purse: Browse The Strips

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Lynn's Comments: If Katie had a tricycle, I don't remember it. The town was so small, there were few sidewalks and I wouldn't have let her go too far on her own. This is really an image from my own childhood. My brother had a tricycle to which he was welded. He was on it constantly and because we didn't own a car, mom trundled us to the corner store - she and I on foot with Alan on his trike. I remember having to wait for him as he sat and watched bugs on the sidewalk or stopped to check out a parked car. It was maddening. Likewise, he would pedal like crazy down the hills and we'd have to run after him. Balancing groceries and hollering at the top of her lungs, Mom would fly at breakneck speed down to the stop sign where she'd put herself between Alan and the busy intersection ahead. It wasn't until I had kids of my own that I realized how many times we'd put Mom's life in danger as she tried to protect ours!

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Lynn's Comments: Aaron used to be up and running at 4 or 5 in the morning. Food and dressing took an hour, but there were usually 2 hours left before I took him to daycare. Exhausted, I'd lie on the couch as he ran from room to room, jumped on the furniture and on me. Sometimes, I'd actually fall asleep and this was when he'd go into the kitchen cupboards and find the stuff he shouldn't have. This scenario really happened... and both of us survived to tell the tale!

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Lynn's Comments: Being part of a team meant a lot to Aaron. He loved the camaraderie, the excitement and getting together with all the participants after a game. The kids felt a real kinship. Being in "uniform" gave them status and worth. It was important, therefore, to teach them that no matter how padded and colourful, the uniform does not make the man!

We had to make sure the kids maintained their good manners, even though they imagined themselves hitting the big leagues, then hitting the bars, and hitting each other! The contrast between the confident team player and the immature little boy was enormous--it was hard not to "parent" a youngster who was trying so hard to be a man.

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Lynn's Comments: Gary Larson (The Far Side) once sent me a Christmas card, which showed a house with a brightly lit window through which you could see a group of wildly partying dogs. In front of the house, on a white lawn, was a snow sculpture of a fat cat. A path of paw prints lead from the door to the snow cat--the side of the cat was yellow! I guess cartoon minds think alike.

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Lynn's Comments: Katie was starting grade two when we moved to North Bay. (The children in the strip were three years younger than Katie and Aaron). The little school she attended was about a mile and a half down the road, next to a hobby farm. At lunchtime she and the other children could watch the animals through the fence; a donkey, chickens, and some rabbits. On occasion, the farmer would take the kids for rides on his donkey, which I thought was charming. I said to her, "Katie isn't this a great place to have a school?! This is something you'll remember for the rest of your life!" and she replied, "Yeah, I will --'cause it stinks!"

Sunday, May 3, 2015

Lynn's Comments: After this strip ran, I received dozens of letters from readers who wanted to know what the heck was Michael doing with a bag of milk! Everyone knows that milk comes in waxed paper cartons or in plastic jugs, so what was this all about anyway?!

All an artist has to draw from is what she sees around her, and in my place of residence, milk comes in cartons, but also in strong plastic bags with a set of three bags of milk inside. Each smaller bag contains a litre of milk and we use special plastic or pottery jugs to keep them upright in the fridge. This way of packaging milk is as familiar in Canada as Coke in a can, so I assumed my readers everywhere would get the gag! Not so. The thing that struck me about the questioning letters was that some of them were as cruel and derisive as the trolls on the internet are today. They spoke with indignant authority, demanding to know what the **** I was talking about! Didn't I KNOW that milk doesn't come in bags?

Fortunately, this was when mean messages came with return addresses and we had a lot of fun sending photos and copies of milk advertisements to those who needed to see it for themselves. The impression I got from this was that not enough people travel, and they should!--Especially to Canada.

Wednesday October 10, 2018

Lynn's Comments: Did I ever get into hot water over this one! Clinic staff wrote to say that it was a terrible thing to write notes in patients’ files suggesting they were difficult to work with and that PITN should never have been used. Well, we did write small notations like this just for our own information…and, the letters were: PITA!