car: Browse The Strips

Tuesday, July 30, 2013

Lynn's Comments: The fish Aaron caught with my dad were not great eating, and Aaron was very disappointed when Mom dug them into the garden. For the next fishing trip, Mom and Dad were prepared. When the men came home with fish for the table, Aaron believed he was chowing down on his catch. Sometimes a white lie comes in the form of frozen fillets.

Sunday, May 25, 2014

Lynn's Comments: I got away with this drawing, perhaps because there was no Internet to give me an instant blast for inconsistency: The car isn't backing out of the garage, it hit the frame while driving in!

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Lynn's Comments: Our house in Corbeil was hidden in quite a dense forest, so leaves and clippings could easily be tossed into the woods or piled somewhere for compost. Our house in Dundas, though (on which the Pattersons' house was based), was in a busy, upscale neighbourhood, where leaves had to be piled, pushed into bags, and left for city workers to remove. After a discussion about the waste we made with plastic bags, I decided to take a load of leaves to the dump myself, but in the back of the car, bagless. I only did this once. It was a nuisance, a mess, and created a lot of work!

Sunday, March 8, 2015

Lynn's Comments: I am a militant shopper sometimes. I sneer at able-bodied folks who park in the handicap zone, grumble when they squeeze all the tomatoes, and will audibly sigh if there's a long checkout line and some bozo decides to redeem a wad of coupons. On a busy weekend outside my favourite grocery store, someone had parked across the ramp. Shoppers couldn't get to the parking lot without heaving their carts over the curb. The situation I drew in this strip was based on this incident, but it has a different ending.

I waited a minute, wondering how long this inconsiderate person would be. He certainly had to know that he'd blocked everyone's path. I had a couple of choice comments to make like, "Couldn't get any closer, hum?" or "The parking lot's THAT way!" Soon the doors opened and an elderly man appeared. He was helping a woman who was pushing a small, half-filled shopping cart. He smiled at me as he held her steady and eased her forward. "My wife had a stroke," he said, "this is her first time outdoors since she managed to walk again and she wanted to shop for groceries." I opened the passenger door and kept the cart from rolling forward as he lovingly helped her into the car. I then handed him their grocery bags as he loaded them into the trunk. He explained that he'd moved the car closer to the door for her and was sorry for the inconvenience. He thanked me sincerely as he worked himself into the driver's seat. As they drove away I thought to myself, "Thank heavens I didn't say anything!" It was another lesson; a good story--and I guess I didn't have the courage to tell it the way it was!

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Lynn's Comments: This story was based on a true story, which might have ended in tragedy.

My husband, who had been flying a float plane just long enough to feel confident, offered to pick up some friends after a canoe trip down the Kazan River in the Northwest Territories.

Wednesday, July 15, 2015

Lynn's Comments: The guys Rod had offered to pick up had been on a canoe trip with an outdoor adventure company, which had already arranged their return transportation, but my husband wanted the challenge of finding them and ferrying them back to Lynn Lake, Manitoba--where we were living. I was against the idea from the start, but Rod's dad, having been a prospector in his day, thought it would all be fine. The two men went over the maps, worked out the exact location the canoeists would be found, and prepared for the departure. The flight was on.

Thursday, July 16, 2015

Lynn's Comments: I changed the story to show John and Uncle Phil, winding their way towards Parry Sound, where there are so many bays and tiny islands a novice canoeist might easily become disoriented, lost, or capsized.

Saturday, August 15, 2015

Lynn's Comments: One outstanding part of the story was the role played by the Search and Rescue team. What a wonderful, resourceful, brave and caring lot they are. For a long time, we kept in touch with the men who found and helped Rod and his friends to safety. How can you thank people who risk their lives for a living? We would be forever in their debt.

Monday, August 17, 2015

Lynn's Comments: Again, the story of the rescue was chronicled in the strip. Rod and the others did find it hard to fend off coughs and colds after their ordeal. The legacy of the accident will last all of us a lifetime. We are all so sure that "it won't happen to us," but when it does, we learn to appreciate every day--knowing how fragile we really are.

