For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for April 01, 2015

Then why is Elly grinning in the final panel?

Thanks. I am smiling too.

Wow! That’s hilarious! Yes, how dare the pregnant women be proud!

i recall in another fbofw strip where one of Elly’s friends says “At this age, it is better to give than to conceive”…maybe it was when she got pregnant with April.

OH, GROSS!!!!!! When does she wash it? Or does she ever? I’ve seen people at our local WalMart who wear ‘pajamas’ to shop. They are dirty around the bottom of the pant legs as if they’ve been worn all week at night and during the day with out being washed. They also ‘smell’.

If anyone cares to think about the big picture; these days, at the rate we’re going, there will soon be standing room only, and all the earth’s resources will be used up and woe to our many billions of descendents (and their trillions of descendents) victims of our self-centered attitude of doing whatever we want to, popping them out every 9 months and damned the consequences! I wish everyone had an idea of what the word EXPONENTIAL means!

There is a very small “maternity” clothes market today. I my day, it was considered immodest to show your expanding middle. Now, it’s not. The younger crowd now never grew up with the same "rules’ as those of us who had our children 40 , 50, 60 years ago.

Here’s an example how exponential works:2 × 2 = 44 × 4 = 88 × 8 = 6464 × 64 =4.0964,096 × 4.096 = 16,777,21616,777,216 × 16,777,216 = 281,474,959,933,440281,474,959,933,440 × 281,474,959,933,440

Hey, you guys — GET THE PICTURE?

Lynn’s Notes:

This punch line came from Jim Unger’s brother, Bob. Jim, who did the wonderful cartoon panel, “Herman,” had come with Bob to visit us here in North Bay. Soon after their arrival, I served them a big breakfast and noticed that Bob was wearing a rather hideous sweater — kind of a greeny-yellow, rather “pilly,” and in need of a wash. When I made a crack about the sweater, he leaned back in his chair, scratched his tummy and said in his thick British accent, “I’ve got a sweater for every day of the week…This is it!” I never forgot the line and shamelessly used it in this strip. I don’t think I ever told him…and he died not long after their visit. Jim, sadly, has gone, too, so this strip is a nice reminder.

“There is not a direct correspondence between the physical size of a population with the population’s resource needs.”-True enough. Everyone in the world cannot live at an American standard of consumption (and waste!). However, I read a study that said there would be no issues at all with everyone in the world living at a European standard of living, even with double our world’s current population.

“i am not a fan of the baby bump flaunting…………………to me its not attractive….”-When my grandmother was a teacher, any teacher who became pregnant was fired. Apparently, married teachers having babies was unattractive and was considered a bad example to the young.

I said nothing about such a scenario being practical. My point was that goweeder’s statement about there being “standing room only soon” is ridiculous hyperbole.

A few comments:Yes, the word’s population might fit within LA, but it takes acerage to grow food!At one time, those maternity clothes were called “Hatching Jackets”Anyone remember the tent dresses? They were hated by the maternity clothes makers as tent dresses made them redundant!My mom at one time was a school teacher at a one-room school. (Remember them?) But had to quit when she got married!(Now it’s just the opposite – school districts prefer married women over single)

The point is that standing shoulder to shoulder would occupy an area about the size of LA. As stated previously, it’s not a statement of practicality, just of “standing room only”.

If looking pregnant was considered unattractive and immodest back in whatever era that was, they really should have made a bunch of fat guys wear tent dresses. (No offense, fat guys, I like you.)

gaebie: I can think of far nobler reasons to avoid WalMart: They brag about raising sub-poverty wages to poverty wages, but steal much of it back with “off the clock” work. They are a major contributor to negative balance of payments by buying US products only when foreign sweatshops are unavailable. I don’t even trust their opposition to Arkansas jumping on the “ignore the 14th amendment” bandwagon, there must be something hidden there.

One would think that by the third kid, she would have a whole wardrobe — I know I would have.

Scott Gilmore, writing in MacCleans Magazine in 2014 to urge Canada to back more immigration, said that recent population reports for that nation show declining population. Canada is one of the countries that has the resources to support population growth, but it is not experiencing population growth.

Hint, hint, Elly!