Re: FOOB 5/1/07: Gah.

On May 1, 1:53 pm, Bobcat <bob_c...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On May 1, 1:25 pm, Blinky the Wonder Wombat





<wkharrisjr_i...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On May 1, 12:29 pm, Paige <krauselu...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

On May 1, 9:10 am, Banty <Banty_mem...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

In article <koke335hgopeu1kkth44ro7qfqis94a...@xxxxxxx>, Dianne van Dulken
says...

Coyly clenching a rose 'twixt the teeth, dvan...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (Dave
Van Domelen) sang the following in a piercing false falsetto:
Spoiler space is in order, I suppose:

Surely I wasn't the only one yelling NOOOOOOOOO!!

And I could hear it from here!

So, why don't y'all get together and make your own timed-to-life comic strip,
make a family of three kids, and have:

1. One become a crack surgeon and join Doctors Without Borders

2. One go on The Apprentice and win (OK, maybe that's just trading moustache for
skunk-head...)

3. One ever-so carefully, mindfully, and examining-one's-life-fully marry a
first-timer to marriage too (no step children allowed), and
ever-so-examining-one's-life-fully bear one child (with college education in the
bank already, of course), and then adopt three more from
&currentconflictriddencountry.

Or whatever the hell else kind of script you're expecting.

Cheers :-)

Banty (awaiting the "oh, but the strip has gone downhill and hurting our
hearts, it's all become so predictable" whines..., and hoping to hell Lynn
Johnston isn't reading any of this)- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

LOL! I agree, Banty. I really don't understand the animosity for this
strip. If people hate it so much, why read it? Yeah...yeah... "it's a
car wreck"... blah blah blah. That's a cop out. Quit your whining,
people.

I think it's one of the best strips out there...so what if the plot
doesn't "go my way"... so what if certain characters are irritating
(Hello, Mike and Anthony!)...and so what if it's the Brady Bunch on
java chip cappuccino!

Paige, we carp because we care. If this was Funky CancerCancer with a
long track record of improbable plot turns and deus ex machina to
clean up afterwards, I doubt we would bother commenting. But FBOFW was
once a thoughtful, fun strip populated with characters and situations
to which many of us could identiy. Now, it's become an empty shell of
what it once was and it hurts to have to watch it limp to its
conclusion, a sad parody of its former glory.

Personnaly, I think the problem started when Lynn decided years ago
that this would be the last year of the strip and she wanted to wrap
things up with a nice "they lived happily ever after" ending. I'd
rather she just decided to let things take a normal course and just
stop when she was ready. Better to speculate about what might the
character's future rather than witness this all-too-tidy wrap-up

What reveals Lynn's true artistry is right here in this thread - at
present count, 25 posts by people so involved in the Patterson
family's lives that they vent countless words vilifying or lauding the
actions of what are really only two-dimensional characters drawn on
paper. Or concerned that the "quality" of Lynn's creative output is
fading. No other comic strip gets such constant attention at RACS, so
it strikes me that Lynn has struck some resonant chords in her readers
with her make-believe family. No wonder the strip is read in so many
countries in so many languages. Yeah, I know this sounds trite, but
it's true. She's drawing *us*, and IMO doing an outstanding job of it.- Hide quoted text -

Well, yes and no. I think she used to draw "us" but no longer does.
We're bitching because we want her to draw "us" again. I do agree,
thought, in her prime, Lynn made her make-believe family seem like
real flesh-and-blood people we grew to know and care about.

I remember reading an interview in which Lynn said something to the
effect that she had know idea what was going to happen to the
Pattersons- she just let them live their lives and chronicled what
happened. That seemd to me pure genius and also obviously not what is
happening now.

.

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