Saturday, October 17, 2009

Lynn Has a Camera on my Dessert

It has finally happened. Finally a For Better or For Worse cartoon has imitated a part of my life. When I dine out with my wife, and she plays the “I’m going to be good and not have a dessert” game, that means I will not be the only person eating the dessert I order. In fact, this is such a common occurrence with couples dining; the wait staff often automatically brings out 2 spoons in anticipation. That also appears to be the case with today’s reprint in For Better or For Worse as both John and Elly are shown with spoons in their hands in Panel 8. Moreover, if my wife has managed to eat almost all of the dessert and I offer the whole thing to her, her response would be almost exactly the same as Elly’s in this strip. Congratulations, Lynn Johnston. At long last, you have duplicated a part of my life.

As for what to comment on, let’s start with the Strawberry Mocha Parfait. There are plenty of Mocha Parfaits and Strawberry Parfaits, but the exact combination did not come up in my internet searching. The best I could find was this recipe, which has this picture. This is a Mocha Berry Parfait, but as you can tell, the berries are on top. In the Lynn Johnston picture, there are no strawberries in sight and there appears to be a maraschino cherry on top. However, I am not enough of an authority on parfaits to know if Lynn botched this one.

Second is the waiter, whose eyes are always closed. He has on black arm bands, which is very old-style formal wear. At least it is very old-style in my section of the country. When I say old-style, I mean I have only seen people wear them in movies. My experience with formal wear started in the 1970s, and no one I knew wore them then. Maybe things were different in Canada in 1980.

As for the art, there are the obvious things:

1. The mysterious appearing and disappearing rose on the table.
2. The mysterious appearing and disappearing pink scarf on Elly’s neck.
3. The mysterious disappearing lower half of the waiter’s body.
4. The mysterious appearing and disappearing eaten portion of the parfait.

The parts that work best for me are:

1. Elly’s bug-eye expression in Panel 5 as she sees the parfait delivered to John. This tells me in a single expression that Elly realizes she has made a mistake in refusing to order dessert. Telling a story with pictures and not words, is one of the most powerful aspects of sequential art and one Lynn Johnston should use more often.
2. The dialogue in Panel 8, with the word “leeetle”. This gives the strip a sense of playfulness with the way Elly is asking permission to eat John’s dessert.
3. None of the characters are being cruel or mean to each other.

I would rate this as one of best strips Lynn Johnston has reprinted this year.

13 Comments:

Blogger DreadedCandiru2 said...

Elly’s bug-eye expression in Panel 5 as she sees the parfait delivered to John. This tells me in a single expression that Elly realizes she has made a mistake in refusing to order dessert.

This meshes nicely with her bug-eyed expression in Panel 10; her need to save face is the engine that drives the strip home. She knows she said something she shouldn't have but she won't admit it because she'd lose credibility. That's pretty much why Elly does and says a lot of things, come to think of it.

3:18 AM  
Blogger John F Jamele said...

They've obviously eaten at this restaurant before. The waiter knows Elly, which is why he brings enough dessert to feed a family despite Elly's insistence that she doesn't want any.

4:50 AM  
Blogger April Patterson said...

Strawberry and mocha do not sound like a delicious combination. 0_o

I think the mysterious pink scarf is actually a pink ribbon Elly has tied to the base of her ponytail. This is what passed for gussied up in her "ponytail" days.

6:11 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Just a wee nit-pick about the waiter's sleeve-garters: Yes, they're old-fashioned, but they're not a mark of formality. Men used to wear them because ready-made shirts came with just one sleeve length—long—and you were expected to use those garters to adjust the sleeves to your preference. I recently got a shipment of shirts that were advertised as 35—my sleeve length—but were more like 36.5. So, instead of going to the fuss of returning them, I went to the corner drugstore and bought a few women's hair-scrunchies, which serve perfectly as sleeve-garters

7:48 AM  
Blogger Callahan said...

The whole split dessert thing is an overused trope, and it doesn't have to be so whimsical and mysterious.

One serving of just about anything in a restaurant has more calories than anyone needs to consume in one sitting. Solution? Split desserts, split appetizers, split rich dishes. Enjoyment with a reasonable portion size: all done. There's no reason to be coy about it, ladies (and no reason to go 'those crazy women, they do things for no reason', men.)

And good lord this joke is tired. Tired tired tired.

12:26 PM  
Blogger DreadedCandiru2 said...

Callahan,

You've sort of explained what ruins this strip for me; at a distance, you see, this looks like a husband and wife splitting a dessert and is thus mildly charming; when you get up close, it's less appealing.

12:34 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

This strip is a classic example of Elly at her most passive aggressive and emblemizes Lynn Johnston's use of the strip as a means of passive aggression towards her own family, especially Rod.

12:47 PM  
Blogger howard said...

John F Jamele,

The waiter knows Elly, which is why he brings enough dessert to feed a family despite Elly's insistence that she doesn't want any.

That could be. However, I know a few restaurants which specialize in enormous desserts, and an enormous price to go with them.

2:35 PM  
Blogger howard said...

aprilp_katje,

Strawberry and mocha do not sound like a delicious combination. 0_o

I agree, but I usually don’t like coffee-like-flavoured things.

I think the mysterious pink scarf is actually a pink ribbon Elly has tied to the base of her ponytail.

That would certainly make its appearance in Panel 7 make more sense. However, it doesn’t explain all the times it disappears, given how far across Elly’s shoulder and neck it covers when it does appear. From Lynn Johnston's perpective, when she doesn't draw the back of Elly's head, then she also doesn't draw the ribbon.

2:36 PM  
Blogger howard said...

josephusrex,

Just a wee nit-pick about the waiter's sleeve-garters: Yes, they're old-fashioned, but they're not a mark of formality. Men used to wear them because ready-made shirts came with just one sleeve length—long—and you were expected to use those garters to adjust the sleeves to your preference.

I will have to disagree with you on the point of formality, but not the point of the purpose. The only place I know to buy men’s armbands (not used for a political purpose) is at a formalwear store, or fine men’s clothing store.

2:37 PM  
Blogger howard said...

Callahan,

Enjoyment with a reasonable portion size: all done. There's no reason to be coy about it, ladies (and no reason to go 'those crazy women, they do things for no reason', men.)

Actually, this is one of the reasons I liked today’s strip, was that it didn’t go to the “those crazy women” perspective. It was more like “I want my cake, but I don’t want to admit I ate it.”

2:38 PM  
Blogger DreadedCandiru2 said...

From Lynn Johnston's perpective, when she doesn't draw the back of Elly's head, then she also doesn't draw the ribbon.

Which, of course, is sort of a silly thing to do; after all, just because we can't see the back of her head doesn't mean that it and anything affixed to it cease to exist.

2:39 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Yes, Howard, I believe you. I'd suggest, though, that they're sold in finer menswear shops because of a misconception that they're meant to impart formality. Today, perhaps, people suppose that that's their purpose, but in fact they only indicate that the wearer can't afford custom-made shirts.

It's the same phenomenon as napkin rings, which are today used to give that elegant touch at a formal dinner. Napkin rings were originally meant only for informal family use--because you'd use the same napkin for several meals in a row, and the purpose of the ring was to store it neatly on the table between meals. In olden times, napkin rings would never have been used at a formal dinner: It would be an insult to the guest to imply that you were planning to re-use the linen without washing it.

That, by the way, is why very old-fashioned people (I'm one of them) never fold their napkins at a restaurant or at a public dinner: It would imply that you expected the host to re-use them.

4:14 PM  

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