University Dentistry and the Single Man
Back in my single days, I lived in the Dallas, Texas area and worked with a man whose wife was in the dental hygienist school at Texas Women’s University in Denton. She swore that one of the best ways to meet a girl, was to get a free appointment at the dental hygienist school, and said that if I ever did that, then she would make sure to introduce me to a cute hygienist.
Well, I took her up on that offer and discovered first hand why the whole idea would not work. Part of the business of dental hygiene, and particularly at a school, is to go through every nook and cranny of your mouth and find the spots you missed. Not only that, but part of the treatment is that the hygienist then has to give you some kind of lecture about how to properly brush or floss that area or areas you missed. It is one of the least romantic settings I can imagine. Needless to say, there were no dates scheduled between me and Miss “You Missed a Spot. Now show me how you are going to improve your brushing.”
I had a good time today researching dental equipment and techniques from the 1960s and 1970s in order to snark today's strip. Most of it was based on my own memory, because as a young lad of 10 (in 1972), I had an overzealous orthodontist who insisted my baby teeth be pulled so I could get a set of braces put in. I ended up having 12 baby teeth pulled + 4 adult teeth (mouth too small for fat teeth), not counting my 4 wisdom teeth which came in later. The teeth were not all pulled at once, just a few every month. Over time, I became quite familiar with the dentist’s office, where my teeth were being pulled. When I saw John’s dental set up today, I said, “No way. Lynn Johnston is not even remotely trying to make this the slightest bit authentic, and she’s married to a dentist who was in practice back in those days.” In particular, I remember "rinse and spit" vividly, and there is not a spittoon to be seen anywhere in that strip. Imagine the ribbing Rod Johnston is going to take from his dental friends about this.
I read the updated version of Agnes Dingle's life on the Who’s Who section. There are 3 other new ones, marked by a star, but I have not looked them over thoroughly.
After her heart attack in 2004, when Michael's impulsive phone call may have been all that saved her from dying alone on her kitchen floor, Agnes reluctantly sold her house.
So now it is a heart attack, and not a stroke as they said back in 2004. I guess Lynn Johnston decided Agnes can’t recover so nicely from her stroke (even though some people actually do), if Grandpa Jim has to suffer with his aphasia from his stroke. I guess these expansions are what were described to us as the website back stories, where we get to learn more about the characters. They are written in the flowery, Mike monthly letter style, so they are a little difficult to stomach.
Between these retcon strips; and the September monthly letters, which were loaded down with retcons; and now these back story character retcons, I am beginning to wonder if there is any part of any For Better or For Worse story which is sacred.
Well, I took her up on that offer and discovered first hand why the whole idea would not work. Part of the business of dental hygiene, and particularly at a school, is to go through every nook and cranny of your mouth and find the spots you missed. Not only that, but part of the treatment is that the hygienist then has to give you some kind of lecture about how to properly brush or floss that area or areas you missed. It is one of the least romantic settings I can imagine. Needless to say, there were no dates scheduled between me and Miss “You Missed a Spot. Now show me how you are going to improve your brushing.”
I had a good time today researching dental equipment and techniques from the 1960s and 1970s in order to snark today's strip. Most of it was based on my own memory, because as a young lad of 10 (in 1972), I had an overzealous orthodontist who insisted my baby teeth be pulled so I could get a set of braces put in. I ended up having 12 baby teeth pulled + 4 adult teeth (mouth too small for fat teeth), not counting my 4 wisdom teeth which came in later. The teeth were not all pulled at once, just a few every month. Over time, I became quite familiar with the dentist’s office, where my teeth were being pulled. When I saw John’s dental set up today, I said, “No way. Lynn Johnston is not even remotely trying to make this the slightest bit authentic, and she’s married to a dentist who was in practice back in those days.” In particular, I remember "rinse and spit" vividly, and there is not a spittoon to be seen anywhere in that strip. Imagine the ribbing Rod Johnston is going to take from his dental friends about this.
I read the updated version of Agnes Dingle's life on the Who’s Who section. There are 3 other new ones, marked by a star, but I have not looked them over thoroughly.
After her heart attack in 2004, when Michael's impulsive phone call may have been all that saved her from dying alone on her kitchen floor, Agnes reluctantly sold her house.
So now it is a heart attack, and not a stroke as they said back in 2004. I guess Lynn Johnston decided Agnes can’t recover so nicely from her stroke (even though some people actually do), if Grandpa Jim has to suffer with his aphasia from his stroke. I guess these expansions are what were described to us as the website back stories, where we get to learn more about the characters. They are written in the flowery, Mike monthly letter style, so they are a little difficult to stomach.
Between these retcon strips; and the September monthly letters, which were loaded down with retcons; and now these back story character retcons, I am beginning to wonder if there is any part of any For Better or For Worse story which is sacred.
posted by howard at 12:03 AM
8 Comments:
I am beginning to wonder if there is any part of any For Better or For Worse story which is sacred.
It's looking unlikely--and you know how twitchy that sort of thing makes me!
It's always seemed to me that Lynn Johnston seems to "invent" little details aboout her life that don't seem quite right. Her rebel days, singing in cafes, some other things she has said that she hasn't displayed much insight into in her strip--guess she is doing the same with her characters.
Because the art style is significantly different from the way it was just a year ago, all these retcons have the feel to me of a different creator's hands on it. It is as if someone says, "Elly and John met at university in a library, but you can do what you want with it." I have a real hard time with today's strip, which deals with 1970s dentistry, to believe Lynn had much to do with the art, because Rod would or at least should protest about parts of it.
I am beginning to wonder if there is any part of any For Better or For Worse story which is sacred.
It's looking unlikely--and you know how twitchy that sort of thing makes me!
"Lynn is never wrong and the creator of the strip so can do what she wants without care for the (long time) readers" seems to be the only consistency with this strip.
Adrianne
(Blogger hates me)
"Lynn is never wrong and the creator of the strip so can do what she wants without care for the (long time) readers" seems to be the only consistency with this strip.
Technically this is true. I am strong proponent of the right of the creator to create what they want; just like it’s my right to make fun of it, if the creator decides to be lazy and do a poor job with their creation.
However, I don’t think Lynn Johnston is doing what she wants without care for the long time readers. She appears to be pandering to her long time readers. The Thérèse and Anthony “marriage explained for us” retcon, seemed to be clearly written for the purpose of addressing the most grievous aspects of the Liz / Anthony / Thérèse story previously presented by removing them from story continuity. I fear that the reason we are seeing this retcon of the John and Elly first meeting, is to make it seem more like the Liz and Anthony romance. I think Lynn Johnston is trying to convince her long time readers that Liz / Anthony will be the greatest couple since peanut butter and jelly.
If she didn't care about the opinions of the long term readers, Liz and Anthony would be married by now.
I believe that you're right about someone else taking over the strip. It doesn't make sense that LJ is "retiring" yet there are so many changes to the original strips and new ones that are treated as though they were old strips.
I wondered for a while if all that different artwork, jumping around with storylines, etc. was a "tryout" period for some contenders. I also wondered if Lynn feels less possessive of her creations since Katie is on board now.
DJ
There were a number of things which altered. Liz and April had those big lips and April really changed at age 16. It was almost like the person taking over the art chores, was being given free licence to change the characters to be the way she wanted them to look, instead of having to imitate Lynn Johnston's style.
Well, now that we know a bit about the current Lynn/Rod relationship, that might be why the dental stuff isn't up to snuff. She's probably relying on her memories of her last dentist visit. (And it also puts Dr. John's dental screw-ups Sunday strip in a whole 'nother light...)
Post a Comment
<< Home