Hi!

I've just rewatched the Rival for... reasons that are beyond this thread. Anyhow, Linda mentions that it's been six years since their graduation, but that doesn't compute.

Lois is born in October or so 1967. So, she graduated high school in 1985. Four years college make it 1989. The show started in May 1993, the Rival was in spring 1994. To get away with six years, college would have had to be just three years?

Is it possible that it was just three years? And no, I doubt it's been just Lois taking extra classes, since Linda graduated in the same class. At least, that's my take.

So, opinions?

Michael

Here's my solution: Linda started college a year earlier than Lois. Lois, always the overachiever, completed a four year degree in three years. She probably graduated summa cum laude, too. Linda and Lois therefore graduated the same year

Problem solved?

Joy,
Lynn

Possibly...

Checks with other facts...

Lois had a crush on Paul when he was a senior and editor of the paper. I guess from the dialog it's safe to assume she only met him when he already was a senior and she joined the paper. Is it possible she only joined the paper in her second (of three) years? How many years on the paper are required of journalism students? Two or three? I'd guess, they won't take freshmen, so it would have to be two years. as the minimum. Also, Lois would have had to catch up with a lot of stuff in years one and two, plus have time to meet and make best friends with Linda. I guess, it could work that way

Thanks, Michael

I could totally see Lois doing the extra courses thing. It's actually not that hard to graduate in 3 years if you put the effort into it. She could have taken a ton of AP (advanced placement) courses in high school and therefore would have had a ton of credits to apply to her college (get a 3 or better on the AP exam, get your 3 credits for that class in college). Her taking AP courses (assuming that was around in the 80's of course - I was in high school 1996-2000) would fit in perfectly with her character.

I was an honors student and graduated in 3.5 years (although my degree wasn't conferred until the full 4th year thanks to my honors thesis).

I don't know about how many years would be required for the school paper though - I was a Broadcasting major.

Another possibility: She skipped a grade in public school and therefore graduated a year early.

Joy,
Lynn

But that wouldn't explain her high school graduation in 1996 at 18.

DC: They didn't start AP courses in my high school until after I graduated in 1989.

There could be another possiblity that nobody has suggested. Linda may be really bad at math and messed up the number of years. (anything to knock Linda down a peg or two) Of course, if that were true, I'm sure Lois would have called her on it.

Ah, thanks for clearing that up, Virginia.

Hmm... no, that doesn't fit. She had her high school reunion in 1996. I'd assume, it's been her ten-year reunion. Also, she was class president in her senior year and there is the exchange year in Ireland. That doesn't leave too much room for graduating early. Lois catching up with the first two years of college within one year and then doing two years on the student paper sound the most likely.

Too bad it's not a question between 4 and 6 years though. Otherwise, Linda might be used to thinking in Roman numbers, and just mixed them up

Michael

Oops. Forgot about that. Back to the drawing board...

Joy,
Lynn

Re Advanced Placement classes: I graduated high school in 1985 and took six A.P. classes over two years (three in Junior year and three in Senior). Lois could certainly have come into college with enough credits to let her graduate in three years.

All this is assuming that the writers are consistent across episodes. The simple answer is that the writers can't add and haven't thought through the entire timeline of Lois' college career. :p

Happy

Oh dear. Lois was given several different birth dates/years during the course of the show. It's like the # on her apartment door. It changes. Just go with it!

Michelle, you could be on to something. After all, those same authors (okay, maybe it was a different screen writer ) also managed to add a zero to the five of Lois's floor number before pushing her out the window.

When did they mess with her birthday? At least the year should be consistent. S3 had her born in 1967, in the pilot (1993) she mentioned being 26.

Michael

PS: Yes, trying to make sense of this stuff *is* important. Otherwise, we'd end up in a time paradox the likes even Tempus hasn't seen yet (or H.G. Wells caused).

According to the date displayed at the beginning of "Super Mann", the events in "Neverending Battle" took place in May, 1993. That's right after the pilot, where Lois says she's 26. In "Tempus, Anyone?" the ALT Lois's tombstone says 1967 but gives no month. In "Contact" Starr tries to guess Lois's zodiac sign and Lois tells her she's a Libra, which puts her birthday in September or October. If she was born in Sept/Oct. of 1967 then she would only have been 25 years old in May 1993, not 26 as she said.

So either Lois doesn't know her own age, she lied to Starr about her Zodiac (for whatever reason), the Alt-Lois had a different birth year than our Lois (hmmm...), or the writers goofed.

See what I mean? The more you think about it, the more befuddled your brain gets!

When you look at it this way...

Michael

No, Michael, this is good. It means that you aren't constrained by cannon and can pick and choose whichever facts work best for your story.

Here's another take. The show itself contracted time. In the third season, Lois says that Clark's glasses fooled her for three years, but if you go by the actual time the show was on the air, it was only a little over two (counting from the first season, the third season was only two years later). Also in the fourth season, it is stated somewhere that Superman appeared four years ago -- but by the strict timeline, it was only three years. Therefore, more time had actually passed than it might look like. Then you can fit just about anything in anywhere that you want, as long as you don't get too outrageous.

Hmm... no, time contraction doesn't seem to work, either. There's been a Christmas tree in each season so the best one could do is move the episodes around a bit

I think the easiest way is to say that there have been four yours between seasons 1 and 4, since that's what their math-wizards came up with. After all, season 4 must mean it's been 4 years, right?

