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

Why not do all of them at once? Jump out of a plane into a Bruno Mars concert eating caviar and wearing nothing but a pair of skis? Then record it and put it on YouTube, and you’ll make some money too!

Never heard of itch/ick lists. I think Luann wants to say “bucket list.” One thing on MINE is to world travel… even with my older brother and his Delta flight attendant wife. Their international excursions together are making me jealous.

For years, the price of candy bars remained fixed, though the actual ‘size’ of the bars shrank.

The underlying theory behind The Itch List is to scratch that itch that has taken a backseat because life took to the steering wheel. This is illustrated very well in this comic strip because one of the big steering wheels in today’s life is student debt, the second highest personal debt only behind home mortgages.

Borenice sure loves to shoot down Luann’s dreams. (yawn….)

Luann really “got” the New York trip lessons, and has held fast to them ever since. Interesting that they’ve never worn off.

Bernice, in contrast, seemed cranked up about that trip until all of a day or two after they returned. She’s never been on board with Luann in that way at all.

Perhaps Luann should run this list by her parents first, seeing as how they’ll be the ones footing the bill. After all, I doubt Kidz First is paying her enough for a trip to Buffalo Wild Wings, much less Alaska. Must be nice to be a legal adult while still living life on somebody else’s dime.

Though to be fair, with all the free labor the Fuse has gotten thanks to her, asking the parents to pay for a trip isn’t as unreasonable as I once would’ve considered it.

Itch List: (1) Luann in Alaska (we won’t get to see that) (2) Skydiving – it’s a rush they say (I’ll take their word for it) (3) There is cheap caviar as well as expensive caviar (acquired ta$te) (4) Learn to ski (watch that foot) (5) Bruno Mars (whatever) (6) $474 (Luann! Don’t buy them – go buy that fancy phone you wanted Dad to pay for).

Community colleges, at least some of them that deal with low-income profile students try to lower the cost of books, tuition and fees. Where I teach in Chicago we try to keep tuition low enough so that students in need can depend on grants, which is why the fact that the state of Illinois went without a budget for three years cut-off opportunities for so many deserving low-income students. All that being said books can be so expensive. On the itch/ick list (interesting that these are desires for Luann, but ick for risk-adverse Bernice) Luann is like so many young adults, the world is an oyster, waiting to be eaten. Bernice would be afraid it would make her sick. Which means something is about to happen. Hope it does not make either one sick.

Did Luann have an itch to do a bit of sewing while in the bookstore? She walked in with only 5 buttons, but now has 6.

Does Greg secretly have an itch to do ancient Doonesbury strips?

So, have a Mars Bar for a dollar and save Bruno for when you can afford it.

This is the same girl that chicken out in getting a tattoo

Sigh…. It is going to happen sooner or later, so I may as well get it over with.

It does not matter if it is named an Itch List or a Bucket List.

True for any comic strip and for any comment site for said strip: Make a To Do list and somebody will come back with a Who Do list.

“Betty Rubble. I’d do Wilma Flintstone—but I’d be thinking about Betty.” —Family Guy

I just read all the older Ann Eiffel episodes on luannfan.com. I’d never read them before. I’m glad that Greg compiled that history into one place. It sure was interesting.

The most interesting part, to me, was how TJ managed to out-con Ann at every turn. TJ is a master. He knows fully the ways of the dark side, but uses them for good. He’s everything a true Jedi should be, but never was in the films. The Jedi were vulnerable because they were too goody-good.

Great model for real life. Take a larger view of the Force, decide the end results you want, and then play dirtier than your enemies. That’s why we won WWII, but that lesson of history seems to have been swept under the rug. Maybe time to do a little dusting off.

Good to see the old Luann/Bernice interaction again.

Sure! A candy bar could count as an ‘itch’! …Especially if there are things in it people are allergic to….

