Hinkley’s Handy Haven or Alliteration Alive
New Run Status: 1 ½ new-runs to go
It’s hard to believe that a woman who, when she get older takes pride in getting a Seniors Discount and who is so cheap she shaves sheets, would have started out as the person in today’s new-run of For Better or For Worse.
It’s hard to believe that a woman who seems to wear clothes that are almost exclusively shapeless shirts and pants, would ever describe any clothing as “tacky” as in “shabby in appearance” or “not tasteful or fashionable; dowdy”. What is not hard to believe is that Lynn Johnston would write a strip where Elly is critical of something that Elly already does. After all, Lynn has done that before. My favourite example is the strip where Elly tells April, “Don’t chew with your mouth open.” which is hysterical in light of the Patterson’s slobbering and spitting eating habits.
Elly complains to Anne that the clothing in Hinkley’s Handy Haven is not very good quality, to which Anne responds that by the time the clothing falls apart, the kids will have grown out of it. I remember when my kids were the age of Anne’s and Elly’s kids, when we regularly went through my children’s clothing when they grew out of it to see if it could be handed off to another parent whose children were between my kids’ ages. The main factor in being able to do that was how badly the kids had trashed the clothing with food stains, not if the clothes had fallen apart.
It seems to me that the main point of the storyline is for Elly to complain about whatever store that Hinkley’s Handy Haven resembles. It seems like a Walmart kind of store. The alliteration is somewhat like the nickname for Walmart, "Wally World". Walmart does have a store in North Bay, Ontario near where Lynn lives. In the States, Wal-Mart has been around for awhile, but Walmart only started in Canada in 1994 and the Walmart Superstores started in Canada in 2006. I don’t know how old the one in North Bay is, but it seems a likely target for Lynn. Lynn Lake, Manitoba has no Walmart. Maybe Lynn could move there.
In defense of Lynn, my wife hates Walmart. My wife’s hatred though is not derived from the commercials or the tacky clothing, but because she doesn’t like the way the stores are laid out. It’s too hard for her to find things, which irritates her.
It’s hard to believe that a woman who, when she get older takes pride in getting a Seniors Discount and who is so cheap she shaves sheets, would have started out as the person in today’s new-run of For Better or For Worse.
It’s hard to believe that a woman who seems to wear clothes that are almost exclusively shapeless shirts and pants, would ever describe any clothing as “tacky” as in “shabby in appearance” or “not tasteful or fashionable; dowdy”. What is not hard to believe is that Lynn Johnston would write a strip where Elly is critical of something that Elly already does. After all, Lynn has done that before. My favourite example is the strip where Elly tells April, “Don’t chew with your mouth open.” which is hysterical in light of the Patterson’s slobbering and spitting eating habits.
Elly complains to Anne that the clothing in Hinkley’s Handy Haven is not very good quality, to which Anne responds that by the time the clothing falls apart, the kids will have grown out of it. I remember when my kids were the age of Anne’s and Elly’s kids, when we regularly went through my children’s clothing when they grew out of it to see if it could be handed off to another parent whose children were between my kids’ ages. The main factor in being able to do that was how badly the kids had trashed the clothing with food stains, not if the clothes had fallen apart.
It seems to me that the main point of the storyline is for Elly to complain about whatever store that Hinkley’s Handy Haven resembles. It seems like a Walmart kind of store. The alliteration is somewhat like the nickname for Walmart, "Wally World". Walmart does have a store in North Bay, Ontario near where Lynn lives. In the States, Wal-Mart has been around for awhile, but Walmart only started in Canada in 1994 and the Walmart Superstores started in Canada in 2006. I don’t know how old the one in North Bay is, but it seems a likely target for Lynn. Lynn Lake, Manitoba has no Walmart. Maybe Lynn could move there.
In defense of Lynn, my wife hates Walmart. My wife’s hatred though is not derived from the commercials or the tacky clothing, but because she doesn’t like the way the stores are laid out. It’s too hard for her to find things, which irritates her.
posted by howard at 11:35 PM
16 Comments:
I hated Wal-Mart because of the way the store was laid out before I learned about other reasons to hate it. Plus their prices are not really that good, the stores are a total mess, just blech.
Do you know what the punchline of today's strip is supposed to be?
My local Walmart is laid out reasonably well, but I simply don't care for how less-than-clean it is, or how it apparently doesn't have sufficient staff to restore merchandise on the floor to a neatly arranged state when store patrons mess it up. Ergo, I shop there quite rarely.
(I can say better about the nice and clean Walmart near my brother-in-law's place in New Jersey, where I recently found great prices on inexpensive but decent-quality College dorm furnishings for one of my kids. However, I was only a visitor to that area; I live out-of-state.)
