Farley Gets 2 Baths
When I was growing up, we had outdoor dogs. They got washed occasionally. I can’t remember any day where we washed a dog more than once a day, unless you count instances where we got a hose and sprayed the dog with it more than once. I think we were just accustomed to the idea that dogs smelled like dogs. My thought in seeing Elly in today's new-run of For Better or For Worse say, “I just washed, dried and brushed the dog for the second time today” was "Either she is washing this dog a lot more often than is needed or I was not washing my dog often enough when I was growing up." 2 times in one day seems excessive to me for a dog that spends its time outdoors.
As for Elly’s claims that she is the one always washing the dog, looking back through AMU Reprints what I find is that we have an interesting trend. Going chronologically:
In this strip from 3/15/1998, it is John who is washing Eddy the dog.
In this strip from 5/21/2000, it is April who is brushing the dogs.
In this strip from 5/3/2003, it is John and April who are washing Eddy the dog.
In this strip from 5/21/2006, it April who is washing both dogs.
In this strip from 9/16/2007, Elly is the one shown washing the dogs for reasons of biting insects.
In this strip from 5/11/2008, Elly is shown to be brushing Eddy the dog.
We start off with John handling the dog-washing. Then April takes over. At the end, finally Elly Patterson takes over in 2007 with martyr complex operating at full power in 2008. When we go to the new-runs, this most recent modern trend is taken back in time to 1980, where Elly is the sole dog-washer.
As for Elly’s claims that she is the one always washing the dog, looking back through AMU Reprints what I find is that we have an interesting trend. Going chronologically:
In this strip from 3/15/1998, it is John who is washing Eddy the dog.
In this strip from 5/21/2000, it is April who is brushing the dogs.
In this strip from 5/3/2003, it is John and April who are washing Eddy the dog.
In this strip from 5/21/2006, it April who is washing both dogs.
In this strip from 9/16/2007, Elly is the one shown washing the dogs for reasons of biting insects.
In this strip from 5/11/2008, Elly is shown to be brushing Eddy the dog.
We start off with John handling the dog-washing. Then April takes over. At the end, finally Elly Patterson takes over in 2007 with martyr complex operating at full power in 2008. When we go to the new-runs, this most recent modern trend is taken back in time to 1980, where Elly is the sole dog-washer.
posted by howard at 12:00 AM
9 Comments:
howard,
My thought in seeing Elly in today's new-run of For Better or For Worse say, “I just washed, dried and brushed the dog for the second time today” was "Either she is washing this dog a lot more often than is needed or I was not washing my dog often enough when I was growing up." 2 times in one day seems excessive to me for a dog that spends its time outdoors.
That's probably because you accept the fact the the world is made of dirt; Elly, as we all know, doesn't. We got a reminder of that thirteen weeks ago when she threw Farley out because guests might come and try to snort the carpeting only to smell a tiny hint of dog poo.
"Either she is washing this dog a lot more often than is needed or I was not washing my dog often enough when I was growing up." 2 times in one day seems excessive to me for a dog that spends its time outdoors.
I thought it was because he'd rolled in something especially foul--not that he got bathed so often he never smelled like a dog. But either way, Elly's reactions are OTT, as always.
BTW, in the April 23, 2007 strip, Liz is seen brushing Edgar. This is also the infamous "raspberry at the phone" strip.
DreadedCandiru2,
That's probably because you accept the fact the the world is made of dirt; Elly, as we all know, doesn't. We got a reminder of that thirteen weeks ago when she threw Farley out because guests might come and try to snort the carpeting only to smell a tiny hint of dog poo.-
As far as a character trait goes, Lynn is pretty consistent in portraying Elly’s cleanliness obsession when it comes to Farley. Considering that at the heart of For Better or For Worse is the idea that other people have these experiences (the camera in my house syndrome), I wonder if Lynn pays attention when she does a strip and people don’t write into her Coffee Talk saying the same thing happened to them. When we had the strip throwing Farley out, most of the writing was about whether or not Elly was abusing Farley.
