For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for January 23, 2021

I hope they get Elly a nice Crevasse.

wow, Michael, your room is so… so… disorganizationably challenged

I think you have just hit on the problem, young Michael. If you were to care for the car the way you care for your room, you might get to drive the new car when you are, oh I don’t know, around 30?

I’ve forgotten how driving is the most important moment of a teenager’s life. Look how obsessive Mike is about it.

Michael, that’s why he won’t let you drive his car, you don’t know how to take care of what you have, everything around you is a mess.

I’m sure he would.

That’s the problem, Michael.

The last time Mike said this i said one thing. I’ll say it again: says the boy who has a nice home and bedroom.

These middle class kids…I learned on my mother’s Belair with a standard shift. There was no thought of getting another car to replace the six-year-old. I didn’t really drive it much until I was 18, and that was to go to Penn State.

I was distracted by the cassette tape unwinding on the dresser.

Actually looks like the space of my ADHD son. If he can’t see it, he doesn’t know where it is. We resort to cubbies for clothes and that helped.

do i see the family truckster in his future?

“Video Guide?” Looks like an update by Lynn. I didn’t think videos were a thing back in the early 90s.

Funny, in America you use to be able to buy a used car cheap which the teenagers got instead of driving the family car. So if the new driver ruined it, no big deal. Everyone at high school had one so no embarrassment. Then something happened. The disastrous cash for clunkers which took the old cars off the streets so young people now had to go into a debt they could not afford to buy a car. Plus if they did they could not get just liability insurance but now had to have full coverage because they now had a car that had huge loan on it.

That final panel would be even funnier if it wasn’t also applicable to certain factions of the adult community…..

My parents had no problem with me having my own car … so long as I paid for it, I paid for the insurance, the gas, and the upkeep!

I worked my tail off but I held up my end of the bargain. It was a very valuable life-lesson to have learned and one I passed on to my kids – although truth be told, I did help my daughter once or thrice in purchasing or repairing her cars.

That’s their concern…..

New drivers should have old cars. In my experience about half of a new driver’s first cars are destroyed in the process. I just bent mine a bit.

And you wonder why no, just look at your room.

Michael — the male Luann! O<|];o)

My wife just got herself a new car after 8 years (and then proceeded to hit a deer with it – but that’s another story). Why does Michael (and my son) seem to think he gets to choose what the next car will be?

How are John and Elly going to afford the down payment? They may have to sell Michael to get the cash.

Just like your room? Ha!

I find the comments almost better than the strip. Let’s count how many felt the need to point out what the joke was in the final panel.

growing up as a kid about that age…my room never looked like that

I bet he ends up with the old car.

Luann can match you. Then there is Jeremy of Zits…

So – back in 2005, I bough myself my first brand new “budding executive” car, having had my 1995 Yellow Saturn Station Wagon wrecked in an unfortunate altercation with a Hyundai Elantra which was much newer. 200,000 miles and 15 years later, she was still humming along with regular maintenance and TLC. With a step son who was heading toward graduation from college and the anticipation of a new job he was looking for a good used car – but not great at finding one. I finally told him that for the money he wanted to spend ($2,500) – I would sell him mine. Of course, the job didn’t quite manifest as easily as expected (thank you pandemic), but I let him take it for an extended “borrow” so he would have wheels for getting to interviews and etc. Of course, within a few months – it’s not running. Ostensibly just due to a dead battery. We’ll see. I did tell him that I would pay to get it back in shape … but this one hits just a bit close to home. :-)

Everywhere is within walking distance if you have enough time. My Dad.

Yes, Mike, they know that, which is why you can’t.