For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for January 27, 2015

Michael, respect your elders!

Yes, Michael, but it does go with that lamp Dad won as an important prize.

Ba-dum-bum (ching!)

Grandpa was always light on his feet…

It doesn’t even light up.

A match of cigarette lighter will surely do the trick.

Elly – just break off a couple of pieces around his leg and it’ll be free.

Hit him on the head with the shoe!

It’s interesting to see that Michael can be snarky to someone other than his mother. I’m sure that won’t last long, though.

-running around the house with his shoes on, which in the Patterson household has to be something like a cardinal sin-Really? Since I’m not a long time reader of this ‘toon, this is not something I’d noticed. -So when the Pattersons had that holiday party awhile back, they made their guests take off their shoes (?) That would have been at least as interesting an arc as the meeting of Ted and Connie.-I didn’t realize the Pattersons were from Japan…

Talk about rubbing it in Michael!

argy.bargy2: Lynn is from Vancouver, where it has been known to rain. The largest Japanese ancestry community in Canada is Steveston neighborhod, Richmond, BC (where the Vancouver airport is). I had no problem combining those two facts to understand.

Leave well enough alone. You create more work for everyone. Go out and do volunteer work.

If it’s a Canadian custom, fine, but then why make such a point about it being a ‘cardinal sin’ in the Patterson household if it’s a Canadian custom? I would imagine that when Michael goes to his friend’s houses, he has to take off his shoes, there, too.

I don’t wear shoes in my own house, but the few times a year I head up into the attic, I’m sure to put them on. Think about how much insulation would be stuck on the socks when he’d come down.

Speaking of insulation, they’re in Canada and have less than four inches of insulation above the lid and nothing between the rafters? Wow. Their heating bills must be sky-high! That wouldn’t meet code virtually anywhere!