I’ve Never Met a Woman Who’s Less Organized
Today’s new-run of For Better or For Worse fall into the same category of strips as this one from November 19, 2006; where Lynn Johnston decided to show how busy Elly was after retirement, by showing Elly doing a lot of things she had never been shown doing before or since. Likewise this strip is a similar type of strip, except it shows all the things Elly did for conservation, which she had never been shown doing before or since.
Let’s run down the list for today’s “Elly is very organized” strip and see where Lynn Johnston strays from the norm:
1. Elly is shown dropping Michael off at school. As we know, Michael takes a bus to school. A more organized woman would have let him take the bus instead of driving him herself.
2. Elly is taking Elizabeth to see Dr. Flett and because Dr. Flett is able to take Elizabeth immediately after their arrival, Elly makes a note that she is going to be able to make her eye exam in 40 minutes. From what we have seen in the past, like many doctor’s offices, Elly and Lizzie had to wait before they went back. Regardless, it is idiotic to schedule an eye exam for 40 minutes after you scheduled a doctor’s exam for your daughter. However, Elly notes that because Dr. Flett is so organized she also has time to go to the cleaners. This goes to Dr. Flett's organizationsl skills and not Elly's.
3. Instead of the strip showing us Elly at the eye exam with Elizabeth or at the cleaners with Elizabeth, we see Elly loading up the back of her minivan with groceries and thinking she can drop Elizabeth off at Annie’s house. She has done all these things with Elizabeth in tow, and is just now thinking she should drop Lizzie off at Annie’s house. Hum. Seems a little disorganized to me. Hint to Elly. Drop Lizzie off first and then go to the eye doctor. It will make your eye exam a lot more pleasant for everyone involved.
4. Elly picks up Mike to drop him off with his dad. Then Elly is going to the gym. Then Elly is going to writing class, which had its last session on Thursday. The Sunday strips have often been out-of-synch with the dailies, so this not really a problem. However, Elly didn’t go to the gym back in 1981. Her exercise was to occasionally go jogging with Annie.
5. We see woman leaving the office who looks a little like Jean Baker that John describes as his receptionist. This has been a perpetual problem for Lynn Johnston doing the character of Jean Baker. In the new-runs, Lynn has put Jean Baker in the receptionist role, which she had at the end of the modern run of the strip. This woman is quite a bit heavier than Jean and John does not call her by name. It makes me wonder if it is has been so long since Lynn did a new strip with Jean Baker, that Lynn no longer remembers the character’s name or what she looks like. In 1981, Jean Baker was very thin dental assistant, so it also makes me wonder if this is another woman entirely.
6. Finally the joke is that John does not recognize or appreciate that Elly is organized. I hate to break it to you Lynn, but scheduling a lot of things to be done on the same day is not an example of organization. In fact, if anything, it is an example of disorganization.
Lynn was going more for a strip like this one, where John doesn’t appreciate what Elly does. Like most situations where Lynn tries to make a point, she ends up making the exact opposite point.
The most amazing part of the strip to me is the eighth panel. Elly has a figure. We see her from behind and for once, she does not have a giant rear end. I am simply shocked that Lynn Johnston could draw such a picture of Elly.
Let’s run down the list for today’s “Elly is very organized” strip and see where Lynn Johnston strays from the norm:
1. Elly is shown dropping Michael off at school. As we know, Michael takes a bus to school. A more organized woman would have let him take the bus instead of driving him herself.
2. Elly is taking Elizabeth to see Dr. Flett and because Dr. Flett is able to take Elizabeth immediately after their arrival, Elly makes a note that she is going to be able to make her eye exam in 40 minutes. From what we have seen in the past, like many doctor’s offices, Elly and Lizzie had to wait before they went back. Regardless, it is idiotic to schedule an eye exam for 40 minutes after you scheduled a doctor’s exam for your daughter. However, Elly notes that because Dr. Flett is so organized she also has time to go to the cleaners. This goes to Dr. Flett's organizationsl skills and not Elly's.
3. Instead of the strip showing us Elly at the eye exam with Elizabeth or at the cleaners with Elizabeth, we see Elly loading up the back of her minivan with groceries and thinking she can drop Elizabeth off at Annie’s house. She has done all these things with Elizabeth in tow, and is just now thinking she should drop Lizzie off at Annie’s house. Hum. Seems a little disorganized to me. Hint to Elly. Drop Lizzie off first and then go to the eye doctor. It will make your eye exam a lot more pleasant for everyone involved.
