Tuesday, January 20, 2009

The Checks in my Pants and I Need to Dance

The joke in today's reprint of For Better or For Worse is that John leaves checks in his pants and Elly doesn’t check pants pockets before she puts things in the laundry. Ahem! Well that is a knee-slapper!

The part which does not match my experience is that the check is completely shredded when Elly pulls it out of the wash, into several pieces. Most times when I have missed a paper something in the wash, it usually wads up into a wet ball. Now if I missed a tissue, then that will shred up if pressed to continue on. My daughter’s favourite thing to leave is lip balm, which gets all over everything if it runs through the wash.

So, ladies and gentlemen, aside from the horror of seeing John Patterson’s naked bosom; we can take comfort in the fact that Elly hand-washes all the clothing using the clothes washer as a sink and while speaking the word “GRUMMM”.

16 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yup, IME, paper and tissues don't shred until they go through the dryer. I used to wash plenty of stupid things before I learned to be a compulsive pocket-checker. If you get a check wet, you can usually rescue it, especially if it was written in ballpoint pen.

And anyway, what would this check be for? I'm guessing he doesn't carry his office's deposits around in his pants pockets. Those are probably handled by Jean. So it was probably personal. He could go ask for a replacement.

12:37 AM  
Blogger DreadedCandiru2 said...

howard,

This, sadly, is another example of Lynn re-interpreting Elly as being a nincompoop. My guess is that this is the first time it ever occurred to her to check the pockets of things before she rammed them into the machine, a machine, I might add, she's witlessly overloading. Not only has Elly's sense of humor been taken away, her intellect has vanished.

2:34 AM  
Blogger April Patterson said...

The only thing that interests me about today's offering? It's from the first collection. Page 56. So much for Lynn's claim that she's not dipping into that one for reprints anymore.

3:32 AM  
Blogger John F Jamele said...

I hate to defend Elly here, but I would like to know why it's her responsibility to check the pockets of another adult before she does the laundry. This struck me as just another example of "Elly is everybody's mom, including John's," which is never funny, just pathetic and sad.

6:37 AM  
Blogger InsertMonikerHere said...

It's true that John should check his pants pockets, although it's also common sense for whoever's doing the laundry to double-check, especially if some members of the family are a bit forgetful about doing so.

The only way I see it as Elly's responsibility is if she grabbed the pants because she was doing a wash and John hadn't put them in the hamper. (He could have been trying to get one more wear out of them.) I think that is what happened, because John is trying to find the pants and is looking in the closet.

7:29 AM  
Blogger DreadedCandiru2 said...

John_F_Jamele,

Of course it's sad that Elly has a taller, older, more selfish son than Mike to contend with; Lynn's dystopian vision of Suburbia is predicated on women learning to love their destiny: being helplessly trapped in marriage with immature, selfish child-men.

7:29 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

John and Elly share responsibility. There are two major opportunities to prevent something from going through the washing machine in a pocket. The first is when taking off the garment in question, a person should always remember to check pockets for valuable items to be removed. The second is when putting all clothing items in the washer, the laundry-person should check pockets not only to prevent damage to items, but to keep items from damaging clothing and the washer and dryer. You need to make both routine because humans are fallible and bound to forget sometimes. It's not about gender roles or infantilizing a spouse. I'm single, so I do both steps myself, because it's prudent.

So, both John and Elly failed and both share blame. But the thing is, THIS IS NOT A CRISIS. John can go ask for a replacement check, easy peasy. You want a real laundry crisis? Try washing and drying all your best clothes, only to discover you left a red lipstick in your pocket! Now, that was a crisis! $500 of clothes, ruined. This is especially true because I'm single, I had only myself to blame. Lucky John and Elly, they will no doubt point fingers over this for some time!

8:29 AM  
Blogger howard said...

qnjones,

Yup, IME, paper and tissues don't shred until they go through the dryer.

Tissues especially. I have found that dollar bills come through almost completely unscathed, aside from my making a joke about laundering money.

And anyway, what would this check be for?

In this case, comedy. We have seen all those new-runs where Elly has a shocked look at the kids, the husband or the dog making messes. In the first year of the strip, she looked shocked when she made the mess.

8:45 AM  
Blogger howard said...

DreadedCandiru2,

My guess is that this is the first time it ever occurred to her to check the pockets of things before she rammed them into the machine, a machine, I might add, she's witlessly overloading.

You could be right. After all, John was notorious for being stingy with the cleaning machines. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was one of the first times Elly was dealing with a clothes washer.

Lynn's dystopian vision of Suburbia is predicated on women learning to love their destiny: being helplessly trapped in marriage with immature, selfish child-men.

Not only helplessly trapped, but enjoying their moments of superiority with their child-men who don’t know how to handle household tasks like emptying their pockets.

8:45 AM  
Blogger howard said...

aprilp_katje,

It's from the first collection. Page 56. So much for Lynn's claim that she's not dipping into that one for reprints anymore.

It is the first time since the new-runs began she dipped into the first collection without rewriting the strip as new-run. She has declared that Michael is only 5 years old in a recent new-run and in the Elly letter of the week, which is how old Michael was in the first collection. Also, the business with Michael getting into the fight with Lawrence and getting punched by Deanna was rewritten from the first collection. It may be that Lynn is expecting us astute readers to read between the lines and realize that after jumping ahead to the second collection to introduce Farley and to synchronize the Christmas material with the real-time holiday, she is pulling back to the material she skipped over in the first collection. In other words, we have jumped back in time to when Mike was 5.

9:12 AM  
Blogger howard said...

John F Jamele,

I hate to defend Elly here, but I would like to know why it's her responsibility to check the pockets of another adult before she does the laundry.

I do the laundry in my house and I have to do it. Even people who check their pockets leave small things in them. I have found my wife’s earrings a couple of times.

This struck me as just another example of "Elly is everybody's mom, including John's," which is never funny, just pathetic and sad.

I think Lynn is going less for funny and more for “here’s something almost everyone has done at some point in their life dealing with clothes washers.” After all, the people who clip strips for their refrigerators, do so based on relate-ability and less on actual humour (which is pretty much the salvation of this strip).

9:13 AM  
Blogger howard said...

InsertMonikerHere

The only way I see it as Elly's responsibility is if she grabbed the pants because she was doing a wash and John hadn't put them in the hamper. (He could have been trying to get one more wear out of them.) I think that is what happened, because John is trying to find the pants and is looking in the closet.

This interpretation makes sense to me. Elly’s cleaning sense is such that I could easily believe she would grab up pants that appear to have been discarded.

9:31 AM  
Blogger howard said...

qnjones,

You want a real laundry crisis? Try washing and drying all your best clothes, only to discover you left a red lipstick in your pocket!

Lip balm is also effective as I can attest after I missed some my daughter had left in her pocket.

9:39 AM  
Blogger April Patterson said...

Too much time travel--I'm getting whiplash! ;)

10:04 AM  
Blogger howard said...

aprilp_katje,

Wait until she finishes running the reprints from the first collection and then jumps over them to where she stopped in the second collection.

1:33 PM  
Blogger April Patterson said...

Wait until she finishes running the reprints from the first collection and then jumps over them to where she stopped in the second collection.

Maybe I should get a neck brace, in advance. ;)

5:23 PM  

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