Thursday, August 11, 2016

Lynn's Comments: Again, this really happened. When my first husband and I left our wedding reception, we found that his friends had stuffed our car with newspaper. Balls of it were tightly jammed everywhere. Before we could get in, we had to remove it all and find a place to put it. Our hands were filthy and our mood was mean. What we didn't expect was that the dust from the newsprint was everywhere, and when we got out of the car, my white wedding outfit was covered in it. Maybe they thought the prank was funny, but to this day, I'd still like to tell off the guys who did it!

Saturday January 21, 2017

Lynn's Comments: Every first snowfall, I used to hit the ditch. Maybe it’s because I was used to driving fast on rough, flat surfaces and didn't have my winter reflexes. Whatever the reason, I would call our friend Gerry Voyer and ask him to pull me out. A couple of times, this happened on our country road and I'd walk to Gerry’s garage where he’d get out his truck and take me to the scene of the "accident." One winter’s day, I was taking a long stroll down MacPherson Drive when Gerry passed me in his truck. He stopped, rolled down his window and sighed. "OK," he said. "Where is it?" He thought I had hit the ditch again and was coming for help. It was then that I realized just how often I had run off the road!

Wednesday February 15, 2017

Lynn's Comments: I had so much fun with the English language. These strips won't translate, so my work was generally only in English language papers. The good thing is that folks are using comic strips like mine to teach ESL. Seems the puns and wordplay are a great way to get right into a language, and what better way to learn than through funny words and pictures.

Sunday February 19, 2017

Lynn's Comments: I didn't learn to skate until I was over 35! What gave me the courage to try was a really good pair of skates and the lure of a rink made by the neighbours on Trout Lake outside of North Bay, Ontario. It was one of those perfect days. The ice was thick and the snow was fresh. Just a few passes of the snow blower and a small private rink was cleared. The kids both had skates that still fit, and my mom-in-law had borrowed skates for the rest of us. She’d made hot chocolate in a big thermos and the Harrisons, whose house we were visiting, had built a fire in the pit down by the dock.

For the first time since I was a kid, I strapped on skates (dull rentals) and shoved off from the snow bank. To my surprise, I discovered the bite of a sharp blade and was actually scraping my way forward. That’s it. I never went again, past those surprising few turns around the ice, but it was enough to let me know how it’s done and why some people become champion skaters. You just have to experience this exhilaration when you're young!

Sunday January 28, 2018

Lynn's Comments: I was about seven and my brother was five. We had been having one of our knock-down, drag out fights. Mom was in the basement and either ignored us or couldn't hear just how angry the fight had become.

Our one bathroom, which had a locking door, became a refuge. If you could get in there first, you were safe. You had to slam the door to get it to lock. I ran into the bathroom, slammed the door and Alan screamed. Thinking he was just screaming with rage, I continued to shove the door shut not knowing that his finger had been caught in the door jamb. By the time I realized there was something wrong, I had seriously injured his finger. Mom rushed us to the hospital where he was given a shot and had his finger bound with gauze. It wasn't broken, but his knuckle was severely bruised and the skin had split with the pressure. I was so sorry. Even though Alan accepted my apology, I've never forgotten the incident and I have never forgiven myself!

Sunday September 9, 2018

Lynn's Comments: You can't do strips about a dog if you've never had a dog. It’s just not possible. Farley was a load of work, but he provided me with a load of laughs!

Sunday January 10, 2021

Lynn's Comments: This reminds me of a story. My friend Mike Peters, who does the wonderful comic strip "Mother Goose and Grimm," told me that his daughter once left her lunch at home and he decided to take it to the school himself. Knowing she'd be thoroughly embarrassed to see him at the door of her classroom with her lunch in hand...he dressed as Superman. He burst into her class holding out the lunch, cape flying, and shouting, "Superman to the rescue!!" She was speechless...and will tell you today that it was one of the craziest things that had ever happened to her. Needless to say, his daughter never forgot her lunch again!

Monday January 25, 2021

Lynn's Comments: They say that each car has a "face." By the way the lights are placed and the grill is shaped, a car can have a real personality. One of the Volkswagens was designed to have such a visible face that eyelashes were created just to augment the illusion! I noticed recently that the new Lexus has a face...it looks surprisingly like a boss I once had. If I owned a Lexus, I'd call it "Mitch."