For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for September 05, 2015

Hard choice.

At least it’s not “Lizard-breath”; that’s older brother Michael’s nickname for her.

And there sits her best friend in Kindergarten!

My daughter is Elizabeth, Although my husband and I started calling her “Beth” for short, her older sister (by 2 years) took matters into her own hands and started calling her Buffy. That’s what stuck. Buffy went through a short period where she wanted to be called just Elizabeth, until 2nd grade, when I had her fill out her own Valentines for her class. She decided then and there that she was “Buffy” again. She goes by both now. (Side note: absolutely everyone asks if we call her Liz or Lizzie…that was NEVER a consideration, which is good, especially if you watch “The Walking Dead”.)

I agree! My first thought was that he liked her and was making conversation in the way kindergarteners do. But I did ask myself, why is she dressed so prim and dowdy. In the strips Monday to now all the children were dressed normal.

Unfortunately, no matter what you name your child, others will find a way to poke fun at their name. I tried to give my kids names I THOUGHT could not be made fun of: Lars and April. But the kids said “Lars, Lars, comes from Mars” and April became “Maple” or “Ape”. You just can’t win in the game of childhood teasing.

I’m surprised that no one until today, has commented on Lizzie’s dress. It’s BLACK!! Good grief! Ellie probably made it. Style is OK….colorist should have used a different color.

@summerdog

Maybe it’s really just a dark navy blue. That would be nice.

Let me guess: the boy sitting next to her is Anthony. The same Anthony who’s going to fall head-over-heels for her in high school. Right?

Michael ought be careful with his name calling. Is he positive his name is “goof-proof”?

Our Elizabeth Louise is called either Elizabeth or Lizzy Lou or Lizbet. However, as she gets older she can decide what she prefers to be called and heaven help the child that tries to bully her. That kid won’t last long! She’s no one’s door mat and she’s ony 3.

Up until the 3rd grade I had been under the impression that my name was Michael Paul and the family had always called me Michael or Mike. When I discovered that my name was Paul Michael I decided to change it. When I started 3rd grade we had moved to a new town and the first day of school the teacher ask me what my name was and I said Paul. 2 weeks later my parents come to school to see how I was doing and they told the teacher that they were “Michael’s” parents. The teacher was confused because her son’s name was Michael and she told that to my parents “I only have one Micheal in my class and that is my son.”. They replied “Michael Marion” and the teacher said “Oh, you mean Paul!” After that my mother called me Paul Michael and after a time the rest of the family (7 brothers and sisters) got to calling me that.

To quote Michael “Lizard-Breath”

I’m an Elizabeth, named for my late mother. She was Betty, I’m Beth. However, I’ve never corrected anyone who calls me Liz since my late father called me Lizzie about half the time. I’m a doctor, and years ago, at one of the hospital holiday parties for our Cardiology department, at a table of 5 couples we had 5 Elizabeths. 4 were Elizabeth Ann (including me), and one was an Elizabeth Marie. That said, we were Beth, Lisa, Liza, Liz, and Betty- no-one used the same name!

Wait ‘till the juvenile humorists get through with Janet Ozerkevitch’s name.

I think you may have proved why Michael should not tease his sister or make fun of her name. His name could have potential for a counterattack!

As we learned from Harry Potter, a name is a name. “Harry” for example, is a common man’s name. Even if I happened to be named after my father and grandfather, such as a name like Tom Marvolo Riddle, what am I to do about it?

Just yesterday, you were posting about how Elizabeth shouldn’t be glowering at the boy sitting next to her, who was just minding his own business, and about how she shouldn’t be angry for no reason.

Could it possibly be that he had already nasty-grammed her, and that was why she wanted to move and sit next to someone else?

Nah. It’s all Elizabeth’s fault, for being named Elizabeth, right?

Sheesh….

When my mom was a little girl her favorite name was Marrietta and she was bound and determined to name one of her daughters Marrietta, then she married my dad and all my sisters are glad she decided there was no way she was going to name one of her daughters Mary-et-a-Miel (Meal).

Loved all the stories about names in today’s comments! My parents first wanted to name me Penelope (pronounced Pen-el-o-pee), but Daddy became afraid kids would call me Pen-a-lope, so they didn’t. So now I use “Penny” when I want to give a fake name for people to call out, like at food counters and such.

Could it possibly be that he had already nasty-grammed her, and that was why she wanted to move and sit next to someone else?There is nothing in the strip to show that, and no one made any mention of that. The only action the boy took prior to this was that he held up his school gear for the teacher when Elizabeth forgot hers. Accusing the boy of nasty behavior out of that is really jumping to conclusions. It seems the original idea is the right one: Elizabeth did not want to sit next to a boy because he was of the opposite sex, then when she sees a girl act snooty, Elizabeth decides it would not be so bad to try to be friends with the boy sitting next to her.

I believe “The Simpsons” had a flashback where Homer did exactly the same thing when Marge was pregnant with Bart.

This is an old strip and it is set in Canada. I am pretty sure that the dress codes were more servere in those schools – except when it got c c c cold and then everyone wore snowsuits.