What’s Left?

It's July and we have about 6+ weeks left.

The special needs mall telethon. Necessity: Probable. Lynn Johnston made a big deal about this telethon, and April has already told Gerald the band would play there. You get a last hurrah for Becky McGuire and Shannon Lake, plus the members of 4Evah&Eva. Plus, there is the opportunity for Eva, Luis, and Shannon to smackdown April Patterson once again because she wasn’t a refugee, or because has a nice house, or because she doesn’t have any of the myriad of problems people with special needs have.

The romance of Anthony and Elizabeth
Subcategories:

1. Françoise accepts Elizabeth as her new mom.
   Necessity: Crucial. Even the most pro-Anthony and Elizabeth people whose comments I have read admit that Elizabeth is taking a risk taking on Françoise. For them to accept Anthony and Elizabeth together long term, it must be shown than Elizabeth is good with Françoise. Lynn has displayed Elizabeth in such a negative light in the last year (shrieking at her cat, spitting at phones, curled up in bed with a stuffed animal), she really needs to turn it around. A few ballet moves at a wedding reception do not cut it for me, and many others.
2. Anthony proposes to Elizabeth and they marry.
   Necessity: Probable. I think Lynn wants Elizabeth to be living with Anthony and Françoise by the time hybrid goes into effect, or she wouldn’t have spent all that time showing Anthony’s house. That won’t be acceptable without a proposal and a wedding.
3. Elizabeth deals with Warren.
   Necessity: Optional. She already spat at a phone. What more do you need?
4. Elizabeth, Anthony and Françoise deliver a smackdown to Thérèse.
   Necessity: Optional and dangerous. Thérèse has not appeared in the strip in years, so she would have to be re-introduced. Moreover, Lynn Johnston seemed to be unable to put Anthony and Elizabeth together with Thérèse without painting Thérèse so broadly bad, as to draw sympathy to her. The primary complaint about Thérèse was that she did not want to raise her daughter. To bring her back would show an interest in her daughter and defeat that purpose. Personally, I would love to see her back, but I think it is unlikely.
   

Mike has a best seller. Necessity: Crucial. Someone has to validate that awful writing in those monthly Mike letters, and show that Mike was not a complete idiot for dropping his paying job for his authorial career.

John retires. Necessity: Crucial. The final step of a retirement plan first mentioned in the strip back in 2003 and justifies the strips featuring Dr. Everett Callahan as future business owner.

April on the farm. Necessity: Crucial. April has to say definitely for sure this time, after her 3rd visit to Winnipeg, she is going to be a vet. If we are really lucky, all those strips and monthly letters which have hinted April will be going to live somewhere other than the Stibbs’ house (and not living there for the next 2 years) will come true.

Grandpa Jim is miraculously healed. Necessity: Unlikely. Originally I thought it was crucial to have Grandpa Jim better so he could introduce storylines involving him in the hybrid, but Lynn has gone to such lengths to research the recovery of a man who has not regained his speech, I am no longer certain she will do this.

As for me, I am back from Myrtle Beach (actually Garden City), South Carolina. On Tuesday, my family launches off to Dallas, Texas for my wife’s Homemade Gourmet Convention and to visit her family who lives there until Thursday the following week. So, there will be another stretch with limited computer connections. Sorry, folks.