Rod / John: Friendless or Friendful?
A few years back, my dad took my family on a trip to visit a friend of his, a 90ish man who attended his church, who had a massive model train set up in his house. When we went to visit, he showed us his layout, and he was actually wearing the railroader, pin-striped bib overalls. Of course, he was a cute, 90ish Swedish man and it didn’t bother me at all. Likewise, it does not bother me when Dr. John Patterson does it.
John Patterson of For Better or For Worse is modeled after Lynn Johnston’s husband Rod, and so is his obsession with trains. What I find interesting is that other aspects of Rod’s life are not modeled with John Patterson. Since I have been snarking this strip, I have from time-to-time done internet searches on Rod Johnston and discovered a man who is very much involved in the community of Corbeil, Ontario where he lives and the surrounding, larger town of North Bay. Just from this I have learned that Rod has worked with local universities, he is involved with community improvement, and appears to contribute money around the area. He also has an interest in flying small planes in addition to his model train interests. I believe he also has a side business in setting up large model train setups for other people, but I don’t know how much business he actually does with that.
Why is John Patterson limited to just trains? I think part of it might be for comic effect. There was a strip which joked about John Patterson panicking that Deanna Patterson might buy the Stibbs place and sell off the other lots and wreck his train plans. Today’s strip is also going for comedy, by comparing John to a boy who can’t get anyone to come over and play with his toys. This kind of comedy is like a double-edged sword. Making a good man appear foolish for a joke can also make him appear pitiful.
In the past, when Lynn Johnston would portray her fights with Rod in the strip, there was a definite bias towards hers (Elly’s) point of view. John often came off as pompous, sexist, insensitive and well-deserving of the coffee cup Elly hurled at his head. Rod would have to have a great sense of humour to have him, through John, mocked like this across the land.
It makes me wonder if the portrayal of John Patterson as friendless in today’s strip is also a portrayal of Rod Johnston as friendless, or is it a backhanded stab at Rod Johnston for having a hobby which Lynn may consider to be childish. As near as I can tell from my internet searches, I doubt the real Dr. Rod Johnston is friendless.
John Patterson of For Better or For Worse is modeled after Lynn Johnston’s husband Rod, and so is his obsession with trains. What I find interesting is that other aspects of Rod’s life are not modeled with John Patterson. Since I have been snarking this strip, I have from time-to-time done internet searches on Rod Johnston and discovered a man who is very much involved in the community of Corbeil, Ontario where he lives and the surrounding, larger town of North Bay. Just from this I have learned that Rod has worked with local universities, he is involved with community improvement, and appears to contribute money around the area. He also has an interest in flying small planes in addition to his model train interests. I believe he also has a side business in setting up large model train setups for other people, but I don’t know how much business he actually does with that.
Why is John Patterson limited to just trains? I think part of it might be for comic effect. There was a strip which joked about John Patterson panicking that Deanna Patterson might buy the Stibbs place and sell off the other lots and wreck his train plans. Today’s strip is also going for comedy, by comparing John to a boy who can’t get anyone to come over and play with his toys. This kind of comedy is like a double-edged sword. Making a good man appear foolish for a joke can also make him appear pitiful.
In the past, when Lynn Johnston would portray her fights with Rod in the strip, there was a definite bias towards hers (Elly’s) point of view. John often came off as pompous, sexist, insensitive and well-deserving of the coffee cup Elly hurled at his head. Rod would have to have a great sense of humour to have him, through John, mocked like this across the land.
It makes me wonder if the portrayal of John Patterson as friendless in today’s strip is also a portrayal of Rod Johnston as friendless, or is it a backhanded stab at Rod Johnston for having a hobby which Lynn may consider to be childish. As near as I can tell from my internet searches, I doubt the real Dr. Rod Johnston is friendless.
posted by howard at 11:39 PM
5 Comments:
The real Rod Johnston even flew out to California with Katie to work on an Extreme Makeover: Home Edition job (of course, it was to set up a train layout, but still). :)
Katie Johnston works on Extreme Makeover: Home Edition? I don't watch that show, but maybe I should. What does she do on the show? (Feeling suddenly ignorant.)
No, AFAIK, she doesn't work on the show. I think what happened was that the show contacted Rod because of that "Riding Railkits" business that he has, and asked him to help for that particular episode, and he brought Kate along as a helper. I didn't actually see the episode in question (which was, I think, in 2004), but saw some pictures from it on Rod's website.
(I was watching the show for a while, but it became redundant for me. Crew comes in, knocks down existing house, builds obnoxious McMansion, family is grateful.)
Okay, I found it on the website. :)
Interesting link. Thanks. I notice in their customer photo albums, they seem to have gotten quite a bit of business from the TV appearance, but I did not see any from 2007, which could be more website updating problems than an actual loss of business.
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