(Strip Number 4074, Original Publication Date, 2 October 1981)
Panel 1: We start today's example of lousy reasoning by looking at "injured party" John sitting in his easy chair grumbling and snorting about his "ungrateful", "lazy", "defiant" and "evil" son; Elly "I'd-like-to-backhand-you-for-interrupti
Panel 2: She gets really hypocritical by whining about how there had to have been some other way of handling him. Given that she herself has lost her shit at the kid and backhanded him over trivialities like interrupting her busywork, non-existent disrespect and asking if she loves him, I'd like to arrange a shotgun marriage between my fist and her teeth for being a lying piece of trash.
Panel 3: She then reminds him that he's got a psychology degree (and thus should know a better way) before asking him what he studied all those years.
Panel 4: He thinks back to those days and says "Rats, mostly." That means he wasted his money because he never learned that living creatures respond better to positive reinforcement than to negative stimuli.
Panel 4: The punchline seems to have started out as a slam against the impracticality of a psych degreee; Lynn clearly wants us to say either "Cut John some slack, he doesn't know how people behave" or "Hur-hur-hur, he wasted his money looking at rats." The fact that humorless prick John is still filled with rage, that he never learns that his children aren't defiant little monsters who live to disrespect him tells us something different, though; it tells us that he's operating under the misapprehension that his back is against the wall when it isn't. Lynn's notes will probably tell us that she felt that way too.
ETA: On further reflection, it seems that Lynn's notes will continue to be about her childhood and emphasis the fact that she thinks that the horrible emotional bullying she was subjected to is the norm. Also, she's shilling for the Farley foundation again.
