Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for October 22, 2020

what a life Ben has here

Excitement is overrated. ✨

Have to confess I’m closer to the Halper model, and it’s served me quite well.

Puddles is finally ready to play “fetch”.

Raised by hippies, looks like a hippie.

♬Cause He’s an old hippie and he don’t know what to do

♬Should he hang on to the old

♬Should he grab on to the new

♬He’s an old hippie…his new life is just a bust

♬He ain’t trying to change nobody

♬He’s just trying real hard to adjust — The Bellamy Brothers

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQd65utTnAQ

Puddles just can’t get no respect.

I’ve known many fine people raised by hippies, but I’m curious as to how they managed to adopt kids. The rules can be really strict about how you have to meet specific income and housing requirements. Back in the day you also had to fit social norms and could be refused if the agency just didn’t like the look of you.

Hmmm. Strange that he joined the armed forces after growing up in a nomadic family knowing there is rigid structure in the military. Did he seek for some kind of stability and routine? Or did he simply want to travel the world on the government’s coin? Then he realized he couldn’t handle the rigidity of military life considering that he left and returned to the nomadic life. The Halpers sure aren’t a good fit for him.

Don’t want to push this too far BUT, like so many children returning to their parents’ households due to circumstances Ben seems a might ungrateful. It appears the Halper’s have seriously disrupted their “rigid 9-5 routine” to accommodate Ben and the gang. Bernice was nudged out of her own room, bed and board to make this happen.

And he still hasn’t linked up with his sister to thank her. It’s just old home week with Luann?

Well, it’s only the middle of the week! (sigh)

Confused. So Ben is living with Bernice’s parents ? Why is Bernice staying at Luann’s then?

Whoa is him for having a roof over him and his kids for free.

We 9-5ers are doing what we gotta do.

He’d probably like to find some middle ground between absolute rigidity and living in a treehouse.

Where are all of yesterday’s posters who were applauding Ben for his interesting life and hoping that Ben would motivate Luann to become more than just a dull, do-nothing person who only judges people by their looks? A closer look at Ben shows someone who appears much more ‘judgy’ than gently tolerant.

I know a number third generation hippies, now, and have even met fourth generation, minors but growing fast. It’s a quiet subculture for the most part, deliberately dropped off the radar, discreetly building the foundation for the next civilization as this one crumbles.

The way things are these days, I find them tremendously reassuring. With their organic communal farms, consensus-building, and their creative adaptability to anything life throws at them, I know that they’ve got the resilience to not only survive everything from pandemics to societal and ecological collapse but have fun doing it! They’re as practical as the preppers but a whole lot more fun!

Hippies made a lot of stupid mistakes back in the day, but they were young, trying things out without a roadmap. They got smarter, and then they raised kids who built on what their parents started. They give me hope.

Maybe he’s an adrenalin junkie!?

Interesting that such dyed in the wool old style hippies raised a son who went into the military. A case of nature over nurture? Decent of the Halpers to help out.

His birth parents take him and his twins in, leaving no room for Bernice, and he complains it’s boring… how rude. Don’t like it, move out…. can’t? Be grateful!

So i was wrong about Luann. His birth parents are more grounded.

So, living with your birth family isn’t living? Why are you doing it?

Ouch! So, he feels that “living” with the Halpers isn’t really living. I can believe that… maybe that’s where Bernice got her uber-regimented attitude towards life from. Of course, she would go back home…if she could (hey look! elephant!)

So Ben, whatcha gonna do about it? Hit the job market with even greater resolve, to free yourself from living with the Halpers and be able to live the life you want?

Or… how ‘bout a trade? Bernice returns to the Halpers. She’s used to it. As she vacates the DeGroots, the room is available again! So Ben and the boys ask to move in! They can pay a little (certainly more than zero!) New family dynamics in Casa DeGroot! And… some money coming in!

Some of you exclaimed that it is not possible for hippies to adopt kids. It is possible they adopted Ben when he was an infant when they had a house and jobs. Later on, they decided to adopt a different lifestyle and became nomadic.