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If this were 1985, you could replace Luann’s choice of “Bruno Mars” with "Bruce Springsteen. 1988, it’d likely be “George Michael” or “NKOTB”. 1995-2005, it could be “Backstreet Boys”. 2010, maybe “Justin Timberlake”. Funny how with each decade, you can swap out the music interest for a character (TV character, comics, etc) to like, based on the particular decade or other period of time they’re in…

It isn’t that things are more expensive as much as the money is worth so much less.

is it a bruno Mars bar?

Meanwhile back at the Fuse.

I wonder how many people will notice the writing on the candy bar.

Itch list is such a weird turn of phrase. It is not a thing people would say. Perfect for “Luann”

Thought it was called a bucket list? I was able to remove an item from that list this summer. Riding the mechanical bull. My brother got to remove something from his bucket list, too. SEEING ME ride the mechanical bull.

Wow. $474 for books. I’ll bet Mr Gray could have gotten You those books for 1/3 of the Price, because He “knows People.”

$1 ? ! egad, glad I don’t eat candy bars anymore! Way too expensive!!!

Yikes indeed! If my books ran over $50 a semester, my budget was busted.

I looked up the CPI tables and calculations. Luann’s book bill would translate into $77 in my day. I paid more than that a given semester for all my books!

You can save a bunch on the caviar. Get some mineral soil, lots of salt and some bee bees.

5

The price tag of the books did not need to be a surprise for Luann. Presuming she has long been registered for her classes, she could have found out the prices long ago. And, if she wanted to have been more savvy, she could have spent a bit of time during the Summer looking for cheaper alternatives (on-line purchases of used books, book rentals, other options). $474 is indeed a hefty price tag, granted, but unfortunately that is what the publishers are charging these days.

A big part of today’s comic that I think is hinted at behind the scenes is that Luann is realizing that if she does want to live life more robustly with her “itch list” items, she will need to be more careful about planning for a) what she WANTS to do, b) how to be able to do what she WANTS to do, and c) how she will need to have goals for her future to make what she WANTS happen. Perhaps the yikes moment of the previously unexamined cost of her textbooks will give her the impetus to be more proactive to make her life happen as she wants?

Maybe Ann E.‘s ’lingerie party’ event will have a Ponzi scheme dovetailed right into it!

Ann E.: “That’s right, everyone! Buy the lingerie! Sell as many college textbooks you can! And you’ll make Double-Zirconia Status in no time!!!”

This is the Luanniverse – It could happen! :)

The “shadow people” are driving up the cost of books!

Well, THIS was very amusing this week, wasn’t it?

Hint to Luann: take fewer classes, it’s not like you’re doing anything with your life

It’s really hard to make watching people buy textbooks interesting. This week was a good try at it, but it hasn’t quite hit the mark.

I’ve never run over hot coals in Alaska or seen Bruno Mars in person, but I have done the rest of the list. Including a nude resort and skydiving. I still want to go to Alaska some day.

She’ll be running naked or not over hot coals. But I can ;picture it…

eating caviar is not that big a deal; you just buy a small tin of the cheap stuff online and eat it. I’m not into raw fish roe but cooked roe is great. The folks at Freund’s in Brooklyn have given me whole big bags of carp roe (for nothing) which is delicious when you simmer it in broth with cooked fish and vegetables.

The first book I ever bought for $100 was a college textbook. And that was back in the 1980s.

Wow! Nearly $500 on books and stuff! And classes haven’t even begun yet.

It’s a far cry (and many, many dollars) from my college days, back in the Stone Age….

I remember my first semester tuition at the University of Arkansas costing $275 and howling about the $95 book cost.

Same here. I think my first year at my state university cost about $1200 – and that included room and board, tuition, books, and personal expenses. Yes, it was many, many years ago!

Don’t know where Luann lives that candy bars are a dollar! Here in southern California, a plain old Hersheys milk chocolate bar costs $2, whether in a supermarket, 7-11, or what. The only place I’ve seen them for $1 or less is in Tijuana, Mexico, and a lot of stores there don’t carry them.