Elly: Browse The Strips

Thursday, October 29, 2015

Lynn's Comments: The North Bay Capitol Centre was almost torn down but was saved by a group of very determined people. After its restoration, it became something the politicians liked to point out as the "jewel in the crown."

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Lynn's Comments: You'd think a lesson learned once would be ingrained forever. Not so: the hangover. Even without a partying lifestyle, I think I still average one every five years.

Monday, November 2, 2015

Lynn's Comments: One thing I have never been good at is small talk at big parties. Some folks can rip into a crowd and have a great time chatting about trends, politics, and the weather--I'm more likely to say hello to the folks I need to talk to, then head for my hotel room and bed.

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Lynn's Comments: This was one of the strips I really didn't like. I tried to literally make this man "talk in circles," but I wasn't happy with the result. Sometimes when I was on a tight deadline, I'd let something like this go through.

Thursday, November 5, 2015

Lynn's Comments: This was another true-to-life scenario. I was down and out. Katie brought me a blanket and offered to rub my back. True to the punch line, she now has two sweet kids and is a wonderful mother.

Friday, November 6, 2015

Lynn's Comments: As a volunteer for a number of community projects, I discovered you can accomplish great things when the credit is evenly shared.

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

Lynn's Comments: My son, Aaron, did play the trumpet for a while in band class at school, but he was never really interested in it. His heart was in film and photography--as soon as he could hold a camera! Still, it was important for me to include music in the Patterson Family's routines, so Michael began trumpet lessons with uncle Phil. This allowed me to recall my brother Alan's lessons, performances, and serious dedication to the trumpet. His long hours of practice, with the repetitive "tattica-tattica-tattica," are still vivid in my memory.

Wednesday, November 11, 2015

Lynn's Comments: My brother, an accomplished performer, still teaches music, even though he has been retired for several years. There are still those special talented students to whom passing on all he has learned is a joy and a privilege. He has met his share of students who don't practice and don't have the passion. The line about playing darts was a genuine comment made at a time when teaching was often a chore.

Friday, November 13, 2015

Lynn's Comments: I think I've grumbled about this before. When a woman (or anyone for that matter) becomes the chief cook and bottle washer--charged with shopping for, planning out, making, and serving up to three meals a day, she or he deserves at least a grunt of pleasure from the bodies who are shovelling in the grub. Actual thanks is wonderful!

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Lynn's Comments: Again, the use of colloquial expressions made For Better or for Worse hard to export. It needed to be read by people whose first language was English. On the other hand, cartoons are used all the time by people teaching English as a second language, precisely because colloquial speech is the language you hear on the street.

Tuesday, November 24, 2015

Lynn's Comments: This was the diagnosis we were given when Farley (the real dog, Farley) began to limp and have trouble with stairs. Certain breeds of dog are more prone than others to this disorder. It's when the socket in the hip is not sufficiently bowl-shaped to hold and support the top of the femur, allowing it to slip out of place. Eventually, as the dog grows and becomes heavier, the ball of the femur slips right out of the hip joint--a painful and disabling problem. We were told that the breeder who sold us the dog was likely responsible for Farley's hip dysplasia.

Thursday, November 26, 2015

Lynn's Comments: We were cautioned against letting Farley get too heavy, as this would add pressure to the already stressed hip joint. Putting him on a diet wasn't easy--he would beg for table scraps and I hated to waste them.

Tuesday, December 8, 2015

Lynn's Comments: I used to wonder as I sat on Santa's knee, why sometimes he had a false beard and sometimes he had a real one. My dad had the answer; he said that sometimes mice got into Santa's beard, so he'd shave it off. This meant wearing a false one until it grew back--which made sense to me at the time.

Wednesday, December 9, 2015

Lynn's Comments: Katie did exactly this while I was shopping in a department store. With too much to carry and deadlines to meet, I ran from the store wondering how long it would take for the management to discover her handiwork.

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Lynn's Comments: I wanted to use "Custer's last stand" as a punch line, and saved it for a Christmas gag. After this strip ran, I got a pile of letters from people who had the same complaint about flimsy Christmas tree stands, and a diagram from a carpenter on how to make my own.

Saturday, December 12, 2015

Lynn's Comments: Every year, my mom dutifully sent us fresh holly from the tree in her backyard. Christmas wasn't Christmas, in her opinion, if there was no fresh holly. She also wanted me to miss North Vancouver in the hope that I would eventually come home. This year, we will celebrate the holidays with real west coast holly, and my parents will be here in spirit to enjoy it with us.