Hitch and Run
The important aspect of today’s For Better or For Worse strip is the belief that, even if your mother and your uncle disagree, a grandchild should try to honour their elder relative by including them in the important days of their lives.
I can certainly relate to this. When I think back to my wedding, one of the things I remember very clearly was the part my 83-year-old grandfather played in the service. He loved drama, particularly Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, and he was a retired Southern Baptist minister, and he read a mean scripture. That is to say he emphasized and interpreted every little nook and cranny of the traditional 1 Corinthians 12:31b-13:13 (love scripture) read at many weddings to such an extent that the officiating minister’s jaw dropped in astonishment. It was one of the highlights of my life. As for my wife, her invalid grandmother came to her wedding in Texas all the way from New Jersey, and it was the last time she saw her alive. Whenever we think back to our wedding day, these memories come up.
It is a strange turn of events when a Patterson actually does a nice, good and responsible thing. I have gotten so accustomed to a Patterson being self-righteous, self-centred, and self-entitled; it is shocking to see them do anything other than that kind of behaviour. Even though this moment with Grandpa Jim is marred by Grandpa Jim himself, making a joke about the nice thing Liz and Anthony have done, it does not take away from the fact they did it. When Liz thinks back on her wedding day, she will remember that against her mother’s wishes she and Anthony took the time to visit with her grandfather in the hospital, before they went to their reception and before they went on their honeymoon. Grandpa Jim is wrong though. Liz did not “hitch and run”. She “hitched, did not run, but honoured and respected her grandfather instead".
I can certainly relate to this. When I think back to my wedding, one of the things I remember very clearly was the part my 83-year-old grandfather played in the service. He loved drama, particularly Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, and he was a retired Southern Baptist minister, and he read a mean scripture. That is to say he emphasized and interpreted every little nook and cranny of the traditional 1 Corinthians 12:31b-13:13 (love scripture) read at many weddings to such an extent that the officiating minister’s jaw dropped in astonishment. It was one of the highlights of my life. As for my wife, her invalid grandmother came to her wedding in Texas all the way from New Jersey, and it was the last time she saw her alive. Whenever we think back to our wedding day, these memories come up.
It is a strange turn of events when a Patterson actually does a nice, good and responsible thing. I have gotten so accustomed to a Patterson being self-righteous, self-centred, and self-entitled; it is shocking to see them do anything other than that kind of behaviour. Even though this moment with Grandpa Jim is marred by Grandpa Jim himself, making a joke about the nice thing Liz and Anthony have done, it does not take away from the fact they did it. When Liz thinks back on her wedding day, she will remember that against her mother’s wishes she and Anthony took the time to visit with her grandfather in the hospital, before they went to their reception and before they went on their honeymoon. Grandpa Jim is wrong though. Liz did not “hitch and run”. She “hitched, did not run, but honoured and respected her grandfather instead".
posted by howard at 11:49 PM
14 Comments:
Yup. I agree. Pretty nice strip for a change. Liz is actually acting like a decent human being, and good for her. Good for Lynn for drawing it. But I gagged at the punny joke in the last panel. Way to mess up an otherwise nice moment, there.
howard,
It is a strange turn of events when a Patterson actually does a nice, good and responsible thing. I have gotten so accustomed to a Patterson being self-righteous, self-centred, and self-entitled; it is shocking to see them do anything other than that kind of behaviour.
Maybe this is the high note Lynn is talking about in her YouTube interview. We could well see Liz and Anthony shudder at the human cost of all the barbarous splendor, resolve that they won't be as grasping and selfish as their parents anymore and be shown scenes of them living decent lives.
The punning compulsion seems almost pathological. Except for the almost. Way to crap on a nice moment.
"Hitch and run"? ::gag::
Check out this story that louises_place (Lia from YouTube) discovered on-line. It's a sad state of affairs that a once-great artist'S legacy is the number of former fans she's cheesed off.
qnjones,
Liz is actually acting like a decent human being, and good for her. Good for Lynn for drawing it.
