Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for August 06, 2014

“Going Where The Piper Plays”“Catching Driftwood”“Fire Can Be Illuminating”“The Game Is Aflame”“A Series Of Unfortunate Truths”“An Inconvenient Event”“Paint A Burning Picture” “Brad’s Clues” “Making Market”or“Bah! Hmm… Bug”

Hm.

Oh, oh, TJ…you’ve been found out! =-O

Something doesn’t seem right Brad’s thinking. Very peculiar. Until tomorrow.

HMMMMMMMMMMM

Yep…how “descriptive” you are, LOL ;)

Post digested nutrients forming a deposit on an ardent admirer

Doubt slips in like a sledge hammer.

But seriously, I don’t think that TJ would be so thoughtless to tip his hand to Brad.

It can get really (!) hot here depending where you live. Its been in the 90s which is why we have the A/C going. And to think I was used to 110 degrees+ weather in Arizona! =-O

Ooops, Thoughtless = Careless

And he will probably do the job quite well… ;)

Unwanted leftover matter migrating to an air current transmitter for further travel……

“Other days, it might be constipation” ^Or even antiperstalsis….

Gonna make him a FELON? Bad idea on the writers part.

Gonna make him a FELON? Bad idea on the writers part.

Toni is the eloquent voice of common sense. Now we see Brad start to think about his old friend…

by the face expression, the explosion while taking the trash was not planned…….. but unfortunately, as TJ is a “this situation came up, and I have to milk it for as much as possible” type of person, lot of people, including it seems Brad and the insurance person will think it was intentional, and this storyline could take a while(with other stuff “in between” ) before it is solved

I just wanted to point out that no matter how strongly Brad and the rest of us suspect that TJ is up to something, if the investigators can’t find evidence that it was deliberately done, TJ’s off the hook

Of course TJ is not a crook. Just like Richard Nixon claimed to be not a crook.

“Hm” indeed— the fertilizer is starting to hit the air circulator! Even if the explosion was just dumb luck on TJ’s part, he still will be perceived guilty based upon circumstantial evidence. We will soon see how Brad interpets the situation.

The votes in bonus:Currently 207 in favor of honest TJ, 153 in favor of Insurance Fraud Felon TJ.

4/3 in his favor. Interesting.

For “fraud vs. not fraud” (as far as the insurance company is concerned), the critical key here is that there is a difference between “accidental fire”, “negligence” (not fixing faulty wiring, old equipment) and all the way up to “criminal acts” (arson, burglary, vandalism, etc)….. -If this involves that pot on the stove, the question becomes which of the three does it fall in?

TJ will put his culinary skills to good use in the prison kitchen – the dining room will be full of customers

That’s in case there’s a tie in “Rock, Paper, Scissors”…..

Re: piece of roof… LOL! ;)

Brad’s not known for his clear use of logic.A false accusation’s not going to look good on your record, buddy.

My son is putting together a surprise computer for his Dad. It looks like he is having fun! Time to sign-off and watch what’s happening (especially since I have a financial interest in this little project, LOL!) ;)-———————————————————————————————-“‘Yes,’ I answered you last night; ‘No.’ this morning, sir, I say. Colours seen by candle-light Will not look the same by day.” (Elizabeth Barrett Browning, 1806-1861)

When the manure comes into contact with the propeller, it will be amusing to see how TJ will try to talk his way out of his plight. Lies, excuses, cover-ups etc.

(SIGH)

Okay Folks. How Much You Wanna Bet that in the END It’ll be Brad, Toni, and Hell, Some of the Rest of US Jumping to Conclusions and NOT Old Smiley Being the Two-Bit Arch-Criminal He TRULY Is?

This whole scenario is just way too suspicious. First, we find out the business is failing and TJ hates it. Second, we find out that he’s not even serving any decent food that day: brown rice and tofu? Third, he doesn’t even turn around when the truck blows. If it was a surprise, wouldn’t he have whipped around to see what happened? Maybe to check what exactly did blow up and if anyone was injured? Now, in the aftermath, he just seems smug and entirely too pleased with himself.

his face was like “what was that???”, SPECIALLY when his hat flew up, and those who know “cartoon symbols” they know what a hat flying up means, this is from a magazine about cartoons……………. I confess myself somewhat at a loss to account for the origin of the surprise symbol which consists of the violent unsettling of the hat from its normal position on the top of the head Is it the cartoonist’s idea that the hair rises as forcibly as all that or is it that the start of astonishment is so cataclysmic as to cause all loosely attached portions of one’s habiliments inevitably to separate from one’s person A little of both I dare say Certainly when Mutt’s hat flies off there is always perpendicular hair visible beneath it Certainly however this is not the case with Baron Bean And the Baron is evidently so shocked that he not only loses his hat but his cigar holder

He looked so shocked when the truck blew up…not sure what to think. Maybe his deviousness came out when he realized he had insurance to cover the loss….I hope he doesn’t turn out to be a crook! TJ is one of the more interesting characters….

