Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for December 19, 2020

tou·ché! Bernice! Just fake it

well, ain’t Ben pleased that his long-lost sister isn’t estranging(?) herself from him

Well that was anti-climatic and a bit of a let-down. After all that drama and mystery Bernice just shows up and it’s a;; over!

But what was she doing all those evenings she skipped dinner with her parents? Doing “stuff” at college or doing something else?

I think Bernice should take Luann to lunch or dinner.

Seeing them together in the final panel, I suddenly realized that Bernice and Ben have the same hairstyle.

Heh worried for nothing, the warmth was already there she just had to see it and accept it.

Next storyline, Jacque and Beatrice?

Well that was a dud ending… anticlimactic much!?!? I suppose we should all be giggly with happiness.

Next week Bern and Ben find out that they are actually twins and were separated at birth because the parents couldn’t afford two!

Hey! In Luanniverse anything can happen! But it takes a loooong time!

Lots of open arms there, Bernice, you’ve been living too long in your head. Next up…Kids: Hey, Beeneez, we decorated your room, come see! ;-)

Why do all y’all think this is over?

Showing up is 90% of success.

Mini Cooper, nice!

This is too quick and simple. Bernice is a very deep and complicated person. She is trying too hard and possibly faking it. THEY are happy to see her and sincere. Bernice is deep in her head battling with her feelings to be happy to see them. She is psyching herself. Hopefully Ben and her nephews’ sincerity will pull Bernice out of her head.

“And once again, Luann steered one of her friends out of the the valley of darkness”

“For she is truly her sister’s keeper, and finder of lost children!”

“And she shall strike down with Great Vengeance and furious Snarking,”

“Those who attempt to Befuddle and Annoy her sister!”

“And You will KNOW her name is LUANN, when she lays her VENGEANCE upon them!!!” – Samuel L. Jackson

Well, that was positive. Luann should get her counseling license.

Good to see that G & K can still surprise us. Bern actually took Luann seriously! Who woulda thought???

She drives a MINI? I hope she knows a good mechanic.

Good, a happy ending!! Now on to the next story arc!!

Bernice, if you project success you get success. Project failure and you get failure. This you need to stop over thinking and just do. As you can see, nothing bad happened. Ben and his kids are thrilled to see you.

Well I have been predicting this all week and I am satisfied it worked out well. For all the Luann haters, poop, she is a sensitive, smart young non-slacker after all; I mean I know you will find the something to keep projecting negative thoughts, but that is just what it is, projection. Look at yourselves, but you will not. Its easier to project. That goes double for Bernice. Now she won’t stop talking about Ben and her adoptive nephews (or niece and nephew) twins.

I am sure that warm reception had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Are they twins?

After all this time, I have figured out what is wrong with Bernice. It is that Mini – Crapper she is driving. It has bad karma and is messing up her aura…

So despite Bern’s apparent skepticism yesterday re Fräulein Doktor DeGroot’s psychotherapeutic skills, she has taken heart and confronted her (apparently unnecessary) fears. Now what does next week have in store?

Will we stay with Bern and Ben? And if so, will we see G&K start to develop the characters of Bern’s parents and nephews?

Or will we move on to a new arc, after only one week on this one? And if so, which?

And whether it’s next week or next year, will we ever find out what happened with TJ’s planned cooking session in the Farrell kitchen, as I went out on a limb a while back and predicted we would?

So far, so good. But now what?

Mensch, I wish this actually worked in real life, the way my therapist says it does…

Oh no, that thing has four arms. Even worse, it butchers names the way Shannon does. It’s a good thing Beezkneez is cured of all her issues because of the reasons, because otherwise she’d bail immediately.

Something’s been bugging me..

Wasn’t Ben kinda Asian with short black hair?

