Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for June 01, 2021

Bernice The BUZZKILL! lol

but, Frank and Luann, the buzz is personal to Bernice, not worth sharing to someone else!

What do you expect from someone who reads a thesaurus for fun?

Puddles gets it right.

Dictionaries and thesauruses… also I notice the dog appears to be listening too! (This is a joke).

It’s been a week of strip and we haven’t advanced any. Bernice is still going on about being a temptress. And why does she think Nils disapproved of her kiss. He’s such an introvert that he’s probably pleased but unsure how to respond.

Can we please move on?!

”Words Matter.” ✨

Well there’s the real problem. Bernice thinks that Nil didn’t like her advances.

It appears Frank and Luann can hear Bernice without even trying. So much for the accusations of eavesdropping.

Dang Luann, you and your daddy sure is nosy! LOL

Thin walls at the DeGroot’s! But then there’s not much to hear anyway.

Vexatious perfectly describes Bernice! Vexatious: adjective. causing vexation; troublesome; annoying.

Ms. Buzzkill indeed; truer words were never spoken

Wow! They are sure a nosy bunch in this house. There is no respect for privacy at all.

Bernice está exagerando (Bernice is overreacting).

The more I see the more I think Nil would be perfect for Bernice!

I want to see how Luann and Frank would explain it to Nancy and Bernice if they caught them eavesdropping on the conversation. This is gonna be good.

Non-Consensual " Without the willing agreement of the people involved.

Bernice the buzzkill.

Yeahhhhhh…I don’t think Nils is registering his shattered and traumatized experience to the metoo group.

Nonconsensual for who, Bernice?

Bern will be great in the legal field!!

Come on, people, heckling her with “buzzkill”. She couldn’t help who she is. She is an academic nerd who had has little interest in social life and guys. When she is interested in somebody, she naturally behaves very atypically. She doesn’t know what normal is. She doesn’t read people well and couldn’t read Nil which was why she turned around so fast and left him behind. She lives inside her head and it is spinning. She doesn’t need heckling (which means Luann) and needs a calming force (which means Nancy).

Words matter.

Somebody used nonconsensual instead of inconsequential.

Now as for non com sensual, Miss Buxley isn’t telling.

Yes, please talk about kissing loudly enough for a middle-aged man to get all the “juicy deets”. Bleghh.

Buzzkill_Bernice

“Hm. Not so juicy.”

I find it kind of weird that Frank is really looking forward for something juicy about something a 19/20 year old girl/woman who is his daughter’s nearly lifelong friend might have had going on.

Actually, I think Puddle’s expression says it all: curious, shocked, over it!

Frank!

After all these years of knowing each other, Bernice is still able to impress Luann with her huge awkwardness towards life and relationships. This is one of the secrets of their friendship and why they will remain friends until the end. I love seeing how Puddles copied Luann’s expressions and fell asleep after hearing how Bernice is telling her story.

Is she confessing to a moment of unbridled passion, or composing (badly) a pangram?

Oi…more college words…Blimey!

To Frank and Luann, sound like Bernice is using code words.

Frank is worried about his pancakes.

Like I thought she’s worried she’s leading Nil on into believing that she has feelings for him that she doesn’t.

Y’know what? Valid concern. Consent, that is.

Bernice kissed Nil without getting his consent first… Wouldn’t that be considered a sexual assault?

It’s not her fault those two can’t keep up.

Bernice is not looking for advice. She is already telling Nancy that Nancy is wrong and she Bernice knows better than her. She is also using words that she does not use in her everyday speech to try to show Nancy how much smarter she is than her. She also at the point where she is more bragging about the encounter than anything else.

Ming the Merciless.

Nanook of the North.

Wicked Witch of the West.

Gandalf the Grey.

Tony the Tiger.

And now, Bernice the Buzzkill

Bernice make Queen Victoria look like a hussy.

Scripps Spelling Bee alert.

There must be some pretty thin walls.