I vote for TJ being innocent of wrongdoing but Brad ‘s “suspicions” rending the friendship.Another character exits ’stage left’.

he did not do it, but his “known mentality” of let’s take full advantage of this situation will make both Brad and the people of claims suspicious, and thus this particular storyline will not finish until about 4 to 7 weeks from now, as TJ will be disappointed that his friend Brad does not believe him. TJ is not the type to own a restaurant and all the headaches of maintaining books and what to buy, but I see him as someone happy to be working in a cruise ship kitchen

Even if this was a “lucky” accident, TJ is acting much too happy about it.

Hmm indeed. Now let’s see where Brad and Toni go with this.

When the Fire Marshall starts investigating TJ, Brad had better realize that he has no future in the department unless he gets a new roommate and has nothing more to do with TJ. It doesn’t matter whether he’s actually guilty; what matters insofar as Brad’s career is concerned is the appearance of guilt.

When someone is shocked by something their mouth usually opens up in surprise and says something like, “Whoa!! What the hell?!!” Plus, you would whip around immediately in the direction of the explosion while uttering something to that effect.

I think that pot of food caused the explosion. It may have boiled over and snuffed out the burner flame. But the burner will still be issuing gas. If that gas reached the pilot light or an adjacent burner. That could cause an explosion.

TJ had the look of surprise when the van went “BOOM”, and his back was turned. He didn’t fake this.

By the way, I would appreciate if Levi, or some other knowledgeable person would be so kind as to direct me to the timing of the events when TJ and Tiffany were scamming the fire department. I vaguely remember there was some nefarious activity on TJ’s part but never did get the whole story.

Tiffany never scammed the Fire Department. She did get Luann to wrap up sandwiches for free, which Tiff, sold to the firemen.

It seems to be about time that Brad dumps TJ. In any case, after the wedding, Brad and TJ would drift apart anyway. In real life, it is common for guys who are friends to see less of each other when one or both get married.

And speaking of Tiffany, I don’t recall her ever having a boyfriend. Is it because she is so self-infatuated she has no need for a relationship, or is it that there is no man on this planet perfect enough for her?

It’ll be interesting to see whether today’s strip has an effect on which ending people vote for.

Yesterday’s meals on wheels blasting through the blades of the electrical producing blades in the Banning Pass or for you Nor Cal people the Altamont Pass.

It just occurred to me a few minutes ago that it is ironic that I am so mentally involved with “The Case Of The Exploding Food Truck,” when I have been a lifelong non-reader of whodunits! I have to admit that the writer is doing some good plotting…

“Forget it, Brad. It’s… um… where’s this strip set, again?”

Hmm is right.

Hm. So, Brad has his suspicions. Will he be the one to call for an insurance investigation of the circumstances of the foodtruck blast? —Reminds me of the pioneering age TV classic, The Ballad of Jubal Pickett:Jubal Pickett was a mean, mean man, Jubal was as mean as sin,But he paid in the endFor his life of crime,And his brother was the one who turned him in!

Brad is not the lame goofball he used to be. After meeting Tony he finally matured and started using his brain. He has turned into a very responsible young man.

So what if JJ blew up his truck. It’s not like he’s spying on Americans illegally. It’s not like he is flying infectious Ebola patients into the nation in violation of health laws.

TJ’s days of being a slick-willy are passed him. This looks bad but in the end he will be found innocent. I just hope the friendship is strong enough to make it through this.

I smell a rat….Insurance fraud perhaps?

Over the years, Brad has been totally incapable of seeing TJ as a scheming scam artist— But maybe this time Brad will finally realize how worthless his “friend” is. Possibly, Brad has the capacity to change his perceptions (I hope)…

Dundundun!

there is an old saying here: “Coincidence, in the natural state, is a very rare bird….”

TJ just has that smirking kinda look when he smiles. Like Bush did.

He had to destroy the evidence of the Meth cooking operation from the DEA.

KA……..

I can’t get away from the fact that TJ was caught by surprise when the explosion happened.

