For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for December 28, 2019

Makes wonder now how did John and Elly take this kind of discussion back when they were expecting Michael and Elizabeth.

Ellie, you have my permission to use one of your towels to garotte John! ;D

A classic example of water displacement.

I would have drained the water either way. It’s disgusting bathing in somebody else’s bathwater.

In the 1950s, when I was a kid in Pittsburgh, a lot of families shared bathwater because the cost of heating water was high. The old houses we lived in had bathrooms with footed tubs and there were no showers. I doubt that the kids realized they were bathing in dirty water, but I’m sure their parents wished they could do otherwise…

I don’t even like my own bathwater. I always stand up and rinse off afterward!

LOL! I guess she has put on that much weight!

It’s funny. I never felt more beautiful than when I was pregnant – my skin was clear, my hair was silky, my nails were strong – and I actually lost some weight during both pregnancies (and the doctors were OK with it).

Care to rethink that comment, John? It’s obvious she DID gain a LOT of weight.

ZIP IT dude !!!!! lol

Growing up in the country without a reliable well in the 70’s I usually was the third one in the bath water and we usually only had one bath a week. Saving the water for a second bath was not unusual for people who would have grown up in John and Ellie’s childhood era.

Lynn’s Comments:

When I was expecting Katie, my husband joked that we’d be able to determine my exact weight gain by measuring the height of my bath water.

It’s actually not so much her weight, it’s a matter of volume. A balloon with a little weight in it could fill the same physical space.

Archimedes strikes again!

thats whyIprefer showers!!

now he can determine her specific gravity

Run your own bath water little Mr. ‘THAT’ much weight!

I had to share inches of water with 4 siblings in the 50’s and my mother never had her own clean water. Even later in life she had to wait for my father to have his bath after he had been working and sweating outside. Yuck.

Agree on the Ew. Number two obviously.

Yes, the water displacement was weird with that extra person sitting inside of you, regardless of how much weight you gain. The memory this strip brings back to me is how cold my stomach would get since it wasn’t covered by water! A washcloth covering the bump only brought a little relief as a wet washcloth is almost colder than no covering at all. And remember, she now has to climb out of the tub.

Why is John covering up with a towel/ Because the comics readers can peek into the bathroom?

A1 joke

I grew up in the 50’s as an “only”. We were not well to do but, I had never heard of sharing bath water. That is something I thought was just in the westerns I saw on TV. This is why I like reading the comments. Learn something new every day, even at 73 yrs old.

Follow the Japanese custom. Enjoy your hot bath, but shower first.

Ah, good ol’ Archimedes principle….

He never learns to stop talking. Elly is being passive aggressive. She doesn’t need to say anything. Actions speak louder than words.

Used bath water = A tepid soup of human filth.

Ellie has good reason to fell bloated. Such water displacement.

I appreciate all the time and strokes it took to make the tile on the shower wall look so real. And the toilet paper! Good detail!

I agree back in the 50’s we used to save bathwater for other family members – yuck yuck yuck.

And my comment disappears again. Today I asked the question as to whether the joke is about water displacement or Elly intentionally draining the tub. I don’t even remember anyone getting angry about this one. Another mystery for why it disappeared. Nevertheless, most of the responders believed the joke was about water displacement, which I thought was interesting.

I think the joke is that she did NOT drain the tub. That the tub was full with little water due to her larger size.