Is the First Step a step if never taken?
The question really at hand with today’s For Better or For Worse is not Connie Poirier’s mixed up understanding of her own history; but the advice she gives Elly Patterson to treat little Francie as if she were a grandchild by blood and not my marriage. What would that mean for Elly Patterson? Since her grandchildren have come to live in Milborough, we have seen exactly 0 moments where she played with her grandchildren. Prior to moving to Milborough, there were a few strips here and there, where Deanna and Mike would travel to Milborough to hand off their kids to Elly to play with them. Elly would even travel to Toronto to help with the grandkids if there was some emergency. Since moving to Milborough, nothing. Even John Patterson has had his moment, but not Elly. So, how would we even tell if Elly were treating little Francie differently from Robin and Meredith?
posted by howard at 12:48 AM
20 Comments:
We wouldn't, of course. Elly loves the status that grandchildren bring her in the community while being cold to the flesh and blood children who back it up. That's who she is; she wanted babies but not children, marriage but not a husband. What's more, she is not alone; most of the bellywhoppin' heroes in this strip are her "kind".
the 'step' pun (nah, that's too strong a word) at the end is so focred . . . this is just not funny, not moving . . . not anything. Can anyone recommend a new strip I can start enjoying? I'm finally done with FBORW. :(
(Although I will continue to read it, because I'm addicted to this blog!) :)
Can anyone recommend a new strip I can start enjoying?
I used to love Funky Winkerbean, but lately it's been moving slower than cold molasses - but I still follow it.
Anon NYC
I guess this strip is supposed to tell the readers again how easy it is going to be for little Lizzie and her ready-made family just to "blend" into the Patterson mess. I guess Connie is doing the same thing Candace was used for earlier---"How do you feel about marrying someone with a kid, Liz?"
And really, it shouldn't be any problem at all; Elly (and Liz) will ignore Francoise just like they always ignore the rest of the family.
Anonymous,
Can anyone recommend a new strip I can start enjoying?
I read all the comics in my daily paper, but the one I look forward to is Dust Bowl Willy.
If you don’t mind webcomic suggestions, I like:
http://www.mimisgrotto.com/thorn/
http://alienlovespredator.com/
http://www.girlgeniusonline.com/comic.php
http://www.pvponline.com/
debjyn said...
I guess this strip is supposed to tell the readers again how easy it is going to be for little Lizzie and her ready-made family just to "blend" into the Patterson mess.
I suppose. Although Connie Poirier’s example of how to handle blended families is not a good one.
She and future husband Greg lived in Thunder Bay, and then right after she gets married, the whole family is back in Milborough, taking Lawrence, but leaving the girls behind, as they visit Elly over New Years. Then the whole family moves to Milborough, uprooting the girls to move to a town away from their friends and home with one daughter 2 years away from graduating high school. According to the Who’s Who description for Connie Poirier, the move was husband Greg’s idea, so that he could get the daughters away from a bad influence in Thunder Bay. However, he could have moved to any city to accomplish this. Instead he moves to the other side of Ontario to live in Milborough. The choice of city diminishes the idea that Greg is the one responsible. Certainly, the way it played in the strip was that Connie was returning home, after snagging a new husband (and 2 awful step-daughters).
According to the Who’s Who (because I do not remember this in the strip), as soon as the oldest daughter goes to university, the younger daughter finds life with Connie so intolerable without her sister to help her get through it, she bolts back to live with her mom, whom we already know is a mom who did not have custody of the kids when Connie met their dad. Not only is the situation so bad, this daughter wants to live with her mom, but the situation is bad enough for the mom to accept the daughter. The Who’s Who tries to paint the situation as “The daughters never gave Connie a chance to be their mom”, but there is obviously more to it than that. If anything, Connie’s confused language in today’s strip is confirmation of her mixed emotions on the matter.
As for little Francie and the rest of the Pattersons, we may not get the opportunity to see it. Lynn Johnston is in the habit of addressing certain storylines with certain characters and I am afraid little Francie is in the “child of divorce” storyline setting, while Merrie and Robin are in the “rotten kids” storyline setting. You would expect the similarly-aged kids to play with each other, but during the summer picnic and the Christmas Dinner strips where all the children were present, there was no interaction between them portrayed at all.