4. Elly picks up Mike to drop him off with his dad. Then Elly is going to the gym. Then Elly is going to writing class, which had its last session on Thursday. The Sunday strips have often been out-of-synch with the dailies, so this not really a problem. However, Elly didn’t go to the gym back in 1981. Her exercise was to occasionally go jogging with Annie.
5. We see woman leaving the office who looks a little like Jean Baker that John describes as his receptionist. This has been a perpetual problem for Lynn Johnston doing the character of Jean Baker. In the new-runs, Lynn has put Jean Baker in the receptionist role, which she had at the end of the modern run of the strip. This woman is quite a bit heavier than Jean and John does not call her by name. It makes me wonder if it is has been so long since Lynn did a new strip with Jean Baker, that Lynn no longer remembers the character’s name or what she looks like. In 1981, Jean Baker was very thin dental assistant, so it also makes me wonder if this is another woman entirely.
6. Finally the joke is that John does not recognize or appreciate that Elly is organized. I hate to break it to you Lynn, but scheduling a lot of things to be done on the same day is not an example of organization. In fact, if anything, it is an example of disorganization.
Lynn was going more for a strip like this one, where John doesn’t appreciate what Elly does. Like most situations where Lynn tries to make a point, she ends up making the exact opposite point.
The most amazing part of the strip to me is the eighth panel. Elly has a figure. We see her from behind and for once, she does not have a giant rear end. I am simply shocked that Lynn Johnston could draw such a picture of Elly.
posted by howard at 6:48 AM
13 Comments:
howard,
Finally the joke is that John does not recognize or appreciate that Elly is organized. I hate to break it to you Lynn, but scheduling a lot of things to be done on the same day is not an example of organization. In fact, if anything, it is an example of disorganization.
It's like how he was supposed to be the bad guy in the insurance strips; we see a man who had the brains and decency to plan for his wife and family in the case of an emergency. Lynn and Elly see a bad man who wanted to scare her with bad thoughts before bedtime.
Here's an interesting thought: Lynn probably, like most other things in her old life, has only vague, incomplete impressions of what she used to do to fill her days when she really was a young wife and mother.
We, however, have the benefit of actually going back to do research...not only the older strips, but the essays and blurbs she did for the various collections when she was younger and a tad more honest and coherent.
I remember one (I think it was in "The Lives Between the Lines") where Lynn admitted that she was extremely unhappy and insecure at the start of her second marriage, so she deliberately piled on as many chores, tasks, and busywork as she could in a day. This helped her to feel useful. She also admitted to OCD tendencies, habits that lead her to make very odd choices on how she carried out this work, because the actions seemed to fill an emotional need she couldn't deal with any other way.
It was also here that she alluded to (but did not explicitly say) that she would get frustrated when her new husband and her son wouldn't "get" her reasons for wearing herself out raw like this. And that these frustrations would turn into strips.
But, it's been YEARS since she was living that life. I think all Lynn can remember is that she was really-super-ultra-mega-omni-busy all the time as a young mother. She can no longer remember (or, less charitably, admit) the reason WHY she was constantly in a multi-task frenzy.
Anonymous,
That does make a lot of sense; it nicely parallels all the strips that clearly indicate that Lynn has forgotten what it felt like to raise children while trying to manage getting her strip out.
I think this ties in pretty well, too, with Lynn/Elly's frustration and impatience with her kids. When I had a day with the kids I found that we were a lot happier when we worked the day around kid time. If I tried to force them into a "its-3:30-so-we-HAVE-to-get-to-the-grocery" sort of schedule the result was always harried, fussy kids and an angry, impatient father. When we just worked it into the day whenever it happened everyone was a lot more relaxed and happy. Of course, that meant that some days we never did "get to the cleaners" (and let's think about that: Elly is a housewife and her husband is a dentist - what the hell do they need to dry-clean?) or make it to the gym.
And everyone was a lot happier if I was OK with that.
DreadedCandiru2,
It's like how he was supposed to be the bad guy in the insurance strips; we see a man who had the brains and decency to plan for his wife and family in the case of an emergency.
That’s true. Although this is a shot against John for not paying attention to his own wife’s organization skills, what John is really doing is complimenting a lady who works for him for her excellent abilities. This speaks to Elly’s jealousy, her insecurity and above all, her lack of communication with her husband, since there is no way he knows all the things she has piled into her day. It’s also possible that if he did, he would think she was insane, not well-organized.
