For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for June 30, 2015

Uh, oh. What does this mean?

Polydactylism

I had a cat who was polydactyl. He had huge paws!

hmmmmmm intriguing

Had a Maine Coon tuxedo kitty who was polydactyl. We called him Paddy because his paws looked like little oven mitts. Coolest cat ever.

I hope she’s not got some disability. It’s stil possible to lead a fulfilled life, of course; the problem is everybody trying to make you into an inspirational story every time you have a reasonably good day.

She’s got no teeth.

no teeth? She’ll probably have to eat that mush that comes in jars…….what do they call it?

All babies are born perfect. It’s not until they’re teenagers that they become monsters !

sure she is, all babies are perfect, even if they have a defect, they are still perfect.

Elly is the one Anne can trust to share her fears with. I wish I could remember this story arc, but I don’t.

Lynn’s Notes:

When I worked as a medical artist for McMaster University, one of the projects I worked on involved foetal development. I learned that the creation of one human being is so incredibly complicated, it’s amazing that so few of us have serious physical problems! In this series of illustrations I wanted to address the fact that some babies are born with abnormalities. I chose a situation that was common and easily remedied.

Odd that the mother reacts like that. Maybe the father is somebody other than who everybody thinks it is?

I was born in 1973,, in manitoba,, born with only 1 ear, mom told me the doctors whisked me away and immediately covered my head with a hat and hid it.

Me thinks, Down Syndrome? (Helpfully not!)

I agree that it’s odd for the mother to say that. Even when the baby has something more serious than what Lynne alludes to in her notes, the mother usually thinks her baby is perfect..Too bad it is something that was easily remedied. It would have been a good example to have a disabled person in a popular comic. But maybe the 1980’s was too early for this idea.

No, she “identifies” as Etruscan…

On the other hand, disabilities are often a huge eye-opener to the universe and a sense of being alive without the artificial goals that we set ourselves.-—————————————————-“Sense of being alive?”I guess you didn’t have any disabilities.I do.It’s more of a “sense of not being able to do things everyone else can.” Or maybe a “sense of not fitting in.” Or a “sense of frequent doctor visits and needing operations to fix things.”Disabilities suck. You might get used to them, and learn to work around them, but they suck.Trust me.(And to any one who says I’ve a bad attitude about it, you’re right. And I’ve got the scars to prove it.)

She’s not perfect. Her father is a … Republican Presidential Nominee.

Great comic style cliffhanger!

None of us are…

And I will say to the six-fingered man, “Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die.”

lightenup: [spoiler] There was Mrs. Edwards.

Club feet

So who is?

Raising my hand for the "I’m glad they can “fix” this little girl (I remember a panel later where that is referred to) but tired of disabilities being “inspirational” to the rest of the world" and yes, despite living with a severely disabled parent and having disabilities myself, I still do get mad at the little things. Sometimes more so, because you can’t be mad when a paraplegic with dementia is asking you to do something for the 5th time in an hour, and you can’t any more because it would make her sick…

She just had an extra finger on each hand – that’s all. Some parents opt to surgically remove the extra limb, especially if it contains no bones, and some just leave them intact. I’ve seen few people with the extra fingers. You don’t notice at first but then you realize there’s something odd about the hand then catch the extra limbs. Anne – be thankful this “imperfection” is easily corrected. There are some that couldn’t be corrected and is a lifetime thing.

I think the doctor told her “not perfect” because they thought it sounded better than “deformity.”