The friends of the Pattersons and other imaginary beings...

howtheduck recently posted a fragment of John's retcon which predicted that Becky's success would come at a high cost: her friendships with those around her. He allowed as how she'd be so focused on her ambition that she wouldn't have the time or energy to maintain them. Not only is that jealousy talking but it's also somewhat ironic in that it's already happened to the Patterson family themselves. I remember that the Pattersons used to have great friendships with those around them but they all let them wither and die for the sake of a consuming and worthless passion. John seems to have so devoted himself to building the perfect model train layout that he no longer has time for his pals and had to flip through his Rolodex for an audience. Since what used to be friends are exceptionally tolerant acquaintances who no longer have time for him and his mania, he's left looking sort of deflated. Elly is too busy being Mike's muse to have time for Connie, who's rapidly becoming someone she has coffee with every so often. Mike himself is so in to his writing career, I can readily see Jo Weeder becoming 'some guy I met in college'. Liz's desperate hunt for a man has pretty much isolated her from her friends and will soon enough make Anthony her sole link to human society. April is horrifically bad at starting and maintaining friendships to start with so trying to keep her inane garage band together only isolates her further. You'd think these are the last people on Earth who'd lecture about ruined friendships but they either won't (or more likely can't) recognize Becky's situation as their own. THAT would mean recognizing they aren't who they think they are.