. I just have this dream of figuring out who is actually doing the art. When I look at the body types in the groups pictures, Jackie matches better too.
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