Catch Up After a Vacation: Lynn Johnston’s dilemma
“When you close the practice for a few days, you have to go like mad to catch up!” This is John’s comment in today's new-run of For Better or For Worse. While it is true to a certain extent. John’s job isn’t like a number of other jobs where work piles up while you are gone, even though this is the way John’s comment makes it sound. In the case of a true dental emergency with his patients, a doctor on vacation usually has made arrangements for another doctor to cover them.
When my wife worked for an Ear, Nose, Throat doctor; what happened was that he would let his patients know when a vacation was coming up. Usually his vacations were for an extensive period of time, so patients had to plan around them. If the patient couldn’t wait until the doctor got back from vacation, his staff would schedule up a lot of those kinds of appointments prior to his departure. The consequence was that her doctor was actually busier before the vacation than afterwards.
I don’t know if the same is true in dentistry in Canada, or even if Lynn Johnston paid enough attention to Rod Johnston’s dental practice to know the answer to what happens in this situation. Considering Lynn’s lack of attention to dental detail in the last several strips devoted to John’s dentistry, there is some evidence that Lynn did not pay attention. What we are seeing instead is probably Lynn’s interpretation of what happens when she takes a vacation. Upon her return, she realizes that she has to “go like mad to catch up” and produce the required number strips for the syndicate. I suspect today’s strip is really more Lynn’s story than Rod’s, consiering the number of vacations Lynn has taken recently.
When my wife worked for an Ear, Nose, Throat doctor; what happened was that he would let his patients know when a vacation was coming up. Usually his vacations were for an extensive period of time, so patients had to plan around them. If the patient couldn’t wait until the doctor got back from vacation, his staff would schedule up a lot of those kinds of appointments prior to his departure. The consequence was that her doctor was actually busier before the vacation than afterwards.
I don’t know if the same is true in dentistry in Canada, or even if Lynn Johnston paid enough attention to Rod Johnston’s dental practice to know the answer to what happens in this situation. Considering Lynn’s lack of attention to dental detail in the last several strips devoted to John’s dentistry, there is some evidence that Lynn did not pay attention. What we are seeing instead is probably Lynn’s interpretation of what happens when she takes a vacation. Upon her return, she realizes that she has to “go like mad to catch up” and produce the required number strips for the syndicate. I suspect today’s strip is really more Lynn’s story than Rod’s, consiering the number of vacations Lynn has taken recently.
posted by howard at 12:26 AM
6 Comments:
There's a lot of evidence to back up the assumption that Lynn is simply putting her words in John's mouth; she never paid attention to the day-to-day operations of Rod's practice, after all. All she ever remembered was the few times he screwed up and that his assistants made her feel inadequate. Since she cannot relate to anyone who is not her, she cannot be convinced that Rod can and does handle his work load differently than she does.
dreadedcandiru2,
All she ever remembered was the few times he screwed up and that his assistants made her feel inadequate.-
She also seemed to remember that his patients all had unusally funny last names. I can just see Rod coming home from work and talking about his patient, Mr. Feggnutz, with Lynn howling in laughter. (And thinking, "I have to put that name in my strip.")
What Rod Says: Oh, boy, Mr. Feldman needed a root canal today, and we discovered that he has THREE roots for that tooth. Do you know how rare that is? I had to refer him to a specialist.
What Lynn Hears: Blah, blah, Mr. FEGGNUTZ, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah!
aprilp_katje,
It's kind of like the Far Side comic strip where the dog is listening to the human, and only hears his name and a lot of blah-blah's. Only the dog is listening better than Lynn.
It's kind of like the Far Side comic strip where the dog is listening to the human, and only hears his name and a lot of blah-blah's.Yes! I was thinking of the classic "Blah-blah-blah-Ginger" strip. :)
April_Patterson,
That does sound like Lynn at that; I'll bet you that's the real source of all the funny names we see.
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