Farley Goes Hungry, Readers Scratch Heads
Today’s new-run in For Better or For Worse brought back memories for me. Much to the chagrin of my daughter, we can’t have a dog in my house because my wife and son are deathly allergic. My mother-in-law has dogs and my daughter gets her fix of playing with dogs at her grandmother’s house. When she was about 3 years old, my daughter took great delight in taking dry dog food out of the bag and feeding it to the dogs by hand. She could do this for hours. When I saw little Lizzie with her hands headed toward Farley's upturned dog bowl, it immediately reminded me of how cute my daughter used to look going back and forth between the bag of dry dog food and the dogs.
Naturally, the Lynn Johnston version of this story has a few flaws in it. With my mother-in-law’s dogs, their dry dog food sits out, so the dogs can consume it any time during the day, if they so please. Judging from Farley’s reaction in panel 2, it appears that he is hungry for his food. So, I doubt the food has been left out for him over a long time. Therefore, Lizzie must have turned over food, which was recently placed in Farley’s bowl in preparation for feeding him.
That raises the question of where Farley is while Lizzie is dumping over his food. If he is hungry and close by, I doubt Lizzie would be able to get close to the food, because Farley would be busy eating it. On the other hand, we don’t see Elly pour out the food and then get Farley to eat it. Where is Farley when all this happens?
Unlike my daughter, Lizzie seems to be intent on playing with the food and not feeding it to Farley. Of course it’s hard to tell when she has her eyes closed, her tongue out, and she is reaching her hands out blindly. As a toddler, now apparently only able to pull up, it’s hard to tell what Lizzie’s plan was. One thing you can tell for sure is that the stress lines around Elly’s head in panels 2 and 3 which show Elly yelling at Lizzie, are indicating a lecture the intended recipient of Lizzie cannot possibly understand. I think Lynn must have forgotten how old Lizzie is.
As for poor Farley, his food is placed on the other side of that door where he can’t get it. Laugh with him, as Farley has a very, appropriate giant question mark over his head. After all, wouldn’t most moms remove the daughter from the food, so the dog could eat it; instead of removing the food from the daughter, so the dog can’t eat it? Most moms would, but that would require lifting and carrying Lizzie someplace away from the dog. It is a lot easier to move the dog food, even if it doesn’t make sense to do it. Naturally, this is Elly’s choice and the strip is once again funny because Elly has done something stupid. Even Farley knows it and doesn't understand it.
Naturally, the Lynn Johnston version of this story has a few flaws in it. With my mother-in-law’s dogs, their dry dog food sits out, so the dogs can consume it any time during the day, if they so please. Judging from Farley’s reaction in panel 2, it appears that he is hungry for his food. So, I doubt the food has been left out for him over a long time. Therefore, Lizzie must have turned over food, which was recently placed in Farley’s bowl in preparation for feeding him.
That raises the question of where Farley is while Lizzie is dumping over his food. If he is hungry and close by, I doubt Lizzie would be able to get close to the food, because Farley would be busy eating it. On the other hand, we don’t see Elly pour out the food and then get Farley to eat it. Where is Farley when all this happens?
Unlike my daughter, Lizzie seems to be intent on playing with the food and not feeding it to Farley. Of course it’s hard to tell when she has her eyes closed, her tongue out, and she is reaching her hands out blindly. As a toddler, now apparently only able to pull up, it’s hard to tell what Lizzie’s plan was. One thing you can tell for sure is that the stress lines around Elly’s head in panels 2 and 3 which show Elly yelling at Lizzie, are indicating a lecture the intended recipient of Lizzie cannot possibly understand. I think Lynn must have forgotten how old Lizzie is.
