e·lope
Let me tell you what “elope” means, Anthony Caine:
–verb (used without object), e·loped, e·lop·ing.
1. to run off secretly to be married, usually without the consent or knowledge of one's parents.
2. to run away with a lover.
3. to leave without permission or notification; escape.
“Elope” also means that anyone who has made travel arrangements to attend your wedding, is going to be out of some money and will be pissed off at you.
“Elope” means you have put virtually no time into the wedding planning or preparation yourself, so you do not realize how much time would have been wasted by Deanna or April, if you did elope.
“Elope” means that a certain author up in Corbeil is portraying a relationship between adult men in preparation for a wedding that I am not sure exists anymore in the North American continent outside of 1950s television shows.
“Elope” means that you and your bride’s whole nonsense of “taking it slow” was just that—nonsense.
“Elope” means you have forgotten that the sped-up version of this wedding is occurring for no other reason than your wife-to-be wants her grandfather to see her wearing parts of her grandmother’s wedding dress, before he rolls over and dies.
(As a digression, I found it interesting going back through the old strips for Mike and Deanna’s wedding to find one where Grandpa Jim warned them to get married because he might die soon.)
“Elope” means you would actually have to plan something, and you obviously don’t know how to do that.
Besides you can't elope. It has been years since we have seen John Patterson happy over anything aside from model trains, and frankly, we need the change.
–verb (used without object), e·loped, e·lop·ing.
1. to run off secretly to be married, usually without the consent or knowledge of one's parents.
2. to run away with a lover.
3. to leave without permission or notification; escape.
“Elope” also means that anyone who has made travel arrangements to attend your wedding, is going to be out of some money and will be pissed off at you.
“Elope” means you have put virtually no time into the wedding planning or preparation yourself, so you do not realize how much time would have been wasted by Deanna or April, if you did elope.
“Elope” means that a certain author up in Corbeil is portraying a relationship between adult men in preparation for a wedding that I am not sure exists anymore in the North American continent outside of 1950s television shows.
“Elope” means that you and your bride’s whole nonsense of “taking it slow” was just that—nonsense.
“Elope” means you have forgotten that the sped-up version of this wedding is occurring for no other reason than your wife-to-be wants her grandfather to see her wearing parts of her grandmother’s wedding dress, before he rolls over and dies.
(As a digression, I found it interesting going back through the old strips for Mike and Deanna’s wedding to find one where Grandpa Jim warned them to get married because he might die soon.)
“Elope” means you would actually have to plan something, and you obviously don’t know how to do that.
Besides you can't elope. It has been years since we have seen John Patterson happy over anything aside from model trains, and frankly, we need the change.
posted by howard at 10:08 PM
20 Comments:
howard,
“Elope” also means that anyone who has made travel arrangements to attend your wedding, is going to be out of some money and will be pissed off at you.
Nothing I've seen of him tells me that he'd be too broken up about that. Remember, it's not about you, it's about him.
“Elope” means you have put virtually no time into the wedding planning or preparation yourself, so you do not realize how much time would have been wasted by Deanna or April, if you did elope.
Please see earlier response. Most of his character flaws stem from the collision of ignorance and selfishness.
“Elope” means that a certain author up in Corbeil is portraying a relationship between adult men in preparation for a wedding that I am not sure exists anymore in the North American continent outside of 1950s television shows.
This reminds me of Darby Conley's summary of newspaper comics in "Get Fuzzy": "Cats are evil and it's 1954."
“Elope” means that you and your bride’s whole nonsense of “taking it slow” was just that—nonsense.
They were lying to everyone back then -- especially themselves.
“Elope” means you have forgotten that the sped-up version of this wedding is occurring for no other reason than your wife-to-be wants her grandfather to see her wearing parts of her grandmother’s wedding dress, before he rolls over and dies.
He cares more about fulfilling some ridiculous fantasy he cooked up in high school to care about some old guy who'll die soon anyhow. He could just as easily be one of April's former bandmates.
“Elope” means you would actually have to plan something, and you obviously don’t know how to do that.
He's the Pattersons' kind; they don't believe in planning either. How like them to confuse chaos with spontaneity.
It has been years since we have seen John Patterson happy over anything aside from model trains, and frankly, we need the change.
Given that seeing women in pain over archaic male expectations is what gets the freak off, I'd be happier to see him wallow in misery.
Yuck. I despise today's strip. I hate its antiquated "stay out of the way of the ladies" attitude. I hate that John Patterson is training Anthony to be a Patterson man.
As a digression, I found it interesting going back through the old strips for Mike and Deanna’s wedding to find one where Grandpa Jim warned them to get married because he might die soon.
