For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for February 16, 2019

Mike watching and not doing anything to stop it is a trend Mike will continue to have for the rest of this comic’s runtime.

When I turned twenty a few years back, my father’s grandnephew (who is not member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, mind y’all) said to me, “one more year and you’ll get some beer.” I gave him a straight face with half-closed eyes. “No?” he asks. “No,” I replied seriously.

I may be quick to judge him, but mike is a real fool, he doesn’t have any criteria, his head is full of air!

“If you haven’t tried it, don’t knock it.” — a line from Michael that makes sense when you consider that he has tried it. I guess Michael is assuming everything tastes like the good stuff from all those times we saw him drinking leftovers from New Years’ Eve parties his parents held at his house. He doesn’t know the kind of rotgut that junior high school students would be passing around.

Michael likes living dangerously. Go with Gordon’s suggestion.

some M/D 2020 might have tasted better. and it’s cheap too.

That line from Peter has a very dark and foreboding quality to it. This strip just took a turn for the dark side.

No means more beer!

I’m would worry about a girl with three guys and alcohol.

So who thinks this is going to end well?

Getting drunk is a personnel experience. Drinking is a social experience. If you don’t like the taste, don’t bother. If you don’t want to, don’t.

drunk? she’s probably being drugged. (well this is a family strip so maybe not though).

Looks like the ‘guys’ are planning a little party of their own and Allyson is the guest of honor.

I remember finding out in chemistry class that alcohol contained yeast waste; literally piss and poo from an organism. Later on, someone told me shrimp and lobster were the cockroaches of the sea; they eat poo that falls on them from the fish above. Guess what I don’t drink or eat!;)

The alcohol is only the beginning of what is wrong with these kids drinking, I fear the boys have plans for Alison once she’s drunk. You would think Michael’s folks would have explained drinking at any age can be bad.

Lynn’s Comments:

Our aperitif of choice was a disgusting, cheap, and very sweet wine called “Berrycup.” It was the first to come in a gallon plastic jug with a spigot on the side. Guys who were “of drinking age” would hang around the liquor stores waiting for us under-agers to show up with enough cash to score them a bottle and something for ourselves. Berrycup: The wine you can share, the hangover you can depend on.

An opinion: We in America stigmatize alcohol and make it the “forbidden fruit” till one is of "proper age, (age depending on which state you are in). Thus, teenagers will have to try it out in an illicit way. I saw many 18 year olds just joining the U.S. Navy finding themselves free from parental control for the first time. And trying to down a case of beer every night. Just because they could do it now. They ended up taking Antabuse, (Disulfiram), in just a few months time.

In Europe, children have a glass of wine with meals at an early age. The learn about alcohol early. And don’t have to act like a kid let loose in a candy shop type mentality. Like so many American teenagers do when they can get a hold of some alcohol.

A world w/o beer? Sad.

Point?

Those guys want to have a good time – at Allyson’s expense.

“…tastes like paint thinner.” I must be gin.

What’s the difference between an alcoholic and a drunk?

Drunks don’t have to attend all those meetings!

One wonders how Allyson knows what paint thinner tastes like.

Never developed a taste for “hard” alcohol. Beer on the other hand, was a different story. My favorite food group was Labatt’s. But all good things eventually pass and I lost the taste for it some years ago and haven’t drank any type of alcohol since.

A trip to the hospital?

I got to have sips as a kid and my dad drank rum and coke and beer….so I went with him and I could drink both without getting potted so they were my drinks of choice.

Good for them get her drunk then rape her. No benefit from alcohol. Damages your brain, heart, liver to start with. Glad I never developed that habit and never smoked beyond one puff. 38 years after he quit smoking it still killed Leonard Nimoy.

In my much younger days, the choice was Pagan Pink Ripple – the soda of fine wines!

several guys, 1 girl, alcohol does not usually end up in a good situation hope Mike & Gordy hang out for her safety (not that it’s on their mind, but……..their watching could save her

What happened to Allyson here? She looks different than in several days before this, when she was shown with the boys.