For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for November 10, 2024

Elly may be wondering why John has a lack of interest in anything but those girls’ dental health. A more regular guy would be looking at whatever skin they had exposed in the magazine pictures. However, Elly should be grateful John is not more interested in those types of things because it takes the pressure off her for any kind of physical affection. Instead, it puts pressure on her to brush and floss regularly and knowing that every time John gives her a “romantic” look, he is actually checking out her gums.

Reminds me of an early Friends episode where Rachel was flirting with a cute gynaecologist until she learned a problem with his job as he described by relating it to her’s at the coffee shop: “Don’t you say to yourself after the end of a long day at work that if I ever see another cup of coffee..!”

Mister—believe me when I say John is not noticing “gums”. He’s merely trying to placate his wife so she doesn’t see what he IS noticing.

Looks like Elly picked up a few more items than bread and milk. I believe that always happens when people grocery shop—they suddenly discover they “need” this or that.

I once had a colleague whose father was a dentist. At one point, she was describing a new student and she began with talking about his teeth. I thought that was strange and said so. She said that her family had once talked abut this and discovered that the first thing they all noticed about anyone was their teeth.

And now, he’ll be checking out the gums for the next few issues…

John, I asked that you not talk"shop" when we are out running errands.

periodontal=parodontal

He might have saved himself from sleeping downstairs on the couch

Shouldn’t the better grammar be, “I’m going in to get bread AND milk AND honey.”

By the way, I’ve never seen honey for sale in green bottles before. Green ketchup I had seen maybe some twenty years ago for sale, but never have I seen green ketchup since then.

From Lynn’s Comments: I usually do my research before I go to work, but I didn’t this time. After I drew up this Sunday page, I went and looked at some “steamy” magazines. None of the women in the sensuous photos were smiling. It made me wonder how much joy was in this business—for them

“Whoa! Check out the size of the incisors on this one! Those are so obviously fake!”

“Busted” has a few meanings, here.

John is very, very good at distracting Elle from what he is REALLY interested in regarding those photo’s…. Using his profession as the rationale was genius. However, panel 6 shows she is not quite buying his ploy.

Oh, Elly, stop it. Just stop with your side-eye BS. You don’t understand men who are dedicated to their careers. Not everything is about you.

The clerk probably doesn’t notice the products being sold as well during commercials.

I dunno…..I think John got away with one there….lol

I figure it’s a “both-and” situation – John IS getting an eyeful of the young ladies’ “charms”, but he also can’t turn off his professional vision!

And we thought that the camera concentrated on something else.

That’s ‘cuz that’s not the gum rack, it’s the rack rack.

LOL, I just corrected dcdete, I believe “Honey” was a term of endearment, the … after was ‘and feel free to check out the girly mags’

Hmmm, never heard of milk honey. Must be a Canadian thing, like gravy on french fries.

What gums?

Gums are the last thing men look at in any magazine with girls.

Surprising choice of publications for a family strip. Wouldn’t a better choice in this to show newspapers? But it depends if the strip is 1995:

O.J. SIMPSON ACQUITTED

If the strip is set in 2024 (as Elizabeth recently told Candace and Dawn) then the headline would be this:

VOTERS EMBARRASS HARRIS

Holy…….whatever…..?

John, as a salesman you suck, better stick to dentistry.

Sure, Darryl. Elly’s not even buying it.

Not breath mints but maybe silicone injections would help those gums

I notice that John thinks pretty quickly on his feet!

What a riot! Was John covering for “getting busted?” Or was he truly bring his dentist culture to the fore? Elly has those “suspicious eyes” both at the beginning and the end! She’s not sure… and neither are we on this side of the 4th wall… good comic!

Just gams?

Well, I think they met when she was his patient while he was a student dentist, and he liked her teeth?

Smooth move Pop! Dodged a bullet ! ;-)

I never noticed the gums either … too busy reading the articles.