::snerk::
I can imagine ARB Michael posting that Grandpa Jim broke his word by not dying, and that Liz shouldn't bother rearranging her plans based on the premise that he will this time. (Or at least the first part--I know ARB Michael won't say anything that might dissuade Liz from going through with her wedding to the Antman.)
dreadedcandiru2,
This reminds me of Darby Conley's summary of newspaper comics in "Get Fuzzy": "Cats are evil and it's 1954."
I missed that one. That’s pretty funny.
Given that seeing women in pain over archaic male expectations is what gets the freak off, I'd be happier to see him wallow in misery.
You have a point. John wallowing in misery would be a nice change too.
aprilp_katje,
Yuck. I despise today's strip. I hate its antiquated "stay out of the way of the ladies" attitude.
Well, the funny part is that this was the same attitude April had in the Monday strip this week, and it was more “stay out of the way of Liz”. Unfortunately for April, she’s not of the right gender to get to do that.
(Or at least the first part--I know ARB Michael won't say anything that might dissuade Liz from going through with her wedding to the Antman.)
I have certainly written ARB Michael as impatient that Elizabeth get married to Anthony, and actually I am a little impatient there too. Lynn Johnston played the “which guy will she end up with” card for so long and with so many red herrings, I lost interest. I was more interested in seeing how this wedding would be different from the Deanna and Michael wedding. With no villain in Mira Sobinski, Lynn seems to have lost interest in doing strips on most of the wedding details. I guess it’s more exciting to have Deanna and Mira go on wedding preparation trips and fight over things, than it is to have Elizabeth and Elly go on wedding preparation trips and agree with each other. Instead of Mira for conflict, Lynn has interestingly chosen the invisible enemy of "all weddings are evil." Of course, I think of it more like, "Elizabeth Patterson's greatest enemy is actually herself," and that is more satisfying to me.
Going back to Mike and Deana, they had strips dealing with the wedding that ran from February to September, 2001. The subject was well-covered, even it was mostly “Mira is an ogre. Keep the first wedding a secret from Mira, so she will continue to pay and think Deanna is a slut.” The strip where Elly is hiding in the dress shop from Mira, and Deanna calls her “mom” for buying her wedding dress, still irritates me though. Going through the old strips, I did, in fact, find one strip where someone thanked Mira Sobinski for going through the trouble to arrange such a nice wedding, and it was none other than John Patterson. I was pleasantly surprised.
Seems like Anthony wasn't listening when Liz gave the reason for having the wedding early because of Grandpa Jim. Why doesn't that surprise me?
Oh yes. Anthony should just stay out of the way--I mean, he doesn't have any emotional interest in the wedding anyway. It's just a formality so that he and Liz can continue the same relationship they have now, only she can just move into the house instead of pretending she's still at her apartment.
Anthony's first wedding didn't mean anything to him; obviously he isn't much more interested in this one either. Guess he's just going to "find himself married" like he did the first time. What a bland emotionless character. And Lynn wonders why everyone preferred Paul or Warren to this nothing? It wasn't their "adventurous" careers; they simply were shown as having emotions and the ability to show those emotions.
My sister's mother-in-law used to manipulate using the same technique: "I'll be dead soon, so do it my way." "You'll always regret doing things your way when I'm dead." and so on. And she lived, like 25 years after their wedding.
On planet earth, even a groom who is not interested/inclined/whatever, is given plenty of helpful errands to run and jobs to do. Most want to, or at least have the decency to pretend to.
Do, please, though, check in over at the Comics Curmedgeon www.joshreads.com because today contains a useful translation of this FOOB strip.
Unfortunately for April, she’s not of the right gender to get to do that.
Not only that, but April has a well-reasoned, Liz-specific reason for staying out of Liz's way. John's just sticking to outmoded gender roles.
debjyn
Guess he's just going to "find himself married" like he did the first time. What a bland emotionless character. And Lynn wonders why everyone preferred Paul or Warren to this nothing? It wasn't their "adventurous" careers; they simply were shown as having emotions and the ability to show those emotions.
I definitely agree with you on this point. Every time there is a moment where there could be emotional conflict, Anthony goes bland. Elizabeth asks him out for a date to the Shawna-Marie wedding. “Well, sorry. I already have a date.” While Elizabeth’s shrieking is very emotional, you don’t see anything from Anthony that says, “Well, I guess I shouldn’t have assumed she was with Warren. That was stupid of me.”
When he calls Elizabeth’s apartment late and finds Warren there, he shows no emotion at all, not even a hint of “Shoot! I caught my girlfriend alone with another guy, and it’s not like she doesn’t have a history of playing guys off each other.”
And worst of all, when Anthony comes upon a meeting between Elizabeth and Thérèse and little Francie at the mall, when most guys would be thinking, “Shoot! The last people I wanted to see together!”, there is still nothing.
Thursday Next,
My sister's mother-in-law used to manipulate using the same technique: "I'll be dead soon, so do it my way."
