For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for December 21, 2023

He’s home Elly, just be glad.

A Hippie is born!

And how!

Ironic that Michael says exactly what Elly is thinking…

Much ado about nothing. So he grew facial hair and let his hair grow. Big &((((#(( deal.

Michael is just doing his “Jesus imitation” for the holiday season.

Michael playing with and spending time with April. No wonder Elly is shocked! Before he left for the university, only Farley did that.

In 1972, when my dad had cataract surgery at the age of 50 he wasn’t supposed to apply any pressure to his face, so therefore couldn’t shave. He had a full beard and mustache when we visited my grandparents (his parents) for Thanksgiving. Grandma took one look at him and said, “A beard? Didn’t I raise you better than that?” lol

I thought he was only gone for 6 weeks? Looks more like 6 months.

Mike’s not wrong – I could see such a change in my little sister even just after I’d been away for school for six weeks. It’s amazing how much a younger sibling straightens up when she’s suddenly the only kid in the house!

Don’t worry. He’ll eventually (I’m guessing) meet up with his (ex) girlfriend (from the grocery) who will not like it and Mike will be clean again. It’s always for the girl.

I remember last year when my older, brunette daughter came home blonde. (My younger daughter is so low-maintenance…she doesn’t really change.)

Really really really tired of that kid talking like a baby still.

I’d be asking Michael to lose the beard. He looks like a dirty wizard

Hair grows about 6 inches a year. How long has he been gone?

I put my mom through the same thing – I suspect most of us did. We mostly grow out of it, though. Right?

I love the expression on Elly’s face in the last panel.

For some reason Michael reminds me of Uncle Phil

Cool dollhouse!

Mind Reader, now bring on Rhetta.

My brothers and I didn’t have that wide an age spread as between Michael and April. We were four, with six years between oldest and youngest.

He needs more money for razors and haircuts!

Now April has a new doll house with an elevator, and Mike the Hippy has returned home these last few days before Christmas!

Isn’t that a valiant and amazing attempt by Johnston to divert the reader’s attention away from last week and Elly’s doggone determination not to let April get her only Christmas wish of wanting the new puppy! What a horrible mother Elly is!

SO cute, the way he picks up April!

He was a typical, clean-cut teenager? Wow.

Such creatures have never existed in this area, and that includes the time in which I grew up. Unfortunately, I never escaped my hometown.

Apparently on the date this first premiered it was National Irony day.

Don’t they! The phrase ‘growing pains’ comes to mind. Hard/takes time to accept and adjust to the changes that sooner or later time lays on all of us.

Oh the irony

That is very true. When my son left for Army Basic training, he had long hair and would not look at people he was talking to. A typical surly teen. When he finally came home just before heading off to Korea he had short hair, stood up straight and looked at the people he was talking to. Quite the change. 21 years later he retired as an E7 and thankfully never deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan

The opposite happened to a family I knew. They had a long haired son who went away to West Point. He returned home shorn of the long hair, now in a high & tight!

Dixie Mafia comes to Canada!

Mothers seem to have the hardest time recognizing their “little baby” has a mind of his own, and cannot fathom the fact that their children may have thoughts that differ than that of their “mommy”. Case in point: She still expected him to come home a “clean cut teenager… but now-” Yes, Elly….he’s different than what you imagined him to be.

College does that………..

You could say that…..

When the Cunninghams kid went to college he was never heard from again.

Clean cut teenager?

How involved was Michael with hockey or other sports?

How much effort did Michael put into academics while in high school?

Was Michael in Scouting? If so did he earn the paramount rank of Eagle Scout?

He’s well versed in Ginsburg and Kerouac

There really is an elevator on the side of the dollhouse, with a crank to raise and lower it. My only question is why are the doors on the outside instead of (or in addition to) connecting doors into the house? That’s an awful long first step out…

That’s a pretty nice dollhouse, I wish we could see John making stuff more often.

This does not seem like the forum for Elly to make a fuss.

When push comes to shove for Michael in regards to his career, that will be time for Elly to let Michael know how in the real world we are judged by our appearance.

An eldebator, huh?

I didn’t wait for college to grow my hair out. Never cared much for facial hair, though, plus the stache was always too thin in the middle.