For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for May 16, 2018

“Zoinks” also has six letters, Michael.

There’s always some person that thinks reading books will solve everything. My dad told me that back in his day, there were people who said the same thing about how all the problems with youth could be solved by making them read books and stop listening to the radio. This sort of statement disappeared with the Harry Potter generation, where people learned that kids are perfectly willing to read ginormous books if they are interested in what the book is about.

And this was before you could catch up with On Demand.

So does “far out”.

Somehow, “Toss the groovy ball!” just does not sound the same. . . .

This past January was the first time I swore in front of my parents. It was the first time I had a drink in front of them as well. Hmm…

“Blastthatflabberapthedirtyfillipackolomer”

Then there’s “cruisin’ for a bruisin’”

And again Michael is showing disrespect.

I live in Ontario, my dad lives in Manitoba (divorced when I was 8) anyways he came over when my daughter was born, I was 22. I swore in German, he’s a religious Mennonite. He demanded to know where I knew that word! I looked at him and said Grandpa (his dad) when I was a kid……

Words like ‘swell’ and ’so’s your old man’.

Hippies didn’t swear? Yeah right. lmao!!

There’s a line in “The Sunscreen Song” about how when you get old, you believe that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were honest and children respected their elders. My older brother contends his generations did respect the elders. I reminded him his generation invented the phrase about not trusting anybody over 30.

And from what I’ve heard, Elly’s generation used some pretty colorful language in some of their anti-war speeches.

Have you seen some of the language in many of the kids’ books???

You can learn a lot from books. Too bad “Fifty Shades of Grey” hadn’t been written yet when this strip was out. Elly probably has no idea such books exist!

Grew up in the era where “parents ruled”, my butt would be sore if I ever talked to my parents like that and I would be punished for a very long time. However, I did love to read, spent many hours in the library with reference books so I knew words most kids didn’t and spelled well too.

Welcome to the smarta$$ years, Ellie.

Way to go, Michael!

If you want to learn to communicate, read Churchill and don’t let your cartoons glorify disrespect. (smart-*ss snotty disrespect (words Churchill would not have chosen but meaning succinct toward it))

Guess Michael didn’t learn much from Mother’s Day.