The First Whoa! of 2009
We have seen the word “Whoa!” occur in 4 strips since beginning the new-runs in September, 2008. They were all in 2008. Today's new-run of For Better or For Worse is the first “Whoa!” used in the strip for the year 2009. In 2008, they were used here and here and here and here. Naturally, you are not seeing “Whoa!” used in the reprints, because 1980 was pre-Keanu Reeves.
As for the topic of the strip itself, it appears that Lynn is using the same excuse she used at the beginning of the year in her weekly letters for Elly to drop out of her Creative Writing class.
Unfortunately, I ended up with this flu as well, and it hit (of course) on the day of my Creative Writing class. Since I’ve now missed the first two classes and am waaaaaaaay behind in the readings, I’ve decided to drop the course for this term. I don’t want to want to do badly at it, and it would be a struggle to catch up now. Perhaps it will be easier to juggle kids, house and classes during the summer semester.
The difference this time is that Elly Patterson is not getting the flu on the first day of class. She is far enough into class to have written something. Naturally, Lynn must up the ante for getting Elly out of class, so Elly has a temperature of 104 degrees, which is pretty high.
Lynn has taken the “Elly in Creative Writing Class” storyline down a considerably different path than she did in 1981. We have not yet seen the strip with Elly in the classroom being bored by the teacher, which I was sure was going to make the reprint list after Lynn drew the strip with the same teacher giving Elly directions to the classroom. Not only that but Elly’s essay was on her childhood and not about her travails as a housewife or mother. For some reason, Lynn seems to want to make Elly seem like a serious student this time. This trend first started when she redid Elly’s reason for leaving university to be her desire to write.
Elly's interest in her degree was fading by this time and she wanted to get out and WRITE! She left university early to work in a bookstore and do some freelance writing while John finished up his dentistry training.
As I look back on the 30-year run of the strip, what I saw was a woman who talked a lot about wanting to write, but never being very serious about it. Later on, when John buys her Lilliput’s, it turns out that Elly’s talent is more in small business ownership than writing. Elly finally seemed to be happy to have fulfilled her work life. When she retired and sold Lilliput’s, she never mentioned her desire to work outside the home again.
With this sequence of new-runs, Lynn is turning this around so that Elly is in pursuit of a career where she is motivated and does have some talent. That adds an air of tragedy to the strip in the long term, because now Elly’s work at Lilliput’s seems to have derailed her from pursuing her goal, instead of actually being her goal.
As for the topic of the strip itself, it appears that Lynn is using the same excuse she used at the beginning of the year in her weekly letters for Elly to drop out of her Creative Writing class.
Unfortunately, I ended up with this flu as well, and it hit (of course) on the day of my Creative Writing class. Since I’ve now missed the first two classes and am waaaaaaaay behind in the readings, I’ve decided to drop the course for this term. I don’t want to want to do badly at it, and it would be a struggle to catch up now. Perhaps it will be easier to juggle kids, house and classes during the summer semester.
The difference this time is that Elly Patterson is not getting the flu on the first day of class. She is far enough into class to have written something. Naturally, Lynn must up the ante for getting Elly out of class, so Elly has a temperature of 104 degrees, which is pretty high.
Lynn has taken the “Elly in Creative Writing Class” storyline down a considerably different path than she did in 1981. We have not yet seen the strip with Elly in the classroom being bored by the teacher, which I was sure was going to make the reprint list after Lynn drew the strip with the same teacher giving Elly directions to the classroom. Not only that but Elly’s essay was on her childhood and not about her travails as a housewife or mother. For some reason, Lynn seems to want to make Elly seem like a serious student this time. This trend first started when she redid Elly’s reason for leaving university to be her desire to write.
Elly's interest in her degree was fading by this time and she wanted to get out and WRITE! She left university early to work in a bookstore and do some freelance writing while John finished up his dentistry training.
As I look back on the 30-year run of the strip, what I saw was a woman who talked a lot about wanting to write, but never being very serious about it. Later on, when John buys her Lilliput’s, it turns out that Elly’s talent is more in small business ownership than writing. Elly finally seemed to be happy to have fulfilled her work life. When she retired and sold Lilliput’s, she never mentioned her desire to work outside the home again.
With this sequence of new-runs, Lynn is turning this around so that Elly is in pursuit of a career where she is motivated and does have some talent. That adds an air of tragedy to the strip in the long term, because now Elly’s work at Lilliput’s seems to have derailed her from pursuing her goal, instead of actually being her goal.
posted by howard at 11:04 PM
6 Comments:
Later on, when John buys her Lilliput’s, it turns out that Elly’s talent is more in small business ownership than writing. Elly finally seemed to be happy to have fulfilled her work life. When she retired and sold Lilliput’s, she never mentioned her desire to work outside the home again.
One would guess that her motivation for all of this was to prove to herself that she could have had a career if she'd wanted one; once she had, it was time to retire from the field before her career ran her life.
With this sequence of new-runs, Lynn is turning this around so that Elly is in pursuit of a career where she is motivated and does have some talent. That adds an air of tragedy to the strip in the long term, because now Elly’s work at Lilliput’s seems to have derailed her from pursuing her goal, instead of actually being her goal.
Given that we're about to see just how much it hurt her to have her dreams shattered and that it takes decades for John, Mike and Liz to realize it, it also makes the other three look a damned sight worse. Before, John was just goofing on someone who wasn't sure what she wanted; now, he'll take forever to see how big a jerk he was to Elly about how she really didn't need a degree.
As for the topic of the strip itself, it appears that Lynn is using the same excuse she used at the beginning of the year in her weekly letters for Elly to drop out of her Creative Writing class.
::nod, nod::
Yup, I thought of that immediately. Here comes her excuse to drop the class. Also, with a 104 temp, shouldn't she be on her way to the hospital?
DreadedCandiru2,
Before, John was just goofing on someone who wasn't sure what she wanted; now, he'll take forever to see how big a jerk he was to Elly about how she really didn't need a degree.
There you go. How could I have missed it? Another level of slamming John Patterson.
aprilp_katje,
Yup, I thought of that immediately. Here comes her excuse to drop the class. Also, with a 104 temp, shouldn't she be on her way to the hospital?
I tried to find a website which said at what temperature you should be going to the hospital, and all could find was websites saying if a child was very young and the temperature was over 103, you should go.
I don't know if it's "official", but the conventional wisdom around my family / friends is 104 = danger zone for adults, too. I remember once hitting 103, feeling utterly lousy and as if I could just handle one thing at a time: cold shower, another temperature reading, repeat... I was really hoping the temp would go down (it did) because the thought of getting out of my apartment just to go to the health clinic was not fun. Going to class?!
BTW, Mayo Clinic's website says to get medical help if above 103 (above 100 for newborns, 102+ for infants 3 months - 2 yrs...). Although that could be a "call your doctor" rather than "hie over to the ER"
I'm kind of a lurker here, but I had to comment about this:
Perhaps it will be easier to juggle kids, house and classes during the summer semester.
During the summer?!? When Michael is home all day?!?
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