What’s Said at a Patterson Party, Stays at a Patterson Party
Dishes do appear one again to be the combat zone of Elly and John’s marriage in today’s reprint of For Better or For Worse.
But more interesting to me is the idea that John and Elly Patterson used to entertain at their home and had conversations with other adults over topics like the division of labour in the household. We have seen them at Halloween parties at other people’s homes in the recent past; but I think I would have to go all the way back to Elly’s 50th birthday party to have a social celebration thrown by the Pattersons where relatives were not involved (although technically Connie Poirier threw that party and John only helped to lure Elly there). I am not sure when this stopped, because I remember John and Elly in their young years, did have parties in their home from time-to-time. The on-line archive doesn’t go back far enough for me to pinpoint a stopping place.
The conversation topic was true-to-life for that time period. I remember during my university years in the early 1980s running into young ladies who loved to call men “male chauvinist pigs” at the slightest provocation. When John agrees to the idea that the man does half the chores, I can very well see a John Patterson saying that to avoid getting the fearful “male chauvinist pig” designation. Of course, among the ladies I knew who liked to use the phrase, it was virtually impossible to be a man around them and not get slapped with the phrase at some time or another. Nevertheless, Elly seems very amused at the things John Patterson said at that party to avoid that particular sobriquet. Knowing how John Patterson was in 1979, if I heard him say those kinds of things at a party, I would be pretty amused too.
But more interesting to me is the idea that John and Elly Patterson used to entertain at their home and had conversations with other adults over topics like the division of labour in the household. We have seen them at Halloween parties at other people’s homes in the recent past; but I think I would have to go all the way back to Elly’s 50th birthday party to have a social celebration thrown by the Pattersons where relatives were not involved (although technically Connie Poirier threw that party and John only helped to lure Elly there). I am not sure when this stopped, because I remember John and Elly in their young years, did have parties in their home from time-to-time. The on-line archive doesn’t go back far enough for me to pinpoint a stopping place.
The conversation topic was true-to-life for that time period. I remember during my university years in the early 1980s running into young ladies who loved to call men “male chauvinist pigs” at the slightest provocation. When John agrees to the idea that the man does half the chores, I can very well see a John Patterson saying that to avoid getting the fearful “male chauvinist pig” designation. Of course, among the ladies I knew who liked to use the phrase, it was virtually impossible to be a man around them and not get slapped with the phrase at some time or another. Nevertheless, Elly seems very amused at the things John Patterson said at that party to avoid that particular sobriquet. Knowing how John Patterson was in 1979, if I heard him say those kinds of things at a party, I would be pretty amused too.
posted by howard at 11:29 PM
14 Comments:
What bothers me is why she let that one slide by with just a smirk. It seems to me that the Elly of the Later Years would have justifiably taken his head clean off for saying manure like that. The only thing that makes sense is that she was afraid, oddly enough, of losing him to one of the pretty women he'd hired as assistants. I remember that that was one of his habits that used to drive her nuts because it occured to her and anyone else with a brain that a goof like him might decide to give himself an upgrade, his own denials be damned.
Finally, a strip where I get the feeling that there is a tender and loyal relationship between John and Elly! (I also love the outfit that Elly’s wearing, but I digress.) Strips like this one got me hooked, and the Halloween parties kept me hooked!
dread, you honestly don't like this strip?
Anon NYC
dreadedcandiru2,
What bothers me is why she let that one slide by with just a smirk.
Well, really letting a remark like that slide is when you don't bring it up again.
It seems to me that the Elly of the Later Years would have justifiably taken his head clean off for saying manure like that.
The "coffee cup to the head" motif of later years, probably does not work at a social party.
Anon NYC,
Finally, a strip where I get the feeling that there is a tender and loyal relationship between John and Elly! (I also love the outfit that Elly’s wearing, but I digress.)
Exactly! Elly looks good, is dressed well and is actually smiling in the final panel while John is there. It seems somewhat out of place with all those other strips. The only thing to taint the strip is the overall theme of the week. In this strip, Elly doesn't seem to mind as much that John doesn't do his fair share, even when he brags about it. Whereas in the two prior strips, she was not happy about it.
