Just When You Thought Lynn Had Forgotten About Liz
As soon as the wedding dress showed up, I knew the dress’ ultimate destination was going to be on Elizabeth for her wedding. Now we simply have to get the dress to Elly to get to Elizabeth and then we will be all set. Grandpa Jim can look at Elizabeth in the dress and wax on about how she looks just like Marian did after fending off the Jerries in WWII. Elly can go on about tradition and monetary savings that comes with free dresses. And Elizabeth can take the dress and wave it around in Anthony’s face and say something like, “If you want to see me in this dress, you better get off your butt and propose, buster.”
Meanwhile, the whole idea that this dress could be in a cardboard box stored in a crawlspace for years, with no damage to the dress whatsoever, is almost as ridiculous an idea to me as the one where Michael gets his book contract and a $25K advance from the first publisher he tries. There is a large box in my closet with my wife’s special, vacuum-sealed wedding dress, in the specially-made box guaranteed not to have enough acid in it to cause the dress to turn brown for decades, etc; that we shelled out a small fortune for after we got married, just in case my daughter should happen to want to wear her mother’s wedding dress. Dress preservation is an industry unto itself, and it is obviously an industry that Lynn Johnston has not researched, and probably will not research until she gets complaints from people about this storyline. We are talking about a dress which would have been worn in 1945 or 1946; so it is 61 years old at least.Now, if some of the characters talk about repairing or cleaning the dress, then all is forgiven. However, from the picture in today’s For Better or For Worse, the dress looks perfect just as it is.
Meanwhile, the whole idea that this dress could be in a cardboard box stored in a crawlspace for years, with no damage to the dress whatsoever, is almost as ridiculous an idea to me as the one where Michael gets his book contract and a $25K advance from the first publisher he tries. There is a large box in my closet with my wife’s special, vacuum-sealed wedding dress, in the specially-made box guaranteed not to have enough acid in it to cause the dress to turn brown for decades, etc; that we shelled out a small fortune for after we got married, just in case my daughter should happen to want to wear her mother’s wedding dress. Dress preservation is an industry unto itself, and it is obviously an industry that Lynn Johnston has not researched, and probably will not research until she gets complaints from people about this storyline. We are talking about a dress which would have been worn in 1945 or 1946; so it is 61 years old at least.Now, if some of the characters talk about repairing or cleaning the dress, then all is forgiven. However, from the picture in today’s For Better or For Worse, the dress looks perfect just as it is.
posted by howard at 11:50 PM
15 Comments:
Well, I admit to being a bit stingy on my estimate of how much of the Settlewedding we'd see. We're so lucky that Lynn's idea of subtle storytelling is dropping obvious hints that you'd have to be a Duh-duh idiot like Mike to miss. This way, we know that she's got a great hook to start things off. That being said, the dress's condition as seen on the page is a miracle given how it's been stored. Too bad Lynn likes miracles too.
As soon as the wedding dress showed up, I knew the dress’ ultimate destination was going to be on Elizabeth for her wedding.
Same here. What a bizarre way to segue 2 Liz. And I agree there's no way the dress would be so well preserved in a flimsy box in the crawl space. Which leads to another question. What would Elly have been thinking when she jammed that box in there? "I hate my mother"?
Halleluiah! This may be a good week in the world of FBorFW!
Anon NYC
DreadedCandiru2
That being said, the dress's condition as seen on the page is a miracle given how it's been stored. Too bad Lynn likes miracles too.
Since Lynn’s daughter is unmarried, Lynn has clearly not traveled this path before, and we know how she hates research, unless she is forced to do it. I can just see in a crawlspace somewhere in Corbeil, is Lynn Johnston’s old wedding dress, that Lynn thinks, someday she will pull out of that crawlspace and the cardboard box in which it is stored, the wedding dress she had for either wedding #1 or #2 to give to her daughter to wear. Then Lynn will pull out this shredded, yellow thing, which is several sizes too small for her daughter and realize that perhaps she should have stored it better.
aprilp_katje
Which leads to another question. What would Elly have been thinking when she jammed that box in there? "I hate my mother"?
My guess is that we are going to go with, “I didn’t know what was in that box Grandpa Jim used to snuggle with every night before he got married to Iris.”
Anon NYC,
Halleluiah! This may be a good week in the world of FBorFW!
She certainly has led off with some good, snarkable things. I do have the feeling that the route by which the dress makes it into the hot hands of Elizabeth Patterson will be very amusing. And this does answer the question of how Elizabeth’s wedding dress can trump that of Deanna Patterson’s fancy wedding dress, all without costing Elly and John a thing. And Elly gives a "Halleluiah!" to that.
howthwduck:
Lynn will pull out this shredded, yellow thing, which is several sizes too small for her daughter and realize that perhaps she should have stored it better.
True enough. I just wonder if her next action will be to bite into a telephone book to express her depth of feeling?
dreadedcandiru2,
I just wonder if her next action will be to bite into a telephone book to express her depth of feeling?
It could be and then she will get this feeling of shock when she realizes, "I guess human beings really can't do this after all."
And that will take care of Liz's remark to Candace that "I'll have a white dress to please my mother!"
Okay. She marries Granthony because her family and half of Milbo have been pushing her to for 10 years, she'll marry in the dress to please her mother, and she has transformed to the perfect little stay-at-home (yeah, we know the teaching was just a little adventure Liz had) mom, and has totally taken over the house furnished by Therese.
My, Lynn not only has her ideal son in Michael, she has her ideal daughter with Lizzie.
debjyn:
There's something rather nauseating about both examples of 'perfection': both Miracle Children will end up living with and loving furniture and belongings someone else bought. Call me odd but I don't find the idea of venerating other people's stuff all that good an idea. Why Lynn thinks some sort of Hand-me-down Utopia is something to be proud of escapes me.
Well, it seems what I've been waiting for has finally arrived. There will at least be talk of Liz getting married.
But I won't be around for any of it.
My little sister, who was serving in the Navy, died last night in Virginia. As of right now, we don't know why. It seems that she was at home with her fiance, watching television, and then, suddenly, she was gone. We haven't got the foggiest idea why. She was only 27 and was (seemingly) healthy as could be.
I am leaving tonight to go to my parents' house. I have no idea how long I will be gone, or how often I will be able to check in. I feel like perhaps I should turn Liz over to someone else. However, selfishly, I feel like being able to write posts from her might be in some way helpful at this time, when there is this sense of panic and urgency, and yet at the same time there is almost nothing to do.
I think what I propose is this: if, in a couple of days, I have not posted again, Aprilp_katje and Howard can work it out amongst themselves if either of them wants to play Liz. I would trust either of you to write her well.
I will try to check in to let you know whether I plan to be around or not, but if I just vanish, go ahead with the above.
I thought it would be best to post here since this place seems more active than the Meta Blog. I hope that's okay.
Laura
Laura, this is a very sad day at HBB. I am so sorry to hear about your loss. I extend my deepest condolences to you and your family. Anon NYC
I'm so sorry, Laura. My thoughts are with you and your family.
Laura,
I am very sorry to hear about your sister. I know when you lose someone young who is so close to you, it can be devastating. Like Anon NYC and aprilp_katje, my thoughts are with you and your family. I hope that you will be able to find a satisfactory answer to why this happened to your sister.
As for April’s Real Blog, I don't see any problem to follow your desires how you want Liz to be handled.
Laura--
How devastating this must be for you and your family--my thoughts and prayers are with you.
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