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Hello folks - we're back! This is the coffee talk entry we first tried to post on Thursday before we started having tech issues with our wireless receiver. We have a slight backlog of submissions right now, so please bear with us as we catch up with grinding all the beans you've been sending while we were offline! ~ Steph, FBorFW developer.

There WAS potential with Warren, until he was ruined in the strip. There was more than potential with Paul until he too was ruined. The ironic thing is that Anthony has more flaws and problems than the other two s tarted out with until they were deliberately written into situations and dialog that just didn't seem right for them, while Anthony has clearly all along been targeted, for who knows what rreason, as the one Elizabeth would end up with. Therefore the other boyfriends, the ones so many of us truly liked, had to not work out. I, for one, am most emphatically NOT looking forward to this wedding.

Rosie B.C., Minnesota and Guatemala

Hi Lynn!

Like many of your readers, I'm very lucky to be married to my best friend. I agree that friendship is the foundation of a good relationship. I think that's why I find Liz's storyline so disappointing. I don't get the feeling that she and Anthony are friends. I feel like I'm being told that they are friends, but I don't see it. They don't seem to have any common interests or activities they enjoy doing together. They don't seem to have anything to talk about besides the state of their relationship. And do they ever make each other laugh? Every good relationship should be filled with laughter.

I'm just not seeing this great friendship between Liz and Anthony, and this is why I can't truly be excited about their engagement. That, and I can't believe Liz would want to be with someone who told her that his daughter was not worth fighting for. I know I wouldn't.

Les G, Birmingham Alabama

FBORFW has been a morning staple in our house for years. I especially like Lynn's artistry and attention to detail in her drawings, not to mention the amazing insight into family life. HOWEVER, the flashbacks always leave me disappointed. Not the same artists, obviously, and an interruption in a story line that deserves to be continued.
As a journalist, I understand the difficulties of balancing deadlines, travel and workload, but maybe your staff could make more of an effort to bring these jarring, disparate parts of the strip closer together.
Thanks for the many years of being my coffee companion.

Diane B, Ocala Florida

I am been reading FBorFW for well over 16 years and it is my favorite comic strip still in publication. I, too, like so many other readers, am very disappointed with the flashbacks. Elizabeth is finally (?) getting married and I look forward each day to see how this progresses, only to be disappointed once again to see little Michael playing havoc with baby Elizabeth, or some such. I sure wish this would stop. I've been wanting to say something about this for months, and this morning I decided it was going to be the first thing I did as it aggrevates me so much. The strip is so good, why ruin it?

Kate M, Wilmington NC

Folks, let's not get too "Bummed" about the Flashback Strips....! One can't help but notice that each strip is a "one-Off" or "Stand-Alone" feature -- and lately we've been used to seeing complex "storylines" unfold.

Maybe Lynn and her Team need time to develop and drawn those "new" storylines. (Remember, they didn't originally expect to go this far with the strip!)

An old Russian saying tells us to essentially "Enjoy what God has provided". Well, He's provided Lynn and her crew--so, let's all sit back and "enjoy" their efforts--past, present, ... and future!

Anna M, Winnipeg

Our daughter just had a baby about 8 weeks ago. She hasn't been getting much sleep and is very tired as you can imagine. I can't remember which Sunday it was but you printed a comic where it shows that Elly and her husband was sleeping and in the middle of the night Elizabeth woke up and John got up with her and put her in the high chair and then he grabbed a glass of milk and drank it and went back to bed and left Elizabeth in the high chair. I gave it to my daughter and she just laughed and said "I understand"! Just had to share.

Vicki T, Springfield Illinois

Boy, this is pick on John mth. I never remembered him as such a jerk.

S.S., Sunrise Florida

So didn't the Pattersons have another daughter? Her name was April I think... did she pass away or move away to boarding school? She's non-existant, that's all I know. Too bad, she's my favorite character. She has spunk and personality where others *coughAnthonycough* bring nothing much to the table.

Dana, UK

I start my day with the Patterson's in Australia and miss hearing the news when on holiday. Can't wait to read about the wedding. I am following the cartoon on the internet while we holiday in Vietnam.

Rosemary H, Adelaide Australia

I am so glad that Anthony seems to be the final one for Liz. I've always absolutely, 100% felt that they are the pair that is meant to be together. I'm thrilled that it could happen now. Other people may see other pairs, but I completely support this one, and your decision to have it be canon. Thank you!

Shannon D, Guelph

I've just been reading the archived strips, and animating bits and pieces of the later ones was a great move - though a startling one at first.

It's fun to hunt for the source of the movement I see out of the corner of my eye, and I especially like the person walking across the background in one panel of the trial series.

Regarding the current strip format, I prefer having my stories go forward. The vintage material isn't interesting to me, and I like to have closure on the current people. I wouldn't mind getting an update on people like Lovey and Ruby, however.