When did Bernice get a car? Why would she need a car since she lived in a dorm on campus. And why a Mini which are high-priced compared to other small cars. The last time Bernice tried to go home she was walking, suggesting the Halpers didn’t live that far away. Now she has to drive? And if she can afford to make the loan payment, insurance payments, license, tax, gas and oil why does she complain about not being able to afford dorm rent. She doesn’t need it living in the dorm and if she sold it she can afford to pay the rent on her room.

Bernice has a pretty nice ride for a college student on a limited budget. Perhaps she borrowed the car from the DeGroots?

All those hands are really creepy

Wicked fourhand!

Nice to see Bernice finally follow one of Luann’s advice. Obviously, it works♡. Let’s hope the following arc is (or includes) “Christmas With The Helpers”! I want to see how Bernice will manage her anxiety!

See Bernice? You never know unless you try.

No wonder B is intimidated by kids… that kid has 4 hands!!

Ha! I told you that G&K would draw him thinner.

Au Contrare. I belive it’s just starting

good job Bernice!

If you like the feel-good vibe today, don’t scroll down here … sorry too late

Sunday: Frank and Nancy prepare!

Call the speech pathologist. Now we have Bwad and Beeneez.

Even when a good thing happens the usual suspects complain.

ME I’m outta here. It’s my birthday. Gonna take my power ring and wreak havoc upon the earth.

Bernice drives a Cooper?

What do you want to bet that, if we see them, Ben’s kids will be: 1) twins, 2) a boy and a girl and, 3) look just like Ben and Bernice!?!?

Spontaneous hugs! Just what Bernice needs.

Wait a minute – we suffered through all that strom and drag for this pointless, milk-toast ending?

Imagine that! Put some effort into something and it pays off. There’s a lesson here somewhere…

You know what? I’m good with it. Berenice is a sweet character and I’m more than happy to see an uplifting storyline for the holidays!

Surprised that it turned out well? Why?

Oh thank Heaven- I can breathe again! Bernice is the most soporific character in the strip. Bring on Jack. Please.

Yeay! Lots of families have dire problems. It is almost epidemic.

Bernice is so dumb. She actually thinks they would have been mean to her if she hadn’t said her positive statements?? Dumb!

Bernice has a fake smile in the last panel. She still feels insecure and is surprised that Ben and the kids are so nice to her.

You know these two are brother and sister because they have the same mousy-brown hair with the raggedy bottom edge and tucked behind the ears. So they’re both identical geeks! They can relate! That’s a pun, gang: They’re siblings, so they can relate! This strip is funny!

It’s a Christmas miracle

Ben looks like Bernice with beard stubble.

Thanks Luann for making Bern see the light.

Oh, good. Another kid mispronouncing names in a supposedly cute manner. Now we’ve got Bwad and Beeneez.

A bit of an anticlimax, but at least now it frees up space to focus on other storylines. What do we have left on the backburner anyway? Gunther and Bets, maybe? Or perhaps we can see Luann finally decide what she wants to do with her life.

I had an Aunt named Bernice. She pronounced it “Ber-ness”. I was told “Saint Ber-nard” is a dog, while a boy’s name is “Ber-nerd”

Whoa! Who thinks Bern is boring and insecure? She drives a Cooper! When you pilot a MINI you’ve got to be a little crazy! Trust me, I know!

“Where There’s An I WILL…”

“Beeneez, Baby!”

“Ha! Psych!”

“I’ve Been Reframed!”

“Guess Who’s Finally Coming For Dinner?”

“Secure For Your Problem”

“Present Company Accepted”

“Presen-n-nt ARMS!”

Wow! Steps 1,2,3 in a day! Ba-dum! she’s there and being welcomed. Good to see. ;-)Any guess for the next arc? Is it Gunther’s turn?

How can she afford a Mini? Luann at one time was driving T.J.’s old car.

The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

Have fun, Bernice!

“Worry is simply suffering in advance.” See, Bern? All will be well.

AWWWWWW.