Does anyone know exactly when Elly snapped, lost her sense of humor, and started screaming and pitching coffee cups all the time? I think it was reasonably early on (maybe around when she stopped having parties at her house), but maybe it was as late as when she got knocked up with Apes. Any theories?
One thing I noticed was how Lynn-like Elly looks in that last panel, despite the simplicity of the drawing. It's a shame she eventually morphed her into her current state.
dlauthor, I'm thinking sometime in the 80s, but I'd have to check my collections when I get a chance.
dlauthor,
Does anyone know exactly when Elly snapped, lost her sense of humor, and started screaming and pitching coffee cups all the time?
I don't know the answer to this one either. However, since it is style of humour which is not common with Charles Schulz (which would show a baseball going by and knocking off Charlie Brown's clothes in comic reaction to a similar situation); it was at least a few years after 1979, when Lynn was not so slavishly devoted to the Schulz style of physical humour.
Yep. It was roughly twenty-six years ago that Elly stopped smirking at John's stupidity and took it personally. As I recall, that's more or less when they got Farley and Liz started to talk. I wonder if there's a connection between those two events and her temper flaring up.
I hate this strip. Why is Elly so pleased that John would lie to make himself look like a better person than he actually is re: housework and how he treats his wife? It makes no sense.
I did like seeing Elly look nice for a change. I just find her pride in her lying ass husband totally bizarre. I can understand wanting a husband who actually does some housework. But what is the value of having one who only pretends to do it to look good to the neighbors? That appearances are enough to make her that happy is sick, IMHO.
I totally fail to understand why Lynn is insisting on starting with the 1979 strips and slogging her way forward, year by year. Does she really think her strip will rerun for 28 more years? Does she really think people are going to enjoy her 1970s and 1980s gender war strips? She needs to get into the 1980s stuff, where the Mike and Liz interactions were funny.
qnjones,
Why is Elly so pleased that John would lie to make himself look like a better person than he actually is re: housework and how he treats his wife?
Elly is pleased because John has publicly acknowledged to people outside of his family that he knows better. Elly knows that John knows that whatever nonsense he may spout in the privacy of his home about who should or should not be doing this or that is, in fact, nonsense. Moreover, he has essentially said that he knows the way the division of labour is in his house, would not be considered acceptable behaviour by that group of friends at the party. That is a great moral victory for Elly.
I totally fail to understand why Lynn is insisting on starting with the 1979 strips and slogging her way forward, year by year.
Lynn wants to have her cake and eat it too. She wants the time that retirement will give her, but not the loss of income. Her thought was that if (a) she keeps doing some new stuff and (b) she reprints material that the public did not see that much due to a much lesser distribution of her stuff in 1979 vs. now; she will not lose papers because, to the bulk of the readers everything will appear new. She was proved to be wrong for what should have been very obvious reasons:
a. The nature of a story told serially (as in a little bit every day) is that you develop your customer over a period of time to be someone who will look forward every day to the new development in the storyline, and they will accept this storyline in small 4-5 panel spurts, so long as it is continuous. Once you break the continuity, then you require your customer to wait for the story or to try to keep the story in their minds for when it does finally reappear. Some customers will do that. Others won’t.
b. As you point out, the 1979 stuff is dated, and does not age well.
DreadedCandiru2
It was roughly twenty-six years ago that Elly stopped smirking at John's stupidity and took it personally.
In earlier days, she used to “ROAR”, but the difference is the hurled coffee cup. Maybe after years of lifting Liz, her throwing arm got stronger.
Howard,
I hadn't thought of it that way. Maybe that's it. I still think it's lame, but at least it's not inexplicable.
qnjones
I am aware that John is lying about helping his wife but at least in today’s strip, he is doing exactly what he claimed in the presence of their friends. Elly is NOT doing dishes. John IS!
While John is eating his words and Elly is enjoying each and every bite that he is taking!
Anon NYC
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