For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for December 16, 2024

And with that single word, Michael ends his 2-1/2 year relationship with Rhetta Blum.

Well, what did Rhetta expect when he went away to university? A degree doesn’t take just a year. She should’ve known and broken things with Mike at the end of the summer the year before. She wanted to get married as soon as possible. Guess she’s old fashioned small town girl.

There should be a soundtrack on this strip playing “Breaking Up Is Hard to Do”.

These should be your priorities, Mike: 1) Getting rid of that impacted wisdom tooth, 2) concentrating on your education, 3) getting settled in a career, and 4) marriage and family.

Doo doo doo down doobie doo down down, comma comma down doobie doo down down, comma comma down doobie doo down down

The Rhetta story was a long one. The next story will be forever. But first, that tooth is beginning to hurt me too!

Didn’t expect that did ya.

That first broken heart is a killer

I hate it but Mike is right. If they weren’t separated by distance due to his going to college, they could still see each other and others, but with this separation, it really is best to just say goodbye.

Mike , Mike , Mike , Life is Pain !

I had that sort of happen to a co-worker. He married his high school sweetheart after college. But said sweetheart apparently thought that he would want to stay in his rural area forever. Instead he wanted to get higher degrees. And to do that he had to go “away” to college — multiple states in this case. So the marriage ended in pretty short order. But our characters don’t have a marriage. Maybe Mike shouldn’t be shocked.

When should a husband tell his wife that he loves her? Before somebody else does.

Typical girl. Friendzone the safe, steady guy while she goes out and raises her body count. Then, find him again when she realizes she’s not as desireable as she used to be.

At least she didn’t say the dreaded words “We can just be friends”.

When I was 16 I was madly in love with a boy named Carl. We dated for about a year. He was a couple of years ahead of me in school. When he graduated he enlisted. We made the adult, mature decision (although it just about killed me) to break up. We made the same deal that Rhetta suggested. Needless to say, I never saw him again.

Best decision Rhetta ever made. Michael is no prize.

Personally, in looking back, I would have kept Rhetta. Made it happen.

Her hedge, resulting in his goodbye.

This is as bad as company’s that lay off employees just before Christmas.

Mike is going to need a strong pain killer, not just for his tooth but for his heart also.

Goodbye and good riddance, Rhetta. If she couldn’t stay faithful now, she probably wouldn’t be faithful when you are married.

This arc brought back painful memories for me. Not about breaking up, but about going home and impacted wisdom teeth.

I was in the Army and was going to take some long over-due leave to visit my family. I’d been suffering from two badly impacted wisdom teeth. I decided to have the Army dentists extract them before I went on leave. Mistake!!

The extractions were very difficult and it took the dentist and his assistant a couple of hours to remove the teeth. Against his advice, instead of resting for a couple of days, I immediately hitchhiked from Ft. Belvoir in Virginia to my folks home in Connecticut – in the freezing rain!

Long story short, I contracted a very painful case of epididymitis from the poison of my impacted teeth draining through my system and wound up spending two weeks, flat on my back in an Army hospital.

Worst Easter vacation, ever!

Tough life lesson for Mike…

ouch… does that mean it’s goodbye, goodbye. or am I missing something. :\

It may be painful, but they were both honest. I think this is the best for each of them.

As we each seek happiness in our lives sometimes you face the two paths that diverge into the woods; it is up to the individual which paths they take, even though it hurts, respect each other’s wishes. Biggest thing that causes breakups and the divorce of the over 40% divorce rate of first marriages is their lack of openly and honestly communicating with each other. Find your happiness; you only live once so don’t spend the remainder of yours regretting not being open and honest. Always remember it is a marriage license and not an ownership title.

Sometimes just one word does it, Mike. You chose the right one.

I will never understand the rush to an exclusive relationship. In my day (long ago), the time for being exclusive came when you mutually decided you wanted to see no one else, you both are done looking for new people, and an engagement happens within a year or two after that. Until then, EVERYONE should be dating multiple people so they can figure out what they like and don’t like.

Its so much work to find another willing girl.

Jew-ga Farley!

Jew-ga Farley!

No more Rhetta?

No more Jew-ga Farley

It would be so funny if this strip was animated with sound. With that swelled cheek Michael should tell Rhetta

“You have dishonored the Corleone family”

I remember when my first boyfriend and I broke up. It had become a long-distance relationship due to college, and we were naturally drifting apart; it was pretty much time. He broke it off first, but we’d been seeing each other more out of habit than desire anyway by then. I remember my mom was more upset than I was; I think she wanted me to be all angry and heartbroken and couldn’t understand why I wasn’t fighting to win him back. But as I saw it, if he wanted to see other people, why would I want to keep going out with him? It was time; the relationship was over, and he’d had the decency to say it to my face and not go behind my back. Michael’s right with what he’s saying here — Rhetta’s breaking up with him, so what else can he say but “goodbye”? Their relationship had a good run, but it’s not surviving the distance.

Whoa, I did not see that one coming.

He’s not going to be someone’s back up plan.

He didn’t even bat an eyelash – so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye

Only a reject rejects rejection

There are times in life when the best said, is the less said.

See ya….

And shouldn’t Michael have a talk with his dad?

I don’t blame him one bit.

Ouch! That hits home. Almost exactly the way “the love of my life” put it to me shortly after her high school graduation. I know it happened to many of us, but for a few years I felt it was just me, and I’d never get over her.

Very appropriate…….

The three words to describe Rhetta, and I quote are:

Stank

Stink

Stunk

Once he has his wisdom tooth taken care of, Mike will have something wonderful and beautiful come into his life, down the road. SomeONE wonderful and beautiful.

Long distance relationships are hard. We lived in Bloomington, IN for 2 years (for me that was 10th and 11th grades). I met a nice girl, started dating. Then we moved to St. Louis. My plan was to graduate, then move back to Bloomington, get a job, etc. But, after just a few months apart, she ended it…too hard on her. Last I heard of her, she got married, had kids. I moved a couple more times, got married, had kids. But she will always have a special place in my heart.

Here’s you hat. What’s your hurry.

And gosh knows, wait until Christmas to break a heart. I get it from her side but she’s known for a while, she could have had better timing.

That was a very intelligent comment, Michael. You have matured.

Mike & Rhetta’s breakup hurts just as much this time as it did the first time I read it.

To be fair it would have been better to wait until his toothache was taken care of. Don’t break up with somebody who’s in agony

See ya.

Make room for Deanna

Wow, good reaction Mike, never works to try and hang on. You’re in school, enjoy ! ;-)

she dodged a bullet

Mike would go on to value his manuscript higher than his family

“The nightingales are sobbing in the orchards of our mothers, and hearts that we broke long ago have long been breaking others . . . " / But still, to quote Cat Stevens, “the first cut is the deepest.”

Never confuse intelligence with a degree.