For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for March 18, 2015

She can’t help it John, she’s a woman :) !!!

John: Full of wisdom, tact and diplomacy, especially where his spouse is concerned.

John just can’t handle the truth!

Elly is sticking up for her friend, John is sticking up for his.

Point to John. All Elly did was hurt the one, as far as we know, innocent – Irene! Connie has moved on with her life so Elly wasn’t standing up for her. Maybe Lynn needs to move on with her life and quit bashing men for the errs of one.

Easy enough answer, one can be in love with more than one person at a time. Just because someone is in love with someone does not mean they are the best choice, but over time that person can change or both parties can and before long they are a good choice. My point being it isn’t like one can only love one person at a time.

Elly shoud practice M.Y.O.B. She should see Ted marrying Irene as a good thing for her friend Connie, who is now ‘rid of Ted’.

Rod was (apparently) a faithful husband at the time this was written (29 years ago in 1986). Lynn’s first husband had deserted her and left her with Aaron to raise by herself, but when this was written, she was a happily married mother of two.

Here’s a question: What did Elly’s shrewish “other woman” actually gain for anyone beyond a nyaah-nyaah-nyaah satisfaction for herself? John usually is portrayed as a thoughtless boob, but he’s right on this one. Irene will probably figure out what Ted’s all about, with or without Elly’s “help.”

While John provides false alibis to his buddy Ted so his women don’t find out that he’s cheating?

I have no respect for justice.

I maim without killing.

I break hearts and ruin lives.

I am cunning and malicious and gather strength with age.

The more I am quoted the more I am believed.

I flourish at every level of society.

My victims are helpless.

They cannot protect themselves against me because I have no name and no face.

To track me down is impossible.

The harder you try, the more elusive I become.

I am nobody’s friend.

Once I tarnish a reputation, it is never the same.

I topple governments and ruin marriages.

I ruin careers and cause sleepless nights, heartache and indigestion.

I spawn suspicion and generate grief.

I make innocent people cry in their pillows.

Even my name hisses.

I AM CALLED GOSSIP.

Calumny is a crime in certain jurisdictions.

It is true that there have been strips which show Elly talking about Anne and Connie behind their backs, Connie usually being the one who was the most gossiped about. It was likely to show that Elly, while certainly not perfect nor was she horrible, but did have a hypocritical streak about her. Presumably Elly gossiped about Connie to feel superior to everything Connie went through. Not sure if there were any strips out there, but it would be interesting to show others gossiping about Elly.

Elly is absolutely right. And John isn’t so much sticking up for Ted, as he is embarrassed. -I never thought Ted loved Irene, but that he married her on the rebound, as an act of spite to Connie. I expect him to be cheating on her in no time.-I had a friend who cheated on his fiance, and got caught. The fiance dumped the jerk, and he married the “other woman.” A few years later, this moron actually looked up his ex, to see if he could cheat on his wife with her. I’m surprised the two women didn’t just kill him.

Zowie, people are sure reading a LOT of personal stuff about Lynn into yesterday’s and today’s strips! Yes, all artists (including those who draw and script comic strips) draw from life experience, whether that of people they know or have heard of, or their own; the point being that these are universal experiences. Lynn’s gift is in shining a humorous or ironic light on we silly human beings’ sometimes inappropriate behavior, thoughtless comments, and ulterior motives to allow her readers to see themselves in the characters she has created. It is the rare person who cannot relate to one of the morally flawed characters in FBOFW. While we may never say what Elly said out loud to Irene, it’s for darn sure a lot of us may have thought it. Being able to recognize and laugh at our moral flaws allows us to correct those flaws.

Whether or not Ted MIGHT have cheated is moot at this point. The character Elly is not righting a wrong (and it would not have been her place to do so even if it had happened). She is putting a public, personal, and negative perception on a relationship that is being made formal. If she had issues with Irene then she should have said so loooong before.

Ted is currently guilty of little more than marrying on the rebound. In situations like this you should support the injured if they appear, but let them try to get their lives on the right track.

Glad I don’t have to make that decision (to interfere or not) in real life!

So…Elly has some public personality flaws, too.

John does have a point. It’s best to use tact and think before you speak.

Ellie, Ted married Irene on the rebound. Love has nothing to do with it. The only person Ted loves is himself. And maybe his Mom since he still lives with her. Rent-free.