For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for August 02, 2010

Obviously keeping his lips zipped is something John STILL hasn’t learned!

I don’t blame John for coming up with that zinger…the silent treatment is something an grown up woman shouldn’t do. Throwing things too? How old is Elly supposed to be? She’s the only one who ever throws things in this strip as far as I can remember. If John threw something at Elly, it would be called abuse.

letrice, sometimes the silent treatment is the only way one can keep from screaming your head off for an hour or so. John deserves what he’s getting and sooooo much more. As for throwing things, I hardly think a pillow or towel (she was in the linen closet, after all) to the back of the head would be abuse no matter who did the throwing. When I get really angry, and it takes a LOT to make me really angry, I do throw things. Not usually AT someone, though.

John seriously needs to learn to keep his mouth shut. His stupidity ruined the family’s vacation. Instead of a lovely cabin they ended up in a dump. He’s lucky Ellie let him back into the house.

Her expression in panel 3 is priceless.

That’s pretty good, Nabuquduriuzhur.

Yup, it’s going to be an interesting week at the Patterson house.

And don’t forget to tune in next summer when Elly plans the next family vacation. I’m sure it will go off with no incidents at all.. snicker

John had to opportunity to get to the correct cabin when they were at the store and the owner was talking about the cabin… he really should have clued in that they were at the wrong place right from the get go and ASKED FOR DIRECTIONS….. as for the “silent treatment” I have to agree that sometimes it is better to be quiet than to say things you will (maybe…) later regret. John’s last statement was almost unforgiveable, he should be very glad all she whapped him with was linen. And why isn;t he helping!?

Should’ve wrapped the linen around the iron, then threw it.

I’m with Avolunteer. Really, why does he even need to make a comment like that? He knows perfectly well that it’s adding insult to injury. Often, I need some time to cool down and think of something rational to say, and that isn’t childish at all. So if you want to label that the “silent treatment” and call it immature, then you are jumping to conclusions (and I’ve written that in a book). Now if she has been giving him the silent treatment for days, then okay, but really it’s just been an hour or so, which is reasonable after enduring a week of a moving couch, leaky roof, reeking dog, etc, etc.

“why does he even need to make a comment like that?”

She asked for a comment like that. As people comment almost every day here, Elly is always yelling about something. Now she is giving the silent treatment. She needs to work on her communication skills. Enjoy the peace while you have it John.

Also, can you imagine the outrage if John threw something at her???? ABUSE!!!

They are both to blame for the cabin mix up. Why didn’t Elly ask for directions? Ask the store clerk? Make sure she had the map?

As a couple, these two are clueless. The lesson here is….be waaaaayyyyy smarter than they are.

The “silent treatment” never works. Ladies, guys don’t do subtle. Got a problem with him? Tell him about it. No drama. Keep it short, keep it simple, and try to remember the poor dumb apes are not as evolved as we are.

Avolunteer: Why is it John’s fault? Elly was at the store too. She could have been clued in also she could have asked the owner about the cabin.

Addy, as I said earlier, the “silent treatment” here isn’t for subtle punishment, it’s a cool-down period so she doesn’t say anything worse than “moron”. The time for rational speech is after that cool-down period.

one day elly is screaming in john’s face – in public – and then she’s giving him the silent treatment and throwing something at him. run john! get away from the crazy lady!

IT’S A COMIC STRIP!! IT’S A JOKE!!!!

Maybe it a COMIC STRIP, but it is also REAL LIFE. What family hasn’t made a mistake? What couple hasn’t experienced the “silent treatment” from one spouse or the other? What children haven’t acted like Mike or Lizzie at one time, or what pet like Farley?

That’s what makes this strip so popular!!!!!!! People can relate to it.

JanCinVV said: Addy, as I said earlier, the “silent treatment” here isn’t for subtle punishment, it’s a cool-down period so she doesn’t say anything worse than “moron”. The time for rational speech is after that cool-down period.

I’m with you here on this one, JanCinVV. I loved my (now-deceased) father but when I was a kid, he had a temper to end all tempers! When he was angry, he just said whatever popped into his head, never seeming to care how it sounded … or how bad it made me, my mom and my sister feel when he said it. We weren’t physically abused but the sometimes emotional abuse felt pretty terrible. The whole situation taught me some very valuable lessons and the the most important one is this: even if you’re angry and don’t really mean it, you can’t unring a bell! Once you say something mean, snarky, sarcastic and/or hurtful, those are things that can never ever be taken back! If it’s not something too bad, then maybe the other person can forgive you, but they’ll never forget it. And if it’s something really bad, then it can ultimately end the relationship. My husband and I don’t argue very often (thank goodness!) but even after 22 years together, this is something that still drives him a little bit nuts about me even though he knows full well the reasons behind it. It’s not “the silent treatment” because I DO still talk to him. But until I can cool down and discuss the situation more rationally, under no circumstances will I talk about my thoughts and feelings regarding the argument because I don’t want to harm our relationship in any way by saying something in the heat of anger that I can never take back again. I don’t think that’s childish — I consider it the more mature, grown-up thing to do (and certainly something I sure wish my father had felt the same way about).