Michael

Michael, while it could be plausible that there are really just loose time contractions (and if at the end of this you find yourself beating your head against the wall, maybe you should consider that as your most valid option ), there are other options. While speaking in strict timeline, it seems that the episodes contradict each other (i.e. Clark's glasses fooling Lois for 3 yrs), there really were four years that went on. Any mistakes in dialogue for parts like the one just mentioned could be attributed to the way we as humans keep track of time (which is to say, NOT by the calander year). Particularly when dealing with schools, we often keep track of time based on the fall semesters, which is why when we say we graduate in 2011 it really means the 2010-2011 school year. Just a thought, since it's 3.30 am right now a lot of this might not make much sense...

As for the debate about classes and graduating early... it is a definite possibility, though highly unlikely based on the general timeline. In California (where I'm from ), I was under the impression that AP courses began in at latest the early to mid eighties. However, AP courses aren't the only option for college advancement. On occassion, depending on the course and how applicable it is to your major, you can test out of subjects. Other times they can supplement an SAT/ACT score for general ed classes, and of course by earning AP credit. Prior to the AP program, however, there was(is) the IB courses(international baccalaureate- which was generally held as the best option up until AP came around only due to it's worldwide status) that helps not only with college entrance but also can get you waved from classes. Just some rambling thoughts from my head that I'm no longer sure is at all applicable to the topic at hand...

Too tired/lazy to sort out what any of that means in relation to your question, but yeah. All I know is that I should be finishing up my BFA in under two and a half. That's all the information I have on it.

More likely than not, you're going to have to just ignore all of the jumbled up words in here and just go with your gut, or dismiss it all as inconsistencies on the writer's parts (which, as much as we've been trained to believe and analyze works based on the assumption that everything was done intentionally by the writer, we writers know half of which is pretty much crap spun out of thin air ). So sorry if this did absolutely no good. That's what you get for boredom and various sleep disorders...

*me tomorrow morning after staying up all night*:

This fuzziness does sound like the best way to approach things.

What???? Dismiss canon? Next you're telling me Superman isn't real.

On a related subject: What if the show actually jumped around multiple parallel time streams with just minor deviations regarding when something happened. This way, we could watch S3 Lois lamenting about 3 years of fooling even while we've been watching a different Lois in season 1 and 2.

Okay, *now* I have a headache.

Michael

"Hmm... no, time contraction doesn't seem to work, either. There's been a Christmas tree in each season so the best one could do is move the episodes around a bit [Huh]"

You can do anything you like, naturally, but it still can work -- how do we know that something memorable happened every Christmas during the first 4 years? Maybe there was just (unthinkable as it seems) one Christmas where absolutely nothing unusual happened! (unbelievable, isn't it?) So that six years was as possible as anything else in the show, which gives you a lot of latitude. My advice is just to ignore it. That works pretty well, too.

Nan

FWIW -- I graduated high school in 1986, and I definitely took AP exams. I got 6 college credits (three for English, three for math). Lois could have done the same.

PJ

OK, everyone else's high school obviously better than mine! <<pout>>

Another solution, besides ignoring Linda, is that Lois took summer school classes at the local college to earn extra credit before going on to Met U. I mean as well as working an internship at the DP. I just can't see Lois lying around sunbathing, taking an actual vacation, hanging out with girlfriends at the mall, or working at the local burger joint during the summer while in high school.

The summer between junior and senior year of high school, I took a Chemistry class at the local University and I was able to use it not only for high school credit, but also college credit. (Those darn college applications required more than one science class even if my high school didn't.)

Yeah... it has often felt -- to me -- like at certain parts of the series, time DID seem to... well, expand or whatever. It may be completely in my imagination, but here are some parts I'm thinking of...

*End of S1 -- Lois and Lex start dating and get engaged what seems like REALLY quickly. Hmmmm.... was it really only a few months, or was it longer?

*We were never told exactly how long it was between Franklin Stern buying the Planet, and "Madame Ex" when they're all back at work after the "remodel". Was it really four months, like in our time? Less? More? How long does it take to clean up a place that was bombed (destroyed? - but with very few, if any (mentioned) casualties... hmmm) and put it in working order? Good thing Mr. Stern doesn't work for the Government, or it would've taken years to get them back to work! j/k

*We know L&C are all over each other , but getting engaged in November (1995) and setting the wedding date for February 1996 -- and having Lois's mom STILL be planning the doves and the flowers in January, only a month before the big day? Yeahhh that's a bit strange, even in a world where a man can fly.

So yeah, I agree with Nan. We fanfic writers can totally throw the calendar out the window when it comes to the world of L&C.

I also see Lois excelling in high school. Maybe she graduated high school at 17, not 18. I know I did. I've two sons whose ages indicate they'll do the same.

Then again... we have so many things that were confusing about the show.

SQD (who just goes with the flow)

I graduated in 1982 and AP classes were around then, but there is another possibility that bypasses AP classes completely.

Anyone can take classes at a community college, regardless of age. As a high school student, Lois could have taken enough credits to enable her to complete her university degree in three years and still graduate high school with her classmates.

Actually, I’ve been told that if enough credits are completed at the community college level (32?) then a GED is automatically earned. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to say she received a diploma with her class instead of a GED certificate.