Christopher Nichols – Named Again!
The last time Christopher Nichols was mentioned by name in For Better or For Worse was in this strip from September, 2008. It is with great amusement then, I read today’s reprint of For Better or For Worse, where Elly tells Anne that “little Christopher is growing like a weed”. My response would be, “only if she means a weed that is being sucked into the ground.” Back in September, Lynn Johnston suddenly developed the idea that Anne Nichols’ 2 boys were about the same age as Elly’s 2 kids and she did a number of strips to that effect. Eventually, she listened to someone who pointed out to her that it was not this way when her strip was originally presented and it was going to completely foul up her plan to eventually go to all reprints. Since then, Anne Nichols has appeared several times in the strip where her son Christopher was there as an infant, but his name was not mentioned. I guess since it is now July and it has been 10 months since Lynn made that goof, it is safe to pull out this strip for reprint.
This is actually a fairly effective strip for visual jokes and bizarre mothering. While Elly is embarrassed that she gives little Nizzie commercial foods, since Anne doesn’t; I am more amused by the fact that Elly carries cookies in her purse and little Christopher is chewing on a crayon in the final panel. Both moms seem to be into a kind of motherhood where they talk a good game, but they don’t pay much attention to what is going on with their kids. Elly doesn’t pull that cookie out of Nizzie’s hands, any more than Anne pulls that crayon out of Christopher’s mouth. I like this motherhood interplay between Elly and Anne, and I kind of wish Lynn hadn’t got rid of it. It’s more fun when Elly is shown she isn’t perfect, if it is not coupled with rude and selfish behavior.
This is actually a fairly effective strip for visual jokes and bizarre mothering. While Elly is embarrassed that she gives little Nizzie commercial foods, since Anne doesn’t; I am more amused by the fact that Elly carries cookies in her purse and little Christopher is chewing on a crayon in the final panel. Both moms seem to be into a kind of motherhood where they talk a good game, but they don’t pay much attention to what is going on with their kids. Elly doesn’t pull that cookie out of Nizzie’s hands, any more than Anne pulls that crayon out of Christopher’s mouth. I like this motherhood interplay between Elly and Anne, and I kind of wish Lynn hadn’t got rid of it. It’s more fun when Elly is shown she isn’t perfect, if it is not coupled with rude and selfish behavior.
posted by howard at 9:55 PM
4 Comments:
howard,
Both moms seem to be into a kind of motherhood where they talk a good game, but they don’t pay much attention to what is going on with their kids. Elly doesn’t pull that cookie out of Nizzie’s hands, any more than Anne pulls that crayon out of Christopher’s mouth. I like this motherhood interplay between Elly and Anne, and I kind of wish Lynn hadn’t got rid of it. It’s more fun when Elly is shown she isn’t perfect, if it is not coupled with rude and selfish behavior.
I kind of like that myself; the Elly who wasn't afraid to admit that she had a lot of flaws and didn't let that slow her down was the Elly I identified with. The whiny Elly who either rages or weeps, on the other hand, is annoying and repellent.
dreadedcandiru2,
It's interesting how Elly evolved over time to move from a flawed woman to perfection in thought and deed. As this transformation took place, Elly's nose got bigger and bigger. It's almost as if that giant honker was the contrast to Elly's inability to make a mistake.
Those things aside, I wonder what inspired Lynn to make these changes in Elly's character. If Elly is based on Lynn, you can draw all kinds of conjectures -- Lynn is more confident in herself as she gets older, Lynn is trying to justify her parenting technique via her self-pronouncement as Elly.
Elly keeps loose cookies in her purse and they don't disintegrate into a mess of crumbs. They must be some study cookies!
aprilp_katje,
This is Elly Patterson we are talking about. You think Elly goes to a reputable bakery and buys only one cookie? That purse is full of cookies that any 1-year-old can easily grab. In fact there may not be anything else in the purse except cookies.
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