For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for January 19, 2025

She french fried when she should’ve pizzaed, so she had a bad time.

Is that a grown person on the “bunny slope”?? Oh, well—you gotta start someplace.

April looks like the “take the test first and learn the lesson after” kind of student!

April doesn’t want to take instructions from “big sister” without experiencing a catastrophe first! Hopefully….lesson learned….but probably not!!!

How to stop would be my first and most important thing to learn lol.

Reminds me of me when I was learning to ski about 55 years ago. lol

I learnt to ski courtesy of the British Army on a gently sloping field – the slope went down to the top of a bob sled run! You learnt how to stop FAST!

Reminds me of me when I first rode a motorbike.

Do all kids in Canada learn to Ice skate and ski? Sounds great!

Um, April, you just did.

Good times.

Reminded of something I ran across and posted on Facebook a couple months ago: From a review of Skiing For Beginners (1951) by Conrad Brown: “Brown’s acknowledgements give thanks not only to Spike Mignault, the lad who posed for all the action shots, but also to Spike’s truant officer for permitting him to skip school.” (Chicago Sunday Tribune, Feb. 11 1951, Part 4 Page 5)

There’s another thing I never learned how to do.

Ah yes, at that age the cart is always more important than the horse, until you get run over by the cart.

There are those who have died under like circumstances. That is one self-absorbed kid.

Same moral as last Sunday’s strip.

I have always been of thought, that if humans were meant to ski, they would have longer feet.

It’s very odd that Elizabeth is the one trying to teach April to ski, rather than April’s parents, or far better yet, a ski instructor.

This is why I stopped roller skating. I never learned how to stop. Other than crashing into walls ….or people….

Good that they are out enjoying the day. As for me, I will be savoring my last meal in office. :(

Anyone else remember the days of cross-country skiing on hickory skis? The kind that required different waxes for different temperatures?

YAAARRRD SAAALE!

“Words don’t teach.” Experience teaches.

That’s one way to learn!

This is another case of a modified strip to reflect modern times. In the original strip in 1996, neither of the girls were wearing helmets.

I was expecting April to ask “What’s a triangle?”

I learned about the snowplow in a Dennis the Menace comic book.

You don’t start little kids on long skies, you start them on little short skies (like 40 centimeters tops).

That looks fun!

I didn’t learn how to stop properly… and it caused me to break my leg!!

Eh, she stopped. What’s the problem?

Kids learn better from mistakes than instructions.