I'd never even heard the term "step-grandchild" before today.
Muzition,
I'd never even heard the term "step-grandchild" before today.
Thanks to the wonderful world of divorce and remarriage, my kids have 4 sets of grandparents. None of them use the term “step-grandchild”. It’s always grandkids.
I only use words with “step” as the prefix in order to describe the somewhat complex relationship of my family to my kids. For example, my wife’s step-brother and his wife are on the verge of getting a divorce. My kids are worried that because of this divorce, their kids will no longer be considered their first cousins. The use of the prefix “step” was helpful in explaining that they would still be first cousins, no matter what happened between their parents, because they still have grandparents in common.
According to the Who’s Who (because I do not remember this in the strip), as soon as the oldest daughter goes to university, the younger daughter finds life with Connie so intolerable without her sister to help her get through it, she bolts back to live with her mom, whom we already know is a mom who did not have custody of the kids when Connie met their dad.
I may be mistaken, but my sense is that Molly and Gayle just kind of silently faded from the strip without their whereabouts being explained. There was some drama during their teenage years, but then there just weren't any Molly or Gayle stories anymore.
I have a step-grandmother. She married my grandfather when he was quite old and had been divorced from my grandmother since my mother was ten years old. He lived on another continent and I only ever met him once. My mother has, however, become close to her stepmother and they both travel to visit one another. I see her every few years or so.
I guess I also have step-grandmother in law. My husband's stepmother's mother. When she met my son for the first time, when he was seven weeks old, she asked us, "May I be his great-grandmother?" :)
It amazes me that Lynn cannot see that the words that the Pattersons and their friends use reveals facts about them they'd probably prefer to hide. All this step- nonsense, for instance, has outed Connie as trying to convince herself that she was anything other than a failure as a mother to Molly and Gayle.
I started really utilizing my classroom HW website this year, and in many ways it's made being a teacher easier. However, the one drawback of posting assignments, further directions, models and calendars for 125+ students and parents to see, is that when there is an unexpected change of plans, I end up confusing a lot of people. Less is more when you want flexibility. I missed three weeks at the beginning of the second semester to jury duty, and I'm pretty sure that for the parents who never found this out from their kids, it looked like the teacher running the webpage and the teacher in the classroom were two different people--they were.
That's what I feel is going on right now with Lynn. She gave Beth Cruikshank (Rod's sister? Rod's brother's wife?) the job of writing the "lives behind the lines" and expanding the "who's who" section of her website possibly without considering that she'd then be obligated to incorporate this characterization of minor characters (i.e. Connie) into her strips. The Connie portrayed in today's strip is uncomfortably different from the Connie I recently read about in Who's Who. It's awkward and I'm bumming for Lynn. She needs to make some decisions quickly because what was a quality strip for close to 30 years has deteriorated in just a few short months of poor planning.
Btw, I still think the wedding that ends the strip will be Lawrence's. Now we know that Connie's stepdaughters and grandstep/stepgrandkids will be there. The strip will end with Liz and Anthony in a platonic relationship (they're in one now, aren't they?).
-Anon in Roch
Anon/Rochester, Beth Cruikshank is Rod's sister.
Actually, I don't believe for one second that those biographies on the website were not at least approved by Lynn before they were posted. And given the heavy emphasis on childhood trauma in almost all of the bios I've read, I strongly suspect Lynn told Beth her ideas about some of the characters' backgrounds. Every last one of them seems to have the theme of "I came from a crappy background, and it really messed me up, so I'm kind of a self-centered jerk, but I pretend like it all doesn't affect me!" Which is Lynn--and her philosophy of life--in a nutshell.
Connie still isn't fooling anyone. She treated those girls like they were an afterthought. I hate how Lynn puts the blame on THEM for the failed relationship with Connie. Connie was the adult. She never once considered their thoughts, feelings, or wishes. Connie is the failure. Molly and Gayle acted like two normal teenage girls.
Oh, and by the way--they still had a real, living, breathing mother in Thunder Bay. Of course they didn't give Connie a chance to be their "mother." They already had one. What they needed was a good stepmother. But with Connie, it's always her way or the highway. The girls didn't fall in line, so she froze them out. Connie is a real piece of work who should consider herself lucky that Molly and Gayle even let her see their children!
