For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for July 07, 2019

Good looks over safety, huh? (Doctor almost looks like uncle Phil.)

Back in 1990 when this comic strip was originally published, Michael never wore a helmet while riding a bicycle. The last few years, Lynn Johnston has been modernizing the safety in the comic strip by drawing bicycle helmets onto anyone riding a bicycle for the reprints, including Michael Patterson. It changes the story a little, putting the helmet on Michael before the event (today’s comic strip) which caused Michael to start wearing a bicycle helmet.

About 10 years ago I was riding a bicycle with a helmet and have a car pull out in front of me when I was doing about 20 miles per hour. Had I not been wearing a helmet I would have been really been messed up. Had to buy a new helmet though.

And the hospital bill?? $00.00 because they live in a civilized country and not some third world sh!thole like the USA.

I never wore a helmet growing up, never had a problem my head. But around 1992 I took a turn too sharp on my bike, landed on the driveway, gouged my right elbow and knee.

Some irony, he did not want to ruin his hair and look at it now!

Chicks dig scars, Michael…

Nothing’s free, it becomes rationed care and the people with money can still boy private care with their cash. The playing field will never be level.

At my age I always wear a helmet when riding. If I go down, it is going to hurt – a lot. By wearing a helmet, at least I will be able to know why it hurts.

Teen logic. Once took a group of Eagle Scouts on a 50 mile hike along the Rogue River. Eagle Scout is the highest rank you can get, and the most experienced. At the trail head, we divided up the gear. One lad couldn’t fit his share into his pack, so what wouldn’t fit, we divided up, and since I was a very experienced backpacker and had the most room, I ended up carrying the bulk of it and ended up with a sixty pound pack. This lad took a lot longer than the others in getting ready to hike every morning. Finally asked him what the hold-up was. He felt the need to wash his hair every morning. With special shampoo. And conditioner. And styling gel. So I checked his pack. He had brought changes of clothes for every day, pajamas, fingernail clippers and files, his hair junk, cologne, etc. I told him he was on a long hike, in the middle of a wilderness and likely not to meet anybody outside of our group, and gave him back most of his share of the load and told him to suck it up and make it all fit. But in his mind, all that crap was necessary. He might, after all, meet some bikini-clad coed on the trail… Teen logic…

Lynn’s Comments:

This was done just as the helmet laws were getting serious. The youngest riders were all wearing them. Older kids defied their parents’ warnings and went for “the wind in their hair.”

A young boy we knew well was critically injured when he suddenly swerved across the street in front of his house— right into the path of an oncoming car. He was not wearing a helmet and hit his head on the edge of the sidewalk. He was raced to the hospital in critical condition. The driver was entirely blameless. The boy’s parents were given the awful choice of surgery, which would likely result is a seriously brain damaged child, or taking him off life support. His mom said, “Let’s give him a chance.” The surgery and recovery are quite a story but he survived, and with time and lots of therapy, he grew up to be a healthy and productive young man. Ironically, one of the postoperative requirements was that he wear a helmet for awhile to protect his head. It was a happy ending to a nearly tragic accident and every kid in town afterwards wore a helmet when they rode their bikes.

Source: fborfw.com/strip_fix

If you are a citizen, you should leave soonest. Proud of my country and all its warts.

There are some “love it or leave it”, “My country right or wrong” trolls that still wanna live in the 50’s or 60’s. We love our country too. We hate the system in the country that let’s the majority of its people struggle way too much – hard work is one thing, not being treaty fairly is however un-American. Since you folks wanna wave the flag and blindly support the BS like some misguided folks were with the Vietnam War and those who opposed to rights for all, here’s everybody’s challenge, actually read the full text of the Declaration of Independence. Those words made people go to the extreme of rising up against the rulers they had at that time, and now some of them are especially poignant once again. That’s pretty scary stuff. We want to fix things that right now let some keep as liberties and rights just for an elite class. Healthcare is not an entitlement. Freedom from laws based on gender is not an entitlement. Social Security is not an entitlement. And so on. Keeping basic rights and fair treatment from all isn’t American, it’s barbaric.

Every civilized country other than the USA rations health care by need so elective surgeries can be put off or by age or health. In the USA we ration based on money. We do not, repeat not, have a market based solution. There is zero opportunity to select your heathcare in an emergency. Zero.We need to allow anyone to buy into Medicare. Then we will truly have a marketplace for health care.

Nobody likes helmet hair!

Sigh! Let me state the real issue here that no one seems to mention. Automation and artificial intelligence will force about 800,000,000 global job losses over the next 10 years. I personally know people who have lost their jobs to this tsunami and have little chance of ever going back to their previous earnings level. It’s already been proven that professional level jobs, that seemed immune from automation, like doctors, accountants, financial planners, and lawyers can be easily replaced by AI. (After testing for a year, one law firm in L.A. fired 32 junior lawyers when it was proven that A.I. could do better legal research and write better briefs than the humans). A.I. with its near infinite ability to tap into massive databases, can already perform better diagnostics on patients than a human doctor – same with accounting and financial planning. Soooo, with all due respect, may I suggest you stop squabbling about who has better healthcare, and start thinking about a future where access to a job will be as much an issue as access to healthcare.

