Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for July 08, 2017

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https://goo.gl/8QMcpX

Blame @JPUZZLEWHIZ for the inspiration in continuing this thread from yesterday.

Friends of mine who are parents have struggled with similar internal dialogues.

nothing like it, T.J. (my, what an overprotective surrogate parent Brad is)

Brad is becoming a parent! That will begin the disconnect between the best friends who will no longer relate to each other. They were fine with a wife as a roommate, but throw in a niece as frequent overnight guest, leading the newlyweds to endear themselves to the niece, creating an abyss between the roomies.

Shannon is sending chills down Brad’s spine. He is a good and caring person. Notice he is not voicing his fears.

Brad is probably more protective than Jonah…

Brad has finally come full circle from the character in today’s Luann Again.

In today’s strip, Brad is back to his old dorky look. I think maybe there’s a tendency to worry more about someone else’s kid you’re looking after than you would if were your own. Shannon looks like she’s doing fine.

Well, it at least appears that Shannon is within eye sight! That had me worried yesterday.As far as Brad…Welcome to parenthood!

The look on Brad’s face in the last panel tells me that he just realized that “Brad” and “Dad” rhyme.

Today I learned a few things:

1. Brad is going to be one of those parents who sits on the bench to watch his kid play instead of actually going out and playing with them. Too bad.

2. T.J> is apparently able to pull a drink out no matter where he is.

3. Shannon has not graduated to the big kid swings yet.

4. Shannon is telling Brad to talk to the hand.

5. No one seems to have noticed the giant black things (tornadoes, demonic creatures?) that are approaching them from behind the trees.

Yes, she is looking a little older. If it’s one thing we grownups know about kids, is how big they’re getting. Believe me, Shannon was much younger when she was first introduced in this strip many years ago.

Is Brad’s “reproductive imperative” kicking in?

This isn’t like the 1950s. When I was Shannon’s age, my next door neighbor (an 8 year old boy) and I put a ladder up, climbed to the top of the house, ran and jump off the roof yelling “Happy Landings!” (It hadn’t been that long since WW2.) When she discovered what we were doing, my grandmother calmly took the ladder down and told us she didn’t want us up there because it might hurt the roof. We respected what she said. She may have worried about us, but she didn’t hover over us or treat us like Dresden China. We were a lot freer in those days than kids are today. We climbed to the top of every tree in the neighborhood. We jumped or dived off of 20 foot diving boards. We’d walk to the park and swing in those gigantic swings that were so tall you could really feel the wind rushing past you when you swung in them. Then, we’d jump out when we reached the highest point of our trajectory. It was FUN! Today, most playgrounds are lined with soft rubber mats sprinkled lovingly with soft recycled rubber. In the 1950s you sometimes had grass…. but more often than not, your ground was packed dirt, asphalt, concrete or even gravel. Eventually, every kid is going to go to school wearing bubble wrap and a helmet. There are actually signs saying “No Running on the Playground.” No running??? That’s what kids are meant to do. The actual reason our playgrounds have become child-proof isn’t because we’ve suddenly decided we don’t want children to get hurt. It’s because the slightest playground bruise can result in a huge lawsuit. If you were to travel back in time, the biggest difference also, in addition to the equipment, would be the lack of parental supervision. Not only were we swinging around like maniacs on all kinds of deadly steel contraptions, but we were doing it pretty much unwatched by adult eyes. Grown-ups of the 1950s had a tendency to just “let ’em play”. I’m glad I had that experience.

Jonah is not concerned WHERE he leaves his kid. As long as it’s not costing him anything.

Brad needs to loosen up.

It’s SATURDAY, and here we are into our second annoying week of “stress out with Shannon”. Evans what is WRONG with you! Everyone hates her!

On the up side: Jonah will never have to worry about anyone ever kidnapping that spawn of Lucifer!

For those wishing for TJ to exit (I think he can be a ‘wonky cad’, but I now see he has a story telling purpose in the strip), well, think about this: Today’s strip shows TJ’s “chill, single guy” attitude, as a stark contrast, to remind us that now Brad is no longer “that other single guy”, or even “potential husband material”, but is now a “husband guy”. Brad will now be dealing with issues that didn’t affect him so before, and TJ’s presence in the house will help remind us of the ‘comedic transition’ (and the someday potential ‘going dad crazy’) that Brad now faces.

Has Toni always been Shannon’s one and only babysitter? How is it that she is always available? He doesn’t seem to have an alternate plan.

And, too, perhaps Brad may be portrayed here as “worrying too much”, but the flip side of this is that Shannon has been portrayed as being a bit “adventuresome”. So, in some ways, maybe his thoughts are not so unwarranted. Some kids who are generally nice still do play a bit rough, and some engage in physical activities a bit “less restrained” than others. There are also times when we may be alert to potential accidents and our kids may not be as observant.

When I was growing up, there were many of the neighborhood kids who would stand on the swings to swing, and some of us would do the flips off of the swings, or just the standing or sitting jumps off of them, and though it was customary to give a warning before jumping off, sometimes you’d also have a kid who wasn’t paying attention, and would wander into the situation, from another area, and “wham!” , you’d have an accident (I’ve seen it from other kids, and from personal experience, as a lad of four years of age, as well). Some of us were “wild” with our swinging pumps (what we called the leg action that propelled us on the swing), and a kid might get too close, unawares, paying more attention to their ice cream treat or comic book, as they walked past the swing set, a little too close.

