Eating April
One of the odd things I have noticed is that ever since the hybrid started in September in For Better or For Worse, every time April Patterson appears she is eating or has food in her hand. The one exception is when she is at Lilliput’s getting her book signed. Today’s strip is more of the same. Of the Patterson women, April had the best figure; so I am not sure why, in the post-hybrid state, she is the most gluttonous. Then again, I may have just answered my question.
In April’s Real Blog, I had Michael Patterson make a joke about how no desserts were going to actually make it from Elly’s house to the Christmas Dinner, and now I am not so sure that was a joke. The Pattersons seems to be wolfing down everything Elly is making as fast as she is making it. You know it’s one thing to have a little sample of something you are making for a family dinner, but to start eating away at them with ice cream added makes me wonder. After all, hasn’t this whole week been Christmas Day? Aren’t these people supposed to finish making this food and then walk it down the road to the main event? How are they going to have any appetite later on, or are they simply planning to say, “No dessert for me. We ate a couple of pies before we came here and we’re stuffed.”
On the other hand, it’s nice to see John Patterson appear in the strip again, and not come off badly. Maybe Lynn Johnston is calming down a little about Rod Johnston, after his girlfriend left him and went back to her husband. Sometimes the best revenge doesn’t come from public humiliation in over 2000 papers.
In April’s Real Blog, I had Michael Patterson make a joke about how no desserts were going to actually make it from Elly’s house to the Christmas Dinner, and now I am not so sure that was a joke. The Pattersons seems to be wolfing down everything Elly is making as fast as she is making it. You know it’s one thing to have a little sample of something you are making for a family dinner, but to start eating away at them with ice cream added makes me wonder. After all, hasn’t this whole week been Christmas Day? Aren’t these people supposed to finish making this food and then walk it down the road to the main event? How are they going to have any appetite later on, or are they simply planning to say, “No dessert for me. We ate a couple of pies before we came here and we’re stuffed.”
On the other hand, it’s nice to see John Patterson appear in the strip again, and not come off badly. Maybe Lynn Johnston is calming down a little about Rod Johnston, after his girlfriend left him and went back to her husband. Sometimes the best revenge doesn’t come from public humiliation in over 2000 papers.
posted by howard at 9:53 PM
10 Comments:
Had not heard this about the girlfriend. Where was this posted?
How odd that the Pattersons are always seen eating huge portions of unhealthy foods. You'd think they'd exercise to reduce but do as little as possible to take care of themselves. From Elly's constant ravings about how people who do watch what they eat and take care of their appearance aren't 'satisfied' with who they are, it seems to me that what they're all really saying is that since they can't be young and healthy, they might as well enjoy being fat.
Anon, someone posted at the Crown Princess Marie Chantal of Greece FBoFW forum that Rod had left for his dental assistant, who had left her husband, but subsequently went back to him. And that Rod had gone a bit midlife-crisis mad.
The Patterson food obsession is plain bizarre. And shouldn't John deduce that if Elly is making three pies, and a Christmas dinner at the Pattermase is imminent, that those pies are for the dinner? And why would Elly lead with "they're too hot" instead of saying "those are for the holiday dinner"?
DreadedCandiru2,
You'd think they'd exercise to reduce but do as little as possible to take care of themselves.
The Connie and Elly exercise strips have often led to the joke of having the two of them eating something unhealthy. Perhaps this eating binge is a side effect of Elly no longer living right next to the more health-conscious Connie.
aprilp_katje,
Thanks for answering anonymous’ question.
The Patterson food obsession is plain bizarre.
There are 2 aspects which are disturbing:
a. Lynn Johnston has been doing a lot of it lately. This is since August:
1. Elly and John drooling over her hamburgers.
2. Elly taking tuna casserole to Grandpa Jim.
3. Elly and April with the butter tarts (or April, Mike, Merrie in the refrigerator).
4. Elly slobbering and drooling over the picnic food to the point where Robin thinks she is going to explode.
5. Elly taking pudding to Grandpa Jim in hospital.
6. April munching on Elly’s cookies.
7. Hybrid of red-faced Elly eating pie and chicken late at night.
b. There is no plot advancement. We just see the Pattersons ravenously downing huge amounts of food.
I wonder if Lynn is on some kind of diet and thinks about food constantly. Not that she has ever appeared fat in her website pictures, but now that Lynn is newly single, is it possible she is on a diet in order to drop weight and attract a new man?
anonymous, it was also cross-posted on Cookie's blog, after which I posted all the obvious holes in the story, but unfortunately the next day's post was already uploaded so I doubt anyone even saw it.
Anonymous (bigefries, I presume),
Thanks to your note, I did check Cookie’s blog and your posted obvious holes in the story. To summarize, the Crown Princess story stated Rod’s love interest was a hygienist / receptionist for Rod, and his dental practice was in his house. The holes were (a) Rod’s original practice was too big to be in his house, (b) Rod had already sold his business and retired, (c) hygienists do not operate also as receptionists and (d) it would be ridiculous for Rod to start up a new dental business in his house after he had retired. Those are reasonable points, and I had personally dismissed those aspects of the story right off the bat, since they were similar enough to the story I had been told earlier by another anonymous poster here whose story matched the existing facts very well. That story was (a) the girlfriend used to be hygienist for Rod and (b) she worked for Lynn, and I know from Lynn’s Jan Wong interview at that time in her life, Lynn’s studio used to be in her house. I presumed that the Crown Princess poster was not lying about the matter, but simply did not have those details straight, because they were similar to the other story. The only detail which I thought might be right from the Crown Princess post was the idea that the girlfriend had returned to her husband, mainly because it satisfies my sense of justice about the matter.
It could be Lynn, as you said, regards these displays of mass consumption as the ideal vehicle to demonstrate that the Patersons are close to one another after all. The thinking must be that they wouldn't happily pig out together if they didn't love one another.
It seems to me lots of people associate food with togetherness. It's ingrained in the Italian and Hispanic cultures.
I love the comment on cookie's blog where Howard says the Pattersons adhere to a food religion.
james,
Glad you liked the food religion joke. On April's Real Blog I called it Fryingtology (a takeoff on Scientology).
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