For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for May 31, 2021

Ohh. Are you gonna get too wrecked to pass the test?

And BOOM goes the dynamite!

And once more he will fail.

Gordon’s shirt has an unexpected sleeve growth before he walks away. Perhaps he feels a cold wind in the air or he changed shirts in between Panel 2 and 3.

How to make a guy freak out before he gets his license

By the number of things the driving instructor was ticking off on Saturday’s strip, i’d say that Michael was FAR from ready to take the test.

A day’s he’s going to remember

Crashed and burned before he even got in the car.

The proverbial “kiss of death” for a boy at a certain time of life. Don’t know which is worse — the way Martha is doing it; or slowly “not wanting to do anything” when Mike does. The latter eventually gets the point across, though the first alternative may become a necessity at some point. Suppose it’s pretty difficult for Martha too.

That will let the air out of your balloon.

Ah yes my first driving test. We had an ice storm the night before. The city streets are all sanded and fine for driving. The area where they take you for the test…. no salt, no sand, no sane person would leave the house to drive when the roads are that bad…. sailed through every stop sign as there was no traction to stop even when creeping along. also lost points for not driving at the speed limit. Only thing that went right was a perfect parallel parking job, only time I pulled that off in my life.

I blame Jason Finkbiener

Wise girl.

And a big Nelson Muntz HAH-ha.

Being emotional in any way, but particularly overconfident, does not lead to good driving performance. This could actually be a positive thing for the test, bringing him down to earth.

First intelligent decision of the day, Martha.

My mom brought me to my first Driver’s Test. I wasn’t allowed to take it because her license had expired…

Oooouuucchh…. Dang. I know how that feels.. Poor Mike..

There you go.

Smart girl

Mike will find a girl who loves him for who he is, and he will love her endlessly in return.

Uh-oh….

Martha’s got a lousy sense of timing.

Annnd Mike hits a wall before he even gets into the car!

Yep. Just one of those days…..

They will do it every time….at the wrong time!

What a way to ruin that testing on driving.

A prototype of things to come. This will be a great example of distracted driving.

SPOILER

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This marks the beginning of the end of Martha’s role in this strip. We do get to see her a couple of more times before she gets written out.

uh-oh, Michael, problemo!

Great day Mike. You’ll have your new license and can go crusin’ for a new gal. Millions of ’em out there.

This brought flashbacks of my very first break-up in high school!

Could be worse. She might had told him she was pregnant.

You should break up with someone in private and not at school or work. The rejected needs privacy to deal with their feelings.

Saw that on the horizon.

Snort. Welcome to real life in your personal relationships, Mike. Stuff like this happens.

Taking the girlfriend out of the equation, Michael comes across as incredibly overconfident. The strip where he caused a shunt & bump was a good example. Michael seemed more concerned with the fact he was learning in an old car that advertised itself as “Driver Education: Student Driver” and with the dorkiness of it than keeping his eyes on the road, which would arguably explain why he bumped into something.

The other strip, where the instructor was pointing out multiple flaws, seemed to go in one of Michael’s ears and out the other. Rather than accept the criticism and say something akin to “Thanks for noticing; let us go over the driving aspects where I am weak for next class”, Michael was thinking to himself “Picky, picky, picky”.

Overall, it appears as if Michael is not ready. Even worse, Michael is clueless about his unpreparedness for the forthcoming test.

Bad timing, Martha.

Mike you may not realize it now, but this is the best thing to happen to you yet. Goodbye twinky.

That’s right…it’s all on Mike’s head!

How was Mart to know that Mike is taking his test today???

We haven’t seen any run up to it that showed them talking about it…

Fazed!

Guess it is a hard lesson to learn that very few girls are into car stuff. Don’t neglect the important things by being car crazy.

That’s like being hit head-on before you even get in your car.

You just HAD to open your big mouth, didn’t you, Mike?

Important like cats?

Never mind. You have something better to look forward to. Learning to drive is one of the best skills.

What do you expect? Remembering her name is apparently too hard for you!