For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for July 11, 2009

snip.

Time to take the bullets out of the gun, John.

Don’t worry, John! Your voice will only go up two octaves!!

@gmartin007 Ellie had two pregnancies & two childbirths to go through. So why does she have to have the more invasive surgery if John is the one who says no to a third child????

Hey, he’s the one objecting, so he’s the one who gets the snip.

And remember later in their life there was a whoops, her name excapes me at this moment!!

Paul Jones, your remarks are abit hate-filled. Lighten up and enjoy the cartoon and not make ugly comments.

Seems they may be planning to change the storyline, if John gets the old snip, there will be no April.

snip, miss, oops

I like April. A product of imagination. I’d also like to live in P.E.R.N.

OMG! Silverpearl! ! I want to live on PERN, too! Under threadfree skys, of course. Ann is writting a new book. Todd has a new one coming out, too, so watch for them.

pearlandpeach…don’t be such a board mommie. I like to read all the comments, and if they are THAT bad they will get flagged.

John’s snip would = in office visit, 4 stitches, 1 week of no heavy lifting & a $40 copay. Elly’s snip would = Inpatient hospital procedure under general anesthesia, many more stitches (No laproscopy back then), borrowing her mom for several weeks to handle the household while she recovers, oh yeah, and paying an exorbitant deductable for surgery. Probably well over $5000 in those days. Please try to read this through the filter of the era with sympathy for the plight of the voiceless housewife. Now that I am she, I have more sympathy. Plus this comic makes me laugh out loud.

I know some of you think that Elly comes across as bitter about her life, but I just see it as Lynn’s way of getting her joke of the day across. It has to be funny, right?

What’s PERN?

It’s not very surprising that a housewife who spends almost all her time looking after small children is unhappy, even bitter. That’s how the last wave of feminism got started (in the 1960’s) - with women realizing that they were not satisfied with their lives, and there had to be more than this.

Snip? Nahhhhh! Either Elly or John can put a “clip” on their tubes so they will not get another baby. But they already had third child, April. :-)

Elly is basically saying “put your money where your mouth is”. If John is that set on not having children, then he should be happy to take “permanent precautions”

Oh if only there was still the rule of thumb.Then she would not talk to him like that.

PERN ( P.E.R.N…..Parallel Earth, Resources Negligible ) is a planet colonized by Earth humans in a Sci Fi series of books written by Anne McCaffrey. Great fantasy stories started by the author in 1970’s and now written by her son. (he’s not as good, tho)

Summerdog and Silverpearl, I will be right there with you! I think I’d rather raise my kids there, come to think of it. I never ever see Pern fans anywhere, especially nowadays. Who knew they were reading FBOFW?

And yup, it’s a 15 minute procedure and if men had the sense to rest, a 2-3 day recovery. My John had his 3 months ago after I did the pregnancy and giving-birth to our 3 kids. He was sure.

I like Elly’s reaction here, playful but thought-provoking

When my wife and I decided we did not want children it was a no-brainer that it made much more sense for me to have a vasectomy. It was a simple painless procedure and I, unlike some, had no pain afterwards. It took longer than usual for me to get the news that the operation was a success. So long in fact that they were considering repeating the operation. When the final sample came back with good news, I could hear the nurses cheering in the background.

AH, Pern! I love it and all the books. I have a copy of every book. and look forward to more. I even had some personal correspondence with A. Mc. I wrote to the editor and she responded herself at length.

I love FBOFW, as well.

What ever happened to calling them children rather then ‘kids”?

Pern would have a good chance of being a good place to be but I think the Commonwealth that was envisioned by John Myers Myers in Silverlock would be more fun. Or maybe Steven Brust’s Drageara. Great seeing so many good book readers here.

I, too, am a Pern fan. I read a lot of Fantasy and Science Fiction (and Westerns, and Mysteries, and some biographies, and comic strips, and… ) I read constantly.