For the life of me, I cannot see what Greg liked about Connie.
qnjones:
For the life of me, I cannot see what Greg liked about Connie.
I can't either. What sick hold does she have on him that he not only let her treat his children like she did just to keep her in his life? When it came time to step up and take care of what was really important, he failed! It's not a bad thing to be hated by Connie, I should think.
Anon in Roch
Btw, I still think the wedding that ends the strip will be Lawrence's. Now we know that Connie's stepdaughters and grandstep/stepgrandkids will be there. The strip will end with Liz and Anthony in a platonic relationship (they're in one now, aren't they?).
If the strip-ending wedding is Lawrence’s, Lynn would have successfully fooled almost everyone following the strip, and I would love it. However, the Lynn Johnston who had Lawrence Poirier come out all those years ago is not the same Lynn Johnston operating now. The modern Lynn Johnston seems to be very concerned that she maintains her retirement income and pleases her readers. In the last year, we have seen a lot of little adjustments in the story, that I cannot help but think are in response to criticisms of the storyline.
She needs to make some decisions quickly because what was a quality strip for close to 30 years has deteriorated in just a few short months of poor planning.
I would say it has been deteriorating for longer than that; however, I will agree that the poor planning of the hybrid strip was a significant misstep.
She gave Beth Cruikshank the job of writing the "lives behind the lines" and expanding the "who's who" section of her website possibly without considering that she'd then be obligated to incorporate this characterization of minor characters (i.e. Connie) into her strips.
I am accustomed to this sort of thing with Lynn Johnston. On-line still are the monthly letters from the characters, which I enjoyed up until last year. They provided many important details, without which many of the strips would be nearly incomprehensible. On the other hand, they were notorious for not matching the content of the strip.
qnjones,
Actually, I don't believe for one second that those biographies on the website were not at least approved by Lynn before they were posted.
I agree. In addition to your points about childhood trauma, some of the characters being used (like Michael Patterson’s old teachers) can only have been chosen with specific direction (i.e. these characters will be coming up when we start reprinting the strip from the beginning).
I hate how Lynn puts the blame on THEM for the failed relationship with Connie.
She also does the same thing with April to a certain degree, which usually irks us because (aside from the business with Becky McGuire), April is a very well-behaved teenager.
For the life of me, I cannot see what Greg liked about Connie.
It’s not that difficult. If you go back to the relationship between Dr. Pablo DaSilva from the Who’s Who, the clues are all there:
It wasn't long before the hugs became more than occasional. When the team moved to its second camp, Pablo and Connie claimed a hut just for the two of them.
The move created some consternation in the medical team. Not only was there disapproval on moral grounds, but intimacy among members could cause serious problems in the tight-knit group. Connie didn't care. She and Pablo were deeply, passionately committed to one another. Nothing else mattered.
Connie has no morals. There are things she will do which other women will not. She does not care what people think when she does them in a camp setting where things like that can easily be heard. Greg is a fat, balding, middle-aged man raising 2 teenaged daughters; not exactly a babe magnet. Some women may balk at engaging in certain activities when there is a possibility of being overheard by others, like teenaged daughters. Not Connie. I can see what Greg liked about Connie.
Howard:
Actually, I was going to say that Connie must've used sex to catch Greg, but I deleted the sentence because the visuals that calls to mind are just so hideous. But what you said--about him being an unattractive middle-aged man with two kids, happy for a woman who would screw him--are exactly what I was thinking. I've known men like that. They let the women lead them around by the balls.
I'm not sure Connie has NO morals. I just think that all her alleged values and beliefs go out the window in her pursuit of men.
qnjones,
I'm not sure Connie has NO morals. I just think that all her alleged values and beliefs go out the window in her pursuit of men.
I can certainly agree with that, and I might add “anything that threatens her pursuit / control of her man, like a teenaged daughter.”
In the Nov. 25, 2007 strip, Elly came to the Pattermanse to take care of Meredith and Robin.
joshua,
That she does and she also does so in this strip from October 3, 2007. However, on both occasions, unlike this strip on May 14, 2006, we do not see Elly playing with her grandchildren.
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