Recent Comments

1. about 4 hours ago on Luann

   It’s not just California but my point was that Brad and Toni live in Southern California. It’s based on the region Greg lives or lived in.

2. about 21 hours ago on Luann

   I just reread my post and some odd words got replaced or omitted but hopefully it still made sense…

3. about 24 hours ago on Luann

   I’d tend to agree with you that it was Toni who brought the baggage to the marriage. I actually could see why Nancy was leery of her early one. I think there was a tendency both by Brad and the readership to shrug that off because she was visually such a prize (while I do give Brad credit for seeing her other qualities). I don’t doubt that Toni staying with Dirk would have been a catastrophe. But in reality marrying Brad would probably not have been an easy road for either of them. A lifetime of family/relationship issues wouldn’t have just magically disappeared because she married someone from a different background. I’ve been waiting for some of those issues to re-emerge.

   I never said that Les’s failings and/or choices were entirely due to Ann, who was only ret-conned into being his mother (I never found that writing choice at all credible). I was the one who thought he should have been serving time in prison.

   As the strip is mainly about single young people I don’t energy is being expended in showing a bunch of successful marriages. Frank and Nancy sometimes come across as a slightly updated version of the Cunninghams in Happy Days – a happy settled pair without many of the complexities a real married couple would have. But then some of us (me among them) have probably been hoping for more in depth character development than the writers of a daily newspaper comic strip (usually ending in a punchline) are probably aiming for.

4. 1 day ago on Doonesbury

   I admit it’s also been a while for me but I don’t remember them neglecting Jeff or over-indulging.

5. 1 day ago on Luann

   Okay, that sounded like too personal an inquiry on my part. (See my last post.) But sometimes people’s real life experiences can provide an insight into fictional story telling.

6. 1 day ago on Luann

   Okay, that sounded like too personal an inquiry on my part. But sometimes people’s real life experiences can provide an insight into fictional story telling.

7. 1 day ago on Luann

   How old am I again? I remember lots of long term marriages in the 1960’s that turned out to be very dysfunctional: “Holy Deadlock” I think was the term. This being the 21st century there are a lot of single and divorced parents. As for looking to Brad and Toni to be a throw back to a sort of idealized marriage remembered from yesteryear, I think they’re a bad choice – they love each other but there is a lot of unexplored baggage still there. Toni was never going to be an easy person to fit into a traditional wife and mother mode. I think people were so dazzled by her looks that when she married Brad (and remember how long it took her to come around to that, and that she was the one who proposed) they shrugged off any potential difficulties and differences in life priorities.

   Maybe Dez and Jack have terrific parents. As for Bernice, we’ve never heard their side to this current housing situation. It could be that Bernice’s version isn’t the one they were told. I think you’re being tough on Irma (a very loving mother if not perfect – but then neither is her son) and even Faye’s mother (remember Faye is very young). I came from parents in a long term happy marriage but all marriages have issues.

   Are you married? If so is there any relationship in Luann that comes closest to your personal experience? (Luann’s parents for example.)

8. 1 day ago on Doonesbury

   Or maybe the fathers have something to do with it. Anyway both J.J. and Jeff were written for comedy, with Jeff being the classic conservative rebel against his more progressive parents. I don’t see Joanie, who is a member of the bar, a successful lawyer, and a wife to a great guy (and WPO journalist) lacking common sense. Say what you will about Jeff, he seems to make a pretty good living.

9. 1 day ago on Doonesbury

   I don’t think Joanie is or was unstable, just that she’d had enough. Through most of the strip she’s been a successful lawyer in a long term marriage. (And yes, there’s no accounting for Jeff.)

10. 1 day ago on Doonesbury

    Joanie was in a very unhappy marriage. Her actions made more sense in the era in which the story took place. (I remember during divorce proceedings her ex had his bowling shoes on because he wasn’t nearly as torn up as he was trying to convey.)