Here it is....

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Erg. Since I'm not home, I had to use a different scanner, and it did some funky stuff to my image quality.  So, let's see.  I modeled the layout and also the first and third panels after the August 12, 2007 "cookout" strip, the one where Elly scares Robin by saying that she'll blow up if she eats ONE more thing, only to eat one more thing.  That's also what the final panel here refers to.  I was going to put more people and business in that first panel, but I realized I'd probably need an extra week if I did that!  So while Mike burns what's on the grill, everyone else is assembled inside, and they all come out a moment later!

Panel two has John speaking with Ted. That's Dee in the left, bottom corner of panel three and Uncle Phil on the right side. Liz is talking to Aunt Georgia in next panel.  Next are Abby Caine and April, then Greg Thomas with Steve Nichols, then Francie.  Anne Nichols is agreeing to cater Nick and Lawrence's wedding reception.  And finally we have Meredith reassuring Robin.

I'm reminded that certain little-used characters never really got a consistent look:  Ted, Steve, Greg, Nick, Anne.  In some strips, Nick looked like Anthony, in others he looked like Gord, and in some, he looked like their highly unlikely offspring.  Similarly, Greg strikes me in some places as a Gordo/Ted hybrid.

So, yeah.  This is it.  I just really wanted to close off with a sense that things are continuing.  Life is happening.  (Please imagine that a respectful time has elapsed between Elly going catatonic and Mike having a cookout.)

I have no plans to take this blog down, though probably in a couple of weeks, I will switch to screened comments.  With ARB, I noticed that a dormant blog becomes a comment-spam magnet.

Thanks to all of you who have visited this site.  I've had fun doing FOOBAR!

Edit:  I almost forgot to explain about Françoise.  She's quoting "Le Mythe de Sisyphe" by Albert Camus, where he concludes that one must imagine Sisyphus happy.  Sisyphus has resisted suicide and considers himself superior to his fate.  My silly way of lampooning how absurdly (ah, geddit?) advanced Francie has been portrayed in the strip.  :)

The Story Not Written

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So, yeah, that's Deanna with Michael. I refuse to put her in the dreaded bowl haircut, but when I lengthen her hair, she looks disturbingly Aprilish. So--Dee. Not April.

How not to be like Elly

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A Little Party

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Eek, I never thought I'd do a Lynn-like teeny-tiny figures "longshot" frame.  But I wanted to get everyone in--and there you go.  Another homage!

Where Dee finds herself upon returning to 2010

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This is an actual continuing education program for pharmacists.  :)

I hate to admit this, but I can kind of see Lynn's point about her not-changing-characters'-hair rule in the later years.  This is supposed to be Dee with her hair grown out from that awful bowl haircut Lynn stuck her with.  I referenced a couple of strips from December 1999, when Dee had just returned from Honduras and her hair was grown out a bit.  Only I thought her hair looked almost mullet-ish in those strips, so I tried tweaking it, and now she doesn't look like Dee.  ::sigh::  Let's just pretend she does!

Re-thinking the old thoughts

 

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This strip is meant to pick up  from the "Mith Campbell! Michael Patterthon's bothering me" strip that originally came right after the "egg breath" strip.  I realize that this makes it highly likely that Lynn will insert some new-runs in between.

Edit:  Yay, I'm actually in sync with the reprints.

Mike's strange behavio[u]r

Retcon Artist