Summerdog - You are so right. If Elly didn’t make these comments then there wouldn’t any humor in the strip. Some of what comes across as “bitter” today was truly understandable humor years ago. I’m sure some of Erma Bombeck’s stuff might come across as bitter to younger women who don’t know what life was like for women. In 1979 my husband and I applied for a car loan, and the bank manager actually said that they couldn’t consider my income (even though I made slightly more than my husband) since they only used the man’s income since women were apt to quit their jobs at a moment’s notice. My sister, despite years of working as a social worker for the county, couldn’t get an apartment lease approved after her divorce in the early 80s without my father co-signing. So, I don’t see Elly as bitter - I see her using humor to get through what are frequently mind-numbing situations in the life of a housewife and the restrictions on women’s lives. Is Dilbert bitter because he complains about his pointy-haired boss and nutty co-workers? No, of course not.

Oh, does anyone remember Erma Bombeck? I used to love her books and newspaper column. Oops - another thing disappearing from our lives - newspapers.

Young women today are clueless about what women had to face in the very recent past. And if they don’t watch out, they may have to face it in the future, as evidenced by posters like imnshol2 advocating that we return to the days when women were considered chattel, and men were allowed to beat them, as long as the stick wasn’t bigger in diameter than their thumbs.

I don’t think she’s bitter at all, just dealing with 2 small children and trying to keep her sanity.

I told my husband something similar after our second child. I handled the birth control for years, then was pregnant, gave birth, and breastfed for a year each. He wasn’t even sure he wanted a second one (now he’s happy though), so he definitely didn’t want a third. So I said, “well, now it’s your turn to do something”. It wasn’t bitter or mean, just a part of being a team. Plus it is a simpler procedure for a man than a woman.

cleo: i don’t know about the painless part, i hurt for a couple days, but then i lived on the 3rd floor of a walk up which may have had something to do with it. but i think it was one of the best decisions we ever made

@reese828: I remember Erma Bombeck. Even read some of her books. (The Grass is Always Greener Over the Septic Tank is one of the all time great titles.) Definitely one of the best humourists ever, and greatly missed.

to merge with the Doonesbury thread (somewhat): A vasectomy means never having to say you’re sorry.

The only problem with “snip” is what happens when you end up in a new marriage with a partner who wants kids. Heh. ;)

How funny to see Pern fans here! I was wildly into the Dragonriders series about fifteen years ago but have fallen away since. Maybe it’s time to rediscover.

People are talking about vasectomies, tying and hysterectomies, but are any talking about self control or natural family planning? NFP is more effective than any artificial meanings and safer than surgery. NFP also allows for births.

As the apostle Paul said; ’ And if the circumciser had slipped?” (Paraphrased)

Just started PERN series again. Up to “The Crossing” in Dragon’s Dawn.

NFP is effective if there is 100% abstinence. So there is a faction out there that says “abstinence before marriage and abstinence after marriage.”

I do miss Erma

Well, as much as I find the idea hard to stomach … … I think I’ll go get myself snipped early next year. Don’t want some crazy lady claiming I fathered her children ….

judy700: It’s human nature to want to have sex. So, this whole deal about “self control” (especially when married, or adult enough to make rational decisions) is just absurd. The general public has been brainwashed to believe that it, and NFP, works better.

I’d like to seem some statistics on “NFP is more effective than any artificial meanings”. Yes, it’s safer than surgery, but just how is it more effective than birth control? I work in the sexual health and reproductive industry, so you’d have to try really hard to convince me, otherwise.

Hey Comic-Nut…I hope that crazy lady isn’t your wife:-) On the plus side vacectomies can sometimes be un-done!

NFP is very reliable as long as you practice ‘self control’ i.e. don’t have sex during the fertile times of the month. Women become much more in tune with their bodies and can often tell you just when ovulation will occur. I think it is better than birth control (assuming no chances are taken) because most people are not careful about the time of day they take the pill, or checking other methods to verify they are done correctly

Tying a woman’s tubes changes her temperment, physic and makes her a jekal n hide. Stick to your guns Ellie and ladies out there. Make the guy do SOMETHING. After all, you carried the baby (babies).