Sunday, May 16, 2010

Elly, Connie, and Anne have coffee

Click to enlarge.

6 comments:

DreadedCandiru2 said...

You're good; not only did you finally get all three women together AND have Annie make a nasty comment about the Spanish villa strip, you had Elly bemoan how John left not because of infidelity but because he simply couldn't stand the sight of her. For a woman who honestly believes that adultery is the only excuse for a break-up, John's inability to take her passive-aggressive bullcrap one second longer must burn much worse than the sour-grapes-fueled claim that she "never wanted" the things she now knows that she sucks at.

howard said...

I liked the Spanish Villa comment also. I also liked seeing all 3 women together. Looking at the strip over the years, I realize that in the early years, this situation almost never occurred. However, one of the better strip moments was all the ladies together at Elly and Connie's 50th birthday. Having said that, I still despised their final moment together just before Elizabeth's wedding, where Elly crowed about how Anthony's mom (step-mom from the biography) adored her.

The temptation looking at today's FOOBAR strip is to think, "Well, Elly has finally learned her lesson." She's finally saying, "Oh, but anyway, Connie, we're home. Home! And this is my room, and you're all here. And I'm not gonna leave here ever, ever again, because I love you all, and - oh, Annie Em - there's no place like home!"

However, clever aprilp_katje's wording shows us Elly hasn't really learned anything. No matter where she is, no matter what she does -- Elly is never happy. Elly is never satisfied with what she has.

Anonymous said...

Why would she? I think Elly's in love with the wanting, not the having. She doesn't appreciate what she has -- or had -- and sometimes I think she quite honestly can't. That at some point, she got it into her head that being happy with what she had equaled 'settling for less', and she couldn't stand that.

Or maybe she just loves the excuses -- "I would be a famous author, but these kids keep weighing me down. I would volunteer/finish college, but all the housework leaves me exhausted. I would make something more out of my life, but John's sabotaging my dreams." Without someone else to blame, she's faced with the possibility that maybe -- just maybe -- she simply doesn't have the will to make her dreams reality.

Which makes Elly where she stood at the end of FOOB prior to the new-runs kind of interesting. Did she 'settle', or did she simply fool herself into believing this was exactly what she'd wanted all along by rewriting history in her head?

April Patterson said...

You're good; not only did you finally get all three women together AND have Annie make a nasty comment about the Spanish villa strip, you had Elly bemoan how John left not because of infidelity but because he simply couldn't stand the sight of her.

Thanks! Yes, Elly's been robbed of her chance to make a self-righteous, tear-stained parting shot over her shoulder at a cheating cheater who cheats. ;)

April Patterson said...

I liked the Spanish Villa comment also. I also liked seeing all 3 women together.

Thanks--I made a point of putting them all together. It's kind of odd that it happened so seldom during the run of the strip.

Having said that, I still despised their final moment together just before Elizabeth's wedding, where Elly crowed about how Anthony's mom (step-mom from the biography) adored her.


Oh, same here. I really loathe that strip, with Elly being so blatant about her "it's all about me" attitude. Plus Connie's second-banana Muppet laugh is painfully enabling.

No matter where she is, no matter what she does -- Elly is never happy. Elly is never satisfied with what she has.

I think this is the depressing essence of Elly. Forever dissatisfied.

Godozo said...

May I read something different in the strip?

Cartoon 1: Elly doesn't understand that sometimes a man needs his own space. Normal with women (at least with my experience; hopefully yours is better). Besides, she'd like to think that it was something she didn't have. Knowing would allow for some actions (blame, redoubled efforts to regain hubby or self-improvement for later) and closure; this way all she has is his action and nothing to work on.

Cartoon 2: Elly is reminded of her long-held wishes, and how she's actually able to do the stuff she's always claimed to want to do.

Cartoon 3: Having tried (and failed) to restart her abortive writing career "in the past," maybe Elly is realizing that maybe she didn't want her claimed wants as much as she originally thought. After all, if you keep failing at something, maybe the best thing to do is to give up on that something and rethink a few things.

I wouldn't call it settling. And as for the sour grapes/history rewriting issue, let it be said that sometimes the rewrite is truer than the original. After all, someone who truly wanted something would do stuff DESPITE and AROUND everyone else's demands; and the historical Elly never seemed to get around to that.

Maybe the better term is resignation. More in fitting with the defeat that took her over during the magical period here. And it would fit in with the seeming depression that she's suffered since before her friends confronted her.