For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for August 25, 2022

Ah, yes. Message sent; message received. We understand each other.

Can I just kiss her goodnight?

like Tomoya meeting Nagisa’s parents in the pilot episode of anime Clannad even after first T&N first met each other: Akio tells Tomoya he can just take the girl he loves and run away, but then says he won’t allow it since T&N weren’t even an item (yet; they were just barely new friends).

Yep,, remember that look REAL well and kept it in mind ! ! ! !

haha I remember this strip like it was yesterday. Dead-on. Lynn understands the male mind sometimes, lol.

“Hey, mister—if anything happens to my daughter, I have a .45 and a shovel. I doubt that anyone would miss you”—CLUELESS

I think the phrase “a look says more than a thousand words” applies here!

My older brother (who owns a gun shop) said he was going to leave a shotgun leaning against a nearby wall when he meets his daughter’s boyfriends. It wasn’t loaded, but that was not a problem. Message was delivered, and she ended up marrying a pretty good guy.

Panel 4: “Hello, Michael….Meet yourself in about 25 years”…

I left no doubt to my daughters boyfriends

Anyone else notice that Rhetta looks like an older version of April??

So 20th century, boys may run wild but daughters must be protected by all means….. according to the father.

If I were the dad, I’d tell him, “Lay your hands on Rhetta, and I promise you will soon regret-ah!”

Sitting on the porch with a double barrel shotgun when a boy comes to pick up the daughter conveys the same message ….

My favorite story of a father meeting the boy on the first date is my grandfather’s meeting my great-grandfather for the first time. My grandmother was busy getting dolled up, because she wanted to look perfect for their first date, so her dad sat down with him and started talking and asked the usual questions about him. He quickly found out that grandpa had just come back from the European theater of WWII, and so of course that prompted him to ask where he’d fought, because he’d served in Europe in WWI…..

By the time Grandma came down, they had maps spread out on the table and were sharing war stories. Turns out, they’d covered a lot of the same territory. She ended up having to wait so long for them to finish talking that they pretty much had to reschedule the date. ;-) Suffice to say, he approved of Grandpa.

I know you know what I want you to understand. You know I know what you want.

Hurt my daughter and they won’t even find the pieces of you.

My dad never had to say anything; I have 3 older brothers, & one of them was (still is) a body builder.

Last panel=the ol stinkeye

Wonder if he had the same standards for Lorne: “Lay a hand on your girlfriend, and her father and I are going to make a bungee cord out of your lower intestine”.

Always know the enemy and be prepared to lull them into complacency. It was easy to do when you dated farmers daughters or Air Force brats. All you had to do was ask about the weather or their career and within 15 minutes you were golden.

I’ll do to you what you do to my daughter!

My grandfather was a gunsmith. When my aunt had a boy pick her up for a date, before she got down the stairs Grandpa would be showing the lad his shotgun collection.

Why are they both thinking that? Michael doesn’t have a daughter yet, and if he did, she’d be young enough that Rhetta’s father laying a hand on her would be kill-worthy indeed.

It’s good they see eye-to-eye…

That is one of the toughest moments in a young man’s life. All Dad’s know…..

So, not even second base, huh?

Guys always got scared by my father. Possibly because of all the years in the Navy, and he could look rather stern.. LOL!

Michael needs to be more forthcoming about his status. Parents only want to see their daughters happy. In momspeak, “happy” is a code word for “married to a man who will provide for everything”. If Michael can convince Rhetta’s parents he is destined for success, then he can do anything he wishes to her.

Like Madonna said “the man with the cold hard cash is always Mr. Right”.

Never really got the “intimidation factor” that seemed to always be in play. (But only for the daughter. If it was the son, the ‘ol double standard would rear its ugly head with a “that’s my boy” remark.)

The bit where the father thought it was the thing to do to be cleaning their shotgun when the date showed up was just laughable to me. I have three daughters and one son. Never had I ever once tried the intimidation play on any of them. Just met them and chatted with them politely whilst the daughter was getting ready, treating them with the respect I expected to be returned. Always panned out. They would all join in on family outings or gatherings as part of the family.

It’s nice to read the stories from posters from days gone by, about boys actually going to the home and being invited inside and meeting the parents. None of that calling the cell phone, and the daughter waiting at the curb to be picked up…as our neighbor’s daughter did a few years ago. Her mother complained to me that she never met her daughter’s dates. Needless to say, the daughter eloped, had a baby, and the neighbor became the child’s official guardian, and the kid’s father is nowhere in sight.

My kids were on the cusp of that cell phone invasion, but we still insisted that the boys come in and meet us. We instructed our son to do the same when he had a date. According to our kids, we were “soooooo old fashioned!”…

Another funny idea would be for Michael to redo the dinner scene of the movie Soul Man.

Mrs. Blum: “Raspberry tart, Michael?”

Michael: “No thank you, I could not eat another bite.”

Mrs. Blum’s imagination. Michael is holding a knife in his teeth and has his shirt unbuttoned.

Michael: “All my life I could only think about one thing, Canadian women, and now…I WILL HAVE ONE!”

Reality. Mrs. Blum sees Lorne glowering at Michael

Mrs. Blum: “Lorne, didn’t you say you are going to have geography test? Well in that case, you are excused to your room to study.”

Lorne: “Yes, Mother.”

Lorne rises from his seat, but then switches to Lorne’s imagination.Lorne{berating Michael}: “Listen loser, I don’t care what you have done or how good your grades are. Even if you get elected the President of Canada, nobody is good enough for my little sister. NO MAN!!! Understand?”

Reality. Mr. Blum is scrutinizing Michael.

Rhetta: “We met at work. Did Michael mention he is thinking about studying journalism?”

Mr. Blum: “Yes, you did.”

Mr. Blum’s imagination. A pregnant Rhetta is sitting next to Michael, wearing a pimp hat, a crushed velvet suit and expensive gold chains. Gunshots and sirens are heard in the background.

Michael: “Go get my heroin and my hypodermics, broad!”

Rhetta: “Yes, dear.”

Rhetta struggles to hoist herself up

Michael: “And get me some mo’ poutine while ’yo at it. Typical lazy canuck.”Michael looks directly ahead and glowersWHAT ‘CHOO LOOKIN’ AT?!

We always talk about the “Mom look” that spells disaster for anyone on the receiving end. Here we have the “Dad look” that warns of pending disaster if the recipient steps out of line.

The way the thought balloon is structured made me think that Michael and the dad were thinking the same exact thing, which was weird. :P

so.. no kiss then?

that’s the way I feel towards anyone that dates my nieces

Hey stupid, you do realize under the terrorism statutes, that constitutes a criminal act, don’t you!?

Great minds think alike!

my dad just put a loaded shot gun in plain sight

Oh no, in that panel he is holding her hand therefore technically laying a hand on her, next comic Mike is going to be flattened on a road. This comic is getting too scary for me.

In my experience meeting the parents on the first date usually meant it was also the last.

There should be a strip where Lorne has a date, where dinner is liver and onions, which he hates. The others can then demand he polite by eating what was served him, through song:

“Lorne, Lorne, Lorne down the liver!”