As for poor Farley, his food is placed on the other side of that door where he can’t get it. Laugh with him, as Farley has a very, appropriate giant question mark over his head. After all, wouldn’t most moms remove the daughter from the food, so the dog could eat it; instead of removing the food from the daughter, so the dog can’t eat it? Most moms would, but that would require lifting and carrying Lizzie someplace away from the dog. It is a lot easier to move the dog food, even if it doesn’t make sense to do it. Naturally, this is Elly’s choice and the strip is once again funny because Elly has done something stupid. Even Farley knows it and doesn't understand it.
posted by howard at 10:26 PM
10 Comments:
Aah, memories. But I am remembering how the boys who lived next door would eat their Irish Setter's food. And would try to convince my sisters and I that it was good. They never got any takers.
Wonder what ever happened to them? Their parents thought the oldest boy was God's gift; maybe he writes War Bride Porn now.
howard,
After all, wouldn’t most moms remove the daughter from the food, so the dog could eat it; instead of removing the food from the daughter, so the dog can’t eat it? Most moms would, but that would require lifting and carrying Lizzie someplace away from the dog. It is a lot easier to move the dog food, even if it doesn’t make sense to do it. Naturally, this is Elly’s choice and the strip is once again funny because Elly has done something stupid. Even Farley knows it and doesn't understand it.
It sometimes occurs to me that John doesn't quite realize exactly how stupid his wife is. As trumanf said, she seems to have the attention span of a goldfish and never learns from her mistakes, can't see that she's got pretty much everything she asked for in life and is too dense to figure out when he's making a bass-ackwards compliment. He saw the grade-point average and assumed that her test scores meant that his children would be raised by a smart person instead of a freak whose only talent is taking tests.
Erg, and Liz is wearing the ruffly overalls again. Dress her in something else, Lynn!
You know what I hate? When someone lectures me by saying "||||| |||| |||| ||| | ||||!" I never know what the heck they want to tell me.
Well, I never: Elly has half-learned how to speak binary ("||||| |||| |||| ||| | ||||!").
Maybe the next time around she'll learn about the zeros.
qnjones,
And would try to convince my sisters and I that it was good. They never got any takers.
Obviously you are not a Patterson, a family known for eating dog food from generation to generation. And why not? If Elly’s cooking is your other choice.
Wonder what ever happened to them? Their parents thought the oldest boy was God's gift; maybe he writes War Bride Porn now.
Another possibility is dog food taste tester.
aprilp_katje,
Erg, and Liz is wearing the ruffly overalls again. Dress her in something else, Lynn!
Sorry, but Elly blew the clothing budget on exercise outfits.
forworse,
Maybe the next time around she'll learn about the zeros.
I doubt it. Elly is only about truth. Besides, as everyone knows, there are 10 types of people, those that understand binary and those that don't.
aprilp_katje,
I too wish that Lynn would dress small children in something that isn't overalls. However, as we both know, it's one of the few things she can actually draw with any amount of accuracy. Let utility be damned; she can't draw a dress that a five year old would wear without making her look like a kewpie doll.
Meredith looks more like a Blow Up Doll than a Kewpie Doll in that picture.
I think it's the Junior Lips of Loveliness....
(LJ could have made today's strip even "funnier" by leaving Hungry Liz & Hungry Farley together as she rescued the bowl of food & shut the magically appearing door.)
I thought at first that the dog food was just left out for Farley, which is what my family did with our dog. The cats sometimes got into it, and then we would squirt them with water. I suppose that wouldn't work with Lizzy. It didn't really work with cats. But you're right, Farley wouldn't be so excited and hungry if his food were just left out for him. Besides, he looks like a puppy, and most people don't just leave food out for puppies.
I was the primary caretaker of our puppy when we got her, and I was eleven. I'm having a hard time believing anyone could be as stupid as Elly is shown to be here. She lectures a toddler and hides the dog's food from him because the toddler was getting into it; FSM forbid she actually pay attention to her daughter long enough for the dog to eat. I think Lynn is getting her storylines from the computer game Sims 2 lately. Though even in that game, a pet will die if you don't feed it.
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