For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for June 08, 2021

woops

Maybe the examiner didn’t hear the engine rev up.

That’s two goof up’s; how many mistakes is one allowed & still pass in Canada?

In Panel 3, a miraculous thing appears we have not seen before up to this point — a side mirror on the car.

Oh, pass him anyway. It’s not like I’m crazy about this character, he treats Elizabeth so badly, but the writer spent too many days showing him being dumb.

After my road test (at age 17), the examiner asked me who taught me to drive. When I said “my dad” he passed me saying “the sooner you get away from his bad influence, the sooner you will unlearn his bad habits.” LOL. In reality, dad didn’t take me out on the road more than a half dozen times. He was such a nervous passenger that he handed me the keys and told me to go practice on my own, which was/is totally illegal, but he didn’t care. My own kids went to driving school and had to spend nearly a year behind the wheel before I would consent to them taking their tests – one passed, one did not. The one that did not pass gave up the idea of driving, he’s just too nervous a driver, and freely admits to it.

Lynn’s Comments:

Here is where I failed my exam. Cars in the 60s were mostly standard shift, so parking on a hill meant using the clutch carefully when pulling out from the curb. I pushed down hard on the gas, took my foot off the clutch, and roared uncontrollably into the parking lot across the street. It happened to be the RCMP building and two police officers were sitting in their cruiser when I rear-ended them. I didn’t hit them hard, but I could see one officer’s coffee spout from his thermos as the other hit the horn. When the officers got out of the cruiser and saw the car that had hit them, with the “Driving School” sign on the roof, they laughed out loud. I received no ticket, but I knew I’d more than failed the exam. It would take me another year before I had the guts to try again…and the next time, I had a kind and supportive examiner. I passed.

When a piston and a sizable portion of the crankshaft launch themselves through the hood, you probably gave it too much gas, Mike.

I just hope Mike doesn’t get a case of common teenage-driver Dunning-Kruger* effect after he gets his license.

*: The Dunning–Kruger effect is a hypothetical cognitive bias stating that people with low ability at a task overestimate their ability.(Wikipedia) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect

The kid certainly knows his stuff. He just has a hard time getting it all out.

In one state where I lived, we were supposed to park as close to the curb as possible, but without the wheels touching the curb, and no more than 12 inches away. In another state, we also were not supposed to have wheels touch the curb. There, it was preferred, IIRC, we park 6 to 18 inches away from the curb, with 18 inches the allowed maximum.

Parking on a hill, the transmission and parking brake were expected to hold the car in place while parked. But, we turned the wheels in case that failed.

Don’t worry Mike. I think everyone has done that at one time or another.

It’s a good thing the examiner can’t read Mike’s mind…

Mr. Cool at the wheel!

No deductions for racing the engine. I see Mike’s forgotten about the breakup.

Back in the day when I was taking my test I had practiced parallel parking like crazy all the way to setting the wheels for a hill and setting the parking brake. Could do it in my sleep particularly since they left the cones out on the weekends so I could practice on the real course. So, the day of the exam, first thing is parallel parking – a breeze and I’ve got it nailed … until the examiner realizes I know how to do it and says, “fine, now pull out and get on the road” before I finished my “sequence”. Rattled me badly enough that I nearly failed the test.

Reminds me of my 1st driving test. Even had the same expression. The guy told me I almost killed both of us several times and was driving above the speed limit almost the whole time. Needless to say I was required to return.

UCLA: Uphill, Curb, Left Always. My driver’s ed teacher gave us that little gem when I was in the tenth grade, and it’s amusing that this strip has brought it back to me across all these years.

Surprised that Mr. Carey did not tell Michael that he is not ready for the test, considering Michael’s earlier car collision and multiple errors.

Remember the strip when Michael was in the second grade and John found fault with his report card? If Michael got criticized for having passing grades, imagine what John is going to do when he learns Michael flunked the driver’s test??

For those of you don’t remember that one, this was the strip…

Michael: “Here is my report card, Dad. At least I passed. It could have been a lot worse.”

John: SNORT!

John: “It could have been a lot better, too! Look at this, you went down in three subjects from your last report card!”

Michael{thinking to himself}: “They never mention the ones I went up in!”

During my driving test, I was driving a 1960 Ambassador Rambler, with push button shift (automatic). This was back in 1986. Occasionally, the buttons would jump their track, have to open it up and put them back on track. Needless to say, the one button I needed had jumped it’s track and had to come back for my test.

I was taught to set the parking brake on before putting the car in park and to put it in gear before releasing it.

idid that 0 years ago i flunked it took one more try i passed i cant wait to see what happens tomorrow