(Crazy) Emotional Nutcase
The last we saw of Connie Poirier was last Saturday in For Better or For Worse, where she was writing her Singles Advertisement. Lynn apparently redrew the original of the strip in order to get rid of the typewriter. However, in addition to redrawing it, Lynn also changed the dialogue. In particular, I note that in the third panel the modern strip has added "crazy" before "nut case", and in the fourth panel the original says "Then again...a weird relationship can sometimes be better than nothing" and the reprint says "Then again...a weird relationship might be better than nothing". For some reason, Lynn wanted Connie to be more certain about weird relationships and she wanted us to know nutcases are also crazy, and not just a casing for nuts.
Given this, I find it very interesting that
a. John Patterson tells Elly he doesn’t know how to handle “crazy emotional nutcases” which is shockingly close to the language Connie used with the additions to the modern version of the strip from Saturday.
b. John says he wished he could have said something to cheer her up.
c. Connie has come by the house at a time when Elly was not there.
It seems a little suspicious to me. After all, if Connie Poirier is willing to go to Montreal to chase after Phil, then what would stop her from chasing after John? He lives closer. He's solid husband material. If Connie can ignore Lawrence to chase after a man, then why not ignore Elly too?
Is Lynn trying to send us this message by adding the word “crazy” to connect Connie to John? Does Lynn want us to think that a relationship between John and Connie is merely a weird relationship?
Given this, I find it very interesting that
a. John Patterson tells Elly he doesn’t know how to handle “crazy emotional nutcases” which is shockingly close to the language Connie used with the additions to the modern version of the strip from Saturday.
b. John says he wished he could have said something to cheer her up.
c. Connie has come by the house at a time when Elly was not there.
It seems a little suspicious to me. After all, if Connie Poirier is willing to go to Montreal to chase after Phil, then what would stop her from chasing after John? He lives closer. He's solid husband material. If Connie can ignore Lawrence to chase after a man, then why not ignore Elly too?
Is Lynn trying to send us this message by adding the word “crazy” to connect Connie to John? Does Lynn want us to think that a relationship between John and Connie is merely a weird relationship?
posted by howard at 10:37 PM
4 Comments:
howard,
It seems a little suspicious to me. After all, if Connie Poirier is willing to go to Montreal to chase after Phil, then what would stop her from chasing after John? He lives closer. He's solid husband material. If Connie can ignore Lawrence to chase after a man, then why not ignore Elly too?
Is Lynn trying to send us this message by adding the word “crazy” to connect Connie to John? Does Lynn want us to think that a relationship between John and Connie is merely a weird relationship?
I'd like to think that she had no idea what the implications of John and Connie's statements were but she seems to want to punish Rod for cheating on her with a friend. We can probably look forward to more strips that leave us wondering if he and Connie are having an affair behind Elly's back.
dreadedcandiru2,
Given that the rumour of the person with whom Rod had the affair was a woman who was essentially working as Lynn's #2 in the office, I have often wondered if Lynn considered her to be like a best friend in the office or otherwise. If so, these stories about Connie's 4-year hunt for a man may resonate with Lynn in much different ways than they did when they were originally written. As a single mother, Connie would have represented Lynn during that time in her life. Now Lynn is single again, it could resonate with her current status. However, there is that element of Connie being a best friend of Elly's and in particular the element of being completely shameless in her pursuit of a man that could remind Lynn of the "other woman" in her life, who used to be her close friend. Obviously the situation seems to trouble Lynn because she has focused almost more new-runs on the story than the original story did.
Apart from this, I find it interesting that the Yahoo colourist made John below the neck pure white, like a not-drawn-in white T-shirt. Presumably because he's been shown shirted more often than shirtless in Brave New Foob.
InsertMonikerHere,
Presumably because he's been shown shirted more often than shirtless in Brave New Foob.
Interesting observation and I expect you are right. The For Better or For Worse people give the external colourists some guidelines, and it could well be that the mandate from Lynn is that John in bed has a shirt on. The unshirted look always made it look like he was getting some loving in his younger days.
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