Hallowe’en 2009 Part II
In today’s new-run of For Better or For Worse, Connie Poirier describes a pretty perfect description of what you would like to happen with a store bought costume: You go to the store, the kid sees what he wants, you get it and go home. Of course, Connie’s dialogue seems a little impersonal referring to either Michael or Lawrence as “the kid”. However, my experience with store bought costumes runs into complications when you get home and “the kid” wants to try on the costume. Let me see if I remember all the things:
1. The costume does not fit.
2. The costume does fit, but there is some part of the fabric of the costume which is extremely uncomfortable.
3. The costume is of such a cheap quality that your child rips it to shreds in the first few seconds of running around in it.
4. The costume is of a good quality, but your daughter decides she wants to wear it every day, all day long, until the costume is basically unusable for Hallowe’en.
5. The costume is great, but your daughter’s best friend, who by prearrangement with your daughter, was supposed to get a complimentary costume to match the one your daughter got, decided to get something else instead.
6. Not all the items on the picture of the costume on the front of the package, are in the package.
7. In order for the costume to stay on your child’s body, you practically have to superglue it in place.
8. The costume looks great, but you discover that your child cannot see, breathe, or walk, while he is wearing it.
Let me think now if any of my children have ever told me they changed their mind about the costume in the parking lot walking out of the store. I would have to say, “No.” Lynn Johnston does not have a camera on my family for this one.
Aside from that, I do have a few favourite artistic moments:
a. In the first panel, the spider has a line showing how it is suspended from the ceiling, but the 2 bats do not.
b. In the first panel, instead of having her legs down, Lizzie has her legs straight forward with her feet out, as if she were trying to push something with her feet, like the entrance door to the store perhaps? I wonder if Elly just rammed her into it.
c. In panel 3, while Michael is attracted to Space Guy, Lawrence appears to be looking at the Queen’s outfit, judging from the ruffles in the robe.
d. In panel 4, Michael is trying to return his costume by putting the bag for it right in between the handles of the stroller, which means he probably just whacked Lizzie in the head with the bag.
1. The costume does not fit.
2. The costume does fit, but there is some part of the fabric of the costume which is extremely uncomfortable.
3. The costume is of such a cheap quality that your child rips it to shreds in the first few seconds of running around in it.
4. The costume is of a good quality, but your daughter decides she wants to wear it every day, all day long, until the costume is basically unusable for Hallowe’en.
5. The costume is great, but your daughter’s best friend, who by prearrangement with your daughter, was supposed to get a complimentary costume to match the one your daughter got, decided to get something else instead.
6. Not all the items on the picture of the costume on the front of the package, are in the package.
7. In order for the costume to stay on your child’s body, you practically have to superglue it in place.
8. The costume looks great, but you discover that your child cannot see, breathe, or walk, while he is wearing it.
Let me think now if any of my children have ever told me they changed their mind about the costume in the parking lot walking out of the store. I would have to say, “No.” Lynn Johnston does not have a camera on my family for this one.
Aside from that, I do have a few favourite artistic moments:
a. In the first panel, the spider has a line showing how it is suspended from the ceiling, but the 2 bats do not.
b. In the first panel, instead of having her legs down, Lizzie has her legs straight forward with her feet out, as if she were trying to push something with her feet, like the entrance door to the store perhaps? I wonder if Elly just rammed her into it.
c. In panel 3, while Michael is attracted to Space Guy, Lawrence appears to be looking at the Queen’s outfit, judging from the ruffles in the robe.
d. In panel 4, Michael is trying to return his costume by putting the bag for it right in between the handles of the stroller, which means he probably just whacked Lizzie in the head with the bag.
posted by howard at 11:52 PM
6 Comments:
Let me think now if any of my children have ever told me they changed their mind about the costume in the parking lot walking out of the store. I would have to say, “No.” Lynn Johnston does not have a camera on my family for this one.
I doubt she has a camera on anyone's family this time around. Now if she were talking about a teenaged April deciding that she didn't want a certain style of shoes after all moments are buying them, I might believe this scenario; a six year old boy rejecting his Halloween costume this quickly makes no sense.
Nope, we haven't experienced a sudden change of mind in the parking lot either.
And "the kid" strikes me as oddly impersonal, too.
Plus, Connie--stop calling Elly "El." She's no "El." She's not nearly friendly enough.
April_Patterson,
I think I have a handle on what really panicked Connie when Lawrence outed himself: she had to be reminded that she had no God-damned idea who he was and never did. He was and is just the kid to her and it shows.
Well, we know from the new-runs that Connie doesn't see Lawrence as an individual, she just sees him as a daily reminder of her exotic Brazilian lover.
anonymous,
This strip was not a high point in Connie Poirier's parenting. This was also another low point.
Ugh, Connie the pathetic and desperate. Well, it makes sense; Elly is supposed to be better than every other woman in the strip. To be better than Connie, the nurse who is raising a son on her own, Connie must be made desperate and pathetic. That way nothing Connie does can match Elly's Mrs. degree.
Also, turning a kid into nothing but a visible reminder of a sexual relationship? Nice, real nice. For Better or for Worse could be re-named The Narcissism Olympics.
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