Give Puddles some attention.

What an attentive listener Luann is. Now, nothing to complain about. Oh, wait, Ben is not perfect! He is still learning and growing? Oo the commenters don’t like a glaring lack of perfection! How does Lulu feel about a real human man?

“I was raised by crazy nomadic hippies, and I don’t like rigid routines. That’s why I joined the military—no rigid routines at all in the military! They don’t have schedules or rules!”

Ok so what’s the purpose of Ben…

A love interest for Luann? To become a semi-main character? Or just another wasted week on someone who won’t stay for long?

And yet, WHICH “parents” did you come to freeload…, uh I MEAN, live with Mr. York? The “wild and crazy” free spirited hippy parents or the “sweet but dull” birth parents, huh? That’s right, the sweet but dull, but STABLE, tax-paying parents. And so far, there hasn’t been one shed of remorse by Mr. Ben for having displaced his sister from her home in the process. SHEESH. And it wouldn’t surprise Me if the hippie parents didn’t show up on the Halper doorstep looking for a place to crash after their boat sinks or something. I’m starting NOT to like Mr. York now.

What IS it with some characters and their parents in this Strip, anyway? Ben thinks his birth parents are “dull.” Bets thinks her parents are “weird.” Les HATES his mom. Jonah is too busy to be a parent. Tiff’s dad merely goes thru the motions of being a parent. Fay’s mom is domineering. Tara and Dez’s parents are in parts unknown, and Nil’s parents probably created him by cobbling together unused body parts. And Irma is “Irma.” The ONLY “normal” parents you have in the Strip are the DeGroots, and THAT is pretty darn sad.

That said, as of today, I hereby formally apologize for ever thinking that Ben would make a good “match” for Luann. :(

Ben York is an amazing man, who serves in Iraq as an Army Sergeant and spent time searching for his birth mother. Finds his parents and a sister in Pitts. Breaks his leg in Iraq, gets a discharged and returns to his biological parents home. On Valentine’s Day, leaves town.

This explains a lot about Bernice’s personality. It’s better for Ben to find another place, quickly. First Jack, now Ben. It’s nice to see how Luann is the person with wich others feel confortable to talking about their feelings. Maybe the point here isn’t (only) that Ben will finds a way to inspire Luann to do new things. Maybe it’s about Luann helping Ben find a solution without making the Helpers sad, especially Bernice.

“And that’s why I became a vagrant.”

Is Ben waxing nostalgic for his old life with the traveling hippies, or, expressing gratitude for the more “rigid” lifestyle of the Halpers? Maybe Bens “little” sister could nanlyze that for him.

So let me get this straight… The Halpers take Ben into their home, along with two kids that aren’t even his… while kicking Bernice out in the process… and this guy has the absolute GALL to criticize them?? He really IS a frikkin’ BUM. Maybe he should join the circus because he’s already the perfect clown on top of it all. Otherwise, it’s pretty clear where this is headed… Ben will suddenly take off and leave “his” kids with his parents..

So where is this going? He’s married with kids. He’s basically middle aged. Not a romantic prospect for Luann or anyone else. Is this another non-story line? I always think the cartoonists just do these “nothing” arcs while ponder over the next big storyline.

You know, when they re-introduce these side characters who have been out of the strip for a dog’s age (or more), they really ought to footnote it with a “Last Seen” date for those who would like to learn about WTF they are reminiscing about. Other than a Luann thought balloon a few days ago showing a be-ribbon-ed soldier with a hightop fade, I have zero recollection of Ben and his backstory.

How was he separated from his birth-parents and raised by nomadic hippies living in campgrounds? How and why did he enlist in the non-specific military?

Ah well. If wishes were soap, hippies would bathe.

Maybe Ben and Dez can hook up and make some sweet music on the community garden. Gunth can provide the accordion mood music.

