For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for May 20, 2010

Jean’s no dummy, that’s for sure.

I thought this was an ’80s strip. Those pants look ’70s to me.

Never give your boss an honest answer… unless it’s the answer they want to hear.

Those pants were pajama bottoms in the 70s, the 80s, the 90s, the 00s, and they’re still pajama bottoms.

Really, John. It’s one thing to wear your tacky old pants around the house because they’re comfortable. But try to have professional attire at work. My father was a dentist in the 70s, 80s and 90s, and he never would have worn his “comfy pants” to work.

I’ve had my dentist since I was a baby, and as far back as I can remember, he always wore khakis with a nice dress shirt. :)

Actually, his pants look pretty current: check out John Daly’s “Loudmouth” line of clothing!

Those are worse than those Zubaz pants from the 80s!

Boy do I feel old now….

Eeeew! I thought they were pajama pants.

He wore them to work!

Make sure to stop at Walmart on your way home John (I know there were no Walmarts then.), and don’t forget to wear your dirty house slippers. You’ll fit right in there.

Why doesn’t he just wear scrubs? My Dentist has for many years. His whole office wears purple scrubs, masks and gloves. They look very professional, yet comfortable. My Pedodontist didn’t. He retired 20 years ago, or I’d still be going to him. He was great, and I got to choose a cool, plastic ring after my cleaning.

The pants are old. John has a checkered past.

There is going to be big trouble if he takes Jean’s advise and gets rid of them. Ellie will be very upset with that unless he comes home and admits that she was right about the pants. BTW…when did it become OK to wear pajama pants out in public?

How insecure John has with that ugly, tacky plaid pant?! Ack! I noticed all of these dentists wear professional astire, wearing white or solid color shirt and pair of black or solid color pant. Not wear that ugly plaid pants! Wearing the plaid pajamas to work NO WAY! EWWW!

I had seen stupid people wearing the ugly pajamas at Wal Mart Oh my gosh! Where are their common senses how to wear the appropriative clothes? I do not like going to any store with that thin pj pants. I usually wear sweat pants that makes me feeling more comfortable before I go to any stores.

That’s usually the first question I ask when my boss askes me something!

And filthy house slippers out in public too!

I first noticed that, because they don’t pick up their feet when they walk. You can hear the, shuffling along all over the place, so when you look, you notice the filthy pajamas, and the filthy slippers, and then you understand why they are too lazy to pick up their feet and walk like a normal human being.

John asked her for THE TRUTH, so she’ll give it to him, and Angelnurse is right, he’ll take Jean’s advice, and Elly will have a fit. It happened before.

John, if you get rid of those pants based on the opinion of another woman, your wife will still be mad with you. You painted yourself into a corner…again. :-D LOL

Another cautious, but appropriate reply would be: “How badly do you want to hear the truth?”

Why would John wear what appears to be pajama bottoms to his dentistry office? His attire doesn’t look professional at all today! Would he fire (or at least severely lecture) his assistant if she showed up at the office looking so unprofessional? I’d bet on it he would! Meanwhile, is John really that misguided about their looks simply because they’re comfortable … or was he just having an “I’ll show you!” moment with his wife to get even with her — not only for her criticism of his comfy pants, but also because he’s still upset with her after her recent night out at the pub without him???!!!

What does this strip have to do with shopping @ Wal-Mart?

Maybe, John is wearing plaid pants because he plans a round of golf in the afternoon.

Some guys wear weird colored pants while golfing.

I thought that was a prerequisite for golf.

I don’t know about dentists, but the rule for engineers is you can’t wear more than three types of plaid with any one pocket protector.

When I was a kid in the late 70s, I got a lot of hand-me-down clothes from the older sons of my parents’ friends. That was the style of pants that I received. And at the time it didn’t seem odd, as that was common at the time.

It does seem hideous now, but it’s understandable that John sees them as perfectly fine- it’s what he’s used to and just because fashion passed him by, why should he have to comply with what the fashion police proclaim as acceptable at the time- over the decades what was fine becomes wrong, then eventually comes back in style.

It’s all arbitrary.

They look like some of the plaid golf pants I saw on guys in the bars back in the 70s. Maybe it’s golf day (is that Wed or Thur for dentists?). At least Jean didn’t blame Elly (or not out loud anyway).

At first, in the first panel, I thought that John was carrying the pants (and I just assumed that he would know better than to wear them), but then I decided, “noooooooooo…”

hehe, a couple of years ago it was a real fad among teens here to wear your pajama bottoms to school.

I think Lynn Johnston forgot the apron in the middle panel…!