For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for September 06, 2023

Just like everybody else decided to do.

have your college students spayed or neutered

Watch our for that creepy guy stalking you, Michael!!

If you think those lines are bad. Than join the military and see some really long and slow moving lines.

back when the drinking age was 18, we went and had a hydraulic sandwich lunch first.

When I was in college, registering for the next semesters classes was an utter nightmare!! Not unlike day trading on Wall Street!!

“Lines, lines, everywhere are lines! Blocking up my scenery, wasting my time! Stand here, don’t stand there, don’t you see the liiiine?”

I suppose the punchline is of Michael’s first day at uni experiencing line ups is that Michael went to such a small town high school that you never seen more than 20 kids in the hall, so that Michael never had to get in a line up in the cafeteria at noon hour in all those 4 years!

It’s all done online now. Except the coffee.

I work as a temp, and just spent the last two weeks helping out at a local college bookstore. This is all so true!

The only thing worse that having to register as a student, is working the registration table as a graduate student. I still remember the long lines at the University of Miami. Glad more registration is completed online at the present time.

Ah yes. I remember Drop/Add lines. In the college I went to they had multiple connecting buildings and the line would snake its way through them all. Fortunately there were rest rooms and campus phones along the way. You could order a pizza and have it delivered to you where ever you were in the line. Now that they do most of this stuff online, the long lines have pretty much disappeared.

When I was at Penn State around 1980, this was the situation, but by 1988, registration for courses was done electonically.

“Lines Lines, Every are lines”. The Guess Who, long before Michael was a twinkle in his Dad’s eye. (and OK, it was “signs” but hey)

Remember people this is the 80s, people were still counting money and making change at the cash.

I’m not much of a coffee drinker. Never drank any until well after I graduated from college. Still prefer iced tea.

great idea… too bad many others had the same idea though. :J

You ain’t alone, Michael ! ! ! !

And the sign said

“College bound people

get into this line"

So I tucked my ID card up under my hat

And I went in to stand in line

She said, "You look like a fine upstandin’ young man

I think you’ll do"

So she sent me to another line

wow, I’m still waiting to.

Whoa

Lines, lines

Everywhere a line

Blockin’ out the scenery

Breakin’ my mind

Go here, don’t go there

Get into the line.

And the sign said

“Journalism 101

Line on the right"

So I jumped on the table and yelled

“Hey! What gives you the right

To put me in another line

I’ve been standing here half the day.

I haven’t had lunch and I’m wasting away.”

Lines, lines

Everywhere a line

Blockin’ out the scenery

Breakin’ my mind

Go here and stand in line.

Can’t you read the sign?

Now, hey you, mister, can’t you read?

You got to stand in line for classes you see

You can’t go pee, no, you can’t eat

You supposed to be over there.

The sign said, "You’ve got to have your ID card

To get inside"

Uh

And the sign said

“Everybody welcome

Get in this line to pay"

But when they tallied up the total

I didn’t have the money to pay

So I got out my trusty cell phone

And I called my folks that day

I said, "Thank you, Dad, for thinkin’ ’bout me

Send more money and I will be doing fine"

Woo!

Lines, lines

Everywhere a line

Blockin’ out the scenery

Breakin’ my mind

Do this, don’t do that

Go get into that line.

Lines, lines

Everywhere a line

Line

Nature hates a vacuum and creates a queue.

“Sign, sign, everywhere a Sign. Do this, don’t do that… everywhere a Sign !” (Five Man Electrical Band – 1971)

Is there an echo in here?

I think a lot of kids my age went later in the day, so Buff State wasn’t TOO bad with lineups. (I got to school around 8 as I recall and got out around . . . 3? Brain damage makes you forget A LOT. I do not recommend it.XD)

Ah, another fond memory of college! I fond my way out of it, courtesy of SSS (Selective Service System). Seventy-fifth round draft choice, not so good!

How to function within a bureaucracy. That’s the main thing you learn in college…at least initially. I remember the lines, the forms, the computer punch cards. My freshman year, I was on the wrestling team. The second semester, all of the “student athletes” were taken by the coaches to register as a group…to make sure they didn’t screw up. I was the ONLY person my coach knew who had all the right forms, schedules and had them filled out correctly. He was so proud that he paraded me around to the other coaches like I was a Rhodes Scholar or Heisman Trophy winner. It was kind of embarrassing, actually.

That would be the longest line of them all, kiddo.

Good luck with that journalism degree. Luckily, these are reruns from long ago when there were newspapers filled with news and other enjoyable reading. Today the nice thick Sunday paper looks like a thin Wednesday paper with ads.

I miss a good paper. Today the articles all say, "Go to for more information that we should have put here. If I wanted to goto www, I would have.

I gave up on the newspaper years ago but I still miss them, especially the Sunday paper that you could spend all afternoon reading. (BTW I still read printed books, two on my desk now, Tarzan and an autobiography of Einstein.

Sometimes when I read I even take notes with one of my fountain pens.

I really don’t remember it being like that at all. Though it’s possible I’m just misremembering.

Canadians are used to long lines. Look at any waiting room in Ontario.

I’m thankful that I finished up my Bachelor’s degree and MFA degree all online. No long lines, no registering for classes in person, and my textbooks were delivered to my door. Of course though, for younger students, they relish in that whole ‘new student/ campus experience’, apparently.

Nowadays, he’d ubereats deliver a Starbucks to pickup outside at the curb..

I was told to leave my stuff outside the bookstore and as a result, I didn’t know what books I needed. I left my stuff there and I’m not sure how I got it back.

I don’t remember people grabbing “a” coffee until recent years. Is this in the original strip? Also, anyone of my generation would have just said “lines” (and no, not “queues”!). Just curious.

Mind you pee and queues!