He showed up looking for Bernice, so no sure why he’s spending days with Luann… Oh, wait, to give readers his backstory even while it appears he’s blowing off the reason for his visit.

Isn’t living, in his standards. He’s grabbed life and is living it to the brim. But the Halpers, and DeGroots, have their own kind of bliss, providing the framework that allows the rest of us to fly. And crash.

Forgive me for my disparaging remarks about hippy. This is the way the comic is going based on Ben’s story, so okay they were right technically. I tend to defend, and I have known a lot of hippies, or hippy like people in my life, always really liked them, and dislike dismissive missives from the 60s culture wars, but that is my projection, something I always criticize, so I have to apply that standard to my comments. I apologize. That being said though, this is pretty farcical, something I always wondered; how did Ben get “adopted” when Bernice didn’t if the Halper’s kept Bernice, but were, or are the rigid boring ones? What was that all about? Did it happen they knew Ben’s adoptive parents and approved of them? Might have been friends? One wonders. It’s farcical, but very possible though. Ben has a lot of confusing things going on, but he is taking care of his Filipino step-children, and the Halper’s are allowing him to live there while he figures his confused life out. Not a bad thing on either side. Knowing Filipino’s I can totally understand his wife’s devotion to the elders in her family, but what happens when her dad passes. As for Luann? She is going to be SOOOO attracted in spite of herself I predict. A train crash right? Yep, par for the course, a much more grown up train crash. Ben likes Luann IMHO, she represents a combo of his life in a way, boring family (great family but boringly normal) with a romantic heart herself. Should be interesting.

But fortunately these sweet but dull people have a regular income…

Maybe this “hippie Ben & his kids plot” will circle around to the “Tiffany’s empty mansion/Dez’s vegetable garden” plot. Tiffany’s Dad may return to find a grass roots co-op in his home. And, wouldn’t Ben & Dez make a cute couple?

An army vet hates routine?

He’s as creepy as his sister

I don’t like this storyline. I know give it a chance. Don’t hold your breath about me coming around.

This is tedious.

Right now he is a single parent of two children that have been abandoned by their mother and no job. His birth parents are standing tall taking care of his children and giving him free room and board and he has the balls to call them boring. What an ungrateful SOB. Get a job and be a real dad for god‘S sakes.I can not imagine a house with two toddlers running around being boring And if he doesn’t like boring why is he talking to Luann.

I am confused. If the Halper’s are Ben’s birth pants, why did they give him up for adoption? Is Bernice is birth sister? Hope someone can reply. Thank you.

He must have loved the Army.

Try harder, Ben. Lhasa had a similar crazy, hippy upbringing, and thrived, becoming quite the world singer. You, by contrast, have become a paunchy , self-pitying, wanderer….

Oh, I’m sorry, Ben, that the Halpers live a boring life with a 9-5 job that pays for the house, utilities and food that you and the twins are currently freeloading off of. Here’s the classifieds. Good luck.

So he crawled out of his tent and swung from the trees into the army? As usual, the writing for this character doesn’t make sense. The only constant they maintain in this comic strip is the sniveling, ungrateful, self absorbed attitude they like all their characters to have. So disappointing.

He just means he’s feels he is just spending his time there—not really “living” or making the most of each day. He’s bored with life in Pitts!!!!

Yeah, only “sweet but dull” gave you and your kids a place to stay. Sounds like stability was just what you needed.

Beggars can’t be choosers.

so we see that Bern grew up in a rigid rule oriented household and this explains why she is that way herself. Perhaps moving out is a metaphor for her learning to bend and change. i think her parents extended the offer to Ben thinking that Bern would be away at Mooney (they may have wanted the opportunity to bond w/ their son); but then the letter arrived. I don’t believe Bern’s parents intended to drive her out of the house; she over reacted and initiated that on her own and it just all worked out that way.

Geez, it’s only a comic cartoon, albeit it has gone lunar!

Maybe Ben and Jonah can get a place together…. see who can “out-sponge” and “out-bum” the other..