Btw: I don’t think the behavior here by either John or Elly is right. She has every right to be angry because John really screwed this one up – not only by leaving the directions at home but also by refusing to ask for directions, therefore, putting them in the really wrong cabin the entire time. But I think her way of punishing him for her miserable vacation with the silent treatment is completely immature on her part. However, John’s snarky comment was better left thought rather than said … so maybe he should be thankful that all she threw at him was a towel!

If everybody in a comic strip behaved properly there would be no reason to have the strip. Without conflict and people goofing up there would be no plays, no motion pictures, no TV shows. Alfred Hitchcock said that films were life with all the boring parts taken out.

It’s hard to believe anyone could be so dense.

“If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.”–Thumper the rabbit

When all I have in my head is nasty, hurtful words, I think it is much better to stay silent. People get angry, but it seems to me that terrible words spoken in anger will end a relationship much faster than keeping quiet until the anger passes.

I think the difference between the silent treatment and staying quiet so you don’t say things you’ll regret is the fact that an mature person would say, “I’m too angry to talk to you right now. I want to be left alone. We’ll talk about this later.” or something similar to that, instead of walking about in an huff, refusing to say a word. Not throwing anything would be a definite plus!

I also agree, that while John screwed up big time, it wasn’t all on him to get his family out of it. If Elly had any suspicions about the hovel they stayed in not being Ted’s nice cabin, she would have taken some incentive and asked the store owner about it or asked to use his phone. But neither of them had any suspicions at all, preferring to make jokes at Ted’s expense.

If I was writing this comic strip, I would have had Elly call Ted, and then when they got to the nice cabin, she tells John that it’s his turn to cook and clean and that she was going to get into the sauna. Or, they could have gone to the right cabin in the first place, and discovered that it had been flooded very recently. That would make sure there was a lot of wacky hijinks without the toxic family relationships.

He had it coming. “Nough said.

If I was her husband I would leave.I have been reading this comic for the past few months and it seems the author is a feminist and hates guys. I would never treat my husband like that. Comics are not comics anymore in these days.

If I was her husband I would leave.I have been reading this comic for the past few months and it seems the author is a feminist and hates guys. I would never treat my husband like that. Comics are not comics anymore in these days.

Comics + fantasy = enjoyment and laughter

Officecat, I’ve said this before, but feminist =/= hating men. I’m an feminist and I like men very much. :)

I will say that I don’t think that Lynn is an feminist at all. She has Liz be an teacher which is typically an female-dominated job, and she had her first child very soon after marriage, which is very traditional. Out of all her friends, we see Candace the most as an adult, but we don’t even know if she did become an psychologist!

For Deanna, Mike’s wife, she was an pharmacist, but she was never shown on the job, and she was always shown at home parenting and cleaning while Mike worked on his book. In addition to that, Lynn had Deanna quit her high-paying job and open an sewing school, which practically demands that Mike support her on his writing instead of the other way around, which would have made more sense. Mike was almost never shown doing any housework. He was there to be the fun parent, however. With the wife and girlfriend of Mike’s two friends, Tracey was an SAHM and Carleen worked for her boyfriend. No outside of the home stimulation for those two.

Elly was an SAHM who ventured out sometimes to have an job. One was non-paying, and the other was the bookstore her husband bought for her. She was also always shown doing all of the housework, and instead of asking/making the others help her, she complains. With Elly’s friends, Annie was an stay at home mother who chose to stay with an cheating husband instead of divorcing him. Connie was an single mother and a radiologist, but never brought her work home with her. She never had any complaints/complements about people on the job or how she was being paid, etc. She was, however shown as a desperate man-chaser when the storyline focused on her. Otherwise she was only there to listen to Elly complain over coffee.

Not to leave April out, but she, aside from Candace, probably has the least feminine job, but since she was still an teenager when the strip ended, we only have one line to support that. I will end this with the fact that the one female character who did have the drive to climb to the top was the ‘evil’ character, Anthony’s wife, Therese.

Lynn had an exciting life (an cartoonist married to an flying dentist), she couldn’t let her female characters have some excitement too? I still think her worst mistake was making Liz move home from Mtigwaki, to an boring suburban life.

I do think you are right though, Lynn doesn’t like men. She’s jealous of them, and hates them for the wrongs they have done to her, being cheated on twice will do that to someone, I guess.