Original Commentary

Why pet importing? Because I wanted something illegal, but not immoral. There's regulations and paperwork involved, but it's not so complex that I'd have to really explain it.

Modern Commentary
It's illegal to own a ferret or a hedgehog here in California.

Folks have been trying to change those laws for decades, with no success.

Mind you, I'm sure there are a lot of pet hedgehogs and pet ferrets here without too much trouble. But I wouldn't want to be in that particular business here- Terrence

Original Commentary

Honestly, I don't know what cement finishing involves. I really hope that it does involve spraying things on other things. If not, Mr. Taylor's business plan really isn't doing well. He's very clear on the amount of money involved in this project, and the potential return. He just didn't pay much attention when they were talking how the business actually worked. -Terrence

Modern Commentary
And we explain what this guy actually does!

Here it is 18 years later and I still don't know what cement finishing is. - Terrence

Original Commentary

It just kinda fits that behaviour pattern. Ms. Taylor is loud and Mr. Taylor is quiet. I wanted to do more with the difficulties of them living together (like Mr. Taylor hogging the bathroom) but it seemed too petty.- Terrence

If I was writing this comic, I think I might had made the conversation got a little differently...
Ms T: Clarence! What did you do with my suit?
Clarence: Which one?
Ms. T: The magenta one!
Clarence: ...Which magenta one...?

Is it just me, or does the gal love her purples, pinks and magentas? those are the types of people one should avoid in life, I know, as I am one. XO (And I'm not under minding Terrence's script- the one that went up was the best one for the comic. I just thought this one was silly and should be shared ^_^)-Isabel

Modern Commentary
That's the thing about this storyline. It's not about the punchlines. It's not about the drama; very little actually changes between the beginning and the end.

It's about the emotional turn in their relationship: hoping things would work out, realizing that they are who they are, why they're still drawn to each other, and why it wouldn't work out for more than three days at a time. - Terrence

Original Commentary

This is the last comic I wrote in this arc. It was summarized as "Mr Taylor pisses his ex-wife off". The hard part was finding something for him to do that wouldn't just make him look like a doofus (eg. trying to cook and burning all the food she has), like a jerk (eg. rearranging her record collection by year), or like a he was deliberately trying to piss her off (eg. hogging the bathroom for an hour). But no, he has to do something that he believes is completely reasonable, but will totally set her off. -Terrence

Modern Commentary
Mr. Taylor does that a lot - redirects his business partners elsewhere when he needs a bit more time to get a bit more money.

It's still a dick move on his part. He wouldn't do it to Brisbane, but he'd do it to a random pretty-boy that his ex-wife hired. - Terrence

Original Commentary

There's a Monkees song called "Mr. Webster". At the end of the song, he runs off with everybody's money. It just kinda fits. -Terrence

Modern Commentary
That "he had the decency to feed me" line is a dig at Ms. Taylor. She hasn't restocked her pantry and he's left to fend for himself for breakfast and lunch.

Mr. Taylor locked up after he left the apartment, so he spent the day out since he couldn't get back in until Ms. Taylor returned - Terrence

Original Commentary

No, you don't want to know what the rest of that sentence is. He cuts her off, because otherwise I'd have to write a whole long profanity-filled chewing out, and that's no fun to write or read. She'd probably go on for about five panels. He's been through it often enough that he's totally immune. -Terrence

Modern Commentary
They both know how this goes because they've both been through this many times before. It never changes because they never change - Terrence

Original Commentary

So, it ends as it began, more or less. This was day five, I believe, and I was thinking of having one of them note that five days was a new record for them. They've got the kind of relationship that works best if they spend a lot of time apart. In six weeks, they'll forget why they can't spend more than three days together, and in six-and-a-half weeks, they'll remember - Terrence

Modern Commentary
I wish we had had them visit Mr. Taylor and see a bit more of his life. It wasn't to be, though. In part because we'd need