For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for February 05, 1980

Nachikethass • about 1 hour ago

@Leojim

Time for self-examination because Nachikethass’ comment is aimed straight at me:

GoComics is the only place I engage in commenting nowadays because most other fora are full of vitriol.

“fora” – The current entry from the Oxford Dictionary says: The plural of forum is usually spelled forums; the plural fora (as in the original Latin) is chiefly used when talking about a public square in an ancient Roman city.

That gives us the feeling that Nachikethass is either a Latin scholar or likes Latin plurals, even if the meaning is a little off.

Here, I was reading along because I like the colourised version.

“colourised” spelling says Nachikethass is not from the US, which might explain some of the reverence for the comic strip, especially if Nachikethass is Canadian, because Lynn Johnston is like a goddess to them.

Unfortunately, there are a few who take each strip and list out what is wrong with the family in the strip, how each member is the worst example of what he or she stands for, and ultimately ending up saying it’s all because the artist is a horrible person or some such thing!

It’s a good thing Nachikethass said “or some such thing” because that is his/her out for this extreme exaggeration. No one does this. However, it is true that people have been falsely accused of doing this.

I ended up unfollowing the strip because of the hatred and vilification of what is essentially a well-portrayed and humourous representation of family life.

And BINGO! There it is. There is a comic strip in Nachikethass’ head that is not the comic strip that really exists. Look above.

Elly is nagging John about using too many towels, because as you know there is a limit to how many towels a man can use. Then John ignores Elly’s complaints and insults her. Is that a humorous representation of family life? I guess it depends on the family.

The orientation of this comic strip has always been towards the mother, Elly, and the way she is often mistreated by her family and her husband. Elly Patterson is not like the comic strip mothers of the past, who were all perfect. She represented the underlying anger women have with their lot in life in a time when power, independence and respect were kept from them. Elly has been forced into this position and it is not a job she is good at. We see countless comic strips showing how Elly is a terrible cook and how she can’t control her kids and the housework and this resonates with every woman who was not born to be good at homemaking, and yet that is what they find they are doing.

Nachikethass thinks he/she is reading a comic strip is a humorous representation of family life and gets upset whenever someone writes in pointing out that this is not what this comic strip is about. Nachikethass interprets this as hatred and vilification. It is not, but I understand that Nachikethass feels any comment that does not show the appropriate reverence for the Patterson family is like a personal attack. The comments show there are a lot of people who think like Nachikethass.

I just got a chance today to put it out there and lo! We have lift off.

Mixed metaphors.

Leojim added as a response to @Nachikethass:

I guess any forum has it’s haters and political bozos. It’s hard when they are attacking things you value. I’m fortunate I can ignore most of it.

Aside from the incorrect use of “it’s”, Leojim had a cleverly-written slam. By being fortunate enough to ignore most of it, Leojim is implying that others (like Nachikethass) are not that fortunate. I agree with this sentiment completely. It is hard when people attack something you love, but does that mean jumping up and attacking those people? Not to Leojim. Good advice to Nachikethass and those like him/her.

It would be wonderful if you would stay out of my profile.

While this was the complaint, it is pretty obvious that she doesn’t really care about this because once I gave in, she just moved onto another insult.

But your obsession with tracking whether or not I’ve responded to your comments is something you need to get help for.

Considering how much personal stuff she has spilled over the years, she has no room to talk when it comes to mental health. This forum used to ban people who made those kinds of comments, but apparently no more.

Normally it pleases me when people reply to my comments because I usually end up having a nice conversation with whoever it might be,

That’s “with whomeever”. This is possibly the funniest thing she has written. If there is anything looking at her profiles has shown, it is that she regularly goes out insulting people. There are no nice conversations except what she imagines.

but not when it happens to this extent, and takes the form of behavior that would get you infracted, if not banned, on any normal forum.

Responding to comments for over 2 weeks is not any kind of infraction. That’s an idiotic statement. Regardless, this argument has turned on itself and she is back to offensive statements. She does not have anything new to say and what she does say is poor. Aside from the fact she constantly, viciously attacks me for the strangest and most bizarre reasons (truly mental), there is nothing to her.

Since she gets a little ping when she gets a response, do not respond that way. Summarize a different way.

How do you ever manage to survive a single day, with your obsessions over such trivial things?

Well, I don’t make jokes about people’s mental health. I have learned that’s a line you don’t step over.

You get worked up over very mild “colorful metaphors” and you’re utterly obsessed with tracking everything I say on this comic strip’s pages.

“colorful metaphors”? No. I think you are suggesting I need to get psychiatric help for this obsession. It’s not a metaphor when you use the exact words as what you mean. It’s a good thing she put the parenthesis around “colorful metaphors”. Where is that “U” in colour? I thought she was a Canadian.

At least I’ve got the excuse of a message alert on my screen that may or may not be you, and I’m quite glad when it isn’t.

That’s not really an excuse, because there is the question of whether you respond to those message alerts, which you always do.

Get a life already.

Atypical Cat lady. No husband. No children. Hates parents and people in general. Needs to take her own advice.

I have a family. I like them and they like me.

That goes for you too, Faith. You’re acting like howtheduck’s lapdog.

And this is because Faith put a like on my comment, not for anything Faith said. She spits bile on everyone.