And thus begins how TJ gets written out of the strip. He gets angry at bing accused of a crime he didn’t commit and Brad and TJ’s friendship is never the same.

Now comes the Winter of discontent for TJ. Made possible by his ill timed words of DismayFor once wrong doing is suspected in the minds of anotherThe questions and speculation you cannot easily smother

coincidence, not intentional, TJ is innocent

And about the “surprise (as indicated by a hat)”? Consider the flip side of it, as well: It could also have been drawn to depict “the force of the explosion”, in addition to any startling or surprise. – The strip was drawn in an ambiguous way, so that it could look as though either thing happened. Just as one could say that it was unintentional and random, one could also say that he could have “callously” left the pot on the stove, walked out to the trash can and then the boom….. -

Voyager spotted a piece of the roof….-LOL!!!! (what about that rover on Mars?)

And out of his own words he himself admits what he fancies himself to be: “You can’t con a con” . –

Yeah Brad, ruin the relationship with your oldest and best friend.

“This poll reminds me of when DC Comics ran one to determine whether Jason (Robin) Todd would live or die.” ^Or the polls about whether or not the Trix Rabbit can finally get some cereal…

What are you talking about?

Busted!

TJ looked very surprised when his truck exploded. And would he be in the truck gathering trash if he knew it was rigged to blow? Just a lucky break.

TJ put a cover over a pot a grease on top of an open flame, and then he leaves the truck to take out the garbage. He knows the pot will boil over, the grease will catch fire, and the gas will explode, but of course he doesn’t know the exact second when that will happen. So the big explosion will still startle him, even though he set it all up to happen just the way it did. TJ’s look of surprise proves nothing!_And even if it was truly accidental (yeah, sure), at the very best it’s gross negligence and complete carelessness for the fundamental rules of basic safety. If TJ did have any customers, they could have been killed. OSHA should slap some really heavy fines on him, regardless of how the arson investigation turns out.

Aug. 1, panel one, something simmering on stove and in panel three he looks genuinely startled… can’t wait to see where this is going

The penny dropped.

Maybe TJ is going to be one of the fringe characters jettisoned from the strip by being after his conviction on arson and insurance fraud charges.

Vote count is now 322 in favor of honest TJ to 233 in favor of Fraud.

The lead of honest TJ has actually increased. What was once a 50 point lead has extended to 100, and it’s now a 3:2 ball game, up from 4:3

Never feel sorry for an insurance company

Are people really voting on TJ’s innocence, or on whether he gets away with it? The latter seems more likely.

I smell insurance fraud!

If TJ is an effective con man, he will act heartbroken when the insurance investigators arrive. Showing them his idiotic smirk could only work against him.

And someone finally gets a clue… Starting next week: “CSI: Lunch Truck”!

So I guess TJ’s reaction to the explosion was more about its timing and volume rather than the fact it happened at all?

DNR comments, too many. I doubt TJ blew up his truck on purpose. Several panels show him looking dismayed, he appeared surprised by the explosion, and so on. He perked up when he realized he could collect insurance for the loss, and of course he’d be out from under the business. Also of course, Brad suspects he did it on purpose due to the oh-so coincidental conversation they had earlier about how much TJ hated his business. (Unbelievable that this is the FIRST Brad knew of TJ’s feelings! They live in the same house and this is the FIRST TIME they talked about it? Obviously a plot device to set TJ up.) So this is what I see coming: confrontation, we get the reveal whether TJ did it or not—or we don’t; and at any rate, Brad is P.O.ed at TJ and throws him out, OR TJ is sick of everything in his current life and leaves. TJ disappears, probably forever (sob!) and Toni moves in.

Also, TJ could not have timed such an explosion so that he’d for sure be out of the truck at that very moment, or that there’d be no other people around who might get hurt. He didn’t blow up the truck on purpose.

VOTE, TJ fans, VOTE

The reason for the smirk is emerging! TJ has alwas been a coniving person and most strips do have a bad guy. But – this strip has had several that have gone to oblivion. Not Peru though.

Could be, but his reaction when it happened didn’t suggest that. I suspect that this is going to be quite an arc.

Have to say, I’ve not trusted TJ since the whole timeshare debacle…

“I could get more into this if Greg wasn’t milking it thru the fake “vote”-ing process…”-—————————————I agree, because according to you , Evans only pays attention to his FakeBook fans, not us lowly GoComics groundlings.

All Readers -

TJ also told me he’d pay $50 to anyone who voted “approved.”

