Dishwashers (Both Kinds)
I remember my first dishwasher, or rather the first dishwasher in my family. We had a portable job, that had these big rubber tubes to connect to the faucet in your sink. You would load it, hook the washer to the sink, turn the water on, and run the dishwasher. I am pretty sure we had that unit well before 1979, the time of today’s For Better or For Worse strip, but it was still before the days, when you would simply expect a house to have one. However, apartments I lived in during the early 1980s, all came equipped with built-in dishwashers as a standard. So, I think 1979 Elly and John are clearly living in an older house. Lynn Johnston would have been up in Lynn Lake at the time, and part of her frustration with that community could have been the lack of modern appliances in homes.
In the comments to yesterday’s blog entry, aprilp_katje suggested that Elly have a heart-to-heart with John about all the years where he didn’t do any housework. Since we are into a reprint from 1979 showing an example of John’s lack of sympathy about housework, I would like to think that Lynn Johnston has taken aprilp_katje’s suggestion, and the conclusion of a series of “John did no housework in 1979 and he liked it that way” strips, could be returning to the modern day, where John apologizes or at least sympathizes with Elly’s situation. However, given how the last round of reprints ended (a sudden jump to Grandpa Jim and his two-fingered salute), the more likely possibility is a jump to modern Elizabeth and Anthony discussing how to tell Elly she eloped and got married.
So, where is Lynn Johnston going with all this? I don’t know. She announced she is going to do all 1979 reprints in September; so I thought we were going to press in the modern age to resolve all those plotlines she had leftover to resolve. Instead we have a "dish-washing and blame John" sequence. I really hope that Lynn has not extended her storylines until September, so she can get in more strips showing John Patterson didn’t do housework.
In the comments to yesterday’s blog entry, aprilp_katje suggested that Elly have a heart-to-heart with John about all the years where he didn’t do any housework. Since we are into a reprint from 1979 showing an example of John’s lack of sympathy about housework, I would like to think that Lynn Johnston has taken aprilp_katje’s suggestion, and the conclusion of a series of “John did no housework in 1979 and he liked it that way” strips, could be returning to the modern day, where John apologizes or at least sympathizes with Elly’s situation. However, given how the last round of reprints ended (a sudden jump to Grandpa Jim and his two-fingered salute), the more likely possibility is a jump to modern Elizabeth and Anthony discussing how to tell Elly she eloped and got married.
So, where is Lynn Johnston going with all this? I don’t know. She announced she is going to do all 1979 reprints in September; so I thought we were going to press in the modern age to resolve all those plotlines she had leftover to resolve. Instead we have a "dish-washing and blame John" sequence. I really hope that Lynn has not extended her storylines until September, so she can get in more strips showing John Patterson didn’t do housework.
posted by howard at 11:10 PM
19 Comments:
Nah, Lynn doesn't take my suggestions. Particularly the ones where I wrote to CT and asked her to please stop with the flashbacks and focus on the present-day stories until they are wrapped up. Like you, I hoped this was where she was headed.
I had an awful thought. For all her coyness about not knowing how the current arcs will end, what if she actually never intends to wrap them up. Think about it. She must be aware that many of us are really only hanging on for these stories to be resolved and plan to abandon the strip once she goes to all reruns/hybrids/whatever she's murkily decided to have. So what if she plans to throw us the occasional fake towards current-day character development (kind of what she has been doing) with switches back into the past--INDEFINITELY. I think I just freaked myself out.
Oh, yes. It would be just like her to pan away from the plotlines and launch us into permanent flashback mode so we'd be forced to buy the Tome of Destiny to see what happens. Great. She's using her lazy storytelling as a marketing device. My stomach hurts.
So what if she plans to throw us the occasional fake towards current-day character development
Even the Liz-Anthony story is not being developed, so it’s time to accept the fact that LJ has already retired.
Anon NYC
aprilp_katje,
Nah, Lynn doesn't take my suggestions. Particularly the ones where I wrote to CT and asked her to please stop with the flashbacks and focus on the present-day stories until they are wrapped up. Like you, I hoped this was where she was headed.
That was one way that interview could be interpreted, when she said people found the hybrid confusing and she wasn't going to do it anymore. However, because the only specific date mentioned was the "no later than September" resolution of the modern character storylines, it is possible that she means the hybrid ends then. Given today's strip, that is my guess.
So what if she plans to throw us the occasional fake towards current-day character development (kind of what she has been doing) with switches back into the past--INDEFINITELY.
That is certainly the way it looks lately. The most recent Grandpa Jim story didn't do anything to advance Grandpa Jim except to suggest that Grandpa Jim is not improving. This business with John having more time so he can wash dishes suggests the possibility that John has retired or is working less each week. Likewise, Elizabeth saying she is going home with Anthony suggests they are living together.
dreadedcandiru2,
She's using her lazy storytelling as a marketing device.
She has promised the conclusion of the storyline would be a wedding, presumably Elizabeth and Anthony's, but if she waits until September to do that, wouldn't they be common-law married from living together for over 6 months? However, other details like John's retirement, how well Michael's book sales are doing, could well be only in the Tome of Destiny.
Anon NYC,
Even the Liz-Anthony story is not being developed, so it’s time to accept the fact that LJ has already retired.
True enough. When Liz and Anthony have appeared most recently, their characters appear almost as if they have accepted their fate to be together and are trudging to their inevitable doom. It has hardly been the excitement and romance of a young couple realizing that they are in those great stages just before they are about to be engaged and then married.
