Monday, September 24, 2007

Elly the Nag

aprilp_katje. Thanks for the head’s up on today’s For Better or For Worse strip. As it turns out Lynn Johnston didn’t skip over the “Elly the nag” strip. I found this one to be particularly interesting. My family visits my wife’s relatives back in Dallas and we discovered that one week is about enough. After a week, my wife’s relatives started returning to their old habits of dealing with us, which is to say, they started picking at the things we do. So, now we try to keep our visits under a week and everyone is a lot happier.

The interesting part in today’s strip is that Elly Patterson is the one who starts the picking and her parents’ reaction seems to be a primarily defensive reaction to Elly’s assault. Of course the whole venture in Vancouver has been filled with Elly wondering about her relationship with her mother, and when she will finally be considered an adult, and other ideas like that, which would make Elly a very dull conversationalist indeed.

I also found Elly’s pick about Gramma Marian not changing her hairstyle to be particularly ironic, considering Elly’s unending bun. I also like the idea that Gramma Marian let Jim chain smoke. Iris became the nag for Grampa Jim’s behaviour, which Marian never was, but maybe Elly (Lynn Johnston) always wanted her to be.

11 Comments:

Blogger DreadedCandiru2 said...

What makes Elly's behavior particularly obnoxious is that she is by no means willing to subjected to the same sort of badgering she's directed at her parents. The mildest sort of criticism will cause the alarming spectacle of our sheet-shaving heroine unhinging her jaw and letting fly with an incoherent tantrum. Heck, it doesn't even have to be criticism; all she needs is the hint that she's being told what to do and she'll scream real loud. At least Marian and Jim had the decency to respond to her relentless scolding with articulate words in a level tone of voice. Another fun fact is that most the things that bother her about the world can be somehow associated with her Mom and Dad. If there's a perfectly normal habit or idea that cause Elly to frown like the sullen idjit she is, you can bet her folks thought it was a good thing.

3:40 AM  
Blogger April Patterson said...

You're welcome, howtheduck--I was a bit surprised that Lynn didn't skip this one. The replaced first panel had Jim lighting up his cigarette as he read a book, and Elly saying, "You really should stop smoking, Dad--it would be better for your health!"

4:06 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

When we invited my in-laws for the holidays, mother-in-law said, “Company, like fish, begins to stink after three days.”

Anon, NYC

4:48 AM  
Blogger Chris Pierson said...

I wonder if Lynn replaced the first panel with the Merrie-contemplates-suicide-while-Mike-continues-to-drone-on one because it showed the actual act of lighting a cigarette. And I wonder if that was her idea, or just common standards and practices in the comics these days.

Also, I have to say that the colorists at Yahoo comics are either masters of irony or not paying attention, given that Elly the nag is wearing more blue than her mom.

12:33 PM  
Blogger April Patterson said...

Good question about the lighting-up. Though I wonder how it's worse to see someone lighting up than it is to see the person smoking an already-lit cigarette.

2:32 PM  
Blogger DreadedCandiru2 said...

There's another nasty little side effect to someone's decision to remove the opening panel. It causes the unwary, like me, to initially assume that they pasted together a bunch of classic strips to prove Mike's point for him. ON another note, this sort of thing seems to have convinced at least one member of the Yahoo group to think that no old material has been used at all.

2:38 PM  
Blogger howard said...

Chris Pierson,

My impression is that the anti-smoking fervor did spread through Canada as it did in the United States, since I remember seeing No Scents is Good Sense sign back in the May 8 strip. Also, Grandpa Jim was definitely put on the no smoking bandwagon by his second wife:

Jim's Letter, November 2005

Speaking of hard, we're both on diets. I'm finding it hard to cope with the "no snacking" restriction, personally. But it's true that my metabolism isn't what it once was, much like everything else these days, and so I can see the logic in it. We're still going to the gym for Aquafitness classes once a week, and I've given up my occasional cigarette. None of this matters one whit though, not the diet or the fitness routine - I'm still old! There's no stopping the clock.

4:36 PM  
Blogger howard said...

DreadedCandiru2,

Those poor people on the Yahoo group. The breakdown as I see it is:

2007 Lynn Johnston - all the Sundays, September 1 – 6, 7 (1/2), 12, 13, 21, 25(1/4)

Reprint Lynn Johnston – September 8, 10, 11, 15- 20, 22 – 24, 25(3/4)

Laura Piché – September 7 (1/2), 14

Added Mike top panel – September 10

Added Captions – September 8 – 11, 14, 15, 22

It appears to be about ½ new, ½ old for the hybrid for September.

4:52 PM  
Blogger howard said...

Anon NYC,

That’s a funny quote from your mother-in-law, especially considering she would have been the company. Did she stay more than 3 days?

4:53 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Howard: "No Scents Is Good Sense" is a slogan used to warn about potential health problems resulting from exposure to people wearing perfume, cologne, etc. It's not about tobacco smoking, which was banned in public indoor locations in Ontario last year, with the apparent exception of April's high school cafeteria.

10:18 PM  
Blogger howard said...

Joshua,

My point, obviously not stated very well, is that if Canada is vigilant about scents, then tobacco is surely also a target. Since tobacco was, as you say, "banned in public indoor locations in Ontario last year" then that proves the point. As to whether this is the reason Lynn Johnston chose to exclude Grampa Jim lighting up a cigarette from the old strip in the reprint, who knows?

10:50 PM  

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