Anne: Browse The Strips

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Lynn's Comments: I could never enjoy sports on TV, but take me to a game- any game and I could find something good about it. People-watching was better than the sport itself and I don't think anything tastes better than a hot dog at a stadium. I'd go to spend quality time with my "other half", pretend to understand what was happening and look forward to half time. Did you know that the pixellated scoreboard was first invented by a woman? Well, you've gotta do SOMETHING while you're hanging around!!

Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Lynn's Comments: On rare occasions we would invite "the guys" over to watch the game. This was when smoking was as necessary to an evening out as the horse de oeuvres. I'd dutifully bring in the beer and pizza, watch long enough to appear enthused, and retire to the kitchen. Not that I was a domestic...I just couldn't stand the smell. Cigarettes, cigars, beer and pizza...all essential to a guy night out combined to create an odor that could peel wallpaper. Fortunately, today's gatherings are much less stressful. They happen somewhere else!

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

Lynn's Comments: The childhood horror of having to clean off a plate full of cold stuff haunts me still. Too bad the image of Mom standing over me (with a look that would scare the **** out of a mugger)...and a plate of cold liver doesn't deter me. I can eat anything right out of the refrigerator...especially cake.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Lynn's Comments: The last time I wrote about being a "sports widow" we had numerous messages from women who shared Annie's point of view. If I had grown up in a home where televised sports were part of everyday life and was something we all enjoyed, perhaps I wouldn't be so sarcastic about the hours wasted on the couch watching a bunch of guys chase a ball. My folks were more into music and comedy. I have women friends who are addicted to baseball and hockey, too - but not me. I vented through Annie and put into words the thoughts I'd had when I, too, was wishing my spouse enjoyed more vertical activities.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Lynn's Comments: Steve Nichols was a character who rarely appeared in FBorFW. As Annie's less-than-perfect spouse, he was to be gossiped about unseen. This is likely the first illustration I did of him. I never put this drawing into my resource files and soon forgot exactly how I'd drawn him! In the next illustration showing Steve, he looked quite different - sans moustache. Nobody ever mentioned this to me and I never noticed until now. Things like this convinced me to keep an accurate character file.

Saturday, December 4, 2010

Lynn's Comments: For children, the coming of Christmas is an endless wait. The ads, the lights and the music make them plead for the time to go faster. For mothers, there are never enough hours in the day. Living in a small, isolated community meant that we all knew and relied on each other for everything from babysitting to compassion to the proverbial cup of sugar. Without speaking, moms of toddlers knew from the angle of a smile or the nod of a head, how another mom's day was going. We shared, laughed with and supported each other as pageants, bake sales and community center events kept us thoroughly immersed in the holiday spirit. Christmas in Lynn Lake was as rich as any I have known - mostly because we were all so close. There was little class distinction here. Nobody was better than anybody else and if they thought they were, they became lonely pretty fast! Many of the down-to-earth punch lines in the strip came directly from the down-to-earth friends I had in Lynn Lake.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Lynn's Comments: My mother did not like surprises...or so she said. Gift giving was always a challenge for me because she was effusive, no matter what the gift was, so it was hard to tell whether I'd made the right choice or not. Mom was an excellent seamstress. She could make anything - even patterns from scratch. I was working at Woodwards in Vancouver, making a salary for the first time, so Dad and I decided to pool our resources and get her a Bernina sewing machine for her birthday. It was the latest thing. It could make designs and buttonholes without a template and you could use several colours of thread at once. It was expensive, however, and Dad worried that she'd be angry with us for spending so much when we could hardly afford it. He had to tell her our plan. Naturally, she said "Absolutely not!" She wouldn't have us spending wantonly on something she could well do without. So...we got her a jewelry box instead. When she opened her gift, we could tell that Mom was bitterly disappointed. "What's the matter?" Dad asked- genuinely surprised by her reaction. Pressing a hanky to her eyes, she cried, "I thought I was getting a new sewing machine!!" Go figure. Gift giving was always an awkward time in our family. Any time we did it right - it was a surprise!

Friday, February 25, 2011

Lynn's Comments: Katie was getting to be quite independent and was an easy kid to live with. My friend Marian across the street had her a lot of the time - having raised three boys, she loved having a little girl around and enjoyed looking after her. Aaron was in school, so I toyed with the thought of adding to the family. After some intense discussion, we decided that two was enough, but I still wanted the experience - so Annie, in the strip, got pregnant!

