
bar: Browse The Strips
Sunday, March 17, 2002

Monday, September 9, 2002

Monday, May 26, 2003

Friday, May 28, 2004

Monday, March 23, 2009

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Thursday, December 30, 2010

Lynn's Comments: Again, there was no "Ted" in our community. This character was entirely fiction. Here, John has beer with his colleague in an upscale shop on the street below their clinics. In the strip, the world is fictional. John and Ted are working in a cosmopolitan environment with 4-6 storey buildings around them and a large parking lot on the corner. In reality, our clinic was above Perepeluk's Grocery and the only coffee shop you might go to schmooze in was "Wong's Cafe" across the street. The old wooden booths and the coffee counter with the worn round stools welcomed you like a 50s movie set. The smell of egg rolls, wonton and fried rice filled the down in your parka and would linger there for hours, "poofing" out whiffs of Wong's.
As for New years' resolutions, I don't remember making too many - either for myself or anyone else. I learned long before my kids were born that resolutions, though well intended, rarely come about. Our philosophy then was to do what you could, hope for the best and to laugh at the things we couldn't change. This we did. We shared laughter with good friends - as often as possible.
Saturday, January 22, 2011

Lynn's Comments: This really was part of a conversation we had with one of the hotel staff. Rudy had been particularly sweet and we looked forward to seeing him every day. It was as if we had been staying at his house, so naturally we wanted to reciprocate. We asked him if he'd ever been to Canada, thinking we could give him a great tour should he decide to explore our turf, but after seeing us in our parkas and hearing about the weather back home...this was his response. It was interesting to me to find out that few people leave the island for a holiday. Seems that travel is too expensive and besides...if you're living in paradise - what's the point?!
Monday, March 28, 2011

Lynn's Comments: The relationship between Ted and Connie (with Uncle Phil in there for added angst) was my first attempt to write a story about people outside the immediate family. I really had no idea where this relationship was going! I thought about them getting married, what Lawrence's relationship to the not-too-fatherly Ted would be like, and I let things between them just "happen". It was an exercise. I fumbled with the dialogue and futzed about with the Pattersons' involvement and simply hoped for the best.
Friday, May 13, 2011

Lynn's Comments: We talk about "the one that got away" and somewhere in all our lives, there's a "what if" love. What if I had married my grade 12 sweetheart? What if I'd given that guy at the university a second chance? There are so many what ifs, and yet the choices we made at the time were for a reason.
Here, Ted is confronted by his inability to make a commitment. The story will eventually end without his ever having had a strong, long term relationship. He, for one, will always be wondering "what if?"
Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Lynn's Comments: I wanted Ted to be desired by Connie, but thoroughly disliked by the readers and it worked! People regularly told me to have her dump him, but a good story requires a "bad guy", and like all relationships, this one needed to work itself out.
Saturday, April 5, 2014

Lynn's Comments: I went to a bar with one of the women from the workshop, to celebrate our new friendship and to mourn the end of a wonderful event. We were in our 30s, and guys at another table made suggestive comments and lewd gestures the whole time we were there. I remember thinking, "I make smart-*** comments for a living, but I can't think of one clever put-down to fling at these Neanderthals." It was frustrating!!!
Wednesday November 23, 2016

Lynn's Comments: In order to inject a little intrigue into the story, I made John's Doctor friend, Ted, a very bad influence. Although he was completely fictional, I was often asked who he "really was."
Thursday November 24, 2016

Tuesday January 23, 2024

Wednesday January 24, 2024

Wednesday February 12, 2025

Lynn's Comments: I had fun with the name of this pub, and when it came to drawing the sign, I wished I’d had more room!
Monday October 27, 2025

Tuesday October 28, 2025

Wednesday October 29, 2025

Sunday February 8, 2026

Lynn's Comments: This idea came from a lunch I had with Peanuts creator, Charles Schulz. We were in a busy pub. There was a hockey game on the big screen television, and when someone shot the winning goal, the bar erupted in, “We’re number one! We’re number one!” Sparky turned to me and said, rather dryly, “I don’t understand. How can these people say they’re number one when all they did was sit here? They did nothing!”
I wanted to make this as authentic-sounding as possible, so I asked my friend Kevin Strang—who was on his way to becoming a professional hockey player, to help me write the commentary. (Kevin also colours my Sundays.) The name Borecki was for a dear friend with whom I was hoping to reconnect. Sometimes putting a name in the papers like this helped me to find people.