For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for September 26, 2010

And a woman with any brains won’t fall for it.

It’s one thing to give him a back rub (I do that for my husband) and quite another to use emotional blackmail. A blow below the belt like that deserves to be ignored.

And who’s gonna rub HER back so SHE can go to sleep????

I wonder if his ma still used to get out of bed to rub his back when he was 20.

Anything to get the clod through dental school, I guess…

It’s usually the other way around. How many times I’ve been asked to rub her back….!

And if he really loved her, he’d go get himself some warm milk and let her sleep!

Ball bat works, too

His back probably hurts cause she asked

“When are these tools you bought going to start saving us money?”

Her response should have been “Sure, I’ll rub your back. You’ll just need to take the kids somewhere all day tomorrow so that I can take a nap.” But really, his emotional blackmail is annoying. That comment alone would have made me say “no way”. The other rule is “never bring up your mother when you’re asking your wife for something”.

If the roles were reveersed, you would have my bedtime story.

John get to cook/clean up the kitchen while Elly naps.

Yeah, John can be a jerk. The real one proved it admirably.

Meh… I scratch Mrs. Goaler’s back, and she scratches mine; she pounds and stretches the stiff muscles in my back, I rub her sore feet. We both do laundry/clean dishes/vacuum the floors; she’s the plumber, I’m the electrician… it’s worked for 29+ years – without “emotional blackmail”!

I’d hand John the phone and tell him to call his mother and invite her over.

At least mom didn’t sing him to sleep!

It was very inconciderate to wake Elly in the first place. Sleep doesn’t always come easy and she needs to rest to take care of him the whole next day.

I’d tell him to stick it where the sun don’t shine!

I’d have no problem doing the back rub if I was awake… but to wake me up??? That’s like poking a sleeping grizzly. :)

Now we know where Michael got the “eyes”.

He played that card for a back rub!

Never forget that a woman wrote this misogynist crap…

“I’d tell him to stick it where the sun don’t shine!” - Dry Genius

Well, that is a romantic come-on that Elly could say. She would get less sleep.

He’ll pay for it the next day when she’s tired and grumpy! I’d stick him with the kids and house chores and take a long nap

Well, if John’s considerate, once Elly’s finished, he’ll reciprocate… although it may not be her BACK that gets the rub….

My hubby knows better then this. At night when I’m trying to go to sleep he would never do that. During the daytime I will scratch his back he likes that part. When we go to bed he is usually ready to sleep. When we where younger he still didn’t do that and we’ve been married over 29 years. I don’t corespond to this strip. Disappointed how creator ended it like she did and not just reworking history in her own way.

Eventually he dumps her for a woman with younger hands – hands that aren’t all gnarled from the cartooning board.

Maybe this explains her attitude during the day!

My husband said years ago that I never could give him a hard enough back rub to do the job, so for once I managed (not on purpose) to pull one of his mottos. “If you don’t want to do something, do it badly enough that you won’t be asked to do it again.” Thankfully, my oldest son & I can give each other the right level of back rubs when needed, but since we don’t sleep in the same room, he never asks when I am trying to sleep! If my husband gives me a back rub, he’s not planning on either one of us going to sleep immediately.

My BF, some of the kids and I used to ofter do back rubs all standing in a row once in a while (daytime activity). I don’t discuss nighttime._As to stiff back- mine were usually from work tension and I have a nice chair mounted thing for that, and another for my feet; I’ve hardly needed either so they are living with the strider and I may pull out all from time to time.

There’s the spam, so I flagged it. NOW DE-SPAM!!!

Couldn’t he just have been asking honestly for some comfort? Manipulation occurs in every human interaction. Should it be so low for him to expect some satisfaction from his own wife? Believe me, he’ll never forget this. She”ll make sure of it…

Scram, spam.

Now that this manipulating jackass is getting what HE wants, who’s going to help Elly go back to sleep now that SHE’S wide awake?!?!?

Hopefully she’ll use it to get some leverage from him later.

I would tell him no, go get a massage at Massage Envy, and let me sleeeeeepppppp!!!!

I don’t like this retro John very much. He’s so manipulative and chauvinistic. Not funny.