For Better or For Worse Newsletter
May 2009
=================== Greetings from the Team: ===================
Hello folks! It's May up here in the Great White North, which is looking less and less white every day. The ice is now off Lake Nipissing, after a couple of days of spectacular rainstorms. Spring is here; the grass is green again and the flowers are beginning to poke their heads out of the ground at long last.
=================== Studio Happenings: ===================
Lynn has just arrived back in Canada after a couple of weeks in France. While she was away, she entertained her friends with daily travelogues, sent by email from Internet cafes. Below is a snippet from one of her notes:
The trip from Nice to Aix en Provence is about 45 minutes by train. J. and I reached the station with bags and bottles ready for a fast trip to the east. First of all, the Vitesse is the equivalent of the Japanese bullet train and each stop is 3 minutes long. If it's longer, the trip is gratis to all, so there is great pressure to be on time. Always. No matter what. The door to our coach opened and people frantically pushed their way off the train as we pushed our way on. There are no porters and no easy way to slug baggage up the narrow, curved stairwell to the 2nd floor where our seats were assigned. Help came from passengers who just wanted to get 2 old broads out of the entrance.... and so we found our way to our seats,glad to be on our way. The countryside is lush, and rolling farmland. the cypress, the olive trees and the ancient buildings remind you're far from home, however as does the mix of nationalities. People in caftans sit next to Asians in Parisian dress. Kids!
in jeans
listen to their ipods while families feed bread to their kids and play cards at small folding tables. The sweet jingling announcement that Aix was the next stop aroused us from our rest and we waited for the train to come to a stop. This was our undoing. Forgetting the 3 minute interlude and the curved stairwell, we suddenly found ourselves crushed into a brawl of people getting on and off the train. Suitcases were passed over heads, kids were lifted, shoulders shoved the incoming past the outgoing and somehow, J was able to get one suitcase out of the train. That was it. The suitcase was out and we were in. The door slammed shut. J pounded on it and shouted to people outside. Passengers watched with passive interest, shrugged and said "Eet ees impossibool...you cannot get off!" They were right. The train began to move. The reality was not quite sinking in. Someone wearing a cap waved to J, aknowledging the bag would be safe and suddenly we were fired off in the direction of!
Paris.
Well, we said... surely we can get off at the next leetle town...mais, non. It was a direct train to Paris and our seats had been taken. We faced 3 hours in the stairwell with our remaining luggage. First we laughed .... then @&*#!!!!!!!!!!!
I found one seat upstairs and agreed to exchange with Jo every 30 minutes. Being much more savvy than I, she started a conversation with the couple in the next seat and discovered they worked in the hotel business. ANGELS EXIST!!! Not only did they cancel our reservation in Aix, they found us a hotel room in Paris, because the train back to Aix didn't return until morning. @#$# encore!!! Alors. We settled into our upstairs-downstairs routine until the sweet tinkling announcement heralded our arrival in Paris. Our saviours helped us BUY return tickets on the 6am train to Aix, helped us slug our bags to the Novotel to our wildly expensive room and kissed on both cheeks...bon soir.
Safe to say we are now safely in Aix...and I'll resume the saga demain.
Now that Lynn is back in Canada, she's jetting off to British Columbia for a few days to see Kate (her daughter) graduate from the Emily Carr University of Art and Design: http://www.ecuad.ca/ Congratulations Kate, on completing four years of arts training!
Our Farley-themed children's book is en route to our premises and will be available in May. As always, please keep an eye on our website for updates as the publication date approaches. Our News Bites page can be found here: http://www.fborfw.com/news/ and is updated often. If you use an RSS reader, you can get our News Bites feed here: http://www.fborfw.com/news/index.xml
Watch our site for a new Mother's Day game in early May.
We've brought back our Studio Tour section of the site, by reader request. You wanted to meet the people who are helping Lynn bring FBorFW to life. Here we are: http://www.fborfw.com/behind_the_scenes/studiotour/
Have you seen our updated Ned Search contest? We're getting rave reviews from people who enjoy hunting for world-traveller Ned: http://www.fborfw.com/fun/nedhunt/
Look through the list of locations each week, and once you find Ned you can enter the draw to win a signed FBorFW print (or, by special request for over-18s only, a Ned Tanner doll)! It's easy to play and we draw a new winner every Monday.
================== May's Giveaway: ===================
Just correctly answer the questions below and we'll enter you in the draw - the prize is a limited-edition FBorFW print (from a print run of only 2000), and we'll select 5 lucky winners at the end of the month. Send your answers to fborfw@aloeroot.com with the subject line May Trivia Contest. We regret that this contest is not open to residents of Quebec for legal reasons which we don't really comprehend.
And now, the questions...You can find all the trivia answers on our website.
1. Who is wearing pink on the cover of our Just a Simple Wedding book?
2. Name one of our new Ned Search locations.
3. What's the word in the middle panel of the strip for Tuesday January 13, 2009?
4. Who is pictured in the big graphic on our Coffee Talk page?
5. What's Michael's favourite way to spend a Saturday?
================== April's Giveaway: ===================
This past month we gave 5 lucky winners a limited-edition FBorFW print (from a print run of only 2000). Here are the answers to last month's trivia questions:
1. What's the name of Lynn's first FBorFW collection book? I've Got the One-More-Washload Blues
2. Who suggested the name "For Better or For Worse" for the strip? Lynn's editor, Lee Salem
3. What did Lynn do when she worked at McMaster university? Medical Illustrator
4. What does Connie do for a living? Radiologist Technician
5. Who's hiding in the cupboard in our Easter Egg Hunt game? April.
=================== Spanish Phrase of the Month: ===================
Perdido en tránsito - lost in transit.
=================== Studio Photo of the Month: ===================
Did you know that Lynn was given a star on Canada's walk of fame in 2003? Here's a shot of Lynn posing with her square of sidewalk:
http://www.fborfw.com/newsletter/studiopic/walkoffame.jpg
Here's a link to the Walk of Fame star map, so you can find Lynn's star if you happen to be visiting Toronto: http://www.canadaswalkoffame.com/starmap
=================== A Quick Tour of our Site: ===================
Our website can, as always, be found at http://www.fborfw.com.
You can read the strip online at http://www.fborfw.com/strip_fix
We post our major news items here: http://www.fborfw.com/news
Our store is here, where we offer signed copies of all Lynn's books: http://store.fborfw.com
To check out our Coffee Talk feature, click this link: http://www.fborfw.com/fun/blog
Our site contains five and a half years' worth of strips, plus lots of additional content like our popular e-greets, games and behind-the-scenes info on Lynn and the strip. Please feel free to explore the site, play the games, read the features and send your feedback to stephanie@entercomcanada.com.
=================== Shoppers' Section: ===================
Get your signed copy of Just a Simple Wedding here: http://store.fborfw.com/catalog/product_info.php?cPath=21_27&products_id=123
Our Farley Follows His Nose book will be released soon! Check our site for info as it becomes available.
We've got Ned Tanner on sale for $8.99 for a limited time! Get a little Ned here: http://store.fborfw.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=29
Thanks for reading! We'll be back next month with more news and updates.
=================== RSS: ===================
Wondering what RSS is all about? Learn more here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RSS_(file_format)
News Bites feed: http://www.fborfw.com/news/index.xml
Elly's Coffee Talk Blog feed: http://www.fborfw.com/fun/blog/index.xml
Strip Fix feed: http://www.fborfw.com/strip_fix/index.xml
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