Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for August 10, 2020

Does this mean that Puddles already had his pancakes and then went back to sleep with Luann?

Bernice – the daughter, the Degroots wished for ?

early to bed, early to rise

This, apparently, will be the week everyone reminds Luann how much an inferior daughter she is.

Puddles already had toast for breakfast.

Luann: Bernice, we need to have a conversation.

Bernice can cook. This should make her more welcome in Casa Degroot!

Puddles is hoping for a second breakfast.

Luann is a free spirit who is looking for the meaning of life?

Looks like Frank is already finished with his first stack. Yet, no matter how good they are, he shouldn’t talk with his mouth full.

And for the record, I jokingly mentioned this scenario last week. Poor Lu, shown up by her BFF.

Oh how thoughtful! Bernice has made pancakes for the entire family! And she’s even using the “right type of syrup,” too! So help Me, I’m liking Bernice more and more each day!

But don’t worry, Lu! I still had to deduct 5 points from Bernice, however. I mean, pancakes without bacon IS ridiculous! ;)

Move over Tiffany. Luann has a new frenemy!

Will Puddles betray Luann and sleep in Bernice’s room instead?

Not only is Luann the last one up this morning, everyone else (including Bernice) has gotten dressed already.

it’s now 8:10 according to the digital clock on the fridge

did Bernice bring her own apron?

Better up your game Luann, or soon you be number two daughter.

Frank is loving this. As is Nancy.

How can Bernice be so thoughtful and thoughtless at the same time?

Nancy new best friend.

Ahoy, mates, I fear that the good ship Luann has gotten into shallow water, and is scraping the bottom this past week.

Did I stumble into Rip Haywire? Why isn’t someone recapping? Should that be Luann? Or Bernice? If Bernice is taking over the strip, why shouldn’t she get a chance to recap?

Nancy: “Bernice, you make the best pancakes! Way better than Luann.” Frank: “I wish Luann could be more like you!” Bernice, two weeks later: “What have I gotten myself into? I can’t keep this up. I’ve got to find another place to stay so I don’t have to keep making breakfast for the DeGroots!”

Oh my; the arc continues…

Hope LuAnn doesn’t get jealous. You know how Cra Cra she can be.

2nd week of Bernice- let’s wish for a third week?

Geez, what’s wrong with Bernice pitching in? She’s getting free rent, she probably feels she should be doing =something= to earn her keep. Frank and Lu don’t cook much, and Nancy has to love not having to cater to everyone in the a.m. Win-win! Lu can process her feelings, hopefully, and do whatever she has to do to be okay with Bernice trying to be a contributing member of the household. I hope it doesn’t get stupid and greeneyed and crap—but it probably will. So if it does, I hope it all turns out. Living with other people always means adjustments, and Lu hasn’t had to make any with any people other than her immediate family. This will be good practice for growing as an adult.

Yup, you’re the late riser, Luann. Wondering why you assumed Bernice is also a late riser…perhaps all those years she stayed over, she woke up hours before you but kept busy reading or listening to music. You never figured that she was awake for hours.

Not too noisy.

Luann, Luann, Luann – not everyone operates on the same schedule you do.

That’s a bottle of Aunt Jemima syrup. Is there some deep significance to that?

By the way, once you try real maple syrup, you’ll never go back to the fake stuff!

Good call by those last week who wrote Bernice, while she was tip-toeing, should make breakfast for everyone else.

Knew there would be pancakes. Just thought Nancy would make them. Good move Bernice.

Honestly, I hope this isn’t mean to drive a wedge between Lu and Bern. They both need each other as BFFs… even if they don’t realize it or behave that way, often…. quite often… :)

Oh,oh. Bernice just “stole” Luann’s parents. Stay tuned.

This may get interesting after all!

Be careful Luann. We just may have a new “favorite daughter” in the making.

Will we see a strip in the far future featuring the statement “My parents always liked you best!”

Looks like Puddles is up for second breakfast.

I sense Luann is gonna get a little green eyed.

Rent payment.

So Bernice is basically a service bottom? This explains a few things, actually…

“Good morning, Luann! Your father and I have decided to adopt Bernice, and sell you into indentured servitude!”

There are early morning people and those who are not

I bet that they were gossiping about Luann.

Bernice is going to be the good daughter….

Why use corn syrup when you get the real thing in Canada or the U.S. we use to by maple syrup by the gallon.

Puddles woke everyone else up!

