Answers and more Questions
Answers to the questions from yesterday’s For Better or For Worse strip appear to be:
1. When April says, “I’ll be there in a minute”, how long does that really mean?
Answer: Long enough for John Patterson to walk into April’s bedroom and demand she apologize to Elly.
2. Was April doing schoolwork or goofing around?
Answer: It appears she was doing school work.
3. Was Elly mad because April was not coming to the table at the appropriate time or because she yelled at Elly or because April showed a lack of interest in sacred Patterson food?
Answer: Yelling. You can tell from Elly’s plate in Panel #3, there is no food left.
And now for a few new questions:
1. Who is this man and what did he do with the passive, “let Elly do all the disciplining or undermine Elly when she does discipline” John Patterson, who has for the last 7 years disciplined April by taking her out for a walk and talking to her?
2. Does Laura Piché know the rule for when to turn off the speed freak eyes? I see April with them in 5 straight panels.
3. How long will it be before April realizes her desk chair is attracting her parents to grab it and shove it around with her in it, and she replaces it?
4. Is April saying, “What?!!” because she hasn’t been hugged by Elly in almost a year, or because she feels something very strange in Elly’s right pocket?
5. How many readers seeing Panel #3 secretly hoped that April would not apologize, so we could see if Elly was going to work her bottom jaw up over nose, the way she has done with her upper lip?
6. Is Elly hugging April because she is sorry she has misjudged her daughter’s yelling as not having a studious cause, or because she is excited by the prospect that April plans to leave home when she goes to university?
7. In Panels 1 and 2, is Laura Piché intentionally drawing John with his pants hiked up like that, in order to make him seem more like an old geezer?
8. When April is in university, will she finally stop saying, “’an”?
On a personal note, I am going to Minneapolis for my sister’s wedding this weekend. Once again the Howard Bunt Blog is going on a weekend hiatus. Sorry.
I do not know what is in store for us on Saturday, but if Lynn Johnston wants to really get me, she will write a strip where Elly explains to April how important an education is and how she wished she had finished her degree and how proud she is of April for being such a good student. If Lynn Johnston wants to irk me, she will make Saturday’s strip about a completely different subject and conclude with Elly making an awful pun. If Lynn wants to delight me, she will make Saturday’s strip a story about April and Elly with their tools out trying to fix a defective John Patterson robot, to put him back to his passive John program.
Answers to the questions from yesterday’s For Better or For Worse strip appear to be:
1. When April says, “I’ll be there in a minute”, how long does that really mean?
Answer: Long enough for John Patterson to walk into April’s bedroom and demand she apologize to Elly.
2. Was April doing schoolwork or goofing around?
Answer: It appears she was doing school work.
3. Was Elly mad because April was not coming to the table at the appropriate time or because she yelled at Elly or because April showed a lack of interest in sacred Patterson food?
Answer: Yelling. You can tell from Elly’s plate in Panel #3, there is no food left.
And now for a few new questions:
1. Who is this man and what did he do with the passive, “let Elly do all the disciplining or undermine Elly when she does discipline” John Patterson, who has for the last 7 years disciplined April by taking her out for a walk and talking to her?
2. Does Laura Piché know the rule for when to turn off the speed freak eyes? I see April with them in 5 straight panels.
3. How long will it be before April realizes her desk chair is attracting her parents to grab it and shove it around with her in it, and she replaces it?
4. Is April saying, “What?!!” because she hasn’t been hugged by Elly in almost a year, or because she feels something very strange in Elly’s right pocket?
5. How many readers seeing Panel #3 secretly hoped that April would not apologize, so we could see if Elly was going to work her bottom jaw up over nose, the way she has done with her upper lip?
6. Is Elly hugging April because she is sorry she has misjudged her daughter’s yelling as not having a studious cause, or because she is excited by the prospect that April plans to leave home when she goes to university?
7. In Panels 1 and 2, is Laura Piché intentionally drawing John with his pants hiked up like that, in order to make him seem more like an old geezer?
8. When April is in university, will she finally stop saying, “’an”?
On a personal note, I am going to Minneapolis for my sister’s wedding this weekend. Once again the Howard Bunt Blog is going on a weekend hiatus. Sorry.
I do not know what is in store for us on Saturday, but if Lynn Johnston wants to really get me, she will write a strip where Elly explains to April how important an education is and how she wished she had finished her degree and how proud she is of April for being such a good student. If Lynn Johnston wants to irk me, she will make Saturday’s strip about a completely different subject and conclude with Elly making an awful pun. If Lynn wants to delight me, she will make Saturday’s strip a story about April and Elly with their tools out trying to fix a defective John Patterson robot, to put him back to his passive John program.
posted by howard at 9:55 PM
18 Comments:
For once, I don't have a problem with how any of the characters acted in the strip. I think this is actually kind of a normal slice of family life. Unfortunately, though, it's not interesting. At all.