Clio,
As near as I can tell, we are dealing with literary nonsense humour. Ideas are presented together as if they make sense. Anne is willing to buy low quality clothing for her children, which she wouldn’t buy for herself. Anne times the purchase of new clothing not based on whether her kids have grown out of their old clothing, but based on the clothing falling apart. In other words, it is funny because Anne is doing something that is not commonsense, and her reasons for doing it are based on faulty nonsense logic.
Either that or it is funny because Anne refers to her child as “they” in the final panel, as if she thinks she still has 2 kids like she had last year before Lynn disposed of baby Richard and shrank Christopher to infant size.
Anonymous,
My local Walmart is laid out reasonably well, but I simply don't care for how less-than-clean it is
My wife doesn't like the dirtiness either.
This day and age, it seems extremely odd for Lynn to aim her barbs at discount stores and cheap items as being automatically and innately low quality and tacky.
Many people have little choice but to shop for such deals, or do without completely, Lynn. Unemployment is rampant. Stores are getting desperate to move their goods.
Just last week I bought several brand new, good quality, nice-looking shirts from from a bargain store. Marked down from fifty dollars each to thirteen dollars each!
Snotty snob.
howard,
It’s hard to believe that a woman who seems to wear clothes that are almost exclusively shapeless shirts and pants, would ever describe any clothing as “tacky” as in “shabby in appearance” or “not tasteful or fashionable; dowdy”. What is not hard to believe is that Lynn Johnston would write a strip where Elly is critical of something that Elly already does.
No, it isn't; that's because Elly lacks any sort of self-perception and thus is unable to recognize when she's being a hypocrite.
In the Sunday strip where Iris loses Jim in a discount store (leaving with the wrong old guy in a scooter piled up with merchandise), the store where they shopped seemed very Walmart-like, even moreso than today's. But LJ's focus for that was how all old guys in scooters look the same when their faces are obscured. Har dee har.
(My word verification is a sneeze: kershu!)
Elly doesn't object to the merchandise. She objects to having to admit to herself that she's no better than the tacky, low-class people who routinely shop at this type of store. Elly is very class-conscious.
Anonymous,
This day and age, it seems extremely odd for Lynn to aim her barbs at discount stores and cheap items as being automatically and innately low quality and tacky.
This is the effect of having her career handed to her. Lynn has said in interviews before that anyone can become rich if they work hard and show up on time, a common theme in the strip when it comes to money. In this respect, she is very out-of-touch with the rest of the world.
DreadedCandiru2,
No, it isn't; that's because Elly lacks any sort of self-perception and thus is unable to recognize when she's being a hypocrite.
In that case, she is just being true to her character.
aprilp_katje,
In the Sunday strip where Iris loses Jim in a discount store (leaving with the wrong old guy in a scooter piled up with merchandise), the store where they shopped seemed very Walmart-like, even moreso than today's. But LJ's focus for that was how all old guys in scooters look the same when their faces are obscured.
I expect Jim and Iris to have to use a discount store on their fixed income. After all, Lynn did a strip where she had Jim eating dog food.
josephusrex,
Elly doesn't object to the merchandise. She objects to having to admit to herself that she's no better than the tacky, low-class people who routinely shop at this type of store. Elly is very class-conscious.
Oh, I get it. Elly doesn’t want to shop where the Milborough mutants shop.
anyone can become rich if they work hard and show up on time
By that logic sooooo many of the very-hardworking always-prompt people I know who are barely making it should be rich. Bullshit, Lynn.
"By that logic sooooo many of the very-hardworking always-prompt people I know who are barely making it should be rich. Bullshit, Lynn."
Here! Here! I'll have a double.
Anonymous,
By that logic sooooo many of the very-hardworking always-prompt people I know who are barely making it should be rich. Bullshit, Lynn.
The fun part is how many times this belief is reflected in the strip. Mike is able to get an instant book deal. Gordon Mayes' car repair garage adds a car dealership and a coffee shop. Elly is able make Lilliput's work with little effort, etc.
Me, I initially disliked Walmart because I just felt if I spent too much time in there with the decor and the lighting and the shabbiness that I'd contract some kind of cancer. It just had a pall over it that I didn't feel at Target or Costco or any number of big buy-anything stores.
Still, I'll buy my prescriptions there because it's the cheapest I've ever seen.
And yes, Lynn is unbelievably snobby and detached, and it's especially bad in this day and age. Both of my parents are millionaires (they divorced years ago) and even both of them are very concerned about their finances. I was talking with my real estate broker the other day and she has no idea where anyone's getting the money or enough of a sense of financial security to spend 300 grand on a house these days.
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