On Stealing from Thelma Baird
On first appearance, the strip used today on For Better or For Worse shows Elly disapproving of young Michael’s act of floral thievery from Mrs. Thelma Baird their neighbour, while at the same time encouraging him to be a better flower thief. The implication is that if Michael had left the stems on the flowers, so they could put in a vase and kept alive with water, then Elly would have used the flowers for decoration, presumably keeping them out of the sight of Mrs. Baird. The interesting part is that this story of Michael’s floral thievery is very similar to the story of Mrs. Baird’s first meeting with the Pattersons, described in her biography on the Who’s Who.
This is the quote from the Who’s Who on Thelma related to flowers from her garden:
As more houses were built along Sharon Park, Thelma had always gotten along well with her neighbours, but in a casual, over-the-fence kind of way. When the Pattersons moved in next door in 1980, she expected to have the same cordial, slightly distant relationship with them. Until, a week or so after their arrival, she caught four-year-old Michael in her garden with one of her prize roses tattered and torn in his small, grubby hand. "'Cause Mommy's sick today," he explained tearfully when she confronted him, "and your flowers are so pretty, I thought one would make her feel better."His big-eyed, woeful expression was too much for Thelma. She promptly went for her garden shears and helped an astonished and delighted Michael cut a lavish bouquet of roses, asters and daisies for his mother. She helped deliver it, too. This was too good an opportunity to miss, to meet her new neighbours. As it turned out, Elly Patterson was suffering from morning sickness, to which was now added embarrassment at her son's misbehaviour. Thelma reassured her, and over a cup of tea, listened as Elly poured out all her worries about mortgages, children and the stresses of moving into a new house with a husband who was working overtime to pay for it and rarely around to help. Thelma was thrilled. Someone needed her again! She promptly offered to take Michael to the nearby park for the afternoon to let Elly suffer in peace, and promised cuttings and roots from her own garden to help bring the Patterson yard into bloom.
There you have it. Thelma Baird not only permitted the Pattersons to have things from her garden, she considered it an act of neighbourly kindness for pregnant Elly. I do not have a copy of the collection of all the early strips, so I cannot tell if there were more stories about Mrs. Baird and her garden which would corroborate the Who’s Who story. In other words, I cannot tell if the Who’s Who story about Mrs. Baird and the garden is a retcon specifically intended to alter the way the strip used today for For Better or For Worse is perceived.
Viewing today’s strip as it stands, the correct form of action is for Elly to march Michael over to Mrs. Baird’s, show her the pulled flowers and exact a punishment for Michael by which he would pay Mrs. Baird back for the loss of her flowers. Even with the Who’s Who retcon, that is still the correct form of action. However, the implication is that Elly is less worried about Michael’s actions because she knows Mrs. Baird would gladly hand over those flowers anyway. In other words, it is all right to take advantage of your neighbours and friends. That is the Patterson way.
This is the quote from the Who’s Who on Thelma related to flowers from her garden:
As more houses were built along Sharon Park, Thelma had always gotten along well with her neighbours, but in a casual, over-the-fence kind of way. When the Pattersons moved in next door in 1980, she expected to have the same cordial, slightly distant relationship with them. Until, a week or so after their arrival, she caught four-year-old Michael in her garden with one of her prize roses tattered and torn in his small, grubby hand. "'Cause Mommy's sick today," he explained tearfully when she confronted him, "and your flowers are so pretty, I thought one would make her feel better."His big-eyed, woeful expression was too much for Thelma. She promptly went for her garden shears and helped an astonished and delighted Michael cut a lavish bouquet of roses, asters and daisies for his mother. She helped deliver it, too. This was too good an opportunity to miss, to meet her new neighbours. As it turned out, Elly Patterson was suffering from morning sickness, to which was now added embarrassment at her son's misbehaviour. Thelma reassured her, and over a cup of tea, listened as Elly poured out all her worries about mortgages, children and the stresses of moving into a new house with a husband who was working overtime to pay for it and rarely around to help. Thelma was thrilled. Someone needed her again! She promptly offered to take Michael to the nearby park for the afternoon to let Elly suffer in peace, and promised cuttings and roots from her own garden to help bring the Patterson yard into bloom.
There you have it. Thelma Baird not only permitted the Pattersons to have things from her garden, she considered it an act of neighbourly kindness for pregnant Elly. I do not have a copy of the collection of all the early strips, so I cannot tell if there were more stories about Mrs. Baird and her garden which would corroborate the Who’s Who story. In other words, I cannot tell if the Who’s Who story about Mrs. Baird and the garden is a retcon specifically intended to alter the way the strip used today for For Better or For Worse is perceived.
