Elly Patterson: Event Cleaner
Back in the early days of For Better or For Worse, Elly’s house was dirty and she struggled with it constantly. Women, who also had dirty houses, bonded with her immediately. “Lynn Johnston, it’s like you have a camera in my house and can see my house is just as filthy as Elly Patterson’s is. Now can you remove that camera? I’m so embarrassed my house is a mess.”
Today’s reprint of For Better or For Worse reveals that Elly is an event cleaner, which is to say, she is motivated by setting up an event at her house that requires the house to be clean. I can actually relate to this strip pretty well. My wife is an event cleaner, just like Elly Patterson. She regularly has to schedule people coming over to our house to motivate her to clean. If no one comes to visit for a long, enough time, then the house starts to get dirty. This has been one of my marital struggles, because I am not an event cleaner. I am more of a regular, daily and weekly cleaner.
Although I like the strip pretty well, I find the most interesting part of it is the stuff in the background:
1. What is the animal that left that print on the wall in Panel 1? It doesn’t look human or like a dog. Is there some other kind of animal wandering around the Patterson house?
2. What is the substance on the wall next to the animal print? Did someone have a food fight with mayonnaise?
3. Is the Panel 1 picture on the wall really labeled “MOM”, and if so, is it some kind of indication that someone’s mother was one of those Milborough mutants?
4. In the final 2 panels, why is there a punch bowl with a ladle on a desk next to a rotary phone? Is it a common thing to need punch from a punch bowl, while you are doing work in your home?
One of the things I used to like about this strip back in the old days was that its background details might convey a story more than just about the main characters. This is a skill which I am sorry that Lynn Johnston lost as she got older.
On a personal note: My mother-in-law regained consciousness today and was able to breathe on her own. My wife was relieved to hear this, because she was not looking forward to spending the next week going to visit her in the hospital, just to see her unconscious and hooked up to a ventilator. She leaves today, and she gave me a big list of “where the kids have to be when.” It is going to be a complicated week.
Today’s reprint of For Better or For Worse reveals that Elly is an event cleaner, which is to say, she is motivated by setting up an event at her house that requires the house to be clean. I can actually relate to this strip pretty well. My wife is an event cleaner, just like Elly Patterson. She regularly has to schedule people coming over to our house to motivate her to clean. If no one comes to visit for a long, enough time, then the house starts to get dirty. This has been one of my marital struggles, because I am not an event cleaner. I am more of a regular, daily and weekly cleaner.
Although I like the strip pretty well, I find the most interesting part of it is the stuff in the background:
1. What is the animal that left that print on the wall in Panel 1? It doesn’t look human or like a dog. Is there some other kind of animal wandering around the Patterson house?
2. What is the substance on the wall next to the animal print? Did someone have a food fight with mayonnaise?
3. Is the Panel 1 picture on the wall really labeled “MOM”, and if so, is it some kind of indication that someone’s mother was one of those Milborough mutants?
4. In the final 2 panels, why is there a punch bowl with a ladle on a desk next to a rotary phone? Is it a common thing to need punch from a punch bowl, while you are doing work in your home?
One of the things I used to like about this strip back in the old days was that its background details might convey a story more than just about the main characters. This is a skill which I am sorry that Lynn Johnston lost as she got older.
On a personal note: My mother-in-law regained consciousness today and was able to breathe on her own. My wife was relieved to hear this, because she was not looking forward to spending the next week going to visit her in the hospital, just to see her unconscious and hooked up to a ventilator. She leaves today, and she gave me a big list of “where the kids have to be when.” It is going to be a complicated week.
posted by howard at 10:52 PM
7 Comments:
howard,One of the things I used to like about this strip back in the old days was that its background details might convey a story more than just about the main characters. This is a skill which I am sorry that Lynn Johnston lost as she got older.I know. It used to be that we could actually read between the lines and see what the Pattersons had to contend with; in Elly's case, it seems to have been clinical depression. Too bad that nowadays, the Pattersons exist a featureless void made of straight lines and silhouettes.
As for real life, that's great news; I hope for even better to come.
What is the animal that left that print on the wall in Panel 1? It doesn’t look human or like a dog.I think this is supposed to be the refrigerator door--but I agree that the print looks neither human nor canine. And I think that drawing is meant to be Michael's latest portrait of Elly.
In the final 2 panels, why is there a punch bowl with a ladle on a desk next to a rotary phone? Is it a common thing to need punch from a punch bowl, while you are doing work in your home?Elly must keep a bowl of spiked punch to dip into throughout the day. By the time John arrives at night, she's plastered! Actually I read it as a large mixing bowl, with batter spilling over the sides. Because Elly must, at all times, be baking/cooking/engaged in household drama or avoidance thereof.
That is very good news about your MIL--I am hoping for the very best. :)
DreadedCandiru2,
Too bad that nowadays, the Pattersons exist a featureless void made of straight lines and silhouettes. It’s almost as if someone gave Lynn Johnston some art advice at some point, and she continues to use it, without understanding why. Silhouettes, for example, can be effective ways of drawing attention to certain things, but Lynn has often used them to blacken in large parts of panels and effectively obscuring the storyline.
As for real life, that's great news; I hope for even better to come.Me too.
aprilp_katje,
And I think that drawing is meant to be Michael's latest portrait of Elly. It’s scary to think about the ramifications of that, when you look at the picture carefully.
Actually I read it as a large mixing bowl, with batter spilling over the sides. Because Elly must, at all times, be baking/cooking/engaged in household drama or avoidance thereof.I guess it makes for sense for this to be a kitchen scene, especially with Michael munching on a cookie throughout.
And I think that drawing is meant to be Michael's latest portrait of Elly.
It’s scary to think about the ramifications of that, when you look at the picture carefully.I don't think it's a bad pic for a 4 or 5 yr old. Is it the "thick" look of the drawing? The one I wonder about is a different strip with Elly yelling at the fridge something about 'Michael - hand back those alphabet magnets!'. There was a pic with a very round "Mom" drawing and the magnets spelled out "mom is fat".
It's one of those strips I consider not-bad on its own, but the ongoing stream of body obsession leaning toward Cathyesque proportions wasn't a good idea.
I don't remember Elly ever thinking that she might not be as thin as she'd like, but she was in pretty good shape. OTOH there was an early strip with Elly complaining about her diet to Anne, and Anne thinking about how she hated it when the thin ones complained to her about weight. (Another indication that at the time they weren't the Pattersaints and we could understand that Elly wasn't being realistic.)
InsertMonikerHere,
Is it the "thick" look of the drawing?One leg has a foot on it and the other leg does not.
ah, I couldn't see that level of detail :-)
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