Rain = Mess?

April showers bring May flowers. And what do May flowers bring? Pilgrims. That’s the old joke. Apparently in Milborough, the showers are in May and not April. In Tucson, the rains mainly occur in late June through most of July. We’ve seen the complaints about summer before in this strip from February 12. In that strip Elly argues that Michael has plenty of toys and shouldn’t be bored.

With today’s new-run of For Better or For Worse, we have another in what is turning out to be a genuine theme for these new-runs, i.e. the idea that a rainy day = a messy house. Back on October, 12, Lynn had a new-run exploring this idea, despite the fact that just a few weeks later, Lynn Johnston did a strip sequence with Michael being given permission by Elly to play in the rain.

Naturally, when I see a theme in the new-runs I feel obligated to use AMU reprints to check to see if these are jokes being stolen from the modern Pattersons. Interestingly enough, the theme of rainy day = messy house does not appear in any of the strips featuring rain. There are plenty of strips with people getting caught in the rain or dealing with umbrellas; but there is not one where the mother complains about the rainy day because the children are inside making messes and not outside.

It appears that the new-runs are beginning to establish their own identity outside of the reprint strips. Today we learn that this new identity involves lying to kids about the reason for rain, and whining about the mess in the house created by the rain. Lynn Johnston is using the new-runs to expand on the stories from the original strips and, as usual, the new message is not a positive one.