Original Commentary

In the original scripts the name of the company was not explicitly mentioned... I added it in last minute. I was going to go for something with a foreign sound, but was worried that I might have it be a word that shouldn't show up in the comic... so I went with something nice and generic.

This fellow was the guy who runs the warehouse from a few comics back, FYI. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
And here they are actually running the company - getting the information from all the various departments and putting it together.

Spoilers for later, but Brisbane and Kimberly are actually pretty good at this when they work together - Terrence

Original Commentary

Like yesterday's YSIF, there was a word missing, this time also from panel three, the words "55-gallon barrels" was added last minute, thanks to Terrence. If I had written it, I'm sure it would have been something questionable like "scent additives for propane" or something like that... something that I'm not sure Lemon Tech. would actually deal in (hence Brisbane's fear of it coming up). Of course in that case, he could be afraid of cute kittens or feather down pillows, since Lemon Tech. does not deal in those either. Brisbane is afraid of a lot of things, it seems. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
This is probably, like second year business major stuff.

But also, Brisbane and Kimberly are putting it all together on the fly, in an afternoon, with limited information.

Also, those are paper notepads that Brisband has. Not tablets. The Amazon Kindle had come out two months prior; Palm Pilots and Blackberrys were a (much smaller) thing. Brisbane wouldn't have three of them and if he did, he wouldn't know how to do anything useful with them - Terrence

Original Commentary

The man they were supposed to meet was named Simon Dupree, after the band Simon Dupree and the Big Sound. Now, why did I choose that name? Because there wasn't a Simon Dupree in the band, just like there isn't a Simon Dupree in the comics.- Terrence

Modern Commentary
That was a little joke I'd use a few times in the comic. If the person they were meeting with was named after a fictional member of an obscure band, they'd no-show the meeting. I don't expect anybody else to get it, but it amuses me. - Terrence

Original Commentary

A couple of days have passed between this comic and the rest of the arc, so we're almost back to the proper time line... ah, every now and again the story line has to stop and start time, or even jump ahead or backwards a week or two.

And yes, Brisbane and Kimberly do wear clothing to bed- especially when it's a very cold winter out there. -Isabel

Modern Commentary
Regarding the original commentary, the next comic is the one that skips forward a few days.

One of the cut comics was going to have Al Fletcher tell Brisbane that they had some amount of of Pine #2 and a number of canisters of Pine #4.

Brisbane asks "What about Pine #3?"

Al says "We don't carry it."

I'm glad I cut that one and not this one that features Brisbane and Kimberly in bed.

Brisbane and Kimberly in bed is always a top seller. - Terrence

Original Commentary

Whenever there's a secret in You Say it First, Brisbane is probably going to end up keeping it - Terrence

Modern Commentary
Another cut comic was:

Brisbane: I'm in charge of this company, and I order you to give me those records.
---
Brisbane: That felt good. I'm going to say it again. I'm -
R: You have access now.
---
Brisbane (disappointed): Oh, ok.

- Terrence

Original Commentary

My point here is to show that Brisbane gained something from the experience and is competent. He and Kimberly were doing about equal work in the research. There were a fair number of times in the arc when he was at a disadvantage, and I wanted to be sure there was something there to counter them.

I was considering implying that it was more of a personal meeting than a business meeting, but that would be unprofessional of Ms. Taylor, and would take the story in directions it doesn't really need to go right now. -Terrence

Modern Commentary
The original outline of this comic was:

1 - Brisbane asks
2 - Who's in charge? finds out there's nobody else here.
3 - calls Kimberly. There's a meeting
4 - plans for meeting
5 - plan more
6 - try to order lunch - no idea how to expense things
7 - Patrick expenses lunch.
8 - plan more
9 - end of day, no show
10 - Ms. Taylor returns
11 - Not a test. Just forgot.

As you can see, the storyline gained an extra week, cut Patrick (who really didn't have much to do here), and introduced Al Fletcher (who has a lot to do here), and gives a bit more detail about what they're planning.

I was going to have Ms Taylor tell Brisbane that she's impressed with how they handled things, but saying that out loud is not in her nature - Terrence