Pat I, Central Oregon

Hello Lynn and staff,
I don't mean to be hurtful, and I beg of you not to take my thoughts personally, however: As a long time reader and fan of the strip, I must confess to being absolutely disgusted with the flashbacks, regardless of whether the thoughts are new. As a non-slacking member of Generation X, I've had it past my limit with boomers having/getting to "relive" their youth now that it is over. The content from a few days ago with Elly and her pal saying they did not mind handing over the reins to a new generation "as long as we still own the horses" just said it all. If the artist/creator is done, then end it and stop offering up flashbacks that mean absolutely nothing to the next two generations. People Michael's age and April's age couldn't give a flip about Elly's whiny "turning 30" drama. How absolutely passe. Really, give it up if we can't hear about the present and look forward to the future of all these characters, (including Elly whom I've just about come to despise because of her grumbling and self imposed victim status.)

Thanks for listening and best of luck in the future.

Marcella M, Colorado

Lynn you are very talented and I have enjoyed your strip since I was an adolescent in Auckland, NZ in the early eighties.

I'm desperately hoping Elizabeth is going to come to her senses and elope with a spunky fireman she meets at her school's 'bring a male relative day' the week before her wedding.

Please don't have her marry the Anthony.

I even think it's unhealthy the way he shaved off his moustache, sort of wiping away his years without Elizabeth. Creepy.

And why the demonisation of Therese?

Rachel C, Australia, ex-New Zealand

This is mostly pure conjecture on my part, but I have wondered a lot about Therese. Here are my two bits. Although she is seen very little in the strip, my sense of her is that marriage was not what she thought it would be. Perhaps she expected Anthony to be like a business partner, and that being a mother was never an aspiration. There is nothing wrong with that. I think that communication between Therese and Anthony was absent, to the detriment of them both. I think she sensed Anthony's enduring attraction to Elizabeth and was rightfully suspicious, though she did not handle the situation with tact. A child is an undeniable reality, though. I do feel a great deal of empathy for Therese and hope that her current life is a better fit for her. I do not see her as a villain, but rather someone whose expectations didn't match those of her partner's. In other words, it wasn't a partnership at all. Anthony is far better suited to Elizabeth, so I wish them well.I have nothing but good wishes for Therese as well. Everyone deserves someone who understands their space.

Olivia, Edmonton

I have two nieces that are about the same age as Michael's kids. The things that Meredith and Robin do and say are so similar to what my nieces do. It is uncanny - and quite comical! My brother (their dad) gets a kick out of it as well. He has the website bookmarked for his daily dose of FBOFW.
Thanks!

Laura M, Conneticut

Hi just to let you know i love the strip.My concern is you spend a lot of time on grandpa Jim.how come we never hear anything about Johns parents.,or other people on his side of the family.well i cannot wait for the wedding and i hope John and El drop a ton of money on it.

David M, Orlando Florida

Thank you, Lynn, for years & years of entertainment. I must say that I am a huge fan of the Liz-Anthony romance. Being a perhaps overly practical person myself, Elizabeth & Anthony's eyes-wide-open approach to their relationship suits me to a T. I think that the two have a terrific friendship and a firm foundation for a lasting relationship. I hope that they will love, support, and make one another happy for decades to come. . . in their comic strip universe, that is!

Rebecca, Gainesville Florida

Since we are flashing back I'd really like to see some of the strips involving Farley. He "died" a week after my dog of 14 years died. There was a Sunday drawing not long after that when Liz was walking with a friend and Farley's spirit was running beside her; she said she could swear he was still with her sometimes. I still have that strip and it has always been my favorite.

Christie, Georgia

As I was reading these re-run strips of Elly complaining about wrinkles and getting old and how she is a martyr to the hard work of running a house, I had a thought.

If only she a friend like Luis or Eva (April's friends), to remind her that she should be glad she will have the chance to get wrinkles, because there are people around the world who will never live to become adults. That she should count her blessings when she gets stuck with the washing up, because people are suffering and dying from starvation, dehydration and diseases because they have no running water.

April is lucky that she has friends who remind her that the world doesn't end with her trivial middle-class problems. Maybe when Eva checked April's shirt for an expiry date, she was helping save her from a life of incessant misery and complaining without a sense of perspective, like her mother.

Wolfgang, Baltimore

I have loved FBOFW since it first appeared in the Chicago Tribune, I don't know how many years ago - eons.
Elly has seemed like a friend to me. Many of the strips have touched me. I saved one from way back, showing baby Lizzy waking in the night. When it ran again recently, I saved it again, to share with my 'fiance'. What fun! I'm a 'forever fan' and so glad Lynn is sticking with it. Thanks Lynn, for years of enjoyment!

Carolee L, Elmhurst, IL (a suburb of Chicago)

I have read your cartoon since the beginning, Michael is around the same age as our first son. Seeing the 'reruns' again is a wonderful'time warp'� back to my early parenting years! But then I was concerned that something my be wrong with Lynn and I am relieved that it's a new story style! What a kick! This sounds like a unique idea and I say 'Go with it!'

Kathy, traveling across the US