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I wonder if Elly resented being a parent and doing the everyday parental duties why did she pop out two more children. She should have just stuck with having one child.

I am a parent of a nine year old boy. He keeps me on my toes. That is why I olny have one. I love and enjoy every minute I have with him, but I know my limitations and I also know I dont have the energy for more kids.

The more I read of Elly's past experiences with her children the less I like her character. "SAD"

Ing, Florida

It's disturbing how many comics have turned into creaking legacies or even zombies, living on long after their creator has died. Please don't add to that trend. To everything there is a season.

Ellen, Minneapolis

I too would rather see Elizabeth end up with someone else. Her relationship with Anthony is more like one after 20 years of marriage. Comfortable, yet lacking.

So instead of pleading with Lynn to change the storyline, I'm in the process of writing my own!! It's a ton of fun, and since I'm the only one who'll read it, I don't have to worry about proper grammar, offending anyone, etc. etc. I highly recommend it!!

AB, NY

I love the story lines that you have going and I am very sorry that it will end. I have all your previous books to look through and tho I do understand your need to have your strips go Retro, I am still disappointed. I guess because I don't get to retire as momma and grandma(nor do I really want to), I tend to think you can't retire either but you have every right to slow down. You've entertained us for years and years and I thank you for that. And, by the way...you look great.

M.A., Ogden Utah

Lynn, please, please, go back to drawing the Pattersons in the present, not the past. I can't stand those that show them as newly marrieds with young children. The strip is so good and one of my favorites when you deal with the family and their present day issues. Thanks.

Sheila H, Cape Cod

Hi Lynn!
Just wanted to make another plea to bring back the new strips. Especially given that we only have a little over a month left for new strips. Since you're going to be re-running the old strips anyway, can't we have a continum of new strips until the completion of the "new" material??

Vickie, Whidbey Island

In reference to Michael being a "brat" in the retro strips: bratty things that kids do are usually the funniest.

Keep smilin' Lynn.
Love it all.

Sue K, Cortland Ohio

Hmmmmmmm.
One thing I've been thinking about.... Elly's thinking "Grandchildren. The gifts that keeep on giving!" After sitting for Michael's kids, But when Elizabeth asks Elly about sitting for her kids... Elly doesn't want to. Poor Liz. Elly seems to favour Mike....

But Elizabeth is marrying Anthony, I love him, so I'm happy.

Jessie, Trenton ON

To your annonymous reader who didn't think Friday's strip was true to life? Well, come meet my son. He is wonderful, smart, chatty, and completely helpless. He asked me to pour his drinks until he was 8, and only stopped then because I refused to do it for him anymore. He would let me tie his shoes if I would be willing to do it! Like Elly I also worried that I wasn't preparing him well for adulthood.
Kids are different, and not all are super self-sufficient, nor is it a boy-girl thing, because my 3 year old daughter won't let me do a thing for her! "I do mysseff!" is her common cry!
The strip seemed true to life to me!

Christine K, East Durham NY

I have been so fascinated to read the Coffee Talk discussion of the Elizabeth & Anthony romance-rekindling over the past year or so. I always thought Anthony was great (I'm roughly Elizabeth's age), and I liked his cute-n-nerdy style, shy demeanor, etc. I was super psyched when they got back together, and could feel the passion in the drawings! However, the immediate-marriage storyline is feeling kind of hollow to me, as it seems to be with many readers.

In the recent strips, I had surmised that the reasons for not showing the physical or passionate love between E & A were to avoid offending some readers... and also to leave those aspects of their relationship to readers' imaginations or personal preferences -- totally appropriate, I think, Lynn doesn't have to spell it all out for us!

However, another commenter accurately called out the question that has been troubling me: what do Liz and Anthony have in common? what are their shared interests? what do they like to do together? what do they disagree on and like to argue about? what music is on their ipods? what kind of food do they like to cook together? what books do they read? what webcomics do they follow religiously? ("Dicebox", "Anders Loves Maria", and Kate Beaton, my guesses).....

