(Strip Number 5073, Original Publication Date, 5 January 1989)
Panel 1: When Mike reminds Elly that she still sees communication as being a pad of paper and a ballpoint pen, she has a look on her face that suggests that she's just been told she has Stage 4 lung cancer and has days to live because she believes that she's just been told that she's old and useless.
Panel 2: This "Oh, no!!! The world is ending because I have to learn a new skill!!!" vibe continues when he goes on to point out that everything is done on computers now and that half his homework is done on a computer. He then makes the mistake of telling her that it's a new age because she can never believe that a new age has a place for her in it.
Panel 3: When he tells her to get with the times because nobody writes any more, I flash back to her whining that every time someone tells her to get with the program, they keep changing the channel.
Panel 4: She reacts to this by showing more love and concern for the box of dusty old letters and postcards that she's clutching onto like a starving octopus than she ever did for her kids and thought-bubbles that somehow, her parents' letters mean that much more to her now.
Summary: Mike seems to have forgotten how smug she was when she hauled out that stupid flip book and made that arch remark about how she won over his computer. This is because he doesn't remember that Elly's greatest fear is that she's totally useless and thus must be immediately replaced by someone everyone loves better. This fear of hers that she's doomed to be cast aside and forgotten is even greater than her fear that her life got over before she could enjoy it and that's saying something.