My World and Welcome to It

When Lydia complains to her father about the dullness of her history lesson at school, John tells her his own version of the story of Generals Grant a...

When the noise from the freight elevator beside his office becomes intolerable, John decides to try working at home, only to be confronted by Lydia, w...

In order to get closer to her father, with whom she seems to share little in common, Lydia learns how to play chess from her mother and begins serious...

John has dog problems with just about everyone: Greeley, over a magazine piece about his childhood family pet who bit people; Ellen, who makes him sle...

When Lydia comes down with a bad cold, John takes the opportunity to try to show her that people with vivid imaginations are better off than those who...

After Greeley once again fails to understand the humor in one of John's cartoons, John quits his job with The Manhattanite and returns home, where he...

John, finding himself bothered by the ordinariness of his life, fantasizes about being involved in a tale of espionage involving pickle forks and a ma...

Greeley rejects yet another of John's cartoons which he doesn't understand, one involving a seal in the bedroom of a married couple. Ellen and Lydia...

After being bitten by the family cat, Dimity Ann, John takes her away and leaves her in a new housing developement. Lydia believes the cat ran away b...

The Monroe's new neighbor, Paul Morton, who is also a cartoonist, challenges John's more sophisticated humor by pitting him against the town's answer...

The Monroes have a new maid who for some reason has a phobia about modern appliances, and Ellen tells John to be kind to her and keep up appearances w...

John finally manages to get his revenge on Zeph Leggin by studying old jokes and using them to defeat the local humorist in a battle of wit. So Zeph...

When Greeley decides to dedicate an entire issue of The Manhattanite to children's book author George Lindsay Lockhart, John, who despises people who...

Frustrated while trying to buy a Christmas present for Lydia, John makes the unfortunate choice of an American flag as her gift. Lydia is not pleased...

During a sixteenth anniversary party for the Jensens at the Monroe's house, Phil loses his temper when his wife Ruth interrupts one of his stories, an...

Lydia is supposed to go to a dance with a boy named Elbert, but when a bully beats him up and insists that Lydia go to the dance with him, John takes...

Lydia is concerned about nightmares, so John tells stories about his family during his childhood in Columbus, Ohio. He recalls several eccentric rela...

When a neighborhood boy tries to tell Lydia about the facts of life, she responds by punching him in the mouth. While Ellen is mostly concerned that...

When both Ellen and Lydia's teacher Miss Skidmore agree that John's cartoons are causing his daughter acute embarrassment, John goes to the school and...

When Ellen and Lydia go on an overnight trip, leaving John home alone, he finds himself interrupted in his work by a pair of movers and goes into a fa...

John suggests The Manhattanite use marriage as the theme of its anniversary issue, and he has his own ideas on the subject. After he elaborates on hi...

When John begins collaborating on a book with a female writer, Ellen suspects he may really be having an affair instead.

John is suffering from cartoonist's block, making him irritable at work and then later at home. In his frustration he chases Lydia out of his study,...

John once again has to deal with rejection, not only by Greeley, who can't find the humor in one of John's cartoons, but by the young editor of Lydia'...

After both Ellen and Greeley accuse John of hating women, John becomes unable to think of any other kinds of cartoons to meet his deadline than ones w...

When Phil gives in to his son's wishes because of feelings of guilt, John chastises him for being weak, but when John himself misses a picnic he'd pla...