Year One of the New Era: what we have learned.......

It's hard to believe that the first year of the new-ruin era has gone by already and we have learned so little. Lynn had, as we all know, promised to use the time to expand on the background of the strip and, as we've seen, not delivered at all; as howtheduck told us, the only new thing we know is that Lawrence used to suffer from shy bowel syndrome. Other than that Lynn has told us things we already know; we've already been briefed on the following facts:

• Elly is living in a self-inflicted Hell because she does too much work and never accepts offered help because they do it wrong.
• John is sort of insensitive and ridicules Elly's attempts at a career; the unpsoken context is that he knows that she'll lose interest anyway so she might as well fail where no one can see her.
• Elly is simply too stupid and self-absorbed to be a good parent and John is too detached most of the time to fill in the gap; this lead to Mike being forced to being Lizzie's primary caregiver with dubious-at-best results.
• Connie is desperate for male company and not-so-secretly regards Lawrence as a burden.
• Elly talks big about standing firm but caves all the time.
• Elly, never having been allowed a pet, can't figure out how animals behave.
• Annie likes to gossip about Connie and vice versa.
• Ted is a loser and the subject of female ridicule.
• Mike constantly embarrassed himself in front of Deanna and did whatever stupid things Lawrence told him to
• Lizzie was so filled with fear, she clung to Elly like a barnacle.

Going in, I thought we'd learn what Annie really thought of Steve or that Mira was a delusional social climber but no such luck; all Lynn saw fit to expand upon was how pathetic, selfish, petty and annoying her characters were.