I remember my wife getting upset when her grandmother start saying things like, “This will be my last Christmas, because I will be dead before Christmas next year.” As it turned out, she was right.
On planet earth, even a groom who is not interested/inclined/whatever, is given plenty of helpful errands to run and jobs to do.
True enough. My father-in-law was pretty much the errand boy for my mother-in-law during my wedding preparations. As for me, I was hip deep in the planning.
aprilp_katje,
Not only that, but April has a well-reasoned, Liz-specific reason for staying out of Liz's way. John's just sticking to outmoded gender roles.
That is the way it appears. However, there could be something else at work. There is a certain aspect of women’s movements in the past, where some women decided that they were tired of doing the boring, drudgery women’s work and wanted to do the more exciting, interesting man work. If, as John says, “It's a wedding! There's ALWAYS a problem!”, then what April could be experiencing may not be Liz-specific, but could simply be a young woman looking at the traditional woman’s role in weddings in Milborough and finding she would prefer to be outside playing with the hose.
If, as John says, “It's a wedding! There's ALWAYS a problem!”, then what April could be experiencing may not be Liz-specific, but could simply be a young woman looking at the traditional woman’s role in weddings in Milborough and finding she would prefer to be outside playing with the hose.
Good point. This could be April refusing to conform. Go Apes! ;)
I am coming out of lurking and am sharing a blog I wrote about Elizabeth and Granthony:
http://www.redroom.com/blog/jenniferkate/dont-do-it-elizabeth-for-love-god-dont-marry-grananthony
Do you really think John will be happy at the wedding? I suspect the most we will see is him being glad that Liz isn't his concern anymore.
I know that what will make me happy is if, at the wedding, the sight of the destroyed "heirloom" wedding dress gives Jim his final, fatal stroke. Not only does the poor guy deserve to be allowed to die already, but also, it would ruin the wedding. :)
Do you really think John will be happy at the wedding? I suspect the most we will see is him being glad that Liz isn't his concern anymore.
I know that what will make me happy is if, at the wedding, the sight of the destroyed "heirloom" wedding dress gives Jim his final, fatal stroke. Not only does the poor guy deserve to be allowed to die already, but also, it would ruin the wedding. :)
Jennifer,
Thanks for sharing your blog. There are many who agree with your sentiments.
qnjones,
Do you really think John will be happy at the wedding? I suspect the most we will see is him being glad that Liz isn't his concern anymore.
At the wedding? I don’t know. He seems to be pretty happy before the wedding. And he has already stated that the way he views Liz’s marriage is “2 down, 1 to go.”
I know that what will make me happy is if, at the wedding, the sight of the destroyed "heirloom" wedding dress gives Jim his final, fatal stroke.
I would be happy if Grandpa Jim said, “What the heck did you do to the dress? Now Elizabeth looks like a cheap slut.”
Howard, your idea is better, because it would make Liz regret having the wedding before Grandpa died.
I just really think Lynn needs to release the old guy from his misery.
Let's face it, Jim is an 86-year-old male, with no particular connection to the fashion industry, who has suffered two strokes in the last two years.
The chance that Jim (a) would remember what the dress looked like the last time he saw it, (b) would notice the differences after the alterations, and (c) would find the alterations objectionable strike me as being very remote. Many men younger and healthier than Jim would not even realize that the dress had been altered. And even if they did, they might see the positive aspects of allowing their granddaughter to wear the dress in an altered style, rather than requiring Liz to conform to the wedding fashions of the 1940s as a condition of being allowed to wear the dress.
In short: any objections to the alterations are very unlikely to come from Jim.
Ordinarily, I might agree with you, anonymous, but here's the flaw in your logic:
Dee removed the sleeves from the wedding dress. This is a major change for a man of Jim's vintage. In the 1940s, no woman wore a sleeveless wedding dress inside a church. It was considered whorish and immodest, and most churches required modest dress (aka sleeves on the wedding dress). In fact, some churches today still ban wedding dresses that reveal the shoulders.
If Jim is with it enough to remember the dress is Marian's dress, he will notice that the sleeves have been removed. Because Marian would never, ever have married in a dress with no sleeves. It simply wasn't done. I suspect this is what Howard was getting at with his "cheap slut" comment.
Interesting, I did not know that not having sleeves on a wedding dress was such a big issue. I had misunderstood and thought some of the commenters here were trying to turn Jim into a Vera Wang-like expert on wedding dresses.
Notwithstanding that, the altered dress has been approved by Elly the author surrogate, by Liz, and by Deanna. Lynn is not going to portray all three of them as having made a bad decision about the dress. If someone informs Lynn that it would be a problem for the dress not to have sleeves, the dress will suddenly have sleeves again (with an explanation that "the last time we saw the dress, Dee hadn't completed the alterations"). It's not like it gets drawn consistently anyway.
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