If Ben (and the twins) were the reason Bernice didn’t have a place to go after the dorm, I think we (and Bernice) would have mentioned this by now.

So what am I missing on this thread? Alas, I shall have to wait at least 2 more days to see if it goes anywhere?

what a convoluted character.

been reading this strip for years but honestly it’s getting hard to follow these days.

He could’ve just said, “No”.

Ben never says anything bad about the Halpers. He is stating how he perceives them, Sweet but Dull. He does not say that is a bad thing or that he prefers the wild, nomadic lifestyle his birth parents provided. Many people actually prefer a boring lifestyle and sweet people.

I sort of wonder if maybe Ben is hiding from something or someone!

Being responsible for other people usually means giving up a fun lifestyle.

….and now we’re back to illogical again. Ben is acting like the Halpers’ structured, 9-5 life is something he’s not used to, but he spent years in the military, and I guarantee you that the Halper household is not nearly as structured as military life. And not only was his life structured back them, but as an Non-Commissioned Officer it was his job to instill that same structure in others’ lives. Living in Bernice’s house should be a piece of cake for him.

Hopefully …Bernice will join them Friday and Saturday…and we will find out why Ben came to see her. Maybe he alone …is planning on joining his wife and will ask Bernice to move back home and help take care of the twins.

I wonder what Bernice would think of his ungrateful attitude toward her parents.

Since its so entertaining and easy to poke holes in this arc, what adoption agency would place a baby with tent dwelling hippies? Maybe they just met up in a grocery store parking lot.

It’s tough switching to an “ordinary life”. You get used to the challenges of responding to changing conditions in a more exciting lifestyle. I’ll never get used to working with people who cannot even conduct a conversation.

Don’t like it? Get a job and move out.

Damn what an ungrateful POS.

Two phrases have popped up in these comments lately; “bad writing” and “it’s just a comic strip”. I guess ultimately they differ just in the commenters’ expectations. Some commenters pine for the caliber of storytelling back in the High School days (remember Anne Eiffel at Weenie World?), while others will take what they can get.

(If you squint hard enough, that’s kinda the theme of today’s strip.)

Poor Puddles wants some attention. We still don’t know WHY he and the twins are in Pittsville. It’s hardly a bustling metropolis. So will Dez enter this scenario, too? And need help with the farm? That’s hardly exciting either, compared to his past activity. ;-)

Greg likes to recruit losers. Ben has a lot of baggage so he is just passing through.

So this clown is badmouthing the people who are housing and probably feeding his kids?

In a certain way, said Obi-wan Imaliar, Ben is like Leslie. Both are obscure one-off characters that no one was asking for to return. And when they did return they acted totally unlike their former selves. Leslie was the school bully and a sexual harasser. It took Ox to drive him away. When he came he was gradually morphed into a regular job. No more bullying, no more stealing and his sexual harassment has been limited to leering not threatening or grabbing. Ben started out as a straight-arrow Hero of the Iraq war. This from a time when people would tell soldiers “Thank for your service.” Now this straight-arrow is being twisted into a hippie with wander-lust in his heart. While it is true that people can change, most in fact never do. A bully in high school will remain a bully in adult life.

And as this week has proven you can’t run a complicated story in a comics strip. Miss one day, or misread on long sentence and the fan is totally lost.

I have to admit, Payton Place made more sense than this plot arc. Who cares!

Ben York is dressed like an older Gunther – wearing a plaid shirt with a white undershirt, wearing a black vest, black pants and shoes. Ben has a stubble beard familiar to Gunther’s Peruvian beard. If Gunther had stayed longer in Peru, he would had straightened his hair and allowed his hair to be shoulder-length. If Gunther had a wider girth, he would be the father of twins.

Ouch. That was pretty harsh of him. Perhaps he’d prefer to be out on the streets.

He needs a bit of Unexpected in his breakfast cereal.

Okay. On my impression scale from 1 to 10, Ben gets a 5. By comparison, Piro got a 4. Through no fault of her own, Pru got a 2.