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

Birth defects are a creepy thing with which to cope.

Anne used to be all about health food. She made Christopher’s baby food from scratch, rather than buy commercial. She used organic fruits and vegetables and baked her own bread with whole wheat flour. However with two active boys and a baby on the way, it got too time-consuming and probably too expensive. So now she’s feeling guilty because she exposed her unborn baby to evil food preservatives so this is all her fault. Maternal logic is an amazing thing to behold.

Ann Boleyn was said to have six. Counting by the dozens.

Reportedly actress Marilyn Monroe was born with 6 toes..

Supposedly 6 fingers is a dominant trait, so one parent had to have been born that way and had the extra chopped off at an early age. Happens with vestigial tails too.

Goodness, it could have been much worse. Easily corrected.

Send her Labrador, she will fit in perfectly! (John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids)

I was born deaf on my right side with complete microtia (no ear). I’d take extra parts over lacking parts any day.

Must have been those ladyfingers you had for dessert a month ago. (kidding, people…)

Pity we didn’t evolve with 6 fingers per hand, base 12 is soooo much better that decimal

Happy Canada Day!!!!

My husband was born with an extra finger on one hand. There was no bone in it and it was easily removed. No one could tell later.

best pianist ever to be!

Outer Limits (and all the Sci-Fi shows of the time): Loved ‘em! I don’t remember this episode; that’ll be my lunchtime entertainment today.

If we all had 6 fingers instead of 5, we’d be counting by sixes instead of five: 6, 12, 24, 48.

preservatives. are added to preserve. Better living through Chemistry! something the previous generation didn’t have. Eating can be hazardous to your health in the “new world order.”

cigarettes and tequila

Just looked up “The Sixth Finger” on YouTube. IT’S Ducky (NCIS) aka Illya Kuryakin (Man from Uncle) aka David McCallum.

My dog had double dew claws on his rear feet. Most of the time it caused him no trouble, but if I’d forget to clip them regularly, his rear legs would get locked together, and he couldn’t move. Fortunately, that only happened 2 or 3 times in his 13 year life.

People who strive for perfection are doomed to failure. Be thankful the baby is healthy.

Hey, it IS Canada Day. Cheers to our good neighbors to the North.

And about those six fingers: If you want to flip off another driver for cutting you off, which one do you extend?

@Argy.bargy2Sorry to learn of your health problems.Yeah, I don’t know of anyone who thinks of them as inspirational either..I once had a guy on crutches read me the riot act because my wife was pregnant, and when he asked what I was hoping for, I said, “I didn’t care as long as he’s healthy.”He had such righteous indignation, I couldn’t wedge a word in. I almost wish I’d opened my shirt, and flashed my scars.(I’ve had surgery on some of the problems, but most would need Harry Potter to repair.)

Goliath in the Bible was from a family of giants – all with 6 fingers and 6 toes.

BTW, counting to 12 (or even 16) is no problem for us 5 fingered types. move your thumb between the 12 joints of the 4 opposing fingers. Include the tips for 16.

A 6 fingered person can count to 20 on the joints of one hand. The Mayans had a base 20 number system.

Her reaction is normal. A friend’s son (3rd child) was born without a big toe on one foot and fingers on one hand that were fused. She & her husband were tested but nothing showed up genetically. This child is now a healthy 10-year-old and active in sports. The doctor said he would adapt without the big toe and he did. They did surgery as a baby to fix his fingers and he has functioned just fine.

Dunno about people, but with cats, it is often the result of inbreeding or incest.

it’s the reptile in us coming out.

Lynn’s Notes:

I don’t think there’s a mother on earth who doesn’t blame herself for the unforeseen things which affect the lives and the health of her children. We wonder if the things we consumed or did, or even thought, affected our babies’ development. We worry and we wish and we think, “If something bad is going to happen, God, let it happen to me.”

Obviously she was born to kill Inigo Montoya’s father!

Kid’s gonna have a hard time finding gloves that fit…

All the better to feeeeel you with, my dear!

This is payback for all of the comic strip characters drawn with four fingers on each hand…

She’ll be a Great Concert Pianist.

My husband was born with a syndrone that caused malformations in the arteries of his heart (2 heart attacks) which is how we learned of it, He has a spatulate thumb, malformed alimentary canal, (8 surgeries), prostate cancer (cured, we hope) dislexia and is 78 and right this minute out playing golf.You work with what God gave ya.

Before I was born, the doctor told my Mother that there was something wrong with my brain. True, I am bi-polar, but my Mother thought I was still a perfect baby. Defects or not, All babies are perfect.

What did she do wrong? She succumbed to xenophobia. There’s nothing “wrong” with polydactyly, no more than with having blue eyes. Although much rarer than blue eyes, it’s simply a genetic variant… NOT a “developmental disorder” or “birth defect”.

If you have 6 there is no “middle” finger. Here in NYC you cannot drive without one.

Duodecimal math will be a cakewalk.

But aren’t cartoon and comics characters supposed to have only four fingers on each hand (easier to draw)?