For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for March 27, 2010

She’s right; John shouldn’t be mad at Michael - he should be mad at the person who lost track of the keys in the first place.

This looks a little jumbled, too many panels. Why is there so many panels nowadays anyways?

Dyl it isn’t that bad.

Ha … if he had left the keys in his pocket OR the ignition, they wouldn’t have gotten sucked up, and Elly is right, this is a first for Mike, cleaning something!

How did Elly bring Lizzie in a taxi if Lizzie’s car seat was in the locked car?

Yes, I agree, too jumbled , too many panels, too much text these days.

well, most taxi services offer children’s seats, don’t they?

There a bright side to everything.

\\//_

Ellie is behaving wonderfully well. Not mad at John *or* Michael. Amazing!!

Michael cleaned the car. That’s how the keys got into the vacuum.

He just needs some time to cool off. He’s probably mad at himself and Michael thinks it’s directed at him. Kids just see a mad parent and think they did something wrong.

(Happy birthday to my biggest little girl who likes to read the comics as much as I do!)

For the one who asked about taxi’s and carseats: We always had more than one anyway. They get gunky after a while.

But more importantly, this is a CARTOON. Nothing more. If you identify with it, great, if not, don’t read it.

I don’t John is mad. I haven’t seen yelling or fuming.

Ahem! John should be mad at himself, not Michael for sucking the keys up by the vaccum cleaner at the car wash place.

By the way, I absolutely agree with Elly about her comment. Bring it on! Suck everything up while clean up at home. Would that be more FUN! LOLs! X-D

@lightenup - you bring up a very good point. I recently had another insight for marriage. I would get mad at something - Windows, Obamacare, the kids filling the sink with dirty dishes so there is no room to wash them. My wife would react as if I was mad at her! Now I can see that when someone is mad in your presence, it can feel as if they are mad at you. Especially if you aren’t as passionate about whatever they are mad at.

Oh, I love how she can see the bright side when it happens to someone else. If it happened to her, we’d see her uvula while she screams her head off.

Why doesn’t she have a car, when she’s the one who takes care of two kids all day? Does she bring them to all their appointments by cab, while big John the Dentist parks the one car at his office all day long? Clean more teeth and buy the woman a cartoon car!!!

Very few people had the luxury of two cars in those days. Anyhow car seats were not mandatory then either. Today taxis do not provide car seats. I checked for my daughter. I was told that it is very rare to get a taxi that does. I’m from Ontario where the comic originates.

They probably share the car. Elly probably drops him off at work in the morning or borrows the car when she needs it. Maybe Ted carpools with John.

MrsLukeSkywalker:

Loved … loved … loved your entire comment today!!!!!

Thanks for the biggest laugh I’ve had all day!!!!!!!!!!

Maybe things have changed since she drew these but the self service car washes near me have always had a door in the vacuum the customer can open in case something is sucked in accidentally.

It’s a good thing MrsLuke spelled “uvula” right or we would have a whole different meaning.

@Burgundy2 - thank you! She had a great day celebrating. 7 is a wonderful age. She’s always reading the comics over my shoulder and saying “Hey lightenup, post your comment below!”, so she got a kick out of being part of my comment. :-)

Summerdog: Did you look up uvula? I have two hanging in the back of my throat. I’ve won many a bar bet on that one.

Two? You’re kidding!

Littledutchboy, that’s pretty cool. Personally, I have a bifurcated uvula, so it looks like it is heart-shaped. My brother, sister and I all thought that was the neatest thing when we were growing up (and it is natural, not the result of surgery or accident).

Thanks Gretchensmom.

Elly’s UVULA is no stranger to any of us. We see an awful lot of it.

Everyone I knew growing up in the 70’s (even though this strip is really the 80’s, since it started in 79) had more than one car in the family, and they weren’t supposedly “successful Doctors”..

Besides, it’s a cartoon. All they have to do is draw another car. Everyone likes to say how “successful a DOCTOR” John the Dentist is, but they only have one car? Nope! Not believable.

And ya, about the car seats, back then seat belts still had to be ordered as an option, and car seats were like a high chair seat with a little metal bar that came down in front to keep the baby in place. Once they could sit on their own, that was it! We’d take turns sitting in the front seat, and we were safer then, unstrapped in our big steel speed machines than we are now bound into in these little plastic, fall apart cars with airbags that can break your face or kill your kid if you forget to switch it off.

This is 3 days later, but I have to reply to cutiepie29. That is so groovy that you have two, too. (I still say Groovy: I’m old). I’ve never heard of anyone having the same thing as me. And believe me, my “danglers” have made the rounds in my earlier days.

A friend of my had no navel. When he had surgery, they sewed him up without keeping the “now unneeded belly button.” He had a neat short scar, but no navel. He won a lot of bar bets, too. We had a ball.