It’s nice that things worked out for Bernice for now – I’m still convinced there is more to this and Bern is going to end up free baby sitting at best (sorry, bitter single woman here:). But this is a comic, maybe it will all “work out” happily. I think a lot of the frustration seen in the comments is that Luann’s advice is limited and can easily be wrongly interpreted. Reframing is a great coping skill, but it is still a coping skill, and as such it is worthwhile for a friend to ask “hey, why do you need a coping skill? Is your life so dull/sucktastic etc. that you are relying on reframing and coping skills on a daily basis? Maybe we need to address that.” Luann’s advice is fine for intro school teacher psychology on convincing a kid to cope with a bully or bad situation while not dropping out, but it has some severe limitations as kids get older.

Positive thinking with negative expectations.

Bernice is complicated.

Was just thinking of a coda to this and a win/win/win for all.

Bernice comes clean to Nancy and explains the circumstances of how she “lost her RA job, lost her dorm” and became “homeless”. Nancy listens, and realizes that something is afoot… didn’t Bernice have a full-ride scholarship? Cap touched upon something… that there’s a contract that Bernice had to sign that involved taking classes, maintaining grades, dorm occupancy and a student work program (her RA job). So, if the University had control her her RA job and then eliminated it, how did that end up taking AWAY her dorm too… something that was part of a full-ride scholarship? And they never offered her alternative work so she could maintain her end of the contract? They eliminated her job, she couldn’t fulfill her part, and BAM! lost the dorm?

Sounds like some bean-counter is doing a little embezzlement? Finding ways of taking away scholarship benefits in order to save the University some money? Nancy starts talking to people, and Ox overhears. He gets stompin’ mad that the University is stealing scholarship benefits from people and offers to talk to his lawyer Uncle.

Nancy talks to the Halpers, and together with Ox’s Uncle, they contact Moony U. and demand to know what happened. The University, under threat of a lawsuit, relents, and lets Bern move back to the dorms.

Wins all around. Luann wins… less time spent with the Snark Queen. The Degroots win- room vacated and can be rented for extra income. The Halpers win- no extra people need to stay in the house and Ben’s kids can keep Bern’s room. Bernice wins- she returns to the dorms, where she was actually happy. The readership wins- we don’t have to continue to accept this poorly-plotted mess of plot contrivances and The Idiot Plot, where people don’t solve a simple problem by talking to each other.

As I said…just get it over with.

Monday we will be back in Bernice’s bedroom …telling Luann how great it was being with family.

The proper reframe is:

I go to dinner.I feel secure.I am interesting.I am accepted and loved.

The subconscious needs to hear things in the present. “I will…” is in the future, therefore rendering it unobtainable to the subconscious. You act “as if” it were true, NOW!

All this lovey-dovey stuff makes me very suspicious. Maybe later on something will happen to cause Bernie a huge let-down….

FINALLY!!!

Being interesting, accepted and loved. To be interesting you need to have something to discuss that you have spent the time to learn about. Preferably something the other people would be familiar with. To be accepted and loved is not within your control so don’t bother worrying about that stuff. It is interesting how these story lines go. It’s all so disjointed and inconsistent with nothing ever really being resolved as it would be in real life. It has to be being planned that way. No one would be that inconsistent by accident. It’s like there is a real effort to keep the stories confusing and ignore the work from the past that has established the characters personalities, work place, living arrangements etc. Wierd.

Is she driving a MINI Cooper?

Another guy who accidentally bought one of those “Hollywood” electric razors that always leaves behind one day’s worth of Stubble.

Al final se trataba de una barrera mental que Bernice misma creó. Esperemos que su historia con Jack se desarrolle más.

In the end it was a mental barrier that Bernice created herself. Hopefully her story with Jack can develop further.

Monday, Bernice will say something about his appearance!

Does Bernice drive a red Mini Cooper? I’m kind of jealous, I was obsessed with Mini’s when I was her age, though I wouldn’t drive anything with a high maintenance cost now.