For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for August 11, 2014

John…not exactly what you should have said… ;)

Years down the line, he’ll have a third. Then we’ll see who gets the last laugh.

El’s expression is way too severe for today’s punchline.

I always thought a babe is not cute until they are 16 and pack an attitude.

That was a bit creepy, although the same could be said of a boy baby. Too bad that wasn’t the case.

Whoa. I didn’t know Elly could shoot death rays from her eyes.

You’re right, it does have sixteen in the final panel instead (better explains Elly’s expression in that panel). No Lynn’s Notes today though.

Night-Gaunt49: I don’t remember the exact citation, but several years ago, Scientific American had a cover story on the functions of neotany.

Oh stop with this vanilla bigotism!A 16 years girl may be, and often is, a memorable babe, she knows she is and she enjoys being such, and all her girl friends agonise in envy. There are dozen of teen models on very reputable fashion magazines, and they are there to be drooled after, not because they impersonate innocence or poetry or any moral value. Then, if the LOCAL law says “stay away” you stay away, of course, but that’s another thing, nothing to do with looks or hormones.I remind you that Juliet Capuleti jumped over Romeo (SHE took the initiative, remember?) when she was barely FOURTEEN.In this strip the caption was changed probably on lawyers’ advice to avoid trouble from readers that look always and only for “THAT thing” in every expression of human behavior from cartoons to Disney movies to biscuits ads.

Alberto, in Shakespeare’s time, a fourteen year old was much “older” than today (Juliet wasn’t quite thirteen, by the way), so it wasn’t creepy as it would be in a modern day play. I think today’s strip would have worked had the original “sixteen” been edited to “eighteen” or even “twenty-one” rather than the generic “older.” P.S. I thought “sixteen” was yucky when I read it in1985.

Creepy aspect of this strip: She’s not worth paying attention to until she’s old enough to be able to excite me.

Can you imagine a woman saying that about a male infant? If not, better ask yourself why it is okay for John to say that.

John should have said “Ask me to describe her when she has teeth!” :)

Or perhaps, judging by John’s expression in the last panel, he said what he did (either version of the line) just to get a rise out of Elly. I think he does that rather often.

The expression on Ellie’s face is priceless!! So well drawn, as usual, Lynn.Doug