Frank is such a tool. First he is asked to leave to give Bernice privacy, so he’s goes to where he can still listen in. Then he invites Luann to join him in the eavesdropping. He’s just a big ol’ girl isn’t he. I suppose Luann has some eavesdropping rights, seeing as how Bernice was doing it to her, but it’s none of Franks’ business – not unless he wants to use the “it’s my house and I want to know what’s going on” card. That would be a first for him, knowing what’s going on, I mean. Bernice will soon find out she went from her parents house (where no one seemed to care what was happening to her) to the Degroots, where the people are in everyone else’s business 24/7. She’ll realize it just as soon as Luann starts the needling tomorrow. LOL!

Maybe Nil can come and talk to Frank about his “confusions”. That would be good!

Nil will probably show up at the front door soon to ask Bernice for a date.

The walls have ears…burning ones at that…

Ring that bell Nil! Or will it be Jack?!

Who describes a kiss as ‘vexatious?’ Besides Bernice that is?

When it comes to Bernice killing the “buzz”, it is all in the words she uses. Holy Crap, poor Nils.

Boring……

Bernice: Natural Born Spinster

Do the right thing Bernice. Marry him. 8^ )

I haven’t seen Luann1212 chime in lately re tongue with buzzkill. What’s your take on all this 1212 ?

Bernice get a grip. The guy likes you.

No, it’s you, Karen Evans, who’s the buzzkill. As I remarked last week, it began when you got hit on the head by that falling thesaurus. Bernice has never used words like the ones you’re putting in her mouth right now.

Bernice: Miss Analyze or mis-analyze?

Seriously, Bernice is the biggest twit there.

Is this conversation still happening???? Can we just agree that its best Bernice not date, or breed, or be allowed a speaking role?

I have made this complaint before, why is the TITLE character always Arc Adjacent? She is near the current story arcs, occasionally interacts with them, but very few are actually about Luann. Wouldn’t we rather be seeing a conversation between Nancy and Luann after Jack, or Les, or Ox, or Gunther or even TJ unexpectedly kissed her instead of watching Bernice’s hand wringing about kissing Nil?

5

I am a little disappointed that Frank was eavesdropping on the conversation between Bernice and Nancy. But, I cannot fault Luann for joining in on the listen too…. with her father doing so it would be very natural to join in.

Luann is able to deliver the funny “zinger” today about Bernice. Yet, I am hopeful that when/if Luann and Bernice talk together out of earshot of the DeGroot parents, that there will be a richer, deeper dialogue between Luann and Bernice.

I suspect that Nancy’s words of wisdom will help some…. but a new perspective from Luann (with the presumption that Luann will be in favor of what occurred) will also help Bernice. Luann might even be able to help Bernice feel some enthusiasm about the rather “daring” move (for Bernice) that she took.

Here’s my suggested fan fiction:

Part I

First frame: Next morning. B in kitchen, wearing buttoned up robe and hair in rollers, fixing her breakfast. She’s thinking: “Any minute now, Luann will start hassling me about Nil”.

Second frame: Luann enters kitchen followed by Puddles, carrying laundry basket, saying: “Do you need to do a wash? I’ve got a full load, but —”. B interrupts with: “What happened between Nil and me is none of your —”

Third frame: Luann starts loading the washer that is next to the kitchen’s back door, saying “The washer only takes 35 minutes, so you don’t have to wait —” but she is interrupted by a loud banging on the back door that scares Puddles away.

Fan Fiction, second strip:

First Frame: Luann opens the back door and sees an upset Jack. She says: “Jack! What’s __”. Jack interrupts while entering the door, saying: “Is Nil here with Bernice?”

Second frame: Jack rushes over to B, who is grabbing her already buttoned up robe, saying to Lu: “Luann, I’m not dressed —” Jack interrupts her, saying: “Never mind that. Where’s Nil?”

Third frame: All three together while Jack says: “Nil never came back to our place last night. He’s never done that. What did you do with him, Bernice?”

Fan Fiction, third strip:

First frame: B is saying: “I, I didn’t do anything with him. I left him in the parking lot outside his art show.” Luann is saying: “Come on, Jack, let’s go look for him.”

