Panel 1: We see Elly, who's fortifying herself with a cup of coffee, complaining to John that she's exhausted; it seems that Mrs Baird came over and never stopped talking.
Panel 2: She then explains that the woman goes on and on nonstop and it really wears her out.
Panel 3: As she splays her fifteen-inch long fingers in that stupid palms out gesture, she says that what really bothers her is that Thelma talks about nothing.
Panel 4: As John walks off, he smiles and says that she ought to be able to handle THAT; her reaction to being told this is to toss her cup at him.
Summary: What most annoys me is not that John doesn't take Elly seriously as a person; it took him years to realize that she's as thin-skinned and ready to go into a tearing rage about perceived digs at her expense as he is. What bothers me is what she calls nothing. When one remembers Mrs Baird's horrified reaction to seeing how the Pattersons shaved Farley bald and probably broke his skin in a failed attempt to de-skunk him and her refusal to take passive-aggressive bitchery about giving the kids something nice while they're waiting to be fed indigestible slop seriously, one realizes that 'nothing' is short for 'nothing Elly wants to talk about as it would tend to make her feel bad about doing something stupid and hateful.'