Merry Christmas from me! Bah Humbug from Lynn!
As a singer, the month of December is a difficult month. My church does 5 services on Christmas Eve and I just finished a sequence of 3 Holiday Pops concerts with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra and Chorus after having done 4 performances of Handel’s Messiah 2 weeks prior. December is a busy time for singing. Nevertheless, one of the joys of the Holiday Season is to participate in concerts that by and large are not considered to be “serious” classical music, but fun. As the Mariachi Aztlan performed Feliz Navidad this past Sunday, the Symphony Chorus in darkness behind them, starting waving cell phone lights in time to the music and the audience went right along with it and started waving cell phone lights back. It is a festive time of the year, and at least concert-going folks are in good spirits, and I am in a pretty good mood.
Apparently Lynn Johnston is not in a good mood this Christmas, as she has decided to use For Better or For Worse take a shot at people who do long prayers through her standard villainess Mira Sobinski. There is no joke in the strip, just this attack, and certainly this kind of statement could be made on any other occasion where family is gathered. However, Lynn has chosen today of all days to make it.
In the United States, two separate Christmases have developed. One is a devout religious veneration of the birth of the Savior. The other is a secular winter holiday based on highly commercialized pressure to give presents, exchange cards, and party. Usually Lynn Johnston plays to the secular crowd, and the joke at Christmas is how Elly is glad it is finally over, or some joke with the grandkids having to do with Santa Claus and presents. I cannot think of a time before when she has used her Christmas strip to attack someone representing the perspective of devout religion. The net effect is that the Patterson characters are saying that on Christmas Day, doing a long prayer before eating is irritating, rude, and perhaps even wrong.
My response would have to be: Lynn Johnston, if you can’t do a long prayer on Christmas Day, then when can you do one?
Apparently Lynn Johnston is not in a good mood this Christmas, as she has decided to use For Better or For Worse take a shot at people who do long prayers through her standard villainess Mira Sobinski. There is no joke in the strip, just this attack, and certainly this kind of statement could be made on any other occasion where family is gathered. However, Lynn has chosen today of all days to make it.
In the United States, two separate Christmases have developed. One is a devout religious veneration of the birth of the Savior. The other is a secular winter holiday based on highly commercialized pressure to give presents, exchange cards, and party. Usually Lynn Johnston plays to the secular crowd, and the joke at Christmas is how Elly is glad it is finally over, or some joke with the grandkids having to do with Santa Claus and presents. I cannot think of a time before when she has used her Christmas strip to attack someone representing the perspective of devout religion. The net effect is that the Patterson characters are saying that on Christmas Day, doing a long prayer before eating is irritating, rude, and perhaps even wrong.
My response would have to be: Lynn Johnston, if you can’t do a long prayer on Christmas Day, then when can you do one?
posted by howard at 12:59 AM
9 Comments:
Today's strip is brimming with bile. I can't believe these people--not a kind thought among them, with the possible exception of Grandpa Jim, though more likely he's thankful that Mira is not usually amongst him. These people should not mingle with the general population. They are much too vile.
I am actually grateful April was stuck in the kitchen, so that we don't have to see her given a rude thought bubble.
Why the attack on God? Simple! From what I can see, He is the ultimate Voice trying to make them feel bad about themselves. These people want whay what they want when they wanna get it and that's all that matters to them. The big Picky-face in the sky has a lot of nerve handing his flunky Moses that list of ten stupid ideas that get in the way of living their life the way they want to. They're much happier with that nice Lucifer, who tells them to go for the gusto, enjoy life and not sweat the samll stuff.
aprilp_katje,
I am actually grateful April was stuck in the kitchen, so that we don't have to see her given a rude thought bubble.
I had the exact same thought for April, and for the kids too. Grandpa Jim seemed to be thrown in there to show what it is that Mira should have been saying, although his statement is more lecture than prayer.
DreadedCandiru2,
From what I can see, He is the ultimate Voice trying to make them feel bad about themselves.
I don’t know about this one. I cannot ever recollect the Pattersons making anti-religious or anti-God statements in the strip before, which is one of the reasons I found today’s strip to be surprising. If anything, the attitude the Patterson characters have taken on about certain moral positions in the last 4-5 years would imply that the Pattersons are the ones trying to make people feel bad.
What a depressing dinner. Maybe they should eat the meal first and only then decide if they have anything to be thankful for.
Is this the customary seating arrangement in Canada? In our family, spouses sit next to each other, not across the table. The host and hostess generally sit at opposite ends of the table.
Anon NYC
That's as may be. What kills me is something we missed in all our revulsion of the Pattersonian Mira-bashing: the presence of the dogs in the room. Why are they there? So they can eat table scraps. Doesn't matter that Elly has just set herself up to have food stolen off her plate later on, they look soooooo cute when they beg. [/sarcasm] Like I've said before, these people should not have pets.
Anon NYC,
Is this the customary seating arrangement in Canada?
I cannot speak for Canada, but at one point, when I went through a "an Emily Post, learn correct etiquette" phase (I was trying to date Southern US girls, some of whom will dismiss you immediately, if you don't know your etiquette), I learned that in the English standard, spouses are supposed to sit across from each other. At one point in our history, there was an expection that the genders were not supposed to mix at dinner, and after dinner would go to separate rooms for post-dinner discussions.
In old time Jewish tradition, there was a pecking order of seating at the table going from the right hand side of the male or female hostess, where the person sitting the closest to the host had the greatest position of honour. For example, the rabbi would always be in the #1 position. Most Bible references to seating order use this method.
DreadedCandiru2,
What kills me is something we missed in all our revulsion of the Pattersonian Mira-bashing: the presence of the dogs in the room. Why are they there?
This is a definite distinction and I snarked it somewhere. In the Christmas of 2005, the dogs are shown outside the glass doors with the cute, little noses presses against the glass. I am not sure why they are included this time, when the kids weren't. If I were drawing a logical conclusion, then I would say someone wants them there, and Deanna did not stop them, whereas when the house was Elly's, she did.
Actually, it did not go unnoticed about the dogs as I mentioned it in cookie's lj blog.
Formal dinner seating would require that Mike and Deanna be at the ends and the other guests are seated m-f but NOT next to their spouse/escort. If Deanna, being at the end, destroys the m-f arrangement then she would move one place to the left and the male guest of honor, or the eldest male guest as the case would be, would sit at the head of the table. There, that's my etiquette lesson for the day.
But, of course, formal seating does not anticipate children or unescorted adults at the table, which is one reason why few families employ formal seating at holiday dinners!
Post a Comment
<< Home