For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for August 30, 2012

Spoken like a true little brother. I always said my little brother and I had been fighting since he got big enough to hit back.

And she probably still does.

With me, it was the other way around. My sister got all the breaks. She got a car when she was 16, I wasn’t even allowed to get my license until I was 18. I would have hoped she’d get in a really bad accident, but then I never would have been allowed to drive.

I think you’ve just given a bad rap to pontificating trolls…

Geez, Ellie, let it go. You have a house and a nice family, Phil is a loser. You won. Get on with your life.

I came from an old fasiond family where the “double standard” ruled. Ellie is right. Back in the day, the rules were tougher on girls. It wasn’t fair, but is was a fact of life. My problem with Ellie is that she is taking her bitterness (and that is exactly what it is) out on the wrong person. Phil may have benifitted from being male, but he wasn’t the one who made the rules. Thier parents did. She should be giving THEM an earful now.

On the other hand, sleeper 2 has a point worth noting. Elli now hs a family and a wonderful life. Maybe that, in part, is due to the stricter rules that her parents imposed on her. Maybe Phil is the one who should be resentful.

There is another truth here, that neither of them is mentioning: the eldest child always is disciplined the most harshly. The youngest gets away with a lot more. I know. I’m a younger brother. So, if Elly is the “big sister,” that needs to be taken into account too. If she is younger than Phil, well, then her argument has more vallidity.

Both of them need to let it go. I always thought that my parents favored my older sister, and she always thought they were lenient on me. I’m sure we both were right in our own way. I don’t know how old Elly and Phil are supposed to be in this strip, but at some point, they need to stop rehashing their childhoods and harboring bitterness.

I don’t remember, but is Phil the elder of the two? Because the whole ‘male’ thing may not be the only story. I’m the oldest of three, the only daughter, and I got to do everything first.

I think everyone is taking the interaction between Elly and Phil a bit too seriously. I think this is just a mirror of the same sorts of inane squabbling siblings usually have with each other while growing up. And, the reality is that it unfortunately can rear itself back into existence even when the brother and sister deeply love each other as Elly and Phil do. I read it all as simple grousing. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++What I do find entertaining today, however is 1) the drawing style and poses that Lynn uses today. I think the expressiveness of the drawing is especially good today, 2) I also find it an interesting revelation on Phil’s character that he watered down his parent’s vodka (the presumption is that he needed to make the vodka level look normal again after he sampled some himself as a kid). It is very much in keeping with his more loosey-goosey, devil-may-care attitude about life, and 3) I think the colorist does a very good job with this strip, especially since it was originally drawn exclusively for B&W.

actually, though I’m sure there’s a double standard, I don’t know if it’s because she’s female and he’s male or (as I would guess, given the way my family is) because she’s the oldest and he’s the youngest.

God wants you to be happy joyous and free. Enjoy the life given freely to you. Get all that crazy bulls@&t out of your head. It’s from people trying to control you…God gave you free will and a brain ,use them. Find a nice girl and give her a big hug.

So we see in the second panel that Phil has a history of committing adultery…

Leave it Ellie. Phil needs to move the piano, not lean on it..Yes there is a double standard here: men have to do all the heavy work or high reaching all the time, and still have to listen to women complain about something!

Nabuqudurizhur: You were clergy? You seldom say anything Christian (and proof-texting doesn’t count). No wonder the fastest religious group today is the atheists (and it is just as much a faith statement as that of theists).

Your mileage may vary? Your market may vary? You make me vomit?

look at all the teen moms now mabe there should be stricter double standards at least teach them to wait until there schooling is over before opening shop

Actually, it takes a great deal more faith to believe that there is no God than it does to believe in Him. There is so much non-biblical evidence supporting the history written in the Bible, and Jesus’ life is one of the most well-documented in history. See the writings of Josephus. To discount EVERY writing and/or proof of the existence of God as nonsense shows a fanatical belief system unsupported by fact. Besides, it is not possible to prove a negative. You cannot prove that there is no God, you just have to take it on faith.

A lot of the adult siblings in my extended family don’t get along, even despise one another. I hope the grandkids do better. . . .

So…..Elly was always a nagging sister as well as a nagging wife. Nice.

Speaking as a woman who grew up in the ‘50s and ’60s, Ellie is right. In my extended family, the boy cousins got cars and the right to go and do as they pleased. The girls got stuck with housework and learning how to be good wives.I’ve resented this all my life, and I expect I will continue to do so until the day I die.

It’s also the fact that you are the first born. You kind of clear the way for your younger siblings. Their curfews were less strict than yours, punishments shorter, etc. It’s the curse of the firstborn, Elle!

Even if that’s true, Elly, what’s the point in bringing it up now?

@GokieI have the same issue in my family with siblings hating each other but it seems to have also transferred to the grand kids who resent their cousins for favors they think others are getting that they aren’t. So much for family love.

A lot of how siblings turn out has to do with the nature-nurture thing, with nature playing a big part. In my mother’s family of nine kids, some of the kids were sweethearts and got along fine with one another, and others were neurotic/bitter and didn’t get along with anyone, including their own kids. They seemed to be born that way, or so it seemed to me. I could be wrong. I was an only child – mom was great.

THIS AIN’T GETTING THE PIANO MOVED!!!!

Sibling rivalry is still strong in this family. Michael things Lizzie gets away with things and all.

It sounds like Ellie is regretting her life.

@sjc14850AMEN!

Night Gaunt: Boy do you have a wrong number! So defensive when there is no attack. Go read Thomas Huxley’s “On Agnosticism”. He was an expert on mollusks and more famous as “Darwin’s Bulldog” for his science and debating skill – especially against “Soapy” Wilberforce. As he demonstrates in that essay, you can neither verify nor falsify the existence of God, both are faith statements. So stop pretending you can. As for me, most of my ministry has been with, not against, atheists. What most of them are saying on social issues is what the church should be saying, but has sold out to mammon.