For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for December 20, 2023

  1. Dragon
    Asharah  11 months ago

    No, he had to grow it. It started with stubble.

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    9thCapricorn  11 months ago

    You went to college, Elly. You’ve see new froshs grow beard trying to look older and worldly. Your Mike is no exception.

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    MichaelAxelFleming  11 months ago

    Does Elly not understand how hair grows?

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    Enter.Name.Here  11 months ago

    Baby is growing up, Elle.

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    GeorgeInAZ  11 months ago

    Mothers and their sons.

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    Gizmo Cat  11 months ago

    With my mum, it’s the opposite. She hates when I get my hair cut again, as according to her, “it just starts to look nice again”. But I like it short and easy to manage. And my hair isn’t suitable to wear long any way, it gets thin and frizzy at some point and I have to wear it in a ponytail all the time to look presentable.

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    Zykoic  11 months ago

    I worked as a technician while going to college. I grew a beard. My boss’s boss’s boss (a big shot) came to my station. “Is it frontier-days in your town?”No sir. “Then shave that GD thing off.”

    I grew it back after graduating and getting a great job. After a few years I shave it off. The then new boss said “Man, grow your beard back, you look awful!”

    Yet another story about suits, ties going to jeans, teeshirts.

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    RickTengle  11 months ago

    they don’t have showers at that college?

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    RickTengle  11 months ago

    how far is college?

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    French Persons Premium Member 11 months ago

    No, Elly, Michael has looked like a doofus all his life.

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    KageKat  11 months ago

    I honestly wonder if she would feel less weird about it if Mike’s hair on his head was shorter.

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    HarryLime Premium Member 11 months ago

    I started my beard when I was about 22, and that summer went to the family cottage. My aunt took one look at me and said “Your Uncle Jack says you can borrow his razor before supper.” I replied, “Thanks, but I’m having supper in town tonight.” The beard was never mentioned again.

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    birdmaninfl  11 months ago

    Ha ha

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    Wren Fahel  11 months ago

    One of the first things each of my daughters did when they came home from college was a nice, warm shower with REAL water pressure. Apparently, dorm showers are pretty wimpy.

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    Argythree  11 months ago

    I really don’t think the moustache is an improvement…

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    EMGULS79  11 months ago

    Mothers REALLY don’t like beards.

    I grew a beard during my last semester of college, just out of curiosity as to what it would look like. It was the first and only time I ever let it grow. I never had any intention of keeping it and did shave it off just before the graduation ceremony as I had always planned.

    But boy was my mother nervous. She kept asking “When are you going to shave? When are you going to shave?”

    “Eventually….” LOL!!!!!

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    Man of the Woods  11 months ago

    Not bad for six weeks, but kind of sparse.

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    jbordzol  11 months ago

    It could have been worse; he could have hardware all over his face instead of hair!

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    ladykat  11 months ago

    Oh, the horror of a mother. Elly, I feel that way when I look at my grandson!

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    kaycstamper  11 months ago

    You don’t make disparaging remarks about your grown child, Ellly! Be nice.

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    bookworm0812  11 months ago

    No, six weeks ago, he was clean-shaven. NOW he looks like that.

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    Linguist  11 months ago

    Young man just from college

    Makes a great display

    With some fancy adjective

    Which he can hardly say

    It can’t be found in Webster’s

    And won’t be for a while

    But everybody knows he’s only

    Putting on the style

    .

    Oh! Putting on the agony/Putting on the style/That’s what all the young folks/Are doing all the while/And as I look around me/I’m very apt to smile/To see so many people/Putting on the style

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    eced52  11 months ago

    Slowly but surely, Ellie. Now bring on Rhetta.

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    g04922  11 months ago

    It could be worse, Elle…. Mike could have joined a rock band…

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    rebelstrike0  11 months ago

    Michael is good for now. When he leaves the sheltered existence of academia and has to make it in the real world he will learn either the hard way or the easy way that we are judged by our appearance.

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    jim_martin29  11 months ago

    I didn’t want to spend everyday of my life cutting hair off of my face. I found a woman who loves men with beards and haven’t seen my chin in 45 years.

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    rroush Premium Member 11 months ago

    Every strip I’ve opened today has opened on yesterday’s date. What’s going on? Anybody else have this problem?

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    CoreyTaylor1  11 months ago

    News Flash, Mike: You mother’s mouth is ALWAYS open!

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    The Great_Black President  11 months ago

    Or it could be a funny:

    John comes home and pats his dog on the head

    John: Hi Farley!

    John walks into the living room and pats his son on the head

    John: Hi Farley!

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    kamoolah  11 months ago

    They are a family. The Pattersons consist of John, Elly, Elizabeth, April and Cousin It.

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    ktrabbit  11 months ago

    Ugh. He looks like an anarchist. I love a well-groomed beard, but he just looks scruffy.

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  32. Dragon
    Asharah  11 months ago

    What difference does it make how he looked growing a beard at college Elly. Nobody who knows you is there.

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    JanLC  11 months ago

    Another proof today that Elly’s scream on Sunday was unwarranted. She already had seen him when she appeared in the door of his (non-messy) bedroom.

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    mindjob  11 months ago

    He’s auditioning for the part of Jesus in the school play

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    HodgeElmwood  11 months ago

    Mike time-traveled to the 1960s and liked what he saw.

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    Tina Rhea Premium Member 11 months ago

    Mike’s growth looks pretty good. Someone commented on his 19-year-old kid brother’s facial hair that it looked like a cat could lick it off — Mike’s is better than that!

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    jbruins84341  11 months ago

    No, Mike, you miss the point as usual. Your mother is not asking if you want to shave. She is telling you that you will, unless you want to eat elsewhere.

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    RebaLioness  11 months ago

    He looks like his uncle Phil

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    mistercatworks  11 months ago

    No, he looked terrible with an almost-beard for six weeks. Now he looks like someone with a manly beard growth. I could never get beyond almost-beard so I gave it up. :)

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    USN1977  11 months ago

    Michael looks like he joined the Dixie Mafia.

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