I think Elly is hugging April because she is so young and misguided in what she says. No doubt, when April gets to uni, she will turn into a typical Patterson woman and get distracted by a desperate husband hunt. Elly knows this all too well.
April needs to rearrange her furniture so her back is not toward the door when she sits at her desk. That positions is considered bad Feng Shui precisely because people CAN sneak up on you, look over your shoulder, suddenly jerk back your chair, etc. etc. - it's very vulnerable.
Poor April. She apologized, now her MOM owes HER an apology (a real verbal one!) for all those bad assumptions she seems to have been making, such as: "April is just IM-ing or playing on the computer" (despite Elly's obvious ability to read April's screen and SEE homework being done!), "April doesn't actually plan on coming to dinner in a minute or two just like she SAID", etc.
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Who is that man pulling the chair? A typical weak male character resorting to the threat of force as a substitute for the courage to work things out. Foobville is loaded with similar vermin.
Way to use physical coercion there, John. Maybe he thought April's train was a choo choo.
I think Elly is hugging April because she'll be pleased to get the Martian out of her hair.
5. How many readers seeing Panel #3 secretly hoped that April would not apologize, so we could see if Elly was going to work her bottom jaw up over nose, the way she has done with her upper lip?
I didn't want April to apologize. Elly eating her own face would have been a bonus.
6. Is Elly hugging April because she is sorry she has misjudged her daughter’s yelling as not having a studious cause, or because she is excited by the prospect that April plans to leave home when she goes to university?
I had April interpret it as the latter. ;)
7. In Panels 1 and 2, is Laura Piché intentionally drawing John with his pants hiked up like that, in order to make him seem more like an old geezer?
Probably not, but it would funny if she did.
8. When April is in university, will she finally stop saying, “’an”?
Probably not. I occasionally come across strips where even Elly says "an'." But I wish Lynn would drop this device. It's always bugged me. Especially since my brain insists on rendering it "ANN," with a real leaning on the consonant sound. Memo to Lynn, most people do not lean on the final "D" of "and"--especially in casual speech. But "an'" just doesn't express this.
april_patterson
Memo to Lynn, most people do not lean on the final "D" of "and"--especially in casual speech. But "an'" just doesn't express this.
She, as I've mentioned before, used the equally annoying device of spelling stupid "stoopid" because she wanted to pretend most people in Canada don't pronounce it with that odd "y" sound after the "t" like they do in England. She also makes an irritating habit of surrounding colloquial English with "quotes" that "litter" the "dialog balloons" with unnecessary "garbage".
NOTE TO HOWARD:
Sorry in advance if this post is inappropriate - HOWARD, how can I contact you. You mentioned someone in a post from a few years back, now deceased, that I once knew in the DALLAS area.
Can you please provide me an email at:
bob_bert2@yahoo.com
I think those of you who think John was threatening physical violence are just inventing things to criticize Lynn for. John pulled her chair back to get her attention because April was being a tad rude and basically ignoring him. IIRC, John and Elly have never raised a hand to their children.
Now, if MY dad had done such a thing, yes, threat of physical violence would be implied, because he likes to smack his kids around. But it's not an inherently threatening action.
And c'mon, you don't hug your daughter if you're 100% thrilled that she'll be leaving soon. I hate to be a FOOB apologist, but you guys are just criticizing out of habit today, I think.
There were early strips that suggested that John and Elly were spankers, but I think by the time April came around, they'd backed away from that.
Also, FWIW, Elly being happy about the prospect of April leaving for university wasn't my interpretation--just the one I gave to April at ARB. I read that last panel as Elly realizing that university is not far off and getting sentimental.
Nice to see John supporting his wife, for a change.
Howard, I honestly don't see anything wrong with John's pants. Am I missing something?
Enjoy the wedding, and best wishes to the young couple!
Anon NYC
That's interesting, Aprilp_katje, and thanks for the info about the historical strip. I didn't ever remember seeing any hint that John and Elly spanked, but I read sporadically.
qnjones, one example can be seen here. :)
Oh, also--if you click the "next" link that appears to the right of the image I linked above, you'll see a strip where Elly demonstrates (through a conversation with Jim) a change of heart on the issue.
Thanks, Katje! Very interesting. Not sure of the date on the "strap strip," but I'm guessing 1990s? Probably by then, Lynn knew spanking wouldn't fly with modern readers. Lord knows Lynn seems almost proud of physically abusing her kids.
qnjones:
I wonder if John doesn't seem all that threatening to you in this strip is precisely BECAUSE your father was abusive? I actually cringed when I saw how forcefully John had yanked on the chair (April's shocked look--). Maybe because my dad seldom ever resorted to physical abuse.
And because John has always been seen as so mild, his reaction seems very over the top for him.
qnjones, the "strap" strip was from 2000--April and Jeremy Jones had gotten in trouble for fighting (physically) in school.
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