Tag: sports

Stroke-a-Bull

OK, two things: Fred’s stroke took place six weeks ago. In “strip time”, it’s probably been even longer, as he’s recuperated sufficiently to move back home. So Fred’s stroke should be news to no one. Yet Cayla blankly asks “Where’s Ann tonight?” Linda doesn’t even take her eyes off the court to answer. “Ann’s husband…you know, Fred? Fred Fairgood? The former principal of the high school where you work? Your husband’s former colleague? Fred? Had a stroke.” Batiuk tops off this clunky dialogue parfait with a delicious dollop of stroke humor: “I always thought my ineffectual, incoherent, useless husband would be rendered even more ineffectual, incoherent, and useless by a stroke, and sooner rather than later.”

Waiting on the Levy

We finally leave behind the music educators convention to get back to something we all know and loathe: Les, Cayla and perennial third wheel Linda taking in a girls’ women’s basketball game. Aaaaand we get the annual school levy begathon. “If the new school levy doesn’t pass”, I think Westview’s staff would be worse than “decimated”…do they even have ten teachers?

Kerry On, My Wayward Daughter

Minutes pass as Darin stands in the doorway, all agog. The stranger clears her throat and repeats her introduction. “I’m Kerry. I’m Fred Fairgood’s daughter.”

While we wait for the ground to stabilize ‘neath Darin’s feet, we are treated to a confusing and unnecessary flashback. Bull, who would go on to become a teacher and then a school administrator, is sitting in Principal Fairgood’s office because his poor grades threaten to prevent him from playing football. Coach Stropp has made it clear to Fred that his perennially losing squad can not afford to lose Bull (I guess we’re to take Fred at his word that he’s “just kidding” about his daughter being kidnapped).

Having recently acquired and read a couple paperback Funky Winkerbean collections, I get the feeling that Batiuk has redrawn an actual Act I strip, and in the context of Act I it was probably mildly amusing. Shoehorned into today’s comic, it’s disconcerting, and not just because Batiuk’s sepia-toned the panels, instead of deploying the “photo album corners” he typically uses to denote flashbacks. Bull’s got nothing to do with the current storyline. It’s more like Batiuk’s playing this card to defend against accusations of retconning: “See? September ’79! Fred clearly states that he has a daughter!”

Things Changed Somehow

As Ann continues her recollection of her life with Fred, the picture she paints is far less rosy than we’d expect. It was only one year ago that TB brought Fishstick Annie back to Westview High to inspire the slumping girls’ team with the story of how she defeated the status quo on the way to coaching her team to a division title.

More recently, the senior Fairgoods shanghaied Darin and Jessica to take them on a tour of places they lived earlier in their marriage, and reminisced about how much fun they had in their old apartment. Now with Fred laid low, Ann confides that “somehow,” becoming Mrs. Fred Fairgood forced this feisty female to forfeit her ambition? Does the fact that their marriage turns out to be devoid of romance make this storyline even sadder, or less so?