New Year's Day 2024
The one where Mike ties up traffic while making a stupid grand gesture.
Synopsis: As they drive home, simpering about missing one another leads to Mike and Rhetta stopping to go to first base in the middle of the street and causing a traffic jam.
Summary: If you're gonna do that, park someplace, you git!!!!
Synopsis: As they drive home, simpering about missing one another leads to Mike and Rhetta stopping to go to first base in the middle of the street and causing a traffic jam.
Summary: If you're gonna do that, park someplace, you git!!!!
The idea of having his 'freedom' limited scared the Hell out of the moron:
because you God-damn know that he'd be bleating about how his life would be over before it began like he was both of his parents. After a reminder that she's seen less as a person and more of a prop:
she decided that she couldn't live on hold waiting for him to bless her with his existence:
and he couldn't deal with someone else acting in their own interests.
Just as Martha mashed up his heart and tromped on it because he 'might' be exposed to the mockery of people he ain't smart enough to realize that they see him as a laughingstock who suffers and humiliates himself, Rhetta's cruel, cruel words that made him a bug on her windshield gravitate towards her existing as a person in her own right who cannot live her life on hold while he gets to do whatever the Hell he wants and she's just supposed to passively take it.
The cruel, cruel words he referred to in his whining whiny whine of being a whiny whiner whining about not getting his own way and having to be told the evil lie that other people are people too:
are "Act like a fucking adult, not a spoiled five year old who expects to be carried through life on a litter."
I remember Elly thought-bubbling about stunning him with an impossible concept that actually is impossible. John stuns him with a very possible concept that he does find impossible:
You can't teach a Mike Patterson to understand that other people are just as real as he is because he lacks the same thoory of mind his creator does.
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Same thing with Paul. He was supposed to act like a trophy in the case when not being treated like a trout on the line, waiting for Liz to decide what to do with him, and how dare he continue with his life while she's busy reconnecting with her stalker ex-HS boyfriend.
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But you cannot make a Patterson admit that they don't (and can't) see people. Just as we're supposed to take Liz at her word that she's a take-charge personality despite how whenever we do see her, most of the time she's standing around inertly, we're supposed to agree that a Patterson is the victim of treachery and manipulation.
The most gnawing example of 'What a Patterson thinks has happened has no connection to what actually happened" was when Mike howled and moaned about being told to think about what a person might actually like instead of what won't get Mike teased by oafs who see him less as a friend and more as a walking punchline:
Given how being told to his face that his vision of the world made her feel as if she herself as a person meant nothing to him:
resulted in his behaving as if acting like a civilized human being was being led to his doom by someone who treated him like a nobody whose opinion didn't matter:
What Mike needed to understand is blood simple: he is a flat-out cretin who is wrong about everything he holds to be true and totally off base about the people that surround him. He's wrong about Martha. He's wrong about Liz. He's wrong about Rhetta. He's wrong about Elly. He's wrong about Lawrence. He's wrong about April and Jim and Gordon and pretty much everyone except John. John is the only person he's actually right about.
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I still say this arc might have worked better if we actually had some idea what was on the gross out card, and Martha's friend with no name looks much too old to be in high school. The first time I saw this I thought at first she was one of the teachers.
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There's a unifying factor that makes it hard for them to see people: a mother who models behaving as if emotions that get in her way or make her feel bad or don't make her look good aren't really real, not really.
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The recurring theme I noticed with Elizabeth is that while she was around her boyfriends, they were head-over-heels in love with her; but the moment she left for something, they were off with another woman. This included Anthony who ended up with Thérèse when Liz went to the university.
With Michael and Rhetta, there is a separation, but it is slightly different. Like with Martha, Michael has moments with Rhetta where he is actively insensitive to her and ignores her or is mean to her.
Elizabeth is similar but not as consistent. She is outright cruel to Constable Paul Wright. Missing the meeting with his relatives. Moving away from Mtigwaki after he got a job transfer to be close to her. If you can believe his biography on-line, he was aware of Elizabeth spending time with Anthony. Elizabeth should not have been surprised that he cheated on her, and really, he should have broken up with her after she moved. He did not need to cheat. Her cruelty should have been enough for a break.
I can't think of a time when Elizabeth was cruel to Warren, but with Eric, she went on all Elly on him for his housekeeping and for some reason, he decided that Tina was better. This comic strip put it across well. In this one, Elizabeth is making a big deal about being nice to Eric with food. She is having to make an effort.
In contrast, here is Eric being treated by Tina as if it is not a big deal and look how relaxed and comfortable he is. What Elizabeth has to work at, Tina does naturally. No wonder he preferred Tina.
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The end result of this is a strip wherein the only valid response to Liz's baffled anger that someone broke up with a girl who did nothing wrong and is easy to get along with:
is derisive laughter and the statement: "I've produced an itemized list of your glaring character defects!"
Instead, another person told her what she wanted to hear:
Ah, well. At least the first person she talked to was only ill-informed and not flat-out useless:
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The best part of is Elizabeth's list of reasons why she should be considered a good girlfriend.
She is not stupid or ugly or selfish or dull.
She is tidy and clean.
She cooks.
She pays her own way.
She's honest, considerate, open-minded, forgiving and works hard.
25 Qualities of a Good Girlfriend Who Will Make You a Better Man | by Advice Corner | Medium
medium.com
How many of those fall in this list of 25 qualities:?
From the list, Elizabeth gets:
2. Trustworthy and honest:
7. Independent and self-sufficient:
8. Intelligent and well-rounded:
17. Physically attractive (optional):
What are the big ones that Elizabeth did not get?
3. Supportive and encouraging:
4. Kind, compassionate, and empathetic:
5. Respectful and understanding:
10. Affectionate and loving:
24. Is your best friend:
What I notice is that Elizabeth's list is all the things she is, but none of the things she gives. Elizabeth's list is very much like the resume of a good housekeeper, not a good girlfriend.
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You have a point there. Elly was intended to model Lynn, but no man ever cheated on Elly. In order to get the cheating, Lynn has Elizabeth model Lynn in a relationship. Elizabeth talks about herself in much the same way Lynn talks about her good traits, without failing to realize the falseness in her perspective or the aspects of her personality that would a drive a partner away.
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Instead, she has Elly hint at the falseness of Lynn's perspective as a parent by describing herself as being loving, fair, firm and kind while immediately making a liar of herself by saying how hard the children make it. We hit the ground running by having Elly yell at Mike for 'arguing' with her all the time. I don't know about you but what she calls 'arguing' sounds a lot like telling things from his own point of view.
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Elizabeth's self-description could have easily been lifted from Elly's own self-description. Both are good women, but they both leave out the characteristics of a good girlfriend/wife.
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Name me a man who actually thinks "physically attractive" is optional.
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These quote an OKCupid and Tinder study on how men and women rated each other for attractiveness. It implied that while men do pay attention to attractiveness, their ratings on appearance were less particular than women. She has to be attractive to the man, but what a man defines as attractive includes almost 2/3 of all women.
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I totally believe this study. I find MOST of the women I encounter attractive in some way- I think I lean toward finding attractiveness rather than looking for flaws, and I believe most men act this way. It is women who have the long list of demands on dating sites- a certain income, must be a certain height or above, etc. - not men.
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