The nutmeg effect.
Dec. 4th, 2016 01:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dreadedcandiru2As you know, there used to be a one-season wonder animated series starring the Pattersons. Since Lynn seems to have had the same obsessive need to stay on message that destroyed her hopes of being a children's author, it was a lot like the strip in that we had the characters endure the same stupid crap for the same idiotic reasons. Since it is December, I should think that the Later Years segment of the Christmas episode should do as an example.
As you can see, the segment starts out in the kitchen with Elly preparing to make eggnog only to find that she's out of nutmeg. While John and Jim are vaguely sympathetic, they point out that lots of people do without it so it isn't a big deal; they do so in vain because Elly wants to make it a big deal because she keeps muttering that nothing is the same any more. After John and April put the star on the tree because Mike is on the fence about driving through a snow storm to get home from Uni, we have Elly make a big ugly fool of herself because Liz and April's playing a headache music Christmas song causes yet another fragile object Mike bought her for Christmas to get broken. Said breakage occurs because April stumbled into the tree to avoid the unpleasant phenomenon called "shouting blowhard mother making a big deal over nothing". An ugly scene between Liz and Elly transpires and Elly storms off to the kitchen after blubbering that nothing is ever the same.
After Liz and Elly go off to neutral corners, John explains what traditions are and Elly starts getting all sentimental about how Marian is no longer their to brainlessly nag her and how Mike's going to open his crap in the afternoon and that makes her sad. Jim quietly tells her that Marian is still sort of there because he and Elly still anticipate her constant stream of unsolicited advice and Mike's absence isn't the end of the world and she kind of chills when it's driven home that if she were to talk about a problem, it would go away. The problem is, of course, that learning morals is not something Elly does. Always and ever, her fear of being seen as being weak and silly makes her clam up and things fester stupidly.
As you can see, the segment starts out in the kitchen with Elly preparing to make eggnog only to find that she's out of nutmeg. While John and Jim are vaguely sympathetic, they point out that lots of people do without it so it isn't a big deal; they do so in vain because Elly wants to make it a big deal because she keeps muttering that nothing is the same any more. After John and April put the star on the tree because Mike is on the fence about driving through a snow storm to get home from Uni, we have Elly make a big ugly fool of herself because Liz and April's playing a headache music Christmas song causes yet another fragile object Mike bought her for Christmas to get broken. Said breakage occurs because April stumbled into the tree to avoid the unpleasant phenomenon called "shouting blowhard mother making a big deal over nothing". An ugly scene between Liz and Elly transpires and Elly storms off to the kitchen after blubbering that nothing is ever the same.
After Liz and Elly go off to neutral corners, John explains what traditions are and Elly starts getting all sentimental about how Marian is no longer their to brainlessly nag her and how Mike's going to open his crap in the afternoon and that makes her sad. Jim quietly tells her that Marian is still sort of there because he and Elly still anticipate her constant stream of unsolicited advice and Mike's absence isn't the end of the world and she kind of chills when it's driven home that if she were to talk about a problem, it would go away. The problem is, of course, that learning morals is not something Elly does. Always and ever, her fear of being seen as being weak and silly makes her clam up and things fester stupidly.
