Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for January 24, 2017

now who would pickpocket Tiffany?

She was framed!

Cue cheesy organ, da duh dum! Oh no! What could it mean?

She is not framed yet, but criminals usually do crimes based on opportunity. The suspect? Piro if she let him crash, or if he got the card without her knowledge before the break. However I am not convinced that Piro, Mr. Mystery man, is drawn to be an opportunistic criminal. I do know, beyond doubt, that she is totally innocent, but she will not want to admit who might have taken her key card. Ah, Luann mysteries!! This is definitely not boring.

@TEMPLO S.U.D.: I’m sure a lot of people will be guessing either Les or Piro. But Les has nothing to do with Moony Uni; we’ve never seen him on campus. And Piro is basically a red herring. People are supposed to suspect him of bad actions because he seems to be homeless (so by definition is a suspicious character to them. I see him as a possible vet with PTSD, but that’s another story.)

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I think the card was taken by someone who wouldn’t be suspected, but who may have had access to her purse at one point. How about Shannon’s Dad?

@JACKREACHER: I’m sure Tiffany has been a blonde for a lot longer time that Kellyanne what’s-her-name…

I don’t suppose we’re supposed to wonder how Tiffany got into the building just now without the key card.

Let us not forget however, Pico’s scarf. Which Bernice conveniently (and deliberately) didn’t mention when making her report. Does this make Piro guilty? No. But it will Definitely make it look like Bernice was covering for him. The question now is; will Been admit the truth? Or is she the ki d of person to let a potentially innocent person get framed? I am honestly afraid of the answer.

Tiffany should next check her wallet.

I hope the odor coming from her purse is perfume and not cafeteria leftovers.

It’s possible that Piro is not a red herring, that he really is the thief. That would open up exploration of the emotional vulnerability of intellectual types like Bernice—when people spend most of their energy developing their intellect, their neglected emotions can sneak up behind them and overwhelm their normally good judgment. But that would be disappointingly stereotypic to pin it on the homeless guy.

They will go after Piro – and later it will turn out to be Hair that went into Tiffany’s purse. Hair is expendable in the ongoing Luann saga.

Time to go see the new TV that’s setup in Tiffany’s dorm room.

@KENHENSE: But if Hair was going to go into Tiffany’s purse to steal something, why a key card, when he already lives there and presumably has his own?

The plot gets thickender and thickender.

Who has the key-card …?

I agree on Piro being a red herring, but I have a lot of doubt about all the other characters who have been suggested to have gone in with the keycard and took the TV. None of them are criminals, and Les is not is this arc at all. Perhaps she just lost it, and did not realize it, and some criminal rapscallion did the deed. Someone not in the strip.

Geez, Tiff – you’re really good. So realistic.

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She will pull out her Screen Actors Guild card next.

WARNING! This is an off – topic comment! I just wanted to say how much I HATE the fact that this new format doesn’t count all the comments to the comics. It said there were only 30 comments to this strip yesterday. I didn’t count them, but it appeared to be well over 100 to me. I wish they would count replies to comments!

@LAUGHINGKITTY: Welcome to the new regime.

Wait a minute. This is crazy, but wasn’t Gunther (one of my favorite characters, by the way) an AV guy? He has extensive contact with Tiff, and thus access to her key. I don’t think it’s in his character to really steal, but he could easily have gotten caught up in some crazy plan that backfired.

How long has school been back in session and she just now realized her card is missing? She also better check her wallet for missing money and credit cards…

interesting developments. So if she didn’t loan her card to piro, How did he or someone lese get it? Did they take it or did she lose it and they found it? How has Piro been getting into the dorm all those other times? He has friends in the building, Hair, Viper etc ( he’s been with them at the parties, the drum circle etc and he has borrowed scarves from hair, so they must have let him in. He said has a friend on campus that he crashes at sometimes but that friend was " occupied" isn’t that when he slept on Bernice’s couch?( I think he came into her room when she was out doing her one of her RA room checks— why she left her door unlocked I don’t know). Perhaps all this is a set up to finally shed some light on the Piro’s situation. Maybe not. I thought at one time he said that he had been living in his car but then he sold it. It was sooo long ago, I forgot. Sometimes I thing they drag things out way too long but at least it keeps us all coming back. and we have several interesting arcs going on. Not like some other comics that I won’t mention. Oh and what does the ad on the board for the TV have to do with all this. Probably just a red herring as well as the TV in the common room was smaller than 60 inches.

