# For Better, For Worse: Mike's growing some ... **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 16, 2004, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-better-for-worse-mikes-growing-some/274979 "2004-11-16T02:01:50Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-better-for-worse-mikes-growing-some/274979/1 "2004-11-16T02:01:50Z")
Aided by his [father-in-law](http://www.comics.com/comics/forbetter/archive/forbetter-20041110.html), Mike’s made a major step forward in dealing with his [mother-in-law](http://www.comics.com/comics/forbetter/archive/forbetter-20041111.html). ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 2:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-better-for-worse-mikes-growing-some/274979/2 "2004-11-16T02:03:30Z")
Good for him! Isn’t the author supposed to be wrapping up the series soon? ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-better-for-worse-mikes-growing-some/274979/3 "2004-11-16T02:25:15Z")
It’s about freakin’ time. I’d buy his FIL a beer if he weren’t a fictional character. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 3:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-better-for-worse-mikes-growing-some/274979/4 "2004-11-16T03:23:16Z")
> [@Kythereia](#): > > Isn’t the author supposed to be wrapping up the series soon? According to [this article](http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1032822112756_20/) (which appears to be a couple of years old, as it says Michael is “soon to be a parent” and implies “for the first time”), Lynn Johnston will wind up _FBOFW_ “within the next five years.” ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-better-for-worse-mikes-growing-some/274979/5 "2004-11-16T03:35:20Z")
Did it ever strike you that the family in this strip is a little too perfect? Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy it, but I’ve never met a family without a black sheep or two. Yes, I know it’s fiction. ---
**Author:** ![Antigen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/848f3c/32.png) [@Antigen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Antigen)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-better-for-worse-mikes-growing-some/274979/6 "2004-11-16T03:37:43Z")
It’s a cute series, and I’ll be sad to see it go. Very few comic strips manage to be touching and funny, and many of the newer ones (in my local paper, that is) leave me scratching my head trying to figure out what they’re getting at. ---
**Author:** ![bytheway](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/df705f/32.png) [@bytheway](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bytheway)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-better-for-worse-mikes-growing-some/274979/7 "2004-11-16T03:40:38Z")
In [this chat transcript](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A14846-2004Oct7.html), Lynn Johnston says she has three years left on her contract with Universal Press Syndicate, and she plans “to stop the storyline, like the way you would end a novel…” ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-better-for-worse-mikes-growing-some/274979/8 "2004-11-16T07:44:00Z")
Well, just so the novel ain’t _North Dallas Forty._ :eek: ---
**Author:** ![DrMemory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/977dab/32.png) [@DrMemory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrMemory)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 1:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-better-for-worse-mikes-growing-some/274979/9 "2004-11-16T13:04:20Z")
The author of this strip wants to end it before it stops being unfunny… :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![Uvula\_Donor](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/e19adc/32.png) [@Uvula\_Donor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uvula_Donor)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 1:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-better-for-worse-mikes-growing-some/274979/10 "2004-11-16T13:21:52Z")
The Schulz estate should take the hint. ---
**Author:** ![Silentgoldfish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@Silentgoldfish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Silentgoldfish)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 1:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-better-for-worse-mikes-growing-some/274979/11 "2004-11-16T13:24:06Z")
Eh, I don’t think just being funny is really the point. It’s a soap opera with punchlines, not that that’s necessarily a bad thing. ---
**Author:** ![BrotherCadfael](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@BrotherCadfael](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrotherCadfael)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-better-for-worse-mikes-growing-some/274979/12 "2004-11-16T13:41:54Z")
> [@Mr. Blue Sky](#): > > Did it ever strike you that the family in this strip is a little too perfect? > > Don’t get me wrong, I really enjoy it, but I’ve never met a family without a black sheep or two. > > Yes, I know it’s fiction. Y’know, I know many families just like this. Parents stayed married, kids never got into drugs, dropped out of school, etc. I know many families with “issues” as well, but families like the Patterson’s are not fiction, nor even rare. Besides, April is about hit high school, and is about to kick loose. She’ll wind up with multiple piercings, Goth attire, and pregnant by her sophmore year. ---
**Author:** ![Agrippina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8797f3/32.png) [@Agrippina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Agrippina)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-better-for-worse-mikes-growing-some/274979/13 "2004-11-16T14:16:00Z")
> [@BrotherCadfael](#): > > Besides, April is about hit high school, and is about to kick loose. She’ll wind up with multiple piercings, Goth attire, and pregnant by her sophmore year. I’m not sure about April, but that friend of hers that she had to go to the special classes at high school with…I could see her pregnant she becomes a freshman. I forgot the girl’s name. That shallow one that made fun of the special needs students for being too weird. ---
**Author:** ![N.Sane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f19dbf/32.png) [@N.Sane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/N.Sane)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-better-for-worse-mikes-growing-some/274979/14 "2004-11-16T14:25:34Z")
> [@](#): > > I’m not sure about April, but that friend of hers that she had to go to the special classes at high school with…I could see her pregnant she becomes a freshman. > > I forgot the girl’s name. That shallow one that made fun of the special needs students for being too weird. Becky. She reminds me of Candace when Candace was that age. ---
**Author:** ![GrizzRich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7ba0ec/32.png) [@GrizzRich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GrizzRich)\ **Post date:** [November 16, 2004, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/for-better-for-worse-mikes-growing-some/274979/15 "2004-11-16T15:11:36Z")
Yeesh… I remember reading that strip LONG ago. My earliest recollection was Elizabeth at an age when she was learning to talk. She used to refer to herself as “Nizzie”.