Saturday, February 26, 2011

Lynn's Comments: With this new element of interest to work with, I put myself right into Annie's shoes and examined all the thoughts I might have if the tables were turned. I would have been excited, happy, fearful and anxious all at once. Even with help close by, having another baby is a decision which changes everything and should be carefully planned, if possible. I also knew a lot about Annie; things the readers didn't know. I knew that she had her hands full and that her husband was serially unfaithful - something she suspected but didn't want to know. It was challenging to write about and draw people in an ordinary neighborhood, dealing with ordinary things. It made FBorFW come alive for me - and so much more interesting than if it had been static and everything had remained the same.

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Lynn's Comments: I have friends who are wonderful seamstresses. My mother too could make anything and it fit and looked perfect. I watch these people in awe and they tell me "It's only sewing, Lynn - YOU can do it! It's so EASY!" They don't know the side of me that trembles at the thought of sitting with a Singer. I can do a lot of stuff, but sewing isn't one of them. Oh, sure, "just practice" they tell me... "what can go wrong?" I hate this. Some people were just not meant to operate a sewing device - just as some folks don't drive or cook or use a snow blower. If I sew...there will be repercussions. Either my endless patience will end in fits or the machine will need extensive maintenance thereafter. With gratitude and humility, I defer to all the people who confidently sew their own clothes. My admiration is genuine and my appreciation comes from the heart. You have a skill I will never possess and I'm grateful for every seam you've sewn for me!

Friday, March 18, 2011

Lynn's Comments: One of my neighbours easily deduced her expanding condition when she began to lose weight. Seems that every time she had a bun in the oven, she became so nauseous she couldn't eat and had to take supplements. During the first trimester, she went down 4 sizes - which was OK, as she was a healthy size to begin with. Not me. As soon as pregnancy happened to this corpus (not so delecti), mild nausea was accompanied by a ferocious appetite. I craved everything and ate everything and appeared to be "term" at 6 months. I was so wide, I sat sideways on the shower seat. My mom in law threatened to lock the fridge. I think I gained 50 pounds with Katie and then it took me 9 more months to work it off! It's strange how obsessed we can be about weight and body image. Even though she was sick so often, I envied my neighbour her ability to maintain her curves when she was pregnant- and she, on the other hand, would have given anything to be ME!

Saturday, March 19, 2011

Lynn's Comments: Katie wasn't the performer I made her (as Elizabeth) out to be. It was Aaron who could have earned an academy award for drama. It wasn't unusual for him to collapse onto the floor with gut-wrenching heartbreaking sobs as he faced the job of putting his Lego back in its box or picking up his shoes. From friends, I learned about an amazing secondary use for the egg timer. Rather than fight with my son, I'd show him the number of time-out minutes on the timer. The scene would go something like this: "NOOOO! I WON'T DO ITTTT!!! AAAAUGHHHHHHHH!!!!" and I'd say "You know what, Aaron, perhaps a little time out would be a good thing". I'd turn the timer to 5 minutes and show him the dial. "AAAAAAAAAAuuuuGGGHHHHH...NO FAIRRR!" Me: "OK, let's add another 5 minutes." Him: "WWWWAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!YOURE MEAN! I WONT DOOOOIIIITTT!" Me: (calmly) "Let's make that 15 minutes". (This is so much easier than fighting!) And so it went. One day, he racked up a full half hour and went wailing off to do penance. I thought I could still hear him crying, but it was an odd sound and the door to his room was shut. Then, I saw a strange red blob of something at the bottom of the door. It was moving. He had wedged his lips under the door and was howling through his squashed lips which moved like two wet worms. He was determined I should hear him cry! Yes, Aaron got the prize for dramatics and extra points as well for making me laugh 'til I cried!

Monday, May 2, 2011

Lynn's Comments: Living through Annie's pregnancy was a lot of fun. I got to talk to expectant moms about their experience and to remember my own. Looking at baby clothes is something we (ladies) all enjoy doing and I often wonder why some of the whimsical fabrics found in the children's shops couldn't be made into lines of adult clothing. Imagine an evening gown covered in tiny cartoons of anything from funny animals to funky flowers! Like Annie, the problem of swelling feet went along with the swelling tummy and once again, I heard from expectant readers who were glad to share their woes with their toes!

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Lynn's Comments: My friend Mary seemed to have a bun in the oven every year. When baby number seven was on the way, she sighed and said she wondered if this one would be the last. I assured her it was indeed the last one and she wondered how I knew. "Well", I said, "your husband was one of seven kids and he told me he wanted the same number of children, too". "He did, did he?" she replied in her sweet Irish accent..."Well, why the h*** didn't he tell ME?!!!" We always wonder what the future will hold when we're in the family way - but it all seems so right when we're holding our beautiful new baby!