Thursday, October 15, 2009

Lizzie the Lush

The idea that John Patterson cannot relax at home without being confronted by a “busy-around-the-house” Elly is a common theme in the early strip. Today’s reprint is one of the rare ones which shows John any sympathy in his relaxing. This makes the 3rd strip in a row being reprinted from what I would call “strips Lynn Johnston did not reprint last year because they made John (i.e. ex-husband Rod) look good.” Now that Lynn Johnston is trying to fill Year Two space from the Farley the dog adoption Year Two material she alreadyreprinted last year, her standards have apparently changed.

The most interesting part of today’s reprint of For Better or For Worse is little Lizzie getting a taste of beer. John Patterson doesn’t see it happen and Elly Patterson is so busy being angry with John for relaxing, she doesn’t see it happen. I am sure that for many children, getting an alcoholic drink from something unattended by an adult is their first experience with alcohol. In my house, leaving an open beer can where a 1-year-old like Lizzie could get at it would not ever happen. We are very conscious of the health risks to toddlers who drink alcohol.

What prevents most children from having a problem with taking more than a sip of alcohol is that it tastes unpleasant to them. However, in this strip, Lizzie doesn’t seem to mind the taste. Naturally, I can’t see toddler Lizzie drinking beer without thinking about the many strips of adult Elizabeth Patterson drinking and waking up hungover. In particular I remember this strip and this strip.

Looking at today’s strip now in relationship to those others, it makes me think that this could be the moment where Elizabeth develops a liking for the beverage, which will last her for the rest of her life.

4 Comments:

Blogger DreadedCandiru2 said...

howard,

The most interesting part of today’s reprint of For Better or For Worse is little Lizzie getting a taste of beer. John Patterson doesn’t see it happen and Elly Patterson is so busy being angry with John for relaxing, she doesn’t see it happen.

What makes it even more interesting than that is that that's not what Elly is screaming about; she's too busy getting enraged that John has his feet up to notice that he's put their child at risk.

Looking at today’s strip now in relationship to those others, it makes me think that this could be the moment where Elizabeth develops a liking for the beverage, which will last her for the rest of her life.

If this happens often enough to go unnoticed, I should say you were right.

10:55 PM  
Blogger howard said...

...she's too busy getting enraged that John has his feet up to notice that he's put their child at risk.

This could be a good example of a character flaw on the part of Elly Patterson, that her obsession with John not being lazy, blinds her to greater dangers with her child. However, knowing the Lynn Johnston mindset, she may be completely and blissfully unaware that a 1-year-old drinking beer is a dangerous thing, and is playing it for laughs, just as she has done in other strips, with 1-year-old Lizzie's difficulty handling a "choking hazard" hotdog, etc.

6:48 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This must be a very early strip. "Boy, it sure must be nice!!" doesn't even come close to resembling a punch line.

7:45 PM  
Blogger howard said...

Anonymous,

I agree unless you change the definition of the word "punch".

9:53 AM  

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