For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for September 30, 2012

Poor Farley! :(

sneaky (good thing Edison didn’t get pesky kids & a yapping dog when testing his phonograph)

Putting on the dog.

Farley definitely looks miffed….he’ll probably find a way to get even with them…maybe scratch all over their beds….

Oh, the good old days of reel-to-reel tapes. I nver had a pet who could hear anything from an electronic. How do I know? My aunt used to play the piano (and she was a very good musician) and my dog howled like a wolf. But if I put on a phonograph of someone playing a piano, she would just ignore it. By the same tokn, I have never had a pet who noticed its reflection in a mirror and yet anything that moved in real life got a reaction from my dog or cat.

The kids are way out of control!

Hahahahahahahahahahahah

That’s when I would have been kicked out of the house to play outside.

I keep reading this strip waiting for something funny, but mostly it’s just poor Farley getting treated terribly or what’s-his-name being insensitive to Elly. I just don’t see the humor in it most of the time. I think I’ll move on to something else…

Elly, you’ve got a rolled up newspaper in your hand, use it.

only when they need it.

and that’s a problem? I spanked my child when he was acting bad. I was spanked too. I grow up fine, and so did my child.

those kids are brats.

Poor Farley puts up with a lot.

Very true.

“It looks like the sound of his own barking lulls Farley to sleep.”I think that’s supposed to be a mad face on Farley. HIs pupils are cutting way over toward the kids, and his brows are knitted in an angry expression.

Re: Pets responding to non-“real” sounds. We had an orange tabby that loved the sound of our cheap little Hammond-type organ. My daugher would play on it, and he’d hop onto the bench and sit by her. When he heard organ music on the radio, he’d hop up on the organ bench and sit there.Re: Responding to mirror images. My other daughter had a cat that saw her reflection in the mirror. She looked behind the mirror to check out what was there, and saw nothing. Later, there was a ball in front of her, and she played with it by looking at the ball in the mirror and pawing at the real one. Another cat of hers wigged out one Christmas when it was confronted by a China cat. Siegfried arched his back, hissed, did the stiff-legged bit, etc., until he figured out that the cat wasn’t dangerous.

My two daughters had the most fun I can remember when they started playing with the reel-to-reel tape player. They recorded several sounds, then burped. They discovered that they could burp more if they drank water beforehand. It went, “burp . . . giggle . . .burp . . . giggle.” Then they found that they could speed up the sounds: “[Click!] . . .teeheehee . . .[Click] . . teeheehee.” Even better was the slowed-down sound: “Bra-a-a-a-a-app . . . . . HAWWW HAWW HAWW HAWW HAWWW!” This kept them busy for an hour.

I had to laugh at this strip. I used to turn my tape recorder on and record my mother talking on the phone. Then I’d play it back after she hung up. It was so funny. Michael and Lizzie sure are laughing at their little joke. =) :D

I’ve gotta admit, that was pretty good.

drop the paper and grab a PADDLE! (And I don’t mean for the DOG)

When i was a kid we watched Walt Disney’s “Incredible Journey” on TV. My dog Wylbur went nuts running round and round the TV trying to play with the dogs and cat and especially…the bear!

We had a cat who liked to watch TV. He was watching “Aliens”, and when the queen alien rose up out of the slime, he arched his back and fizzed up, hissed and ran out of the room.

Having had the misfortune recently of having to carry one of my reel decks upstairs, I can tell you there’s no way a kid Michael’s age is going to just pull one of those monsters out of the closet.

Wow, a reel to reel recorder!

Works on kitties too:Cat had a litter of kittens, so recorded (cassette) the kittens mewing.Then, later, played back the tape.Mother cat was trying to get into the boom-box!

What was the original publication date?