aprilp_katje,
I thought it was because he'd rolled in something especially foul--not that he got bathed so often he never smelled like a dog.-
This is hard for me to say. Lawrence had the reaction to the odor, but Michael didn’t. Lawrence attributed his reaction to Michael not sniffing Farley’s butt; so I couldn’t really tell. Even a clean dog’s butt doesn’t smell very good. Nevertheless we missed a strip where Lawrence must have said something along the lines of “I can’t stand to be around Farley, I’m going home” and Michael must have responded with “OK. I’ll ask my mom to wash him, even though she’s probably going to scream at me.”
BTW, in the April 23, 2007 strip, Liz is seen brushing Edgar. This is also the infamous "raspberry at the phone" strip.-
Good catch. Here is the weakness of AMU Reprints. If you keyword search on "dog," it doesn’t give you the strip unless the word “dog” is used or a dog is featured as a part of the plot. So, it missed this one. We can add a “Liz brushing the dog” to the list. It appears that over the years, Elly managed to train John to wash the dogs. With April, you actually see the training going on, as the first strip talks about her mistake of brushing the dogs in the kitchen. However, in 2007 (a convenient year for this), Elly returns to her roots of being the sole dog-washer and cleaner, not having done it since before 1996 (the AMU Reprints archive limit).
This is hard for me to say. Lawrence had the reaction to the odor, but Michael didn’t. Lawrence attributed his reaction to Michael not sniffing Farley’s butt; so I couldn’t really tell. Even a clean dog’s butt doesn’t smell very good. Nevertheless we missed a strip where Lawrence must have said something along the lines of “I can’t stand to be around Farley, I’m going home” and Michael must have responded with “OK. I’ll ask my mom to wash him, even though she’s probably going to scream at me.”
Yesterday, we did have Mike spelling out to Elly that "Farley rolled in something gross," with Elly responding, "Not again!" And Wednesday's strip showed him rolling two frames before Lawrence declaring that he stinks. Maybe the "missing" strip would be Mike taking a closer look/smell and finding the "gross" source of the stink?
(I can't even believe I'm giving this whole thing such detailed attention!)
aprilp_katje,
Maybe the "missing" strip would be Mike taking a closer look/smell and finding the "gross" source of the stink?-
This could very well be the case, but then what happened to Lawrence? Did he go home? Did he pass out from the smell of Farley? Did he live up to his promise to barf and hurl? So many questions these new-runs raise that are unanswered.
(I can't even believe I'm giving this whole thing such detailed attention!)-
I think the same thing almost every day I post a Blog entry to the Howard Bunt Blog.
I remember washing our dog twice in one day once, when I was a teenager. We had a smallish ranch house on 5 acres, so when we took her for walks out back, we just let her run loose in the bushes and high plants. She rolled in something or other on both her morning and her evening walk. Oh well. I sure didn't brush her both times :P.
These things happen when you have a dog. Elly should obviously not have a dog, or kids, or be married. She's too concerned with keeping everything sterile and "perfect", and doesn't seem to care about actually living life..
My parents once had to wash our dog twice in one day. She had found something incredibly foul to roll in in the woods near our home. We came home and she got washed by not one, but both of my parents, immediately slipped loose, re-rolled and both my parents washed her again. I think the 2nd time they made sure she was tied up to avoid having to wash her a 3rd time. The whole family agreed try to keep her from getting out again. The only time anyone yelled was when she made a break for it after the first wash, since we all knew what was going to happen.
I generally enjoyed washing the dog, especially in the summer as a way to cool her off.
I had an Old English Sheepdog as a child. The dog lived indoors, but went out into the (fenced-in) backyard pretty frequently in the summer. She was washed once a month in the summer months and not washed at all except for spot cleaning in the winter, when she only went out for brief periods.
My dog did not have stink lines, winter or summer.
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