1500
Today’s reprint of For Better or For Worse goes back in time to March 17, 1981, which is one of the few March, 1981 strips not reprinted. Supposedly tomorrow is going to be a new-run exploring more of the Mike and John relationship, which means that we will probably have another week of new-runs. As I have pointed out before, the next straight set of unreprinted material would have been originally published on April 6, 1981 so it would be wise for Lynn Johnston to produce 2 weeks of new-runs so she can synchronize April 5, 2010 with those strips before going to straight reprints. It may be she plans to do that.
This past Saturday, Lynn published her latest entry of her travelogue to Thailand, where she revealed that her trip actually took place during Chinese New Year, which was February 14. However, in Phuket, Thailand, they celebrated it from February 19-21. In all likelihood, these were the concluding days of her trip. In order to take a 2 week vacation, this would be mean that prior to her vacation she would have to have submitted daily strips for the next 6 weeks following that going to the last week of March. The next week would start on Monday, April 5. That lines up so neatly, it can’t be coincidence. My guess is that we are going to get 2 more weeks of new-runs and April 5 will be the start date for straight reprints. Of course, there is always the possibility that Lynn Johnston will change her mind about going to straight reprints. It would not be the first time she has changed her mind about things like that.
As for the Howard Bunt Blog, this very entry is entry #1500. Can you believe it? I’ve been doing this since August, 2005. Clearly if there is ever a hearing to determine my sanity, I will have to hope they don’t find this blog.
As for the strip today, it is a strange one. Lawrence Poirier broke his leg on January 27 and got his cast off on March 21. In the original publication, it was February 10 to March 17 – 2 weeks longer in the cast. The humour of the strip appears to be that Lawrence Poirier with his cast off, has to restrain himself from kicking other people until his leg completely heals. I do not get this joke. My first thought was that Lawrence took advantage of his cast to kick people and now he doesn’t get to do that with his cast off. Only that’s not what the strip says. “He just won’t be able to kick anyone for a while.” Lawrence can’t kick people? Since when is Lawrence a kicker?
Other persons in the strip are kickers, not Lawrence. In this strip, Michael kicks newly born Elizabeth. Here, Elly kicks Phil for wanting to drink something alcoholic. It’s usually the dogs who get kicked. Here Elizabeth kicks Eddy. Here Elly kicks Farley.
This past Saturday, Lynn published her latest entry of her travelogue to Thailand, where she revealed that her trip actually took place during Chinese New Year, which was February 14. However, in Phuket, Thailand, they celebrated it from February 19-21. In all likelihood, these were the concluding days of her trip. In order to take a 2 week vacation, this would be mean that prior to her vacation she would have to have submitted daily strips for the next 6 weeks following that going to the last week of March. The next week would start on Monday, April 5. That lines up so neatly, it can’t be coincidence. My guess is that we are going to get 2 more weeks of new-runs and April 5 will be the start date for straight reprints. Of course, there is always the possibility that Lynn Johnston will change her mind about going to straight reprints. It would not be the first time she has changed her mind about things like that.
As for the Howard Bunt Blog, this very entry is entry #1500. Can you believe it? I’ve been doing this since August, 2005. Clearly if there is ever a hearing to determine my sanity, I will have to hope they don’t find this blog.
As for the strip today, it is a strange one. Lawrence Poirier broke his leg on January 27 and got his cast off on March 21. In the original publication, it was February 10 to March 17 – 2 weeks longer in the cast. The humour of the strip appears to be that Lawrence Poirier with his cast off, has to restrain himself from kicking other people until his leg completely heals. I do not get this joke. My first thought was that Lawrence took advantage of his cast to kick people and now he doesn’t get to do that with his cast off. Only that’s not what the strip says. “He just won’t be able to kick anyone for a while.” Lawrence can’t kick people? Since when is Lawrence a kicker?
