For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for March 18, 2025

Why are they fighting? And why aren’t Becky’s idiot parents stopping it??

The word “soon” is very pretty. You can rhyme it with lots of other words and it has a soothing “oo” sound to it. Nevertheless, other equally terrible punchlines considered were:

On Wednesday. When that day comes it will not be too soon.

On the end of the month. That month may end me before it ends itself.

On St. Patrick’s Day. Saints preserve us to last until then.

They sure do act like siblings

Because one definition of pretty is “to a moderately high degree”. Learn to use a dictionary.

Panel 1: “Lipps, Inc.”

Because this is how “best friends” act when they are 4-5 yo!

From Lynn’s Comments: When writing for the strip, I looked at every word in the dialogue hoping to find something on which to build a punch line. Here, the word “pretty,” used in everyday speech, was something I thought I could work with. This isn’t the best gag, but it gives you an idea how some ideas evolve.

It’s all fun and games until someone gets hurt…….THEN it’s just fun.

Acting like siblings now.

It’s a good thing April and Becky are friends, otherwise something bad could happen!

Somehow Becky has always rubbed me the wrong way.

Today the kids are fighting while the adults watch.

By the end of the strip,the parents are fighting while the kids watch.

Take a good look at Becky’s dad, who was eventually reduced to off-camera villain

April and Becky are not fighting at all… They do not exist. They are fictional characters in a comic strip. It is so interesting how many people see them as real. I really like Lynn Johnston, as she exaggerates stupid human behavior and interjects moments of deep love as well. A lot of comic strip characterizations in probably most comic strips convey these exaggerations to satirize ridiculous human behavior. The point is to see the truth in human dysfunctionality. We then take this as “reality” and wonder why these humans (fictional characters) are acting this way INSTEAD OF LOOKING DEEPLY INSIDE OURSELVES!!!

A procrastinator’s favorite word.

Sure it is! I find it to be a very pleasing word aesthetically speaking.

Yep, dem little kids do be crazy when left to their own devices in a pack, I used to be them. Pro tip, limit the sugar OK! ;-)

There’s the old joke:

A woman sees a young girl playing in a mud puddle.

She says, “Goodness Sally, you’re pretty dirty!”

Sally replies, “I’m even cuter when I’m all cleaned up!”

“HI! We were having so much fun, we decided to stay in Mexico for another day. We’ll be back tomorrow. Bye!”

Betcha April started it.

Kids are…kids. No matter how close their friendships are, eventually, when spending a lot of time together, they are inevitably going to wind up on each other’s nerves, and this, realistically, is often the outcome. Sometimes, the parents make a good call by letting the kids deal with it, as it will teach the kids that mommy, and daddy are not always going to be there to settle the differences for them.In simple terms, this, is exactly what kids do.

“The beginning of the strife is like letting out water, so quit before the quarrel breaks out” -Proverbs 17:14