For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for January 20, 2022

You’re hopelessly lost, Mikey.

I didn’t like the freeway when I first learned to drive (on country roads) but then I took a trip to Los Angeles and it hasn’t been a problem since.

The shortest distance between two points…… is usually the less exciting one.

When I was 16 (1966) and a new driver, my parents said OK to my request to drive to the mall and take my younger sister. I didn’t specify which mall. We went to one on the other side of the state. Mom & Dad were not happy.

Uh-oh. The “No problem” is a problem. I am predicting an accident.

Now, if Michael was like the average 16-year old, he’d drive to a bar, flash a fake ID, have a few beers—and then total the car!!

I wonder what make of sports car it is? When the car is purple it kind of looks like an early 1980s Porsche (hatchback) but when the sports car is red it looks more like an early 1980s Ford Thunderbird (with trunk).

I’ve never been big on driving and don’t understand the need to drive around for no reason. The other thing is I liked my pickups and now my Wrangler. Sitting a few inches from the road in a sports car is not my cup of tea.

My boss lives about four blocks from his pharmacy. He was ill and asked his newly-licensed teenage son to pick up his prescription and bring it right back. The son drove across town to pick up his best friend, drove to the pharmacy, then drove the friend back home. This is a fairly large city. A twenty-minute trip turned into almost 1-1/2 hours.

Just call him on your smart phone, Jon….. Oh, wait… It’s 2022 but Canadians still don’t have mobile phones…

cue the ominous music

I don’t have good a good feeling about this :-E

Sort of a Corporate definition of straight, there Mike.

Lynn’s Comments:

It is so important to get timing in a daily just right. In a graphic novel, you have so much more freedom, but in a comic strip, there is only so much real estate. I had to divide this one into five panels to get the timing right.

Dad really should lighten up! You know Mike is young and going to be adventurous being a new driver and driving a nice sports car! Doesn’t remember the first time he started driving?

Shelburne and Kennedy are common street names in and around the Toronto area as MIke’s fictional home town of Milborough is supposed to be. Highway 16 is not. King’s Highway 16, commonly referred to as Highway 16 is a fairly specific reference that someone from Ontario would know, only it is near Ottawa and not Toronto. Lynn Johnston may have been using this as a clue to those who know the Ontario roads that Mike is going to be hopelessly lost.

So just when is he going to stop off at the keymaker/locksmith … ?

Shortest distance is a straight line.

Notice that John is aware Dawn is going with Elizabeth, which implies that someone told him about the change of arrangements. It’s too bad that John did not, at that point, remind Michael that his car is a two-seater.

Wait until you have an accident where you shouldn’t be and have to explain your way out of that one!

Dum, dee dum dum, DUMMMM! (mystery music…will he or won’t he?)

Nervous Norvous will now sing “Transfusion”.

Why worry? This is Canada, land of single-payer-everything-under-the-sun!

He’s going to get a speeding ticket!

I hope he has a map for when he gets lost.

This isn’t going to have a good ending.

Oh, this shan’t end well…..

Say goodbye to your baby, John.

John is sulking about someone else using his car for a brief time? What a niggardly man.

Yo, what the ink, Mike! You PROMISED your dad you’ll come STRAIGHT home! NO DETOURS!!