Thelma Baird is replaced by Hard-Sell Mike
I guess it is yet to be seen if Thelma Baird is going to do her hard-sell routine on Elly Patterson to take Farley. It’s possible she will, but I am beginning to have my doubts. One thing that is clear is Lynn Johnston has either violated her rules about not researching, or she is correcting mistakes she was told she made back in 1980, when she wrote the strip. We saw a little evidence of this back on Tuesday, when Mrs. Baird pointedly said, “They’re 8 weeks old” which is considered the standard youngest age for giving away puppies. Originally the puppies were much younger and they were drawn much younger as you can tell from their size relative to the Pattersons’ and Thelma’s hands. Clearly Lynn meant to draw puppies that were a few weeks old.
The other aspect of Thelma Baird, dog-breeder, is that part of her hard-sell for Elly was that Farley was a runt, rejected by his mother, and would have to be put down if Elly did not take him. Any person taking over a runt would have a significant task ahead to keep the puppy warm, to feed the puppy as if the mother were doing it, and to keep a careful watch on any difficulties the puppy may have with eating. Many times the runt of the litter is rejected by mom due to physical defects. The net effect is that Thelma Baird would be handing off a dog that would require a lot of work, and may have some serious health issues later on.
With today’s new-run of For Better of For Worse, we don’t see Thelma Baird doing the hard-sell or any mention of Farley being a runt. Instead, young Michael is doing the hard-sell. This has the effect that no longer is Mrs. Baird a conniving old dog breeder getting rid of a sickly dog, and no longer does Farley have that runt stigma on him. I’ll bet people up in Lynn Lake pointed this out to Lynn Johnston right away in 1980, and she has been waiting 28 years to finally fix this thing.
Lynn Johnston now thumbs her nose at those adulterous Lynn Lake residents. Ha! Farley is not a runt! Ha! He’s a good healthy dog, who will die from heart failure after jumping in water to hold up a little girl’s head. Ha! That’s to you Lynn Lake!!
The other aspect of Thelma Baird, dog-breeder, is that part of her hard-sell for Elly was that Farley was a runt, rejected by his mother, and would have to be put down if Elly did not take him. Any person taking over a runt would have a significant task ahead to keep the puppy warm, to feed the puppy as if the mother were doing it, and to keep a careful watch on any difficulties the puppy may have with eating. Many times the runt of the litter is rejected by mom due to physical defects. The net effect is that Thelma Baird would be handing off a dog that would require a lot of work, and may have some serious health issues later on.
With today’s new-run of For Better of For Worse, we don’t see Thelma Baird doing the hard-sell or any mention of Farley being a runt. Instead, young Michael is doing the hard-sell. This has the effect that no longer is Mrs. Baird a conniving old dog breeder getting rid of a sickly dog, and no longer does Farley have that runt stigma on him. I’ll bet people up in Lynn Lake pointed this out to Lynn Johnston right away in 1980, and she has been waiting 28 years to finally fix this thing.
Lynn Johnston now thumbs her nose at those adulterous Lynn Lake residents. Ha! Farley is not a runt! Ha! He’s a good healthy dog, who will die from heart failure after jumping in water to hold up a little girl’s head. Ha! That’s to you Lynn Lake!!
posted by howard at 10:03 PM
15 Comments:
Don't be silly. Everyone knows that Lynn Lakers are too busy pursuing adulterous affairs 24/7/365 to ever have time to read a comic strip. Furthermore, they probably wouldn't talk to Lynn, the only person in town who looked down on their favorite pastime.
Although I do think Mrs. Baird and John are being jerks (passive-aggressively forcing a dog on Elly), Elly has no one but herself to blame for her inability to say NO. If you can't learn to say NO in life, then you deserve to be pissed on. Because you're asking for it.
P.S.--I have fantasies about the citizens of Lynn Lake bringing a class action suit for defamation against Lynn, and cleaning her out.
I didn't know how difficult it is to raise a runt vs another puppy. But I also never treated the idea that Farley was *really* a runt seriously.
The orig-run Mrs. Baird "working on her mother instincts" strip made playing on Elly's feelings a joke. I imagined Mrs Baird was exaggerating, deceiving Elly about the real situation in order to get her to take a dog.
(I also never believed Mrs. Baird would have put the puppy down. And I never interpreted what I read in the strips as Mrs Baird, dog breeder - I figured her dog had had a litter and she was dealing with the puppies. By selling them, or if need be, giving them away.)
qnjones,
Everyone knows that Lynn Lakers are too busy pursuing adulterous affairs 24/7/365 to ever have time to read a comic strip. Furthermore, they probably wouldn't talk to Lynn, the only person in town who looked down on their favorite pastime.
I suspect that the people in Lynn Lake, who remember Lynn Johnston being there, were probably angrier at her for taking the town dentist to Corbeil (and thus forcing them to travel long distances for dental care), than anything else she did or said about them. Who knows?
Although I do think Mrs. Baird and John are being jerks (passive-aggressively forcing a dog on Elly), Elly has no one but herself to blame for her inability to say NO.
John appears to be passive both in the original and new-run version (so far), but I find it interesting that Lynn has switched from Mrs. Baird to Mike being the aggressive influence.
I have fantasies about the citizens of Lynn Lake bringing a class action suit for defamation against Lynn, and cleaning her out.
That would be fun, except of course, as we all know, her ex-husband Rod already cleaned her out and she has to scrape by to pay for groceries.
