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Okay, here's some positive for you all: I just read Sunday's strip. I truly LOL'd! And this, from a stay-at-home Dad! I definitely have those moments, and yeah, often with dogs around (no comments about dogs wearing my knocker lockers, please!).

JM, Grasonville, MD, USA

Thanks for keeping my name sake Ted McCauley around, through the years he has given me some laughs and my share of teasing. Our lives used to be quite similiar, but unlike the Character, I long ago moved on.

Ted McCauley, Calgary, AB, Canada

Today's conversation between Elly and John says it all. If Ted was my dr he would very quickly NOT be my dr. I understand that the times were different and we have to lighten up but Elly hit the nail on the head...Ted is just downright rude. No bedside manner. I'm fortunate in that my doctor is wonderful and has a superb bedside manner.

Geri, NYC, NY, USA

Oh, Lynn, you make me laugh whenever I see Dr. Ted in your strip! My husband Joe's friend Todd is the same way, always saying something outrageous, and Joe just always says I don't "get" him. Brava, Lynn!

Emmy Y, Dundas, ON, Canada

I'm surprised that people are resistant to the comments about John's sexism. I have sent in other comments about it, and they were never posted, so please understand that there's some heavy editing of "Coffee Talk" going on behind the scenes. That being said, it was my understanding that the strip was going to be re-run, but with episodes of present-day commentary--the characters as they are now, looking back and reflecting. It seems to me that even this would help put some of this early behavior into context. I find it quite shocking to see how offensive the strip was in its early days, but it's also interesting to reflect on how far we've come, and I wish that Lynn would insert some new comics that underscore that into the mix. It would help.

Kate W, MI, USA

I'm a working mom and my husband is the stay at home dad. He Has been for 15 years. We still get people say that he is no kind of man because he doesn't work out side the home. I think he is more of a man for being able to raise the kids so i could bring home the income.

Heather, Sturgeon Falls, ON, Canada

Ack! Please don't tell me I missed the strip regarding the folding of the towels! One of you mentioned it this week - hopefully it is my previous comment on that strip you are thinking of! Proper towel folding was a big thing for me trying to get used to living with some one and that strip is a reminder that it is really no big deal. I look forward to seeing that strip someday!

Sheila B, East Hartford, CT, USA

Min from Chicago says in Coffee Talk (Thursday 24 September) that everyone should lighten up and that "the comics are for entertainment, not a critial [sic] social commentary on North American life", but this is exactly why people take FBorFW so seriously and, yes, get upset when they see something they don't like or writing in to say how this strip or that strip made them cry or reminded them of their family. This is a strip the creator promotes as a social commentary even now, more than fifteen years after the then-ground-breaking "Lawrence comes out" arc, and almost as long has passed since Farley's death.

Lynn herself said just last week that she was a "spokesperson for women who wanted the world to know that staying at home with young children was no picnic" and now has "joined the thousands of other journalists in advocating for change...and obviously, fortunately change has come!": if so, then how could this be anything but social commentary? It is possible to combine social commentary with humour: Jonathan Swift did it. Jon Stewart does it. The Simpsons has been doing it for decades.

Holly, Cambridge, UK

I notice that you get a lot of mail from people who say that since the Pattersons are fictional characters, what they say or do doesn't matter. This wouldn't bother me as such if said letters were not always mixed with letters that explain that the Pattersons matter to your fans and that they idenitfy with their struggles and use your strips as means of expressing their feelings on subjects dear to them. The former seem to not have noticed that, while the Pattersons don't exist in reality, they do so emotionallly.

Paul J, Saint John, NB, Canada

I just changed newspapers and the reason I held on to my old paper so long was I had to keep up with the Pattersons! I am so glad I found your strip.Thank you for the delight and inspiration

Ruth L, Centerville, UT, USA