Hello, there, again; as I write this, it's both the first Sunday of Advent and Grey Cup Sunday on what promises to be a fairly wet day back home. Ah, well; as you know, there are other priorities more pressing right now. Helping Deanna and Michael deal with the bad hand they were dealt is more important than seeing which sports franchise is best and each of us is playing his or her part in doing so. It seems that Liz's part is mostly to tell her country mouse cousin Laura to cease and desist making ill-informed remarks about how what happened to Deanna was some sort of moral judgment for living in large cities; she did so by telling the girl to watch the National. That's because Doctor Patterson was reading a copy of the memo that got Project Irradiate-The-Boonies (as Wilf calls it) approved; Ms Cruikshank was oddly muted in her commentary when she learned that Milborough was selected for the project because it was farm country at the time. Michael explained that hearing that made it slightly harder for her to spout the pseudo-profundities about how farm life somehow ennobles one that John and Elly love to have their children hear.
In any event, I should think there's not much love for Laura nowadays; this is because there is, as Liz said, an asymmetry in how she and they are treated. From what I understand, Elly made it clear that Michael, Liz and April were to bend themselves into pretzels to be nice to Laura while, of course, not expecting her to understand them in the least. Since she was never really told to keep her opinions to herself, having her rant about how 'this' sort of thing 'never' happens in Aberdeen is like having Elly running around spouting ill-informed nonsense about Fate and her other favorite excuses. Not, of course, that Meredith and Robin are quite aware of what they mean when they say that Laura is Deputy Crazy Granny; it's like when Big Bird tried to change his name and the kids watching the episode were confused and angered because they think that a person's name is as much a part of him as his hands or his nose. Meredith said that Laura, while being a big doody-head who doesn't know what she's talking about, is Laura and Crazy Gran is Crazy Gran; never the twain shall meet. It's like how they know that having been born in Milborough did something to their mother that made her lose something important to her a few weeks ago and how Liz knows that the same thing will probably happen to her so she's just got to deal with it instead of hiding under a bed; they know more than an Elly will admit but not too much. Getting back to Elly, she seems to be doing a bit better now that her life is more, well, structured; not that getting her to live in the present will be too big an improvement. Even when she's no longer a threat to herself or others, she'll still be Elly Patterson so it's not as if there's a happy ending there. Whatever ending is in store, though, will probably not have her marriage survive.
In any event, I've got to cut things short; I'm taking Meredith and Robin to look at Christmas lights and want to keep in the mood so I'll get back to you after the Holidays.
Yours,
Mira.
Post Script: I'm sitting here at the Commercial Hotel down by the train station watching Grey Cup highlights pretending to drink martinis; that's because Phil Richards e-mailed me about what the real deal with Laura is. Damn, and there's another Patter-associate with a name that starts with Laur/Lawr I've made into an enemy 'cause I didn't have the facts at hand. Ah, well; December is fence mending month at the best of times so why should this be different?