InsertMonikerHere
I didn't know how difficult it is to raise a runt vs another puppy.
Neither did I until I did a little internet search on runts as puppies.
But I also never treated the idea that Farley was *really* a runt seriously.
It’s difficult to say here. If you have a puppy which is obviously smaller than the rest of the other puppies, then even an amateur can tell by looking. On the other hand, you never see the Patterson family working hard to keep young Farley healthy. He’s just like a regular puppy. Clearly Lynn Johnston’s thought on the matter was the runt was pushed away from mom and smaller, without considering that the mother dog has a very good reason to push a runt away (i.e. obviously unhealthy).
The orig-run Mrs. Baird "working on her mother instincts" strip made playing on Elly's feelings a joke. I imagined Mrs Baird was exaggerating, deceiving Elly about the real situation in order to get her to take a dog.
You can go from that perspective. However for Mrs. Baird to argue that Farley was a runt and would need to be put down, would mean Elly knew what that meant. And if Elly knew what that meant, she would be able to look at Farley and see he was smaller than the other puppies.
(I also never believed Mrs. Baird would have put the puppy down. And I never interpreted what I read in the strips as Mrs Baird, dog breeder - I figured her dog had had a litter and she was dealing with the puppies. By selling them, or if need be, giving them away.)
That would have been my perspective too. Mrs. Baird is a nice, old lady and surely not a puppy-killer. Then I read through internet searches on dog-breeding where it appears that “culling the litter” is an extremely common and accepted practice among breeders. When Mrs. Baird suggests she would have to do that, we don’t see John or Elly say, “You don’t kill puppies, do you?” If you were reading this from the dog-breeder perspective, you would have drawn a different conclusion. If I read it from the Who’s Who bio perspective, where Mrs. Baird is an experienced breeder, then it becomes more likely.
howard,
It would be better if Lynn were to have Elly back down in the face of Mike's pleading; that way, everone but John/Rod comes out looking better. First, Mrs Baird doesn't look like a huckster steamrolling an ignoramus. Second, Mike looks like he has genuine feelings and finally Elly doesn't look like a boob swallowing bilge; she instead looks like a mother trying to make her son happy. I would like to reiterate my suggestion that her tellking Connie that Farley was SOOOOOO CUTE would be followed by admitting that she always wanted a dog but feared maternal anger.
If I read it from the Who’s Who bio perspective, where Mrs. Baird is an experienced breeder, then it becomes more likely.
I got the impression from the Who's Who that Beth thought it would be a good idea for Mrs Baird to become a breeder and added a bit about it, which Lynn has now added to the new-runs. Like so much else in the Who's Who, there was little, if any, supporting evidence in the strip, like other litters of puppies, and it doesn't do anything to tell us more about the character, only about how their lives impacted the Patterson clan.
I liked original Mrs Baird, though. New-run Mrs Baird isn't the same.
FW
PS -- is it OK if I link to your blog from mine?
qnjones
Although I do think Mrs. Baird and John are being jerks (passive-aggressively forcing a dog on Elly), Elly has no one but herself to blame for her inability to say NO. If you can't learn to say NO in life, then you deserve to be pissed on.
That's for sure. Elly wouldn't have gotten herself into this mess if she'd said no to John back in 19XX. She'd probably have gotten married after getting her degree and had a more fulfilling life.
There is a letter to the editor in the lates Mclean's magazine from a woman in Lynn Lake shredding the article and Lynn's comments. I can't find it online though...
DreadedCandiru2,
It would be better if Lynn were to have Elly back down in the face of Mike's pleading; that way, everone but John/Rod comes out looking better.
I guess we will find out tomorrow what Lynn chooses to reprint. The business with Mrs. Baird doing her runt pitch is still a possibility. And I guess we will have to see what, if anything, Lynn does with the bizarre original conversation with Connie Poirier, where she suggests that Farley is a plot by John to keep Lynn tied to the home.
forworse,
I got the impression from the Who's Who that Beth thought it would be a good idea for Mrs Baird to become a breeder and added a bit about it, which Lynn has now added to the new-runs.
Actually, the new-runs lend little to the breeder story. I would get that from the original storyline mainly from Mrs. Baird’s talk about runts and putting down runts. It sounds like something a breeder might say.
I liked original Mrs Baird, though. New-run Mrs Baird isn't the same.
In the original storyline, at least there were some episodes with Mrs. Baird before she gave them Farley. In this retelling, she pops up from nowhere.
PS -- is it OK if I link to your blog from mine?
Certainly.
Anonymous,
There is a letter to the editor in the lates Mclean's magazine from a woman in Lynn Lake shredding the article and Lynn's comments. I can't find it online though...
I can’t find it either, and I would love to read it. Can you scan it in or tell us what it says?
howard,
And I guess we will have to see what, if anything, Lynn does with the bizarre original conversation with Connie Poirier, where she suggests that Farley is a plot by John to keep Lynn tied to the home.
Trying to figure out ezactly where Conniw was coming from with that has always veen a challenge. I mean, J know that John has a rather traditional idea of what constitutes a hoooooome and vocally resented Elly's desire to redefine things but he's not Snidely Whiplash; not everything he does is part of some brilliant plan to have his own way. This makes me think that Connie just wants to stir up trouble.
I read it in the Dr's waiting room, but I'll see if I can find a copy and get it up here.
anonymous,
That would be great. If not, just a brief synopsis of what you remember would also be fine.
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