For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for November 23, 2014

Kids 1. Elly.. not so much. They are a clever bunch.

What fact WAS proven by that incident…?

I think it proves that Elly should buy a new pitcher, but made of plastic.

It proves to wait five minutes before putting anything in a hot, glass pitcher right out the dishwasher…

I remember in an advance college chemistry class (that I probably shouldn’t have been in), I put a thermometer from a 500 degree hot plate into a glass of ice water. It exploded. They almost called in a poison control group. Luckily it exploded under a vent. I was only charged $50 for the thermometer. I didn’t do too well in the class.

She just proved to her children without the shadow of a doubt that she has no room to criticize their dumb mistakes.

Always buy Pyrex?

I’ve got a feeling, Mike, that you’re going to find out it isn’t as dumb as what you just said.

As Michael has proven, a wise man and a wise guy are not the same thing. (And I have more respect for the wise man.)

I don’t do well with thermal shock myself. Diving through the first two feet of warm water in a mountain lake comes to mind.

My answer would be “Don’t use glass pitchers”.

Mike used the logic of a 10 year old.

The scientific fact was that Linnæus was most unwise to name our species ‘homo sapiens’!

Thank God Elly was the idiot that did it and not her husband or one of the kids. She would have yelled her self ‘horse’.

Now if anyone else in her house did that trick, she’d have fire in her eyes!

Sorry about not bolding this, but I couldn’t get it to work.

Lynn’s Notes:

Once again…a true-to-life bit of stupidity became a Sunday strip. It was one of those things that made me say to myself, “What was I thinking? I KNEW that would happen!” Because these events made such good material, I was almost HAPPY to have done something silly! When I could use a situation, make fun of it, exaggerate it, draw all of the expressions, delve into the body language…I was grateful! Knowing this, my kids would try to diminish a situation by saying, “Hey, you can use that in the strip!” Using the strip as an outlet was convenient. I didn’t need a therapist; I just poured my thoughts into the ether and waited for the results to come back. Always, there was someone out there who felt the same way I did, someone had had the same experience exactly and could identify. Their letters were wonderful. There’s nothing more comforting than knowing you’re not alone!

The lesson: Real juice is better than frozen concentrate.

Children don’t make dumb mistakes. Their errors are learning experiences. Adults do dumb mistakes. Elly, at her age, should have known not to do that!

Having been raised in upper NY state, I was always amused by people who had moved up from the South. They thought that the easy way of getting rid of Winter ice on their car windshield, was to pour warm or hot water on it. Same result.

I keep telling my husband this. He claims to be scientific minded but won’t believe me when I tell him to stop mixing hot and cold when it comes to glass!

Two misconceptions here:1. Lynn is Canadian, not from the Northern US2. Lynn has repeatedly spoken about how poor her family was when she was growing up. She had no “1950s prosperity” to lose.

You are overthinking it. So, Southern girls may be prettier (?) but Northern girls are smarter and kiss better.

This strip is a rerun. I have a printed copy in my files in my office that I will find tomorrow.

I think Micheal knew that wasn’t the answer Elly was looking for.Though A good question would be, did Elly really intend to break that pitcher?

" This procedure caused even the heat-resistant labware to shatter."

Likely the solid inside contracted more slowly than the glass and physical stress shattered it rather than thermal. Same result different cause. ;)

it may not have been the answer she had in mind but the boy way right saying it was a dumb thing to do

Hey, Elly! The kids were right, you know>! ;)