About Betty's TWO husbands?...

Cannonshop · Post by **Cannonshop** » Sat Apr 09, 2005 6:00 pm

*blink, blink*

How is it that Betty, Liza's mother, have two husbands?
This is surely a new story arc, right?
Or am I missing something?

Either way, it's going to get interesting to see how the characters react to this.

Joshnickerson · Post by **Joshnickerson** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 5:57 am

I dunno, I think he's actually refering to LIZA with that photo.

Cannonshop · Post by **Cannonshop** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 6:51 am

joshnickerson wrote:I dunno, I think he's actually refering to LIZA with that photo.

But didn't Betty used to have red hair when she was younger and then dyed it black later on in her life after Liza was born? That's my guess at least.

DocMan · Post by **DocMan** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 9:15 am

"Betty Masters" would be Liza, not her mother as that would be her mother's Married Name. I believe that we're looking at an arranged marriage theme here.

Doc

Cannonshop · Post by **Cannonshop** » Sun Apr 10, 2005 4:34 pm

DocMan wrote:"Betty Masters" would be Liza, not her mother as that would be her mother's Married Name. I believe that we're looking at an arranged marriage theme here.

Doc

I'm curious. Could you please direct me to the name change/birth name of Liza exactly? Even if it's there that is. I could have sworn that Betty is Liza's mother.

If this is an arranged marriage thing going on here, I need to know a little bit more background.

DocMan · Post by **DocMan** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 4:07 pm

Cannonshop wrote:
DocMan wrote:"Betty Masters" would be Liza, not her mother as that would be her mother's Married Name. I believe that we're looking at an arranged marriage theme here.

Doc
I'm curious. Could you please direct me to the name change/birth name of Liza exactly? Even if it's there that is. I could have sworn that Betty is Liza's mother.

Exactly? I don't know about that. Read through the archive yourself. It'll keep you busy until the rest of the story is done.

However, in the universe *I* live in, "Liza" is a nickname for Elizabeth. And since the kids at Coleman Elementary call her Miss Masters, I am led to believe that Liza's real name is Elizabeth Masters.

Now, Liza's mom is Betty. So one would presume that her last name was ALSO Masters, as there is no evidence to date that Liza was ever married. But in this case Masters would be a married name.

Since it was established that the big lumberjack guy is Liza's DAD, I'm going to make a Wild A$$ed Guess that his last name is Masters and that he's the one that Betty is married to.

Now then, "Betty" is also a nickname for Elizabeth. So it would appear that we have Elizabeth Masters who is the daughter of Elizabeth masters.

And then this bloke shows up saying that Betty Masters is his wife. If he's talking about the older Elizabeth, then Liza was born without the benefit of a legitimate marriage. Of course, if that was the case, why doesn't she have her father's last name?

Another option is that he means the younger Elizabeth. In that case, either Liza is a runaway bride (which is totally out of character), or they haven't actually been married yet. If he's calling Liza "Betty", then he doesn't know her very well, or hasn't seen her for a long time. So if he's not seen her in years, but thinks he's going to marry her, odds are the marriage was arranged. Because, you know, poor people in Europe used to go in for arranged marriages.

If this is an arranged marriage thing going on here, I need to know a little bit more background.

I got nothing else.

Doc

J-Dawg · Post by **J-Dawg** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 6:37 pm

Okay....I was gonna be mean and just let everyone hang on this, but, I should probably clear up some stuff.

Yup, Liza's got herself a husband, apparently.

And, I always had a hunch that Liza/Elizabeth/Betty would mess people up. Just like Liza's mom's name Peg/Margaret. As far as I know, Betty's short for Elizabeth. I promise I won't have any conversations like this with Liza and her Irish friends:

Liza: Hello, there, Colleen! How are you?
Colleen: Fine, Betty! How are you? Ohlook! There's Shamus!
Shamus: Heya, Betsy! How are ya?
Liza: My head hurts. Oh look. There's my mom.
Colleen: Hello, Maggie! How's Margaret today? We were just hangin' around with Lizzy here listening to the song 'Beth.'
Darron: Hey Liza, what's up? Hey Mrs. Masters.
Liza's mom: Call me Peg.
Liza: I'm changing my name to Sara.

Promise.

In short: Peg is short (somehow) for Margaret, Liza's mom. Liza and Betty are both short for Elizabeth. I know this because I work with an Elizabeth I call Betty and the lady Liza's mom is based on is named Margaret but everyone calls her Peg.

Now my head hurts. Hope this helps, though!

J-Dawg · Post by **J-Dawg** » Mon Apr 11, 2005 6:38 pm

I really have to change that avatar.

Schol-R-LEA;2 · Post by **Schol-R-LEA;2** » Sat Jun 04, 2005 12:29 pm

The connecting point between 'Elizabeth' and 'Betty' is 'Beth', actually. This is why 'Bethany' is also sometimes shortened to Betty. There are stranger variants, really; for example, Derrick and Ted both come from Theodoric. Interesting trivia: the name Pamela (Greek for 'all honey') was coined in 1740 by Samuel Richardson, for the protagonist of his book by the same name. Curiously, the name didn't become common after until F. Scott Fitzgerald used it in The Great Gatsby, and a common misunderstanding is that Fitzgerald coined the name himself.

'Peg' comes from 'Meg' (the M->P change is also seen in 'Mary' -> 'Molly' -> 'Polly'), which is a common diminuative for 'Megan', which is in turn is the Welsh form of 'Margaret'.

According to Unca' Cecil, Margaret is one of the names with the most variants in English, including 'Marge', 'Maggie', 'Greta', 'Marjorie' and 'Rita'. And yes, it means that Marge and Maggie Simpson have the same first name. Amazing what a few web searches turns up, innit?