The FOOBiverse!

Typical Chaos

April 14, 2021

Typical Chaos | It Never Ends (fborfw.com)

We have the second column from Sarah Hunter.  I will quote and comment after the break.

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I think it's pretty much a safe thing to say that Lynn wants us to sympathize with people who really don't deserve it because of a limiting character defect that looks a damned sight like a mortal sin. A person can be mistreated horribly and still be an asshole because they have a built-in limitation. Such a person is, of course, Anthony Caine. Lynn thinks she's given the world a lovable loser who needed a good woman to make his life complete. Lynn is wrong because losers, they're never lovable. Also, he represents something horrible: sacrificing everything good about one's self to prove that Mom and Dad are RIGHT despite the fact that they'd rather swallow poison than date the people their own parents saw as perfect for them.

The one where we're reminded that Elly has no God-damned business touching her daughters' hair.

Synopsis: Elly decides sight unseen that Liz's bangs are too long and 'helpfully' trims them far too short because she's a threat to herself and others with a barber's kit.

Summary: This somehow leads to the children being wrong because the alternative is that John is a tightwad and Elly a moron.

Obituary: Musician and businessman Steve Parton was ‘full of life’ | TheSpec.com

The Dundas resident, who died March 11, 2021 at age 49, wrote two books about his battle with kidney cancer after he was diagnosed with it in 2013.

Steve was the son of Andie Parton with whom Lynn co-authored many books in the early 2000s.   He also collaborated with Lynn Johnston on her three comic strips songs, which I always thought was one of the coolest things.  His music definitely elevated Lynn's lyrics.

Here's to you Steve Parton.  I salute your life and your mark on the Foobiverse.

Music From For Better or For Worse (fborfw.com)

July 2nd, 2005: Becky performs an original tune at their 8th grade graduation, without her 4 Evah bandmates.
Download the Grad Song

Foot to the Floor:
April 1st, 2007: April turns 16 and plays an original composition at her birthday party.
Download "Foot to the Floor".

Everybody's Different:
July 27th, 2007: April and Eva perform at the Hearts Together telethon to raise money for kids with special needs.
Download Everybody's Different

Lynn last made reference to Steve Parton in this writing from 07-10-2017, which made no reference to his cancer or his relationship with Lynn, but instead concentrated on how evil her on-line fans were. 

A Letter from Lynn: A Strange Encounter - FBorFW News Notes

Hopefully, if Lynn writes something about Steve, it will be more about him than the last things she wrote.

Now, as we know, most of the reason people have ever actually heard of the strip is because of the character who had it the worst in his life because of the way he died. I am, of course, talking about Farley. Most people thought they were getting a beloved wonder dog instead of the abused and barely tolerated 'pet' we actually see.

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The truly irksome thing is that they don't even realize that they treated him like shit when he was alive.

The one where we're reminded that John probably enjoys picking the wings off of flies.

Synopsis: Rich dentist makes assholish comment about how his son is expected to spend his own money on a car he can easily afford to insure and maintain.

Summary: Hey, Johnny? Wanna set fire to some kittens next? Wanna kick a puppy or three? Wanna be the same ass Gavin Caine was?

Now that we're at the home stretch of this look at characters who are really suffering because of the Pattersons' jerkishness, it seems only right to comment on the most horribly mistreated human character: Therese Caine.

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Since Liz can pop up at any time and remind the poor thing how cruel and stupid the Pattersons are, it's kind of easy to cast her as an underdog.

The one where John reminds us that he'd rather eat poison than understand where Mike is coming from.

Synopsis: Mike makes the stupid mistake of wanting to take a spin around the block. The end result of that stupid mistake is a whining lecture about how since John's life is going by so faaaast, he can wait two weeks to do something.

Summary: John is technically correct but appears to have forgotten that he'd dangled 'driving the truck and tractor' in front of Mike as an incentive to waste his summer on Exile Farm. Also, this is building up to whimpering that the kids think that Mom and Dad are crazy and stupid.

The next person on my great big list of people who Lynn does not see as being underdogs is, of course, Becky McGuire. Her problem is the same one Betty Cooper used to have back in the sixties: her best friend hates her.

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The one where Mike says something that's really kind of ironic given what he becomes.

Synopsis: When Mike gets home, he's flabbergasted by John's statement that pottering around the house is ever neat.

Summary: Given that he embeds himself in the place like a tick in fifteen years and displaces his parents, this need to get away from the Pattermanse is comic in a sinister sort of way.