(Strip Number 4580, Original Publication Date, 11 March 1986)
Panel 1: We find ourselves watching Mike sitting on the couch, eating cookies, drinking soda, watching the box and phoning Gordo to ask if he's home alone too.
Panel 2: He then explains that his sister is with a sitter an'his folks won't be home until six thirty.
Panel 3: He says that this must make him a latch-key kid.
Panel 4: Since he has all the self-awareness of a thumb-tack, he's being totally honest when he counts himself amongst the ranks of the deprived.
Summary: We get to see WHAT he thinks he's deprived of in six months or so when he piteously wails about how awful it is that Elly wants to go places and do things when it's obvious to him that her role in life is to clean up after him. Hmmm. Did anyone ever give HIM the war zone speech and make it stick?