What Deanna said to Elizabeth, about your husband becoming your friend and partner, seemed so weird to me because I kind of think about it the other way, that the person who is your best friend and all these other important roles in your life, is the one who you should choose as a husband or a long-term partner... "husband and wife" should be naming and celebrating a complex, already-established relationship of mutual love and support, rather than a symbolic, idealized, love-object "husband and wife" that then disintegrate or downgrade into day-to-day "friends and partners".

I don't mind that Lynn lets Liz and Anthony keep the physical aspects of their relationship totally private from us -- and I'm glad that they are getting married, unlike some readers here -- but I'm hungering for some glimpses of the nuts and bolts of their interactions, their discussions, what they talk about -- whether it's science fiction or gardening or parenting or pop music or education -- or maybe they're dealing with how strange it is to get to know each other again as adults. ? ? ?

Sharing interests, conversations, and complex emotional interactions can be as intimate and powerful as physical contact. That's part of why Elizabeth and Anthony getting back together, and getting married so soon, seems so unreal to everybody. We want to see them become close, not just in an embrace, but emotionally and mentally close... and it hasn't really happened yet.

Sorry for the long comment -- I know these are just characters in a comic strip -- but they have been so fully realized in the past, with doubts, complexities, and depths, that we all believe in them and want the best for them! Lynn, unless you have been rocking some other masterpiece on the side, that will only be revealed after FBorFW ends (I would not be surprised!), this is your life's work, your creative spark, what you leave the world with...

Don't tie it up in a pretty package, just to end it sooner. Don't gloss over the complexities. Let us know what is going on emotionally with these characters that we have come to love, let us know how the nitty-gritty of their interactions is progressing.

FBorFW has so long avoided showing a "typical" family -- and thus has proven true to many real people's actual experiences. Don't "cliche-i-fy" their existences at the last minute... Please! give them a conclusion that is complex, unique, and worthy of the depth and interest you have established over the past thirty years.

And -- thank you so much for all your hard work, careful thought, and creative spirit!

Jean C, Providence RI

Every morning, like many others I know, I love to get up and read what's new and exciting with the "other world" - that being the comics. Lately I've been coming online to check on the status of Grampa's health or the latest goings on in Aprils life and find a time warp into the past! Its frustrating! Truth be told like an old cup of coffee. We've been there before, must we revisit SO often. Once or twice was ok but now, if I see the old strips I won't even stay online. Maybe once the story is all done and you start from the beginning again, fine, but until then, sorry I just can't do it.

JoAnne, Owego NY

First, I am addicted to your wonderful strip. Not reading it or having it changed is distressing to me.
Second, I am appalled by the agressiveness of some of the comments posted. You have every right to turn off the switch. I hope you continue to do whatever is best for your health and well being.
Third, perhaps you could give ideas to your staff, who could do all the drawing etc. I'll bet there are many talented people who could do a fine job, especially if this is clearly known to your readers.
Fourth, thank you again. Don't let readers or the industry you have created eat you alive. Stay true to yourself.

Karen W, Abingdon VA

After having been out of the country for 18 months and missing FBORFW, I have discovered the website. What a relief to finally catch up and find out what is going on with the older comics in the paper. I have been reading FBORFW since the beginning and really missed while we were gone. I had always wondered how Lynn was going to wrap up the story lines and this is a great way to do it. Thank you Lynn for something that we can all relate to!

Lois, currently in Texas

Oh boy, Friday's strip where Ellie says she'll get Michael's glass of milk for him really hit home and gave me a good chuckle! I have done that exact same thing. My boys (5 and 3)get to the point where they want Mom to do everything and sometimes it's just easier to say "Sure" then to lecture about how they should do it themselves and then clean up the mess they make afterwards. Good one Lynn!