Some of us also did back flips off of the monkey bars, and though many of us would say: “Oh, no! I’m not gonna that!”, some kids would try. I can only imagine some parents “with white knuckles”, as they tighten their grip on the bench arms, hoping their kids wouldn’t try to imitate what they see some of their peers (or the older kids) doing, as far as this, I could see Brad sort of thinking along these lines, in worrying about Shannon, either being too adventurous, or just hoping that she doesn’t wander into “something fun but risky”, or hoping that she watches out for other kids/people/pets, while she happily rips and runs about.

“I Came, I See Sawed, I Conquered”

“And, Then Along Comes Merry Go Round” (♪)

“Assisted Twister”

“Gym, Gym, Gym Of The Jungle” (♪)

“Around The World, In 80 Minutes”

“I Get Around” (♫)

“Teeter Tots On Your Plate”

“Does A Spring Lead To Fall?”

“Air Force Fun, II: ‘Some Of All Fears’ "

“A Bench Of Going Bananas”

“What? Me Worry?”

“Jungle Gym Dandy” (♫)

or

“Present Tense, And Past Chill”

Most boring week ever for this strip. Like Billy drawing the stupid Circus when the artist is away. Please let the storyline change asap, so boring.

For all you TJ haters, “GET A GRIP” I guess you have never had a loyal friend before. That’s all TJ has been to Brad. Sure he is a little sketchy, but he has never done anything bad. He has always had Brad’s back. And vice versa. You should be so lucky to have a friendship like that. Trust me, If Brad becomes a father at some point TJ will be there too.

well, at least she has both her shoes on !

One thing I meant to say yesterday, but got distracted:

For those who were saying that we wouldn’t see the trio at the park…well, surprise, surprise, surprise!

Where did TJ get the drink?! Evans’ chicanery again. 8)

Brad is being a good, caring man here! Keep in mind, B&T had MUCH different plans for their four days off, right? He has been very adaptable – what an ultimately, future parent needs to be. Jonah, on the other hand – (I best not say any further about him now).

I wasn’t sure about this story arc earlier with the ice cream, etc., but this turned out just fine. Shannon IS listening to Brad and again, I’m seeing her smiling more often. She’s being a kid – just as she should be.

You cannot watch out for kids walking in front of you swing when you are swinging. You can shout at them to watch out, but you can’t stop in mid swing, or redirect your swing. Same as a train on a track. You can blow the horn but you can’t stop the train or change its direction.

When we were kids, we would go to the playground alone. and we would swing unattended. Sometimes we would fall and get hurt. I suppose the modern-day word for that experience is “negligence”. Back then we just called it “life”.

No lost child, everyone is happy. Brad has morphed into Frank and Nancy. Fortunately, Toni is still hot to trot. End of arc? Last time I looked, Bernice and Gunther didn’t work out but Piro kissed her and Nil was fascinated by her. Could Bernice become the new hot chick on campus? Will Luann, that stranger, find a new love interest? Will Tiffany and Gunther finally realize their attraction for each other and share an intimate moment again? A lot of territory out there to explore.

Haven’t gone thru all the comments…but who thinks we’re headed towards an adoption arc?

When I was a kid, one of the local city parks had a metal 1950’s sci-fi style “rocket ship” on the playground that was made of strips of metal that you could climb around inside.

It was probably only a story tall (for a kid, it was HUGE) with one of those blazing-hot-in-the-summer metal slides attached at a lower level.

It eventually got taken down because too many kids (and some adults) took to climbing on the outside and got caught in the metal “slats” and had to be rescued.

I was blessed to grow up in that wonderful era when radio was still popular and television was just on the horizon. My friend next door and I would listen to The Lone Ranger on the radio and then meet in the back yard to act out the story in real life. We had a large supply of toy pistols and rifles in our supply of toys. We never thought of being aggressive in real life, and knew the difference between play guns and real guns. I wouldn’t come close to a real gun, and respected my grandfather’s guns, never touching them.

Brad is the perfect “guardian.” :D

@M2MM. Well Brad seems a little neurotic in this episode.

Brad is being nervous and a bit overprotective protective. But that’s because he’ at a distance watching instead of actually sitting in the sand with her (building a fort) or pushing the swing. I could understand if she was playing with other children but she’s not. I like Shannon, in spite of her spoiled behavior at times, because she’s imaginative and adventurous.

I am wondering if after once-again watching Shannon while Jonah is supposedly off for an audition, Toni will go over to Jonah’s home to retrieve a forgotten toy/clothing item, etc., and find Jonah (who thinks he has successfully off-loaded Shannon) in the middle of a ‘party’ with a female friend, who asks if “this is the babysitter you use all the time when we want some private time?”. Time to clean the fan blades.

Shannon is patently “Brad’s first.” If he had more experience and more children, he would most likely be more nonchalant, like careless, irresponsible, self-centered Uncle TJ….

Is there a chance that Tiffany could be the unknown mother of Shannon? Shannon and Tiff are so alike. She has the un-moving helmet hair, she’s self-centered, she’s bratty, and she doesn’t have a lot of friends (I’m just assuming this because we haven’t once seen Shannon with a play mate or see her talk about one. And i Shannon had a friend couldn’t she spend time there instead of her aunt’s when Jonah is in the mood for being a sleaze)

Tomorrow: Jonah gets the lead in a remake of “Harold and Maude”.

I think Brad and Toni may wish to put off having kids for a while. If Brad is this tense with Shannon his own children will drive him to drink.