Skimming the archives, I normally start these commentary posts with some fun facts about my state of mind leading into a particular chapter. Today I’m stumped. This one just is what it is.
Never let the truth get in the way of some good tidbits…
Some Good Tibits:
- For awhile the title of this chapter was “How I Met Your…” but I never really liked the mixed media message of referencing two television shows aside from the cheeky nod to one being a sequel. “How We Met” was a more on-brand compromise since it’s halfway to the title of a Jens Lekman song.
- “Peanuts” to lead off the chapter is a silly nod to Charlie Brown’s Little Red-Haired Girl. I just this very second as I was drafting this blog post thought “Did the Peanuts Gang ever time travel?” and found this!
- Exactly who Local Boy would meet in this chapter went through a few iterations (and hair colors) over the years. Eventually landed on Nelson’s mom making the most sense, but strongly suggesting it was supposed to be the redhead (who may or may not have stood him up) made for a fun scene. Wedging in these lines was my typical way of salvaging the fits and starts of the beginning before moving on “Turns out he was talking about multiple girls. Our daughter, our first wife, and another lady friend he wanted me to meet today.” | “My older self had a maddening habit of overusing pronouns instead of proper names, so I was never quite sure exactly who he spoke of at any given time.”
- Behind the scenes explanation above aside, the in-book takeaway you should have is who Local Boy actually met and who the Old Man expected him to meet may not be the same girl. The lip biting nervous tic may or may not be important later, hint-hint…
- She’s playing the actual Anthrax version of “(If) Only” — but how?
- As usual, the list of songs on the Local Gal demo changed a lot draft to draft. Finally landed on a close but not exact match to Local Boy’s record with a few changes. “Fire Non-Starter” is my favorite addition. “That Wine (20/20)” is the first song LG played in the park.
- Jimmy having “dyslexia and a few other things” is saying he’s on the spectrum without making too much fuss about it.
- Local Gal Done Bad is one of the few bits from my original hypothetical TP sequel idea from years ago that made it to the final work.
- “You’ll ruin everything!” is something the old man in TP1 says multiple times, so the phrase returns for continuity. Back in that book he gets questioned for hyperbole, which is where we’ll pick up next time.