Second frame: Luann and Jack are getting out of his car at the parking lot. Jack is saying: “There’s Nils’ car. We should check to see if he’s inside it.” Luann says: “Wait, the door to the art exhibit is open.”

Third frame: Inside the art exhibit, Jack and Luann see an exhausted Nil, standing beside an easel with a new painting and saying: “This is my best one yet.”

Rare fourth frame: The painting is of a pair of lips that look like B’s lips. (Or, alternately, the painting is of a tongue…)

With a vocabulary like Bernice’s, if she ever gets mad, she can get back at her offender without cursing. She will leave them stunned and wondering what in the heck she just said.

Come to think of it, is this in fact Bernice’s first kiss?

Love this!

This story would be so much nicer if it weren’t so contrived. Bernice’s fish gets ill just so Jack can show up, just in time for him to ask Bernice out on a date with Nil who is just having an art show at that time. It would make more sense if Luann, who was in on the plan, had poisoned Monstro just to geet Jack to come over. But then Luann blurts out that Jack had planned to ask her out on Nils behaalf all along. Also, why did they mention that this was Nils’ art show. That’s kind of an important event in an artist’s life. And why did Bernice kiss Nil afterward. Why did she slip him a little tongue. Neither of these are things that Bernice normally does. Why does she even like Nil’s painting. And why did she tell Frank and Nancy that she didn’t want to talk about her date, when it such a plea to talk about it. It would be such a pleasant change if for once a plot evolved organically instead of being so contrived.

I doubt it was non-consensual, and I don’t even know those other two words

Sounds like the various possible responses or reactions (choices, choices, choices…) have become Nil’s to make. What does HE think of what happened? Will we go to a parallel conversation that he is having with a trusted confident?

The hussy!

Wow…I can imagine just how passionate a relationship with Bernice could be

In tomorrow’s strip Nil is going to knock on the door and ask for Bernice

Better buzzkill than roadkill.

I knew Bernice was reserved, but not Victorian level reserved.

yawn As I’ve said before, the Evanses have a serious problem with pacing a story. Why are we still listening to Bern kvetching and Frank listening in? Why haven’t we seen Nil’s take on events? I think Puddles speaks for us all.

They wanted Salacious details and got Eloquent Guilt.

By the way, Evans should never write about certain actions being “nonconsensual.” He can’t. He can’t. He can’t. He can’t. He can’t ever, in his childlike mind, understand nonconsensual physical violation. He can’t. He can’t. OMG, I’m so embarrassed for him.

Shh!

Good grief! If Bern is so shook by a kiss with a guy like Nil, try to imagine what she’d be doing/saying now had she been kissed by a lively guy?!

These girls are supposed to be in their 3rd year of college. They need to grow up. Plus Bernice wants to be a counsler? She’s got a long way to go when she can’t handle her own life.

For anyone who is curious about ‘fanfiction’, there are several wonderful examples of it in the world of mystery fiction. Let me back up a bit to explain that I have never been published as a fiction writer; over the years, I’ve had opportunities to write information columns in local newspapers, but, although I’ve often been a member of writer’s clubs, none of the short stories I’ve submitted made it to publication. Now that I’m retired (and learning to live with increased health issues) I hope to aim in future for publication. I just missed the deadline for submitting for the Black Orchid Novella prize offered by the Wolfe Pack (a group that celebrates the writing of Rex Stout and his detective, Nero Wolfe.) Maybe next year. In addition to this type of ‘fan fiction’ (written ‘in the style of’ but not necessarily about Stout’s character), there are writers such as Robert Goldsborough, who actually continue Stout’s characters. I can only hope to be as good someday as these writers…

Maybe somebody else has noticed and I missed seeing the post, but I noticed the following: When Bernice is talking about the “worst” things she did, she makes them sound uncertain – “Maybe” there was tongue. “Likely” vexatious. She’s not sure just how “bad” these things are, in spite of her shouting the house down about being a “temptress.” To me, that just adds to the confusion, but I hope Nancy can untangle Bernice’s thoughts well enough to help her.

I always feel so WRONGED when some woman kisses me without my consent…over and over and over!!

The burdens of this physique!!