Original Commentary

In the early drafts, Brisbane was just coming to his desk and seeing that Ms. Taylor didn't leave him a to-do list. He'd wonder if it there was anything for him to do today, and whether or not Ms. Taylor noticed that he wasn't there. But he reports directly to the company president and she wouldn't leave him a personalized to-do list every day. And there's a fairly limited number of things that Ms. Taylor needs done that she could delegate to him. He's not incompetant, but he's not qualified to make real decisions. And the line about making coffee was Isabel's idea - both to link it to last Monday's comic and to give you an idea what Brisbane does - Terrence

Modern Commentary
I rewrote this comic, years ago, to remove the reference to vice presidents. We never see them and, as Kimberly and Brisbane rose through the ranks of Lemon Technology, their absence became noticeable.

Then during a revision or a data move or something, the copy that had those changes got overwritten. There were a lot of minor dialogue tweaks but this is the one change that I remember.

I like how Brisbane's day involves making for both of the Taylor women, but mostly I like how his long complicated story is easily summarized in two sentences. - Terrence

Original Commentary

I'm actually working on a few plotlines involving Ms. Taylor (and Mr. Taylor). It's just that they tend to be the more complex ones. If a plot is more complex, it takes exponentially more time for me to write. One of the reasons that we're doing this plot this week is because we haven't had Ms. Taylor show up in a while - Terrence

Modern Commentary
This is a notable storyline because it shows Brisbane's job transitioning from mailboy to Ms. Taylor's personal assistant. Or, perhaps, from general lackey to specific lackey.

It's not explicitly stated. It happens so gradually we barely notice it. I wonder if Brisbane noticed it. Probably not; Kimberly would've made him ask for a raise. - Terrence

Original Commentary

I dislike coming up with restaurant names - that's why I've avoided it so diligently. I had thought of using Sandwich World, from Spare Parts, but there's another comic by that name. I thought of Ed's Breads, from Unlike Minerva, but I couldn't come up with anything really expensive for them to sell. "I could order a sandwich with extra meat and chips and soup and salad" doesn't have the same kind of ring to it. So it was French, simply because it has foods that can be easily recognized as expensive and foods that can be easily recognized as reasonably-priced. Isabel came up with the idea for this comic and drew it while I finalized the script - Terrence

Modern Commentary
If Brisbane were clever, he could find a reasonably priced place and invite Kimberly over for lunch. There are a lot of places that you can feed two people for fifty bucks. - Terrence

Original Commentary

Yes, Brisbane assumed that he could just say "charge it to the company" and that would take care of everything.

This is the first time that I believe we've shown cash money in the series. If it were green, it'd look too American, but if it weren't green it would be less identifiable as money. I was thinking it should be blue, but there was a lot of blue in the comic and it'd blend in. So it's blueish-green. It's not American dollars, but we haven't officially named Hippedown's currency. I'm tempted to go with pounds. But, um...we used the dollar symbol. So they're Hypedonian dollars. And the last panel originally read "$12.50 cash, right?", but Isabel suggested Brisbane's current line while shading the comic. I think it works a lot better. I was just trying to indicate that he had no idea how to actually charge things to the company (or fill out a purchase order - he'd have to track down someone else who knows how and ask them) and had given up, but the current line implies the same thing with a lot more character - Terrence

Modern Commentary
You might say "Hey, that's an entirely different shade of blue money than we saw in Nicole and Derek.

And you're right. Nicole and Derek takes place twenty-five years later. They redesigned the currency in that time.

Also, I'm not 100 percent sure if that guy works at an off-screen food cart or if he's just a delivery guy for a slightly less nearby restaurant. - Terrence