Oboy! “Faceless Blob” syrup! My fave!

I like this new situation more and more. Luann looks totally surprised and Puddles seems to find it hilarious. I dunno if Luann will be jealous of Bernice or inspired by her to change her habits. But I find her messy, freshly awake look adorable ♡.

Somehow, Bernice and syrupy sweetness don’t mix, except in this way!

Tiffany, not ,today,

The Second panel, there is laughter from the kitchen. Did someone crack a joke? Maybe, a Luann joke?

First panel….Luann wanted to make breakfast for everyone with Bernice. She’s a good girl.

I’m surprised no-one yet has mentioned the “stubble” on Luann’s legs in the first panel.

It’s hours later. Puddles took a nap.

Is that Aunt Jemima syrup?? :O

I get it already. Luann is lazy and Bernice is an annoying overachiever. I can’t stand people like that. For a person studying psychology it seems like she should know how this little display is going to affect her friend. Move on to something else… and someone else.

I’m already missing Ann Eiffel.

Already she has become the favorite daughter….

7

So, again, for me…. today is ALL ABOUT highlighting that Bernice is truly a kind, caring, thinking young lady. Last week she showed this by trying her damnedest to be quiet and considerate of others, and today she is taking it a step further by preparing a nice breakfast for the DeGroot family.

So many folks have berated Bernice for all manner of things over the years. But, truth-be-told, my opinion is that the foibles that this young woman has…. are all a result of trying VERY HARD to always do good and right things. Sometimes she does go beyond what would be best…. but… that is because she is a bit naive and is learning to be her adult self. But, everything I have seen her do is in an effort (sometimes spot on, sometimes a bit misguided) to do good, and to do what she believes is the right, fair thing.

Now… what will be interesting is to see how Luann responds…. will she a) go with the flow and be happy and jolly and dig into a big stack of pancakes with her family, or b) will she feel a bit of “guilt” that she may not have done this sort of “breakfast surprise” for her parents (or done this as often as she would have wished), or c) will she feel a tinge of jealousy because Mom and Dad seem very happy with Bernice’s kindness? In my mind, I think Luann would most naturally choose “a” and go with the flow…. but perhaps Greg is aiming to use this story arc to establish a bit of “conflict” in the two friends and it goes to “b” or “c”…. I hope not, but I could see Greg potentially wanting to add a bit tension/drama in the dynamics of this relationship in the Luanniverse.

That is definitely Aunt Jemima syrup. Except for water and salt, the entire ingredient list is engineered chemicals, none of which are food, and none of which are found in nature (on this planet). Even the bottle is toxic.

With Aunt Bernice syrup!

I’m sure the Farrell’s have room for Luann, as long as she doesn’t mind sleeping on a yoga mat.

Bernice raising the bar for Luann!

Someone mentioned that this shows Luann is an “inferior” daughter. I usually try to avoid personally commenting on another reader’s comment, but sometimes I can’t help it. The whole idea of inferior is just inappropriate for the main character and her role here. Everyone, in one way or another inhabits her Luannverse, and are actors in it. At this point she is not the great philosopher opining on the developing events but to cast as some kind of inferior character is projection, projecting how that person perceives young people to be, and I don’t think it’s fair commentary. I am sorry but I will call it out when I see it. On fair commentary, I agree that this seems to set up tension between the oldest and strongest friendship here, but if one reads the panels more carefully, Luann was planning to make breakfast herself along with Bernice, along with Bernice I emphasize, but because she slept later Bernice had already done that. It puts Luann in an embarrassing position, but contrary to the “inferior” assertion above, the real story will be how her so-called snarky friend will react and act, and the parents. I hope in a reassuring manner, but it will be interesting to see how this story develops.

Puts Luann to shame.

I’m surprised Puddles went back to bed with all the cooking going on in the kitchen! Good for Bernice! Nice!

So Bernice’s room is directly across from the kitchen? The house has no second floor?

Bernice is looking like the daughter the DeGroots hoped for back before their own drama queen entered their lives.

Bernice looks at ease in the kitchen and I predict she has done a fair amount of the cooking in her home; I don’t see anything (these past two weeks) to suggest other than Bern being Bern (someone with a built in work ethic). She want to please and is smart enough to know that Frank and Nancy are the ones whose good side she needs be on given that she’s not paying rent. Luann may feel awkward but i don’t think she needs to.