How long is this buid-up of *Greg* 's "Like" clicks (aka the TJ Poll) supposed to last?(365 to 249 as of this moment)

Remember, the phony “poll” is for “approved” vs. “fraud”. “Approved” doesn’t mean that he’s innocent, it just means that he gets away with it because the investigation doesn’t find enough hard evidence to deny the claim. Brad had still better kick him out of the house, though, since continuing to hang out with him would destroy Brad’s chances of ever advancing in the Fire Department.

the firefighter thing was legit UNTIL TJ decided to con Luann, which lead to Luann putting even more people on it, and it was all about time eventually exposing the truth when Brad talks to his family(Luann) and knows that TJ charges for the meals………….. TJ can’t help go into scamming mode(when Luann got so many volunteers), when the smart thing would have been to reveal the truth when Luann got her 2 BFFs and her parents involved in the “charity”, he tangled his own web, and about the vote…………. it will be some weeks before this storyline ends, so Greg has not done the concluding strips YET!, depending on how he did his strips for next 2 or 3 weeks and the vote, there is basically 4 possible plots 1) TJ was innocent and proven innocent at the end 2) TJ was innocent but because his past history, ends up being found guilty 3) TJ was guilty and gets found out 4) was guilty but somehow ends up able to convince the insurance that what happened was an accident

Watch we’re all thinking TJ is pulling a scam but for once he’s not.

FG, whenever you get a few hrs free, you should read the whole series, or at least from 2001 to the present(even if it is by doing 6 months worth per day), and the Ann and TJ strip was just this January 4th 2013, you can start reading it from January 2nd 2013 on, where it shows that TJ would have been bored if he had become manager of the hot dog place

They will still need proof of arson, not just a motive. Brad is not the swiftest fireman on the truck.

If someone was going to commit arson they would not make those kind of statements to a firefighter the same day. TJ is a lot sharper than that.

TJ has proven himself as con man. SO natch we all suspect him of no good. But he isn’t a con artist. He has never fooled himself and he is well aware of his con failures. And I don’t believe that he would think that he can get away blowing up a truck. On the other hand, driving it into a ditch, leaving it in a seedy part of town with the doors unlocked and the keys in the ignition, something like that, YES. Taking a actual chance of hurting someone with an explosion, that’s not in him.

I think it was an accident, the hat blown off is open to interpretation, but the surprise in his face is the truth. If he knew it was going to blow he would have used the garbage as a shield in anticipation of the blast.

if TJ is going to leave the strip………………… expect Ann to be part of the storyline……………….. (if she becomes part of the story)the Question is if she will make sure TJ is found guilty of Arson, or will she seduce TJ and take him with her? (despite fact that she might be bi if we consider canon what happened between her and Bernice in the bookstore storyline) as she told TJ that he has not seen the last of her

Maybe TJ will get Ox’s uncle to defend his claim. We haven’t seen that uncle yet, but 1) it’s time for Ox to make a return and 2) the uncle is probably a pretty good lawyer.

It’s a good ting TJ is self-employed, because after allowing a pot to boil over and cause an explosion he would immediately be fired and would never, under any circumstances, be able to find another job in the food service industry.

Sorry.I attribute it to you because you posted it here.As to G.E. ‘s "blog; thecartooniststudio.com is non-functioning, and I don’t “follow” anything on FakeBook .He’s faking paying attention to the hoi polloi with this “poll”, and that he’s already given us the Charles Laughlin / Nero sniff, while still pitching his merch at us puts him in the same league as any TJ con.

I guess the poll must be on Fakebook, since I can’t find it on the GoComics site. Too bad; it would have been fun to vote.-I am unable to use the ‘reply’ function at all now, all I get is a strange little box that says ‘cancel’ at the bottom and has no place to click.-@Brdshtt

Thanks for the great pic of the ‘end’ of rover! Great stuff!

@flowergirl-Thank you. I’m always amazed at people who think it’s just fine to do bad stuff, as long as no one(seemingly) gets hurt. Everytime someone ‘scams’ the insurance ‘scammer’, all of our rates go up. It isn’t the insurance company CEO or the investors who pay. It’s the rest of us…

To be fair, TJ didn’t seem to do anything to blow it up and looked surprised when it did. I suspect he’s very happy and is quite pleased at the turn of events. Brad and Toni need more than suspicious timing.