Viewing today’s strip as it stands, the correct form of action is for Elly to march Michael over to Mrs. Baird’s, show her the pulled flowers and exact a punishment for Michael by which he would pay Mrs. Baird back for the loss of her flowers. Even with the Who’s Who retcon, that is still the correct form of action. However, the implication is that Elly is less worried about Michael’s actions because she knows Mrs. Baird would gladly hand over those flowers anyway. In other words, it is all right to take advantage of your neighbours and friends. That is the Patterson way.
posted by howard at 11:29 PM
7 Comments:
howard,
However, the implication is that Elly is less worried about Michael’s actions because she knows Mrs. Baird would gladly hand over those flowers anyway. In other words, it is all right to take advantage of your neighbours and friends. That is the Patterson way.
It's also the Patterson way to enable behavior that you secretly dislike. After all, if Elly were to make sure that Mike grew up to respect property and the feelings of the people around him, she couldn't very well be the Noble Sufferer she is today.
dreadedcandiru2,
It's also the Patterson way to enable behavior that you secretly dislike.
True enough. Oddly enough Pattersons have a history of approving thievery. Elizabeth approved little Jesse Mukwa stealing Grandpa Jim's harmonica from her, by saying she should have given the harmonica as a gift. And of course the classic was when Elly ignored April and Moira Kinney's warnings about Kortney Krelbutz's thievery from Lilliput's.
The difference in today's story is that it is not a Patterson who is the victim in the situation, but Mrs. Baird. With this kind of morality about her, it's no wonder that April got confused about whether or not it was wrong to steal from Mr. Singh's store.
howard,
With this kind of morality about her, it's no wonder that April got confused about whether or not it was wrong to steal from Mr. Singh's store.
As long as the theft makes the person feel good about herself, it seems to be okay. Liz was flattered that Jesse was upset enough by her departure to steal from her and Elly was way too into getting flattered to care about Mike's vandalism or Kortney's embezzlement. I should think that what really angered Elly was not the theft but finding out that Krelbutz only pretended to worship her.
dreadedcandiru2,
I should think that what really angered Elly was not the theft but finding out that Krelbutz only pretended to worship her.
When I reread those Kortney Krelbutz strips on the archive, this diagnosis is shockingly accurate. Elly has it in her head that she is doing Kortney a giant favour by taking a chance on her and employing her, and this desire to be proven right in this respect, with the hugging and the crying on the part of the Kortney, is what keeps Kortney from getting fired. Elly seems to want Kortney to be for her, what Gordon Mayes is to John.
I know we criticize Elly for a lack of moral judgment with respect to April vs. Kortney Krelbutz; but it is interesting to see her so unambiguously favouring the selfish solution vs. what is the right solution. She obviously want Mrs. Baird's flowers more than she wants to teach Michael right from wrong.
In some respects, this makes Lynn's choices as a writer seem clearer. We have strongly criticized Anthony Caine for greedily pressing his case on Liz just after he defended her from being raped. However, he was, just as Elly is today, going after something he wanted without respect to right or wrong, and has never been taken to task for his behaviour except by the readers. This is clearly an area where Lynn Johnston feels that going for something you want (like feeling good about someone you hired) outweighs moral propriety.
When you consider Lynn's own staff, hired from the ranks of the local college, and oftentimes without the background to be doing the job they are doing, it seems to me that this is truly the author's belief system.
howard,
This is clearly an area where Lynn Johnston feels that going for something you want (like feeling good about someone you hired) outweighs moral propriety.
Which makes her turning Mira and Therese into cartoon ogres when they're so similar to characters we're supposed to love (Elly and Liz) strangely understandable: their going for what they want inconveniences the Pattersons so they're bad people.
dreadecandiru2,
Which makes her turning Mira and Therese into cartoon ogres when they're so similar to characters we're supposed to love (Elly and Liz) strangely understandable
And consequently causes many readers to embrace those characters. A heroine can't be a heroine and display no-heroic characteristics to the villainess. That makes the villainess a heroine, indirectly.
After seeing today's strip, and with the knowledge that Michael will not learn a lesson in right and wrong, and Elly will not receive her comeuppance, makes me think of them as villains.
howard,
After seeing today's strip, and with the knowledge that Michael will not learn a lesson in right and wrong, and Elly will not receive her comeuppance, makes me think of them as villains.
Same here. This makes the worship these nasty, selfish people receive from the Camera-in-the-house gang all the harder to stomach. You'd almost think they were as amoral as the Pattersons. Or, for that matter, Lynn herself. She was being straight with us when she said that Liz has to marry Anthony because it would make John and Elly's lives easier; their convenience is all that matters.
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