Anonymous,
I remember one (I think it was in "The Lives Between the Lines") where Lynn admitted that she was extremely unhappy and insecure at the start of her second marriage, so she deliberately piled on as many chores, tasks, and busywork as she could in a day. This helped her to feel useful. She also admitted to OCD tendencies, habits that lead her to make very odd choices on how she carried out this work, because the actions seemed to fill an emotional need she couldn't deal with any other way.
This is what she says in “Lives Behind the Lines”:
Toys and clothes and food and stuff. I’m a tight-ass clean freak, and living in a normal family atmosphere among all the normal family chaos gave me anxiety attacks. I’m not talking about the kind of thing that leaves you propped up on a coach wheezing into a paper bag thinking about the afterlife (which I’ve done), I’m talking about MANIC CLEANING binges that would propel me from one room to another, scraping folding, dusting, arranging and organizing stuff that would take exactly thirty seconds to undo as soon as the kids got home.
It was also here that she alluded to (but did not explicitly say) that she would get frustrated when her new husband and her son wouldn't "get" her reasons for wearing herself out raw like this. And that these frustrations would turn into strips.
Exactly. Also from “Lives Behind the Lines”:
This cry for help was what For Better or For Worse was made of. It was acting out the feelings, writing down the complaints, sending them off to the syndicate, and sharing them with other parents ---who, to my relief and surprise, shared with me every morsel of angst I was going through.
But, it's been YEARS since she was living that life. I think all Lynn can remember is that she was really-super-ultra-mega-omni-busy all the time as a young mother. She can no longer remember (or, less charitably, admit) the reason WHY she was constantly in a multi-task frenzy.
Again, I agree. Lynn Johnston hasn’t cleaned her own house or cooked her own food in years.
FDChief,
When I had a day with the kids I found that we were a lot happier when we worked the day around kid time. If I tried to force them into a "its-3:30-so-we-HAVE-to-get-to-the-grocery" sort of schedule the result was always harried, fussy kids and an angry, impatient father.
I have days where, for whatever reasons, a lot of things pile up on that day, and you have to be very organized to get through the day. Usually it’s because the kid activities all end up happening at about the same time on the same day (not by my choice). I can tell you that in my household no one intentionally schedules 2 doctor’s appointment on the same day within 40 minutes of each other, unless it's with the same doctor.
Howard: Nobody with young kids outside Lynn's memory-hole-fantasy-world of perfect organization schedules things that tightly.
My problem with her work in the Declining Years is that she just can't leave it alone. Subtlety has never been her forte', but her bitterness over the divorce and general need to retcon the "I was a messy, incompetent, angry, passive-agressive young housewife!" Lynn from the Eighties seems to have made her need to Hit. Every. Point. Like. A. Hammer.
This would have been fine if it'd shown her just juggling a normal kid-centric day. But she steps on her own landmine because she has such an overpowering need to hammer home that 1) Rod/John is/was a clueless dick, and 2) Lynn/Elly is/was Supermom. She can't be happy with being just a successful cartoonist/wife/mother - she has to erase all her failings and pile them on the ex.
Kinda sad, really.
FDChief,
But she steps on her own landmine because she has such an overpowering need to hammer home that 1) Rod/John is/was a clueless dick, and 2) Lynn/Elly is/was Supermom. She can't be happy with being just a successful cartoonist/wife/mother - she has to erase all her failings and pile them on the ex.
Some of the ones I referenced with links (Elly is super busy after retirement. Elly is the supreme recycler) usually came in response to something. At the time the retirement Sunday strip came out, the regular complaint was that Elly had said in this strip all the things she planned to do after retirement, and she did none of them, except in that one Sunday strip where she did practically all of them in one strip. That way, anytime anyone made a comment about Elly’s lack of retirement ambition, Lynn could point to that one strip.
I am not so sure that Lynn’s complimenting of Elly on her mothering abilities is necessarily derived from the divorce. There were strips like this one, where it appeared Lynn was writing about Elly’s wonderful mothering because no one was complimenting her own. The compliments to Elly’s parenting and grandparenting got to be way over-the-top like when April says Elly puts the grand in grandma.
