The Pattersons and food: a theory.....

Lately, it seems that whenever you see one of the Pattersons, they're stuffing themselves full of food. They loved to chow down in the old days, of course, but it's gotten worse as the years roll on. We've seen the former central character go from the reasonably slender, attractive figure of the early years to the paunchy drab with the bulbous nose we see today. What makes things worse is that they avoid exercizing whenever they can and refer to it as a sort of torture inflicted on innocent people. The reason why they do this is is explained by Elly's view on people who do watch what they eat and take care of their appearance; they don't love themselves enough to indulge their appetites. The odd thing is that it seems to go against what Lynn herself is like. As we saw in her interview with Jan Wong, she's an astonishingly picky eater. The reason she has her fictional avatar overeat is the same reason that she made her so ugly: to feel better about herself. We must also not overlook the tendency towards elitism in her thinking. The Pattersons are supposed to be just plain folks, after all. Since she's so enlightened and they're not, they pig out like the common trash they are.