Setting
Although the city the strip is set in is never named, a number of clues to the location are given. The celebrated holidays, and Laurie's love of football indicate they are in the United States. A new years strip reveals they are six timezones from Amsterdam, along with frequent winter snow suggests they are in the north east. Because Katie has never been to the beach, coastal cities or those bordering the great lakes are also unlikely. There is no indication as to how big the city they live in is, only that it has bus service. It would seem that they live somewhere in New England, indicated when Laurie was seen wearing jerseys that were clearly intended to replicate those of the New England Patriots (more specifically, those of Tom Brady) before and after the Colts vs. Patriots game during the 2007 NFL Playoffs.
If we are willing to accept the phone system in the strip works as it does in reality, the phone number Katie has written on her stomach gives further clues. The 617 area code is for Boston, which is an unlikely home to someone who has never been to the beach and has no 532 prefix. Eliminating cell phones, the 617-5xxx numbers in each area code apply to the following New England cities: Rochester, NY, Rome, NY, Perkasie, PA, and Philadelphia, PA. It also exists in the following Midwestern cities within the proper time zone: Trinity, OH, Independence, OH, Girard, OH, Zanesville, OH, Ridgeway, OH, Sebewaing, MI, and Grand Rapids, MI.
Most of the strips set in the present take place inside Laurie's house. Other common settings are Katie's school, the local playground, and riding the city bus. Most of the Back in Time strips are in or near Laurie's parents' house.
Read more about this topic: Count Your Sheep
Famous quotes containing the word setting:
“With wonderful art he grinds into paint for his picture all his moods and experiences, so that all his forces may be brought to the encounter. Apparently writing without a particular design or responsibility, setting down his soliloquies from time to time, taking advantage of all his humors, when at length the hour comes to declare himself, he puts down in plain English, without quotation marks, what he, Thomas Carlyle, is ready to defend in the face of the world.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“One of my playmates, who was apprenticed to a printer, and was somewhat of a wag, asked his master one afternoon if he might go a-fishing, and his master consented. He was gone three months. When he came back, he said that he had been to the Grand Banks, and went to setting type again as if only an afternoon had intervened.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“The setting was really perfect for a brisk bubbling murder....”
—Vladimir Nabokov (1899–1977)