Mavis and Bill

Joan McGrath is a Toronto Board of Education library consultant.

We hear a lot about what the pundits think of the world situation, of the goings-on in Ottawa, Washington, and London. Unemployed youth are interviewed as they lounge against the gas pumps; haggard housewives trying to fill their shopping carts are buttonholed in the detergent aisle and their opinions assessed; but who makes a point of asking those with the longest perspective of all, the senior citizens, what they make of the unfolding panorama? Well, Ben Wick’s Mavis and Bill are two of these attentive observers, and here are their well-thought-out findings. Fans of the syndicated strip The Outcasts wait eagerly for their appearance in the dailies: most of us recognize the personalities nearest and dearest to us in kindly Mavis, who is keen on the Royal family, and Bill, who dislikes pretty nearly everybody. People with these kinds of opposing viewpoints always seem to be married to one another. Which comes first: the personality or the reaction to long-term matrimony? They are everybody’s aged parents; one day, if we last long enough, they will be us. A bonanza for fans of The Outcasts.