(Strip Number 786, Original Publication Date, 17 January 1985)
Panel 1: Now that she's home, Elly tells John that it simply never occurred to her to buy Farley a license.
Panel 2: Mike then comes in and tells Lizzie that Farley got picked up by the dogcatcher because he didn't have a license.
Panel 3: This causes Lizzie to ask Mommy a question.
Panel 4: Since Elly never understood how kids think, Lizzie's perfectly predictable wondering if Mommy's got a license for her leaves poor Mommy gobsmacked because her AWFUL child asked her poor mother a question that no one ever anywhere could possibly have anticipated.
Summary: This tendency of characters to act as if they've had a small, burning cactus shoved up their rectums is Lynn's way of dealing with the inability to put canned laughter in the strip when a child says something 'stupid'; the problem with this is that Lynn seems to think that everything a child might say is stupid........