I will have to admit it is not only unusual for Liz to act like a decent human being, but even more unusual that Elly is placed in a poor light when it happens. Lynn rarely shows off Elly acting badly.
aprilp_katje,
The punning compulsion seems almost pathological. Except for the almost. Way to crap on a nice moment.
True. When you compare the strip to the old stuff, she didn’t used to have to make a pun. Some moments were allowed to be pure sentiment.
DreadedCandiru2,
We could well see Liz and Anthony shudder at the human cost of all the barbarous splendor, resolve that they won't be as grasping and selfish as their parents anymore and be shown scenes of them living decent lives.
It could be. The strip coming on Sunday is supposed to be a meta-like look at the future of the characters and that could be the way it will go.
Check out this story that louises_place (Lia from YouTube) discovered on-line. It's a sad state of affairs that a once-great artist'S legacy is the number of former fans she's cheesed off.
That is a fairly nice article about the family of snarkers which For Better or For Worse has inspired. It doesn’t mention Howard Bunt’s Blog, but few do. The accompanying article on Lynn’s “retirement” is also interesting. Although much of it is taken from the press release there are a few moments that are not. For example, the Washington Post says it is dropping For Better or For Worse from the printed page and keeping it only in the on-line version at end of the month. Also there was this neat quote:
Johnston sounds as upbeat as ever about producing the strip. She says she doesn't even use it to take veiled digs at her ex-husband. Well, except once.
"The only thing I've put in the strip with a sarcastic streak toward my ex-husband is John [Patterson's] potbelly, because my ex is very proud of his physique," says Johnston before pausing, again sweetly reflective in her approach. "Perhaps I made up my own husband and saw John Patterson in my husband."
This is what I would call selective memory. Last fall, in the Chicago Tribune article, she specifically said she had selected the “Elly has a dream John is cheating” reprint to publish, because it fit her situation. The fact that this has even been brought up shows that if the Washington Post writer is savvy enough to know about us snarkers, then the subject of our snarking, like the continuous digs at Rod through John over the last year, are also well-known.
I will have to admit it is not only unusual for Liz to act like a decent human being, but even more unusual that Elly is placed in a poor light when it happens. Lynn rarely shows off Elly acting badly.
This is the source of the bad taste lingering in the back of my mouth over this week's final arc. We understand that Elly's acting badly, but does Lynn? I have a terrible feeling that Lynn thinks Elly's behavior is somehow conscionable, and that skeeves me out.
dreadedcandiru2, Lia is pinto_lia in Livejournal. louises_place is a Lia fan. :)
Pretty nice strip for a change. Liz is actually acting like a decent human being, and good for her.
I agree totally, and I was glad to see Liz emphatically say there was a reason for going to the hospital. She will need that kind of gumption married to a dishrag. I hope it wasn't just a knee jerk reaction. Though sometimes the knee jerks can inspire true change.
dlauthor,
I have a terrible feeling that Lynn thinks Elly's behavior is somehow conscionable, and that skeeves me out.
You could be right. The perspective taken by Elly, Phil and (if you can believe) Grandpa Jim was to not tell Liz and therefore ruin her day. Lynn seems to have grasped that the day is, in fact, ruined if Grandpa Jim is not included, otherwise we wouldn’t have today’s strip. On the other hand, her perspective from the Elly side is that she was still trying to see to Liz’s best interests, even if she didn’t understand them. Lynn may have entirely missed the concept that Elly’s father should be more important to Elly, regardless of the wedding. Of course that has been a problem Elly has had ever since Jim had his stroke.
Anonymous,
I agree totally, and I was glad to see Liz emphatically say there was a reason for going to the hospital. She will need that kind of gumption married to a dishrag.
She does refer to herself as Anthony and Elizabeth, even though she is the only one speaking and Anthony says nothing. That could be taken as one sign she plans to operate with the two of them as one, even though she is calling the shots.
I actually liked today's strip but would have liked it better if April had been there. Hopefully we'll see her tomorrow.
Off-topic I just finished Beth's Anthony bio so I'll be kinda busy scrubbing the vomit off my computer.
howard,
The long-promised biography of Anthony Caine has just been published. As I expected, most of his sins have been retconned into submission.
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