The Pattermanse: not the hub of the universe..

Here's another golden oldie given a bit of a remix: one of the penalties you pay for being as clannish as the Foobs have become lately is that you over-estimate your importance to the community. Now I know I've hammered in the point that these people think if they're not involved in something the Sun will die and the World come to an end but that's just not the case. They're so transfixed by Fooby groupthink they've lost the ability to see themselves as other people do. Let's say, for sake of argument, the Patterson family all leave town for some reason: Mike pulls his head out of his ass (or, more likely, Deanna pulls it out for him) and moves the Pattersons Redux to a loft in Toronto, Liz gets a job in Sarnia and John, Elly and April move to Vancouver. Who'd notice that they're not around? Sure, the neighborhood grew up around them but they don't seem to have really made themselves part of it. Besides, what little people DO know of the Patterson family probably doesn't inspire respect or admiration anyway. Since nobody really knows (or likes) them, their dispersal wouldn't be that much of a problem. The only thing I can think of that people might worry about is that someone even more irritating would move in.