This is all very concerning. Frank should not be eating pancakes at his age, and look at him pig out! Also, did Bern source the ingredients from fair-trade, non-GMO farms? I’m quite upset at how thoughtless this is playing out for us, the readers of the most sensitive constitution.

I really hope this doesn’t turn into some kind of rivalry between Berniece and Luann. Berniece seems totally unaware of any tension. She is just being herself. I hope Luann will roll with it and maybe learn a few lessons and home skills from her BFF.

Luann proves to be more thoughtful as she wanted to include Bernice in making breakfast. Bernice took the glory for herself. Bernice, for a wannabe psychologist, is not very self aware. Just as she previously made the comment to Nancy, “I want to contribute as much as Luann” which resulted in Nancy’s hysterical outburst of laughter which led to Bernice saying, “oops”. But Bernice still hasn’t learned. She’s super sensitive about making noises in the house but not sensitive to her best friend’s self esteem. Bernice is not an empath. Of course, neither was Miss Phelps.

It’s like Bernice is the daughter they should have had.

Pancakes with REAL maple syrup, omelette with mushrooms, onions and red bell pepper and a side of bacon. Coffee is a constant all day.

Has Luann ever been more than useless?

Sometimes I feel like the only person who isn’t a fan of pancakes. I’m more of a French toast or waffle guy.

Actually this looks like a fun, warm, family moment.

We’ve seen the worst and best of Bernice: weird as hell vs generous. And the best and worst of Luann: very kind vs self centered.

personally I prefer pancakes as an evening snack. Fried in butter. :-)

The gauntlet has been thrown down. Tomorrow, in an effort to best Bernice, Luann will be up at 3:30 AM – not in an apron, but in a cape. By the time everyone else is at the breakfast table, there will be a turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, candied yams, a vegetable tray, several pies, and a good selection of drinks to be served on Nancy’s finest china and silver over a fine Irish lace tablecloth.

Of course, the next morning, Bernice will be up at 1:15 AM, have the lawns mowed, the house painted, the cars waxed, and a whole smorgasbord of a breakfast with orange juice squeezed from fresh oranges. Unfortunately, there were no apples to put in the mouth of the roast pig, so Bernice hung a basket of fresh fruit from it’s mouth.

Use your imaginations as to what Luann does to retalia… um, compete with her best friend.

.

Prediction: By the end of the month, everyone in the house, including Puddles, will tip the scales at over 400 lbs.

This is wonderful! Nancy and Frank are more than pleased, and Luann actually had the right idea, albeit a little late. Yup, Bernice is a keeper…

After reading all the negative comments above, I had to go back and look at the syrup bottle. It could be anything. There is no discernible label really. It looks like any generic brand you could buy on any supermarket shelf. Now, for those purists who think real maple syrup is the best, I cannot disagree, but not knowing the circumstances in which that particular brand of syrup came to be in the household, I shall simply say, good for Bernice. She’s doing her best to fit in and make herself useful. And, good for Luann as well. Her heart and desires are in the right place. She was just a little late this time around. So, good job, everyone. Blessings.

This is going to take some getting used to for Luann.

Luann looks like she has “bed head”.

Puddles’ smiling face, eyes and rapid moving tail stump say Yowsah! Toast at 6 am and now pancakes!

If the aroma of fresh pancakes didn’t wake Luann up, she’s hopeless.

Many years ago, our daughter insisted that Aunt Jemima Butter Lite was the only syrup that she would put on her pancakes. For YEARS, we refilled that container with generic syrup from the big box store. Even though the label was in tatters, she never seemed to notice. One morning, while I was again refilling the container….she caught me. All she asked was, “How long?”She still tells people about the emotional scarring that she experienced during the “Great Syrup Deception”.

Sometimes I think that many of you forget that this is a comic strip, not a Hemingway novel. Am I going to be attacked for pointing this out?

I bought a bottle st Dollar Tree Saturday… great on banana pancakes.

Of course, most posters here have either forgotten this or don’t care, but the character known as Bernice would not be alive if the character known as Luann had not saved her life. Many posters here are delighted with the thought that Luann’s parents would constantly praise Bernice and trigger a jealous reaction from Luann. I think I have a better idea. Tomorrow, Luann will wake up (and meet everyone’s demand that she not sleep in), and realize that she tried to save Bernice, but was unable to succeed with her efforts. So all the years of snarking never happened…

Typical pre-adult, lazy and self-centered!