This last Sunday strip is a little odder than the rest. It is not just that John doesn’t appreciate Elly (which is a common theme), but that John prefers an unnamed woman who works as a receptionist in his office. Lynn doesn’t normally set up an Elly / other woman comparison on things like that, and then there were some other odd things. Why didn’t Lynn Johnston name Jean Baker (John’s receptionist) as the woman? Why is the woman very heavy-set, when Jean was very thin in 1981? Why does Elly appear to have a very nice figure throughout the strip? Then I remembered that back in 2007, when I had figured out the person with whom I thought Lynn’s husband was having an affair, an Anonymous poster wrote in and said, “He (Rod) is currently involved with a staff member in his new Dental Office in North Bay, and is living somewhere outside Corbeil.” If I take the Sunday strip from that perspective, then I might be able to draw the conclusion that a certain comic strip writer is taking a shot at her ex-husband’s current love interest. If that is that case, there is a subtlety to the strip and little different target than the usual.
Innnnteresting!
You wonder if this little zinger found its mark, or whether Rod & flame (assuming they read the strip...tho I hate to admit that if I had an ex who was a published author or cartoonist I would have a hard time NOT checking in to see if she was bashing me) just snickered...
(The Other Woman): "Ssssss! Lot at how fat that bitch makes me look!"
(Rod): "Chee. She does kinda make you look pudgy, doesn't she? Never mind, honeybun...nobody who knows her will believe this is us. This is the woman who couldn't stay awake in class, remember? Who used to go crazy just trying to get a normal day's housework done? Lynn couldn't have done all this on the best day she ever had. She'd have ended up throwing something at me at the end."
Good point, tho, about her tendency to use the later strips as a way to either deflect criticism or to mooch for compliments. This does both, in a sort of over-the-top way.
FDChief,
Good point, tho, about her tendency to use the later strips as a way to either deflect criticism or to mooch for compliments. This does both, in a sort of over-the-top way.
The Sunday strip does that, and if my guess is correct about the persons she is taking a shot at, then it also has the perspective of a different kind of conversation I can imagine:
(Person gossiping with Lynn): I heard he says that he likes her because she is really good at running his dentist office. Isn’t that funny? That’s what he told people at the fund-raiser.
(Lynn): He likes her because she is really organized?
(Person gossiping with Lynn): Yes. Like that’s a reason to be in love. Isn’t it idiotic?
(Lynn): I’m really organized. I’m a neat freak. Don’t you think I’m really organized?
(Person gossiping with Lynn): Sure, Lynn. But can you imagine saying you loved a woman because she was really organized? There’s no romance there. That relationship is doomed.
(Lynn): I’m more organized than she is and I’ll prove it in my next Sunday comic strip. He’ll see it and then he will know that I am the most organized woman he’s ever known, only he didn’t recognize it when he had the chance and it’s too late now for him to realize just how organized I am. Too late!
(Person gossiping with Lynn): Right, Lynn. Sure. Good talking to you.
"But can you imagine saying you loved a woman because she was really organized? There’s no romance there. That relationship is doomed."
Ah. I had forgotten the infamous "list dates" that Rod/Lynn/Anthony/Liz used to decide that fate had brought them together.
Yeah, I can see that it would be hard to deal with the notion that here you had worked so hard to be organized and sensible and fate-determined about your life partner...and then get kicked in the teeth. Hence the imaginary conversation you've described and the resulting Sunday strip. Makes total sense.
FDChief,
Yeah, I can see that it would be hard to deal with the notion that here you had worked so hard to be organized and sensible and fate-determined about your life partner...and then get kicked in the teeth.
From Lynn’s perspective, it has to be odd to have her husband leave her because he says he is in love with another woman, only to have him ultimately be with yet another woman. She might think that when the original affair failed, he would realize his error and return back home. I have certainly seen that happen before with other couples. That would have to send a pretty clear message to Lynn that it wasn’t that the other woman was so appealing, but it was also Lynn. In the past, Lynn has fixated on blaming her appearance, with her interview comments about going to bed with full make up on or the charity negligees or Rod’s staff of gorgeous women. I’ve seen pictures of Rod’s staff, and they are not supermodels.
This strip doesn’t go there. It takes on organizational skills of all things and Lynn tries to show us that Elly is incredibly organized. However, anyone reading about Lynn and the whole business with the Farley plushies and their constant delays due to Lynn’s interference in their production, can tell that being organized is not really one of Lynn’s own personal strengths, no matter what Lynn may be trying to tell us about Elly.
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