For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for August 18, 2009

Isn’t that the truth!!

Lizzie’s enjoying the food…

Oh, this is so very true!

Yuck! check out the guy in the background making the food…

You gotta love the flies buzzing around the cook.

That’s an argument most men never understand. I know a man who said he doesn’t care where he eats, at a restaurant, at home, as long as he gets to eat. I told him it sure makes a difference to his wife.

Maybe “roadside rotgut” is a Canadian expression, eh?

Well … “rotgut” is cheap, hard liqour designed to get you trashed fast. In this case, perhaps the condiments have fermented? The burger isn’t cooked all the way through? The Tomatoes have e coli or botulism?

My mentor’s wife doesn’t understand why I love her home cooked meals better then what I can cook LMAO

Hey, that cook is the same guy in my old school’s cafeteria!

howtheduck, Elly didn’t say she didn’t like her cooking. Planning meals everyday and then cooking them takes time and effort. I’d sooner eat someone elses’ cooking, too, because I didn’t have to spend the time doing it myself, and I ‘m a good cook.

that is a really big thing, john taking the family out for a meal, but why hotdogs? i mean there are better places than that,

Remember; they’re on their way back from camping, possibly along some rather remote roads. Canada is a large area with a population less than that of California, so it’s quite possible this burger dump is the only place to eat for a long distance. John may not have taken the family someplace like this purposely; they may have just had to choose between it and listening to hungry kids complain for a couple more hours.

(The cook appears to me to be picking his teeth in the second panel, Susan.)

In the last strip they were packing up camp in the rain. This has to be on the way home, in which case fast food is all they are fit for, if I remember how dirty my kids got camping! I never looked my best either. Nice restaurants loose their appeal when I feel like I have to hide to avoid looks from others if I am not appropriately groomed, not to mention the kids. Jon’s comments may just be by way of apology that he isn’t taking them someplace nice. He also may be picky, my own dad hates fast food. In-N-Out Burger (So. California and the west) was the only one he would take us to and then not often.

They act like they have never eaten hamburgers and hot dogs before this. They must have had a few H & H meals while camping.

summerdog; there is a difference between eating home-cooked hamburgers and hotdogs, and roadside bought ones. Also, anyone ever watched Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on the Food network. Oh, now there is some awesome food. After watching any episode, all I want to do is go on a long road trip to go eat at any of the places featured in the show.

It can’t be as bad as Hillbilly Hotdogs in LeSage, WV. I am pretty eclectic in where I can eat, but that is even beyond me. Thier idea of atmosphere gives all West Virginians a really bad name. It defines a bad roadside stand.

fbjsr, naw, the cook is picking his teeth. That’s a spatula for flipping burgers in his hand, not a spoon.

That said….who thinks that Lizzie fell out of her seat and the hotdog went flying, or do you think that she’s just tossing the dog for fun?

Well said……..

Liz is just playing with her food. The guy looks like he is picking his teeth. I think Jon just feels guilty about the place. I can’t blame Elly for a change of pace for cooking. But when my husband grills chicken with the spices it puts a lot of places to shame.

Hear… Hear..

in Canada (northern ontario, especially) it’s the chip wagons that people look for (roadside french fries vendors). there’s also a place on hwy 11 up towards the Muskokas which used to be famous for the quality of their burgers, though i’ve heard it’s gone way downhill from what it used to be when iwas in my 20’s and 30’s (and going that way on a regular basis). they had to buy and install a pedestrian bridge to keep people travelling southbound from trying to cross a divided, controlled access highway (kind of like crossing a busy interstate).

Lizzie should munch and chew the hotdog weiner instead of play and throw the weiner up the air. Sheeshhhh!

somebodyshort said, about 9 hours ago

Lizzie just fell off her chair !!

She didn’t fall off her chair. She throws the hotdog weiner up the air.

Susan, LOLs! Looks like he picks his nose but he just picks the toothpick on his teeth. :-D

@ Macushlalondra I hear you sister. Men sometimes think they have a right to be served food.

Women consider it a priviledge and a treat- even burgers at a greasy spoon!

Although, if John objects to the fare, tell him to stop trying to save money!

It tastes good until you look at the sodium and fat content in the menu. Then it loses its appeal faster than you can say, “another visit to the doctor”……

My husband understood the concept of food someone else makes tasting better. He wasn’t much of a cook, but sometimes he’d make breakfast or lunch as he knew that it gave me a break. I loved having the chance to eat something someone else had made. Of course, the flip side was that then I had to clean up! (He usually cleaned up - at least loading/unloading the dishwasher.) Restaurants are pure heaven to me, and I’d eat out constantly if it were affordable.

I think the guy in panel 2 is a different guy to the one shown in panels 1 and 3. I think the guy in panel 2 is the owner of the burger joint, and the cook from panel 1 is happy until the owner comes and sniffs around what he’s doing (panel 2), then the cook seems unhappy if you look at his frown in panel 3, a frown which didn’t seem to be on his face in panel 1.

…..is everyone confused now? ;-) Cheers!

Now days I can’t eat at those places too much fat. I want no surgery have to watch intake.

Wow, seems to me that most guys like burgers. John seems like a little bit of a fuddy duddy. Granted, there are some burgers that aren’t that good, but if you go to the right place, it can be pretty good. I wonder if John likes fast food places or not.

Then again, I’m 58, single guy. I’m not married, no wife, no kids. Never been married. So I can’t really relate to a family like this. Yes, I do some cooking at home, but I don’t have a problem eating out. Like a burger joint. But I don’t do that all that often and the burgers have to be good. Typical single guy. Do some cooking, pop something into the microwave, eat out time to time.

So many people are clueless on this one! It’s clear it’s not just some “fast food” restaurant, but “roadside rotgut” says a very low quality place- greasy & cheap. And it’s because they’re on their way home from camping and probably have little choice where to go- it’s not some urban area packed full of restaurant choices.

The point is, Elly is loving the food- despite it being absolute garbage, which shows how much she appreciates not having to cook a meal.