Other persons in the strip are kickers, not Lawrence. In this strip, Michael kicks newly born Elizabeth. Here, Elly kicks Phil for wanting to drink something alcoholic. It’s usually the dogs who get kicked. Here Elizabeth kicks Eddy. Here Elly kicks Farley.
posted by howard at 10:17 PM
8 Comments:
...it would be wise for Lynn Johnston to produce 2 weeks of new-runs so she can synchronize April 5, 2010 with those strips before going to straight reprints. It may be she plans to do that.
It may be that someone else worked out the schedule for her and told her just how many newruins she had to draw between now and retirement.
The next week would start on Monday, April 5. That lines up so neatly, it can’t be coincidence.
We did hypothesize that this trip was a celebration of finally retiring as well as owning the horses.
Clearly if there is ever a hearing to determine my sanity, I will have to hope they don’t find this blog.
I think it shows that you are dedicated, thorough and have good attention to detail. It goes without saying that you're better at all of these than the strip's own creator.
The humour of the strip appears to be that Lawrence Poirier with his cast off, has to restrain himself from kicking other people until his leg completely heals. I do not get this joke.
I can't believe that Lynn missed a chance to have Mike and Lawrence mimic Charlie Brown and Lucy playing football, with the punchline from Mike that it was OK to whip the ball away from Lawrence at the last minute because Lawrence isn't able to kick anything for a while.
Since we are probably in line to have Easter Monday be the start of the new era, it tends to make me wonder what is it that Lynn will do to fill up that last week. I'd like to think that we'd have a ham-fisted look at the Mike-Deanna dynamic but I fear that she'll just start spouting nonsense about how Mike doesn't get along with Lizzie. As for Lawrence wanting to kick people, I can understand that a little; if you were hurting, if your mother didn't come to your side because she was too dumb to do so, if you had to listen to Mike whine that he wanted a cast too, you'd wanna kick people.
forworse,
It may be that someone else worked out the schedule for her and told her just how many newruins she had to draw between now and retirement.
That would be my guess too. With Lynn’s normal attention to detail, I can’t imagine her figuring this out for herself.
We did hypothesize that this trip was a celebration of finally retiring as well as owning the horses.
When you consider that Lynn wrote to aprilp_katje in Coffee Talk about having limited time, I can easily see the impending Thailand vacation as being her self-imposed deadline / celebration.
I think it shows that you are dedicated, thorough and have good attention to detail. It goes without saying that you're better at all of these than the strip's own creator.
Thanks for the compliment.
I can't believe that Lynn missed a chance to have Mike and Lawrence mimic Charlie Brown and Lucy playing football, with the punchline from Mike that it was OK to whip the ball away from Lawrence at the last minute because Lawrence isn't able to kick anything for a while.
That is one Peanuts moment I am surprised that Lynn never ripped off, considering all the other ones she did use.
DreadedCandiru2,
I'd like to think that we'd have a ham-fisted look at the Mike-Deanna dynamic but I fear that she'll just start spouting nonsense about how Mike doesn't get along with Lizzie.
Mike / Deanna is a possibility. Right now, the two have not spoken one time since she returned. Deanna has spit at Mike and she has showered him with tree snow. However, we have not seen why in the world it is that she came back from her temporary move with such hatred for him.
Deanna has spit at Mike and she has showered him with tree snow. However, we have not seen why in the world it is that she came back from her temporary move with such hatred for him.
About the only reason I can think of is that he didn't attend her going-away party; since she's not very bright (having grown up to outsmart herself by marrying him and taken over the Pattermanse), it seems to me that she's vain and dim enough to think that he was lying about being sick.
DreadedCandiru2,
About the only reason I can think of is that he didn't attend her going-away party; since she's not very bright (having grown up to outsmart herself by marrying him and taken over the Pattermanse), it seems to me that she's vain and dim enough to think that he was lying about being sick.
That seems logical. However, I suspect it may have more to do with a general “men are evil” vibe in the strip, ever since Lynn’s divorce.
Happy 1500! Wow, time has flown. All the way from Howard Erk to now. Thanks for making the strip interesting and tolerable!
debjyn,
Thanks for the 1500 post greetings and the compliment.
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