Rosemarie, Ontario Canada

I've always enjoyed FBorFW all my life. The way Lynn portrays their life is great because it is like actual life.

And, while I enjoy the old strips I feel that we are being put on the back burner to the future as to what is going on with Grandpa, Liz and the rest of the family and friends. I go right for the comics first thing every morning. Well, they are the best part of the paper.
Then I see an old strip and wonder when are we going to see a new one.
I feel like we are being left on something and the light is growing dimmer.

Cynthia L, Upstate NY

I LOVED Paul's bio- but what was with the end? It seemed contrived and unpleasant. In literally the last few paragraphs,

- Thoughtful, quiet Susan has an uncharacteristically bitter rant. In fact, her usual respectful, steady demeanour changes into raving and unpleasant. She goes from being the one who knew exactly how she felt and said little about it, to snorting and saying 'Neither of you ever really knew beans about the other."

- The love that Paul had for Liz (which, from reading the entire bio, seemed to be real) was reduced to a mockery about superficiality. (I don't understand that theme in the Patterson's story - why is it that, in order for a new love to exist, old loves need to be denied and disavowed? It's okay to love more than once. To reduce what you had with a previous partner to nothing just because you're in love again is unfair and immature. We don't need to hear Liz say that she didn't love Paul or Eric just because she's with Anthony now, and we don't need to hear Paul say he didn't love Liz because he's in love with Susan now. Because unless I've been utterly misinterpreting the story all along, it isn't true).

- Then Paul takes all the blame: 'He was deeply sorry to have hurt Liz. There was no doubt that the fault was his.'� Gimme a break! Liz left him, emotionally cheated with Anthony, completely ignored his hurt, and strung him along. Ok, after all that, he found someone else, and didn't have the guts to tell her right away. So there's blame on both sides, but definitely more on Liz' end.

But those fans who have been pushing for a Paul-Liz reunion? Its not going to happen. He's finally happy. This last comment nailed it on the head: 'Her roots were firmly in the south, in the security and comfortable rhythms of town life.'� Yup: welcome to suburbia, Liz; Paul was just too beautiful and adventurous for you.

Jennifer, Calgary

I am really enjoying the "meaty" bio's that Bev is creating. Thank you, Lynn, for asking her to do this, and thank you, Bev, for taking it on. The bio's on both Warren and Paul were very helpful in clarifying some personality traits. They also helped me understand why these men were not right for Liz. (Although, I am in the camp that has always rooted for Anthony.)

Karen, Virginia

If Deanna is such an amazing seamstress, why didn't she alter/create her own wedding dress during the fiasco that was going on during the lead up to her own wedding over her dress? Doesn't make much sense to me.

Rachel, Conneticut

The wedding dress has turned out beautifully.

I was brought to tears watching the spirit of Liz's grandmother helping her with her veil.

This is it. The wedding is coming up. I am so happy for the Liz and Anthony characters.

I always imagined they had plenty of romance..Liz and Anthony....some facets of the comics are left to the reader to imagine.

I will cherish these last strips. Thank you so much, Lynn from a twenty year reader of your strips.

Arlene G, Clearwater FL

In his comment posted on July 4, Jim I. of Bloomington, IN writes, "I don't believe these [repeat] strips are from a back-to-back period. These are some 'classic' strips taken from different years. I'm sure there are stories leading up to some of the events we've been reading about, so we all should keep that in mind." Actually, all of the repeat strips have come from the first year that the strip ran, September 1979 to September of 1980. Mr. I. can find all of the repeated "daily" strips by checking the first FBorFW collection, I've Got the One-More-Washload Blues. The Sunday "rerun" strips may be found in More Than a Month of Sundays, which helpfully includes the original publication date. Mr. I., you will find that you needn't go beyond 1980.

Furthermore, most of the strips run during the first year did not have multi-day story arcs. The majority of the strips were one-off gag-a-day strips. The sustained arcs we are now accustomed to came later.

Katje B, Albany NY