Look again, Tiff. I know too well from my significant other that women’s purses are unfathomable black holes that are mysteriously able to suck a truly incredible amount of mostly unnecessary stuff down into some deep, dark reaches, and only a completely ludicrous amount of fumbling through them, combined with repeated “I know I have it in here somewhere,” will eventually bring that item out of the vortex. Keep digging.

If the whereabouts of the card is the question, then, the answer, my friend, is blowin’ in tbe wind (♪)….

I think we’re getting to a point where Tiff will have to spill the beans about who she spent ‘significant’ time with prior to school break OR over the break! On the other hand, she said break was boring. An interesting twist would be if the card turns up in someone else’s possession; also not related to whatever happened to the TV.

Tiff? Your Dad should Really, REALLY talk to You about NOT talking to the ‘Man’ without ‘Legal Representation.’

Somebody get Columbo.

Once again, expressive eyebrows… They don’t make sounds like lips… But sometimes, an eyebrow can sure speak! …Along with other facial expressions…

“Card Sharks”

“Winners And Losers”

“I Don’t Mind, At All!”

“Excess And ‘Oh!’s”

“The Rich Girl Lost It”

“A Tough Access To Follow”

“An Inconvenient Truth”

“She Finds It’s Lost”

“Misery Of A Mystery”

“Wind, With The Gone”

“Out Of Mind, Out Of Sight”

“Missing The Point Of Entry”

“Stingy With Your Presence”

or

“Here, There And Nowhere”

People people people. LOAN is not a verb. Why doesn’t anybody say LEND any more?

Again, this is filler because now we know Piro stole the keycard from Tiffany.

The best mysteries begin with a very minor puzzle or loose piece of yarn that, when tugged on, will unravel quite a plot.

the Thought Plickens

@KRISBENNETT723: Please explain how ‘we’ know that Piro stole the key card, since not all the ’we’s’ on this board are in agreement with you.

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@MISTER DANTES: Kinda convoluted plot (me, I’m a wanna be short story writer and a member of a critique group. Most of the group members other than me have been published). I’m going to give you the great advice I keep getting, which is ’don’t quit your day job’…

The Big Question is: is Tiffany really surprised, or is she “acting” ?

Okay — NOW I believe we have proof that a crime has been committed!

(Note that I did not say exactly what that crime is!)

@JPUZZLEWHIZ: I have to agree with S Dog. Tiffany could easily have misplaced that key card in her purse; just look at all the, um, stuff in that purse. And we still don’t really know that the TV is gone. Some clownish college kid could have figured he’d prank everybody and hide the thing…

exactly …don’t jump to more conclusions.

At this point, “much ado about nothing” might be comical or a bit flat. I have high expectations.

Took me forever to get back in. But, fear not, Tiffany, I’ve come to save the day.

Airman…….You been gone, too?

I don’t think Tiff is every going to have it!

That would be an oopsie, Tiffany. Don’t let the fuzz rattle you; they’ve got nothing except speculation! (You know; like commenters on a comic strip….)

Once upon a time, long. long, ago in a galaxy …far… far.. away this strip was abouta teenage girl named Luann….

@CHAIN GANG CHARLIE: Damn. Now you tell us. I’ve wasted over 31 years reading this strip waiting for Clutch Cargo to show up.

Truncated Spoiler Alert: Tiff is in the check out line.

SPOILER

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Looks like Tiff is actually in on it (whatever ‘it’ is), after all…