The concept of the injury in this comic is ridiculous to me. While riding a motorcycle, though, always wear a helmet – and only cover the skin you want to keep.

Let’s look at Healthcare a little differently. Some say it is a Right! Well no it isn’t but let’s go along with that for the moment.

If Healthcare is a Right and the govt should pay for it, and Bearing Arms is definitely a Right as written in the Bill of Rights, then the govt should pay to give me a new gun and ammo every year. It would be subsidized by Your taxes! Works for me.

Maybe a Ruger Modern Day Sporting Rifle with 500 rounds of ammo. Also need some 9mm ammo as I am down under 1000 rounds and also need some more 9mm hollow points as I am now under 50.

Yes sir, the govt should pay for Free stuff that is our Right.

And another non-political comic strip ruined by those to whom EVERYTHING must be viewed in a political light.

Important safety tip. Looking like Frankenstein’s monster for a couple of weeks is worst than having messy hair for a minute or two. This is an old message. I wonder why we have to learn it every year? Sort of like “Don’t drink and drive” or “wear you seat belts” and “don’t leave kids or pets in a hot car”.

For heaven’s sake, don’t let Michal near a mirror to see what the finished “fixing it” looks like!

I never wore a bicycle helmet as a kid – nor did any kid I grew up with. I never wore a motorcycle helmet, either when I first started driving a motorcycle – it wasn’t a legal requirement in those days – and wasn’t ever going to, until …

I was given a motorcycle helmet by my buddies, as a joke, on my 18th birthday. They’d painted it up and stuck streamers all over it. I wore it to go out to the birthday party they were throwing for me. Unfortunately, I never made the party. I was struck by a speeding drunk driver who ran a stoplight. If It weren’t for that crazy motorcycle helmet, I would not be writing this 56 years later!

They call it medical ‘practice’ because they are practicing on us. Doctors are not gods, they don’t know everything, and 50% of them graduated from the bottom of the class. Many are not independent, they are part of a group that pushes them as much as possible to have as many appointments as they can. They are always pressured for time. Reading a thin chart can take 15 minutes, reading a diabetic’s chart can take 60. Then when tests are done there are false positives and false negatives. Always get at least a second opinion for serious matters.

I think a similar joke was done in a strip where it was raining cats and dogs. Michael refused to wear his raincoat because he was worried what people would think. Elly provided him with an umbrella, but he said that made him look British. He then said “And no one wears rubber boots anymore” as he bolted out the door.

The final panel shows several kids waiting at the bus stop. All of them are wearing raincoats, rubber boots, and umbrellas, except for Michael, who is standing there staring into space and drenched to the bone.

1st 2 panels the cut shows bleeding on the left. Next 2 panels bleeding it’s on the right. Then stitches are on the left! lol!

There were several times when Lynn would do something of a PSA because of an organized effort by multiple cartoonists. Before I read Lynn’s comments, I was going to say this was probably one of them. Apparently not.

Always a pleasure to see blood in my comics! Rare treat! I blame G.P.K’s!

Canceled out good looks!

Inappropriate for this website!

My daughter was 13 when she managed to flip her bike, landed head first, broke her helmet and as she continued to roll, broke her shoulder. A few years before, she had gone with me once a week to visit a friend’s child in the hospital who hadn’t had a helmet on when a car had hit him—and he was in a coma for six weeks, in the hospital six more, in brain rehab for a goodly while beyond that, and his family had had to reintroduce themselves to their twelve-year-old. He’d had to relearn everything. So my daughter had her helmet on even though she was out of parental sight, and I have been exceedingly grateful ever since. And I am likewise grateful for today’s strip—maybe it will save one kid from going through any of that.

And in Canada it is taken out of their taxes not at the door.

That’s how you know it was the ’80s.

As if Michael did not have a wierd head shape already.

Lest we forget, The average CANADIAN PAYS A WHOLE LOT MORE IN TAXES THAN THE AVERAGE American, and when he gets sick it takes 3 or 4 months to see if a MRI which may be needed to diagnose him will be allowed by the committee that makes the decision. For trauma Canada is very good ! But nothing in this world is free!!! See how long it takes in Canada to get access to cancer treatment!!!

ADDENDUM: the wait for routine care and cancer care in Canada is good population control and de-facto rationing. Dead people are cheaper to treat than the living.

OH MY GOSH Micheals bleeding in a sunday comic I get it it’s suppose to be funny but this comic is DARK

Health care in Canada is VERY expensive, check out our debt. If you have $ you will go to the head of the line for physio etc. Kevin Durant bumped people to get his MRI, and he is not canadian!