For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for January 24, 2024

Write what you know.

graded A+ for authenticity.

I wonder how many typos are in that last page.

Let this be a lesson to you, Mike. Don’t go out drinking on a school night.

Like I said, going to that place was just a huge waste of time!

Real life journalism.

How courageous of him

Sadly, the lesson will probably not be learned.

I’m taking a trip in the Wayback machine and that was a rotten feeling trying to make the bed stop spinning so I could sleep.

Promise -somehow this will get back to Rhetta.

My BFF’s husband traveled a LOT for business. Once a co-worker suggested they leave the Bistro where they were having a beer and go out to find some female companionship. Husband refused – adultery is not his thing, and besides “my wife is bound to find out.”

“C’mon! Seattle is a long way from Baltimore!”

“Nah, I swear, the news will travel. Watch.” Husband stood up and called out, “Does anybody here know anybody named Lastname?” A fellow in a far corner called back, “I went to college with a guy named Terry Lastname. Does that count?”

Husband sat back down. “He went to school with one of my brothers-in-law.”

Literature verite’. If it is reasonably coherent (not a given) I’d accept his essay. Also, he didn’t just blow it off and set himself up for failure as so many commenters on yesterday’s strip asserted. He’s learning adult lessons the hard way. Don’t we all?

A budding young Hemingway for sure, now write about tomorrow’s hangover for extra credit, and you’re on your way!

Why does Mike’s eyes look like they are going to pop out of his head?

Life in Letterkenny.

And there ya go!

The Gambler — Kenny Rogers…

Write about something you know. The art of suffering for your art.

My son put himself through college, 3 engineering degrees, straight A’s, no debt at the end or help from parents! He used his GI bill, scholarships, grants. He salvaged an Exterra from a mud sale, took apart the engine, seats, everything, cleaned it and put it back together, drove it for a year and then sold it as a down payment on a mobile home, replaced walls, flooring, wiring, got roommates that paid his living expenses. It can be done, Michael, and you have all the help you need. Just put your mind to it and for gosh sakes, stop partying!

One basic thing about writing that, I’m glad to know, Mike has and that’s to write about what you know. College life will be filled with human interest stories for him to experience so he can refer to these for any of his future writings.

Ah, the lessons learned when you’re young. Been there.

Take heart, Mike. You’re not the first, nor the last young writer who has had this experience. Many of us have been there, done that, and feel your pain.

I always referred to this as the Hunter S. Thompson Course in Journalism – although many writers before him demonstrated this form of masochistic exposition.

Nice wordsmithing, Mike… It has a Hemmingway style to it.

Your own personal experiences make the best topics to write about. People want to read what you’re up to. College kids have a lot more to talk about than they think they do

Mike definitely does not look good with the mustache. The beard, maybe, but not the mustache.

In the last panel Mike looks to be in his late 50s. Good artistic rendition of the results of having a good time…with alcohol.

Sorry, no metastories accepted. (stories about stories…)

Michael is well prepared for a career in media. Journalists are alcoholics.

And here we see the male of the species after a failed hunt at the local watering hole. His energy expended in the pursuit of game, he retreats to his den, to recover from the chase. He knows there will be other hunts, other watering holes and other opportunities. Perhaps in time he will attract a female with which he can start a pride of his own. Until that time, he lives the life of the lonely bachelor, always on the prowl for easy prey, to slake his appetite.

Next week on Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, Kangaroos, what do they really keep in that pouch.

If you’re gonna play the game, boy, you gotta learn to play it right.

In my beloved four college years, I drank on days I DIDN’T have a big paper! (And as a history major, I had A LOT.) THAT is why I graduated suma cuum laude! (sic)

I bet you won’t do that again, Mike.

I swear, I can feel his headache from here.

MIKE’S PAPER

Fer skerr hand sebben ears echo, howard’s father greased and ate a nude nation……

Reminds me of the comic where Michael was not applying himself to music lessons.

Uncle Phil: Michael, it is obvious you are not taking this seriously. I have taught younger kids who by now have made better progress than you. You don’t practice.

Michael: Nuh-uh! I practice all the time.

Phil: Very well; show me something you have practiced.

Michael spins the trumpet around his finger while whistling the Harlem Globetrotters theme song. Phil closes his eyes and grimaces in disbelief

Michael’s expression in the fourth panel is a carbon copy of Phil’s. It is almost like Lynn Johnston cut & pasted! :)

I never tried to write a paper drunk, but there were definitely times I had to crank one out when I was dead tired after being up all night long for other reasons.

Next step to growing up. . .

Mike, I’ve made a life out of reading people’s faces, and knowing what the cards were by the way they held their eyes. And if you don’t mind my saying, I can see you’re out of aces.

This present story line may be current and realistic, but I don’t like it – for whatever that’s worth.

Don’t think that human interest stories are done in the first person narrative.

It’s already happening! Mike’s starting to hang out with the wrong set of people!

On top of that, alcohol damages your health. At least back home Michael’s family is made to eat healthy. Elly is not going to have the Pattersons be a drain on OHIP.

Ohh Mike’s coat mysteriously developed a different weave from panel one to panel two!

Michael in his underwear ?! I am shocked !

Oh, those rebellious teenagers and their Kenny Rogers songs!