(Strip Number 1032, Original Publication Date, 7 April 1986)
Panel 1: We start things off with Phil putting a cassette into the stereo and telling Mike that he's about to listen to Wynton Marsalis, one of the greatest players alive in the year 1986.
Panel 2: He then makes the stupid mistake of telling Mike that no one can play like him because he's got talent coming out of his ears, MAN!!
Panel 3: Phil then says that listening to a great horn player is inspiring and makes him want to practice twice as much.
Panel 4: For Michael, it's discouraging and makes him want to quit twice as much.
Summary: This is because Mike knows something that Phil loses sight of because he can never quite wrap his head around the fact that parents are part of the teaching equation; he knows that Elly can't allow herself to be satisfied with the merely competent when her stupid image and stupider need to turn every damned thing into the Apocalypse are on the line. Heh. To think that she accuses HIM of being melodramatic!!!