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ah, yes. The dinstinct lack of chemistry between Liz and Anthony. Usually in these Boy Meets Girl deals, they don't act as if they're grimly marching towards Senility and Death. Usually, they're grateful to have found one another after their dalliances with The Wrong Person.
Even the Liz-Anthony story is not being developed, so it’s time to accept the fact that LJ has already retired.
Exactly, Anon NYC. It's like she pans to them occasionally, as a tease, but then does nothing substantial.
Howtheduck, I am taking "September" with a huge grain of salt. Recall that last year she was claiming she would wrap up current story arcs by September 2007. Then that was revised to early 2008. Now that we're in early 2008, we're being told September 2008. Who's got money on that being shifted to early 2009 once we're facing September again?
And Grandpa Jim will be kept in continual aphasic depressive silence. How sad.
But then again, there is a distinct lack of joy in almost all the characters and strips. Trudging along is a fitting description.
The only way I will keep up with FBoFW is if there will be new developments--and Lynn doesn't seem to be capable of breaking out of the "all-knowing-Elly-clueless-John-perfect-Mike-boring-Lizthony-dull-April-mode.
DreadedCandiru2
Usually in these Boy Meets Girl deals, they don't act as if they're grimly marching towards Senility and Death.
Well, this is Milborough after all. What else do they have to look forward to?
aprilp_katje,
Who's got money on that being shifted to early 2009 once we're facing September again?
Considering that we are about to spend a week discussing how John didn’t do dishes in 1979, I would put money on that. There certainly doesn’t seem to be any sense that Lynn Johnston is making plans for how to drive her storylines to an ending. And when you think about it, what is there?
Anthony and Liz are going to get married. End of story. The potential conflict with Thérèse has been dealt with. Any issues with Anthony’s parents seem to be easily ignored, just as easily as they were ignored over Christmas dinner. At this point, I would fully expect Anthony and Liz to get married and never see his parents. Really, the only conflict seems to be getting Anthony to bend his knee and propose. I might mention that, from the way this guy has been thought-ballooning about Liz for over a decade and the speed at which he proposed to Thérèse when he found out Liz moved in with Eric Chamberlain, it is extremely out-of-character for him not to have done so already.
John is going to retire. There is not much to that either. He already has established who is going to buy his business, so there is no conflict there to be resolved.
April had a potential conflict with her band, her studies and her university preparation, which Lynn has already resolved 1 ½ years before it should have been resolved.
Michael has a potential money and career conflict if Stone Season does not sell well. Lynn has not shown actual sales figures on his book, but I would be surprised if the book is not a best-seller.
Jim is going to go into the Sunset Manor. They may be a potential conflict if he decides he doesn’t want to go. That’s it. This is the only authentic conflict I can see left for Lynn to resolve.
debjyn
But then again, there is a distinct lack of joy in almost all the characters and strips.
That’s for sure. The Grandpa Jim storyline was depressing and to see Elly go at John for years of not washing dishes is definitely not a joyful plot.
I forgot for a second that the title of this daily bring-down should actually be "The Wretched of the Earth". Anthony and Liz will have the same long, miserable marriage that John and Elly have and, despite what I said on my blog entry today, neither cuple will divorce because they like being unhappy. As for Mike and Dee, they'll go from being pooooooor and miserable to a more moneyed state of utter despair. It's as if the ctiy council outlawed taking pleasure in life.
dreadedcandiru2,
I forgot for a second that the title of this daily bring-down should actually be "The Wretched of the Earth".
There was a brief moment of happiness when Mike was jumping about talking about his $25K advance, which didn’t last too long. Even when his friends gathered to give him accolades, Mike still played the “I doubt I will be any good” card to the hilt.
As for Anthony and Liz, the debt card from Thérèse has already been played, so any strips talking about Anthony’s fortune to be the #2 guy in the Mayes Midtown Motors organization (and therefore presumably very well-off) will be softened by that information.
As for John and Elly, who knows? They go back and forth. He should be very well off, like when buys her all new furniture for the new house. And yet, she shaves sheets.
She shaves sheets because she's an idiot. It would seem like a no-brainer to spend a few extra dollars on something that would last a few washings without pilling up but obviously, it is not. It's also why they have stew almost every night; it's a false economy beloved of a woman who doesn't want to enjoy herself. It would seem that Elly is one of those sad people who insist on going broke saving money.
dreadedcandiru2,
And notice, you do not see Elly complaining that John did not shave the sheets.
What bothers me most about life in the Tiny Train House is the same thing that bothered me about life in the Pattermanse; Elly's rather limited repetoire as a cook. Always and ever, she has stew, a casserole or burgers and that's it. She wouldn't dream of cooking something that wasn't suitable for a struggling family even though she can easily afford to stretch a bit. She obviously doesn't want to waste her imagination trying new and different foods. Not, of course, that John would complain; he'll choke down anything.
dreadedcandiru2,
The old monthly letters have multiple references to Elly making cookies, which is by far the most often mentioned item of cooking. Spaghetti is mentioned once. For holidays, a turkey also gets some notice. The oddest contribution comes from:
Liz's Letter, June 2005
One thing I'm looking forward to is Mom's home cooking. I think I miss her meatloaf the most. Also her pies - nobody makes rhubarb pies like Ma!
We have seen pies and ice cream in the strip. I can’t think of a meatloaf moment, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there were one.
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