Where IS Knute , by the way.We haven’t seen him since his surprise reaction to Gunther ’s abrupt departure.Perhaps Crystal ’s “powers of persuasion” have kept him apart from the rest of the Luann group,

Luann plans to spent as much time as possible with Quill!. She is therefore unlikely to encounter Knute. (If she does, it would be when she visits the rest room at Weenie World, where he will be scrubbing the toilets.)

@Brdshtt-Thanks, but the purple and yellow symbol that shows up on my screen isn’t a hotlink. The material below it takes me to ‘Fakebook’, but doesn’t give me a link to vote.

actually they (TJ and Tiff by suggestion of TJ) decided to make her believe that Cafe TJ would only charge the ingredients costs to the stations in order to save paying wages to Luann when Brad told them he had no time to be a delivery guy as he has his firefighting duties, if TJ had offered the same thing to Luann that Tiff originally had (1 dollar per sold meal before she saw that Bernice, Delta and Luann’s parents offered to volunteer to the “charity” and demanded 50-50 split with TJ), the original Cafe TJ would still exist

looks like the voting part is finished already

Isn’t it amazing how even with TJ’s consistent con artist ways he comes up smelling like sunshine and Tiffany who hasn’t come close to what TJ has done is evil.

seeing that someone believes something, and not correcting that, is the same as saying that the something is true, specially when used for their benefit, so as I said, as soon as they misled Luann in order to get free delivery, IT BECAME a con, is specially sad when 1) Luann is basically family for TJ, and 2) if he had put Luann the same as Tiff(1 dollar per meal sold) he would still have ended up with more than if Brad had been able to stay as delivery guy (10 dollars meals – 2 dollars for Tiff and Luann is more for TJ than 1 dollar for Tiff and than Brad and TJ splitting 9 dollars between them)

Lol! So that’s why my Mars photo of the day app has been out of commision!…..– “Thanks a lot , Robot! (B-9)”….

I don’t think TJ would do it on purpose.

Look at how many comments have been generated today! Geez!

Or the polls about whether or not the Trix Rabbit can finally get some cereal…

I think he always won those polls, didn’t he?

I only recall one of substance, but yes, he won that one…

I was never a “Trix” kid anyway. I was always Cap’n Crunch.(regular) :-)

No… he has (to date) never gotten to enjoy the “sweet fruits” of victory (even if it was the high fructose kind)…. - He may have “won” some of them, but never got to “cash in”….

That’s a reasonable assumption, but I might point out that the identity of the person on the other end of the phone conversation has not been identified by name in the strip, yet.

Actually, he did so yesterday…

OR….

The strips that Greg Evans wants to run are already sitting on the shelf, and the “poll” will have no effect on the story line. (Note that there’s nothing on the “Poll” page that claims, or even suggests, that the voting will influence the strip.)

Just one last comment about the meals for firemen scam. If the firemen were not scammed, as you say, why then did TJ have to pay them back as retribution? And who was it exactly that made him pay them back?

San Quentin here we come! Them bubbas gon’ LOOOVE ’OlTJ.

“He wouldn’t be entitled to “rent already paid,” but he could have his security deposit (if he made one) refunded.”

Minus any damages. I just say that because my ex-tenants are suing us for money withheld from their security deposit in spite of the fact they left seven holes in the walls, among other things. What a pain to have to deal with. Arrrgh!

It’s not a con, since he never says or even suggests that the results of the poll will affect the storyline of the strip.

“So, are you insinuating that Greg is pulling some sort of “con,” and that what we say means nothing to him?”-———————————————Evans has said many times that he doesn’t care what we (especially those of us on GoComics ) think.

about who TJ scammed………………. at the end.. basically the ones who were “really scammed” were Luann and her fellow volunteers, they were expecting that their contributions would lead to the firefighters getting free food, end result? the firefighters did get free food as they were expecting, so there was no need to “pay the volunteers” …………… the firefighters did not know about the scam, but they end up gaining an unexpected reward as TJ had to address his harm to “the volunteers”, and they got refunded the money they paid, and they got Free food as the volunteers wanted………………. as TJ never got any profit, and he was not representing anyone, all he got was a slap in the wrist…………. because Tiff was a representative of the chamber of commerce, and at the start of storyline she already said she could not contact the firefighters as “Miss CC” (TJ convinced her to do it as “Miss Cafe TJ”) under their rules, the CC decided to strip her of title because of her actions even thought at the end the firefighters did get free food, and the five volunteers got the satisfaction of able to do that

So, now that Brad is suspicious, it’s time for the inevitable:(a) Brad and TJ have another falling outfollowed by(b) The insurance investigator discovers what caused it, and it wasn’t intentionaland then© TJ leaves the strip for a few months until he starts up another wacky adventure (and it’s about time for Ann Eiffel to show up again)

