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1. 

   Joe Minotaur said, 4 months ago

   snip.

2. 

   Ladywolf17 said, 4 months ago

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

3. 

   JFri said, 4 months ago

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

4. 

   SchmoozeMinkey said, 4 months ago

   How about haggled with a rusty hacksaw?

5. 

   Avolunteer said, 4 months ago

   @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????

6. 

   ejcapulet said, 4 months ago

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

7. 

   kittylover2 said, 4 months ago

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

8. 

   Paul Jones said, 4 months ago

   What really bothers me is that Elly took Anne’s off-the-cuff remark seriously. If Anne told her to jump off a cliff, would she do that too?

9. 

   pearlandpeach said, 4 months ago

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

10. 

    Macushlalondra said, 4 months ago

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

11. 

    Lewreader said, 4 months ago

    snip, miss, oops

12. 

    Silverpearl said, 4 months ago

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

13. 

    fbjsr said, 4 months ago

    Actualy Paul Jones is right. I didn’t start reading until after Farley died. I am amazed how bitter about her life Elly comes across in these early comics.

14. 

    summerdog said, 4 months ago

    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.

15. 

    sydtaki said, 4 months ago

    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.

16. 

    summerdog said, 4 months ago

    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?

17. 

    RinaFarina said, 4 months ago

    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.

18. 

    Wildmustang1262 said, 4 months ago

    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. :-)

19. 

    Crooky said, 4 months ago

    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”

20. 

    imnshol2 said, 4 months ago

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

21. 

    fbjsr said, 4 months ago

    I dont know what P.E.R.N. is but the second person was refereing to a wonderful set of books that I read almost thirty years ago, The Dragon Riders of Pern. Thread was basicly this stuff that fell from the sky and would burn and destroy things so when it was happening the dragon riders would take to the sky and destroy it with fire before it hit the ground. I know the way I describe it sounds dumb but they are actualy very enjoyable books. I belive the author is Anne Mcaferty.

22. 

    summerdog said, 4 months ago

    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)

23. 

    masnadies said, 4 months ago

    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

24. 

    cleokaya said, 4 months ago

    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.

25. 

    Kay Fegette said, 4 months ago

    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.

26. 

    CliffG.I.Woes said, 4 months ago

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

27. 

    bmwk12ltc said, 4 months ago

    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.

28. 

    Ji2m said, 4 months ago

    This should set your mind at ease John… http://tinyurl.com/m8aao7

29. 

    yyyguy said, 4 months ago

    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.

30. 

    Burgundy2 said, 4 months ago

    Paul Jones - whatever issues you - like, don’t hold back or anything. It will just fester…

    Re Pern: Andre Norton summed it up (paraphrasing a bit) “”Äfter reading Dragonriders of Pern, all I want to do is go right out a buy a spaceship ticket to Pern.””

31. 

    reese828 said, 4 months ago

    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.

32. 

    jerzy said, 4 months ago

    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.

33. 

    fbjsr said, 4 months ago

    CliffG.I.Woes , Children are something better off seen and not heard. Kid’s are something you have fun with, parks little league and even the dreaded school concert.

34. 

    lightenup said, 4 months ago

    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.

35. 

    bald 716 said, 4 months ago

    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

36. 

    yyyguy said, 4 months ago

    @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.

37. 

    yyyguy said, 4 months ago

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

38. 

    kfaatz925 said, 4 months ago

    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.

39. 

    Paul Jones said, 4 months ago

    It’s not especially hate-filled of me to point out how negligent a mother Elly is; that’s because it seems less cruel to blame an adult who’s supposed to know better than a three-year-old who can’t.

40. 

    fbjsr said, 4 months ago

    lightenup, we were not refering to the “snip”. If you look over the comics the past few months the have been kind of negitive about Elly’s attitude about her life and bieng a mom. Even the reason the snip came because Elly is unhappy about her life. She was bored with here life so her friend sugested another baby.

41. 

    Tigger said, 4 months ago

    Elle Got him, she knew he would never go for the snip, snip.. Plus he wants the sex.

42. 

    jude700 said, 4 months ago

    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)

43. 

    GrumpyOldbear said, 4 months ago

    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

44. 

    Comic-Nut said, 4 months ago

    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 ….

45. 

    abs1978 said, 4 months ago

    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.

46. 

    CeeC said, 4 months ago

    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

47. 

    granme69 said, 4 months ago

    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).