Monday, May 07, 2007

What Does Gun Have to do with Gunny Sack?

As it turns out, not anything. But it is interesting to see that Lynn Johnston has apparently spent a little time researching the physiotherapy aspect of stroke recovery, only to blow the whole For Better or For Worse strip on a World War II reference, simply because she apparently thinks a gunny sack must have something to do with war, because it has the "gun" as a part of its name. Supposedly Lynn Johnston was brought up on a farm, but whenever she makes mistakes like this, I doubt that (a) she is even writing this stuff or (b) she actually did anything on the farm aside from sit around and draw.

In the meantime, we have stalled out on Liz and Anthony, which will probably not re-engage until the Shawna-Marie Verano wedding, and that may not occur until June, a good wedding month. That will leave July and August for Anthony and Liz to romance each other, but since Warren Blackwood is technically still in the picture, I maintain again, that Lynn Johnston will stretch getting Liz and Anthony back together until August. If they marry it will be small like Mike and Deanna's wedding #1 or they will elope like Jim and Iris did. The only question in my mind is will Liz go with Warren to the wedding or will she pick up someone like Dennis North again?

I really hope for the return of Thérèse and her smack down by Anthony, Liz and little Francie; but I fear Lynn is going to take so much time dragging out the inevitable "Will Liz choose Anthony story?" that we won't have time to get a "Liz is a better mommy than Thérèse" story.

April smacking down Gerald. Normally, I would say that since there is such a time lag between the offending action (back in March) and the earliest possible time for retribution (May), the chances of April actually doing anything to end her relationship with Gerald grow more and more remote with each passing day. Whatever happens has to happen before the end of school in June and I would like there to be enough time for consequences, instead of a startling jump from April saying "Stuff it" to a Jim strip the next day. If Lynn plans for April to go to Winnipeg to live with Auntie Bev or to do the foreign studies in France (as originally predicted), then Gerald will get smacked and 4Evah&Eva will be dissolved. I don't know how it will go. Lynn Johnston has had Gerald with his offensive moments, but then again, he is still the Continental with his smooth old-fashioned dance moves and if you go back far enough, a positive comparison to Anthony Caine. Then again, Constable Paul Wright got smacked and he was presented so positively it was painfully jarring when he got smacked. If Paul can go, then certainly the more offensive Gerald can too.

These are really the only majour plotlines left to resolve. I'm sure there will some sentimentality involving the big house move, but for all practical purposes, Lynn could knock that out in a week. And we also know Mike's novel will be declared a phenomenal best-seller, but that could take a week too, with much back-patting of Mike by various persons and vomiting by the readers.

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Gunny sack is a burlap bag that we associate with a sack of potatoes. Could it have been used as a duffle bag to carry food or personal belongings during the war? From this strip it appears to contain a heavy load and burlap, while inexpensive, is very strong.

3:36 AM  
Blogger howard said...

Could it have been used as a duffle bag to carry food or personal belongings during the war?

This is a website showing the packs used in World War II
http://www.olive-drab.com/od_soldiers_gear_ww2pack.php

My web searches show no indication of gunny sacks used as duffle bags, but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. I can imagine the difficulties in using them would be (a) no straps for easy carrying, (b) no side pockets for easy access to crucial items, and (c) inconsistent colouring with the combat uniform increases likelihood of being mistaken for an enemy.

9:55 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home