Actually, he did so yesterday…

Oops…color me red-faced! Pardon me, while I open mouth, remove foot…

No worries…. :-)

It would seem the poll has closed. It no longer appears on the bonus page. It still shows up on

Polar – 197377

but I don’t know if you can still vote on it. I can’t, because I already did.

as far as I know, Greg took it out of gocomics, and published the “last official tally” on Facebook, technically(at least in the page you gave) you can “change mind” and switched to the other side(I changed it than changed it back)

if poll changes things………….I think one of two things can happen, if it is a long storyline(with breaks in between of other characters), than we going to see the already planned 3 or 4 weeks, than the rest going according to the poll………or…… if it is a short one, than the claims people going to “temporarily” give money to TJ, than plot will continue as Greg already planned (Insurance payment will be confirmed or rescinded)

could be(was kind of ambiguous) but I think is more likely that he was so down about how sales were going, that he forgot about cooker still working, and did not make sure everything was fine, and a faulty wire or stove lead to the explosion, and when he was reminded about insurance, he went “thank God”

Here we go.

Knew this was coming. I’m hoping I’m wrong, but with TJ, you never know.

You’re right, Bill. The setup seems a little too obvious to me. Maybe if was a strip from 1925 or so, when it was fashionable to drop “obvious” hints I’d buy into it. Now…I’m not holding my breath, but I’m not thinking real hard about it either.

Brad has already queered his relationship with his roommate just by considering him guilty of an unproven felony.At best, TJ takes his insurance pay-out and departs town. Leaving the door open to Toni to move in with Brad . A win-win for Brad “bearing false witness”.Personally, I’ve been falsely accused of having done something based on someone else’s unqualified observation and nothing else.I was exonerated, but the accusation alone screwed up my relationship with people who weren’t involved. AND it remains on an official report that I was accused of something, and THAT is never the same as “didn’t do it” in the minds of some people.If Evans rewards Brad for spreading this gossip, I’m going to consider it a character flaw in the author and never read this strip again.

It’s not Toni who’s just figuring things out…

TJ is innocent. If you go back a few days to when it happened, you’ll see that he was clearly shocked and obviously did not expect it. Watch it Brad this is how you lose friends.

Brad had better kick TJ out of the house, fast. When the Fire Department starts investigating TJ, Brad will automatically be put under suspicion as a possible accomplice. Even if nothing is ever proved, his career as a firefighter will be sunk.

“So, are you insinuating that Greg is pulling some sort of “con,” and that what we say means nothing to him?”^Not necessarily. Sometimes, polls are just to “gage” things.. Same way ESPN may just take a "nationwide poll’ to see what the “temperature” is. We (as the public) may just “tie in” a poll with an outcome… in other words, it may just be that we all want to associate this poll with a “direct tie in” to the outcome, but it’s only an “opinion poll”…

Brad is on duty and should not be spending time on personal cell phone calls. He also better be careful with regards to his friendship with this guy.

If you mean knowing where to look, I just have a general “time frame” in mind for some of the “major” events and some references handy to help me when I need to remember dates and all. – If you mean how do I access the archives, well, I also make use of the “buttons” at the top (the “back” and “forth” orange arrows and the orange"calendar" icon). Once I know the event or the general time frame, I just click on the calendar button and it pops up a list of years to click on by ten. If I need to go back more, I just click on the earliest year that pops up and it gives ten more years. These strips go back to the beginning at ’85, so you can go all the way back to then, if needed.

Re: places; I was born in California, go figure… ;)

Well, I can’t speak on that… but I can tell you that I tried it with my wife (clams). She kept saying “I have a headache”. She even called me shellfish. I found out that she was allergic to them. That’s the last time I buy a bottle of cologne with a seafood scent!…..

Speaking of San Fran…. – Preseason football. Tonight. I know, it’s just preseason.

A couple folks upthread claimed TJ could have timed the explosion so he’d be out of the way =and= no one else would be around. I disagree. He couldn’t have even been sure the truck =would= explode, and even if he would’ve lingered outside until it did, there is no possible way he could be sure no one else would have come up to the truck before it blew up. He didn’t do it on purpose.

If I hadn’t seen the look on TJ’s face when the truck exploded, I would also think that this was a bit too convenient. But the look on his face said it all, that was NOT something he’d planned. If TJ planned this, he also planned setting Brad’s house on fire a few years back.