Monday, June 29, 2009

Bananas Are So 1998

In today’s new-run of For Better or For Worse, we see the surprise appearance of fruit, and not just any fruit, but a banana. The last time we saw a mention of a banana in this strip was back in 2002, when Elly was cleaning out the freezer and found a banana loaf from 1998. Oddly enough, the mention of bananas prior to that was from 1998 in this strip. Obviously, bananas are a 1998 food for the Pattersons. In neither strip, are Pattersons seen with a bare, peeled banana ready to be eaten; so it should come as no surprise in today’s strip that little Nizzie turns down the decorated banana offered to her by Elly in favour of a cookie. It is simply a food with which Pattersons are completely unaccustomed.

Cookies, however, are a whole different story. Thanks to AMU reprints, I was able to find 28 references to cookies in For Better or For Worse, the most recent one from last year. In fact, the last reference to plain old fruit in For Better or For Worse is this often-mocked strip from 2005, the last time John Patterson cooked. Notice how healthy his menu is. Notice that the particular fruit in question is not named. It is such an unfamiliar substance to April Patterson that she is unable to identify it as anything but fruit, even though she is fully capable of identifying couscous. If I put couscous or some kind of fruit in front of my kids, they would be much more likely to be able to put a name to the fruit than the couscous.

Now, thanks to the new-runs, we get to see the true story of how Elly turned into the cook she is today – she was not smart enough to fool her 1-2 year-old daughter into eating a banana instead of a cookie. We also get to continue our theme from yesterday of Elly stopping whatever she is doing in order to satisfy Nizzie. Although she tries to divert Nizzie to a banana, Elly does stop right in the middle of washing the dishes to accede to her demands. Because of this, we know that the unseen 6th panel of today’s strip is Elly handing Nizzie a cookie and grumbling something like:

1. At least her cookie is as cold as this dishwater.
2. So much for Flower Power.
3. Kids these days. In my day, I would have eaten anything my mom disguised as a flower, even broccoli and carrots.
4. Hum! That trick always works with John.

9 Comments:

Blogger DreadedCandiru2 said...

In fact, the last reference to plain old fruit in For Better or For Worse is this often-mocked strip from 2005, the last time John Patterson cooked. Notice how healthy his menu is. Notice that the particular fruit in question is not named. It is such an unfamiliar substance to April Patterson that she is unable to identify it as anything but fruit, even though she is fully capable of identifying couscous. If I put couscous or some kind of fruit in front of my kids, they would be much more likely to be able to put a name to the fruit than the couscous.

The reason that April cannot is simple; Elly actually does cook the things we saw in that weekly menu feature. Unlike John, she thinks that plain, simple, healthy food is tasteless food; it's unfortunate that her attempt to imitate Annie fell flat but that's the risk she takes trying to deny her kids the slop she loves.

10:22 PM  
Blogger howard said...

dreadedcandiru2,

it's unfortunate that her attempt to imitate Annie fell flat-

As I recollect it, after Annie had baby #2, she also gave up the healthy eating, eliminating the last vestige of it from the strip.

11:25 PM  
Blogger April Patterson said...

Ugh, in that 2005 strip, April says "grub." "Grub,""spuds"; these people are so klassay.

howtheduck, I thought Annie just switched to store-bought baby food when Richard was a baby. I'm not sure she completely went over to the Elly side.

3:43 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

There is a more insidious reason why Elly has been so uncharacteristically attentive and cheerful around Lizzie, or course.

"See," she could say. "See? It doesn't matter if one actually acts focused and loving on children. They're automatically and innately EVIL, UNGRATEFUL, STUPID BRATS, who will REJECT IT!"

This way, Elly gets to pretend to be kindly -and- play the poor, put upon Drudge Martyr Goddess figure.

A double whammy. Something new-run Elly is becoming increasingly fond of, especially in regards to treatment of her family.

5:50 AM  
Blogger howard said...

aprilp_katje,

howtheduck, I thought Annie just switched to store-bought baby food when Richard was a baby. I'm not sure she completely went over to the Elly side.-

What I mean is that there was a point where Annie represented the super-mom with respect to what she fed her kids and after a certain point in the strip, this was never mentioned again.

6:28 AM  
Blogger howard said...

Anonymous,

This way, Elly gets to pretend to be kindly -and- play the poor, put upon Drudge Martyr Goddess figure. A double whammy. Something new-run Elly is becoming increasingly fond of, especially in regards to treatment of her family.-

I think you have nailed it. In the early strips, she did do this a lot; but it was often coupled with the idea that she could do better. In the early strips, Elly felt guilty a lot over her parenting mistakes. The Elly who parented April almost never mentioned a mistake, and the strips often focused on the idea that she was a super-mom, who was better than April’s friends’ parents. New-run Elly is somewhere between these two. We don’t see her proud of herself for giving Nizzie a banana instead of a cookie, and we don't see her realize why her efforts failed; but we do see her going through a whole lot of effort to make a banana as interesting as a cookie.

6:31 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The idea of sprinkles on banana slices makes my gorge churn, for some reason. It doesn't seem like a very palatable flavor or texture combo.

And I love bananas!

8:23 AM  
Blogger DreadedCandiru2 said...

I noticed just now that Day Three of Lynn's Travel Journal is up. As expected, Lynn devotes most of the space to what she ate and how funny the locals are.

8:43 AM  
Blogger howard said...

Anonymous,

The idea of sprinkles on banana slices makes my gorge churn, for some reason. It doesn't seem like a very palatable flavor or texture combo.-

I agree completely. Plus it defeats the whole purpose of eating something healthy, if you load it up with sugar. My new theory is that Elly ate all the cookies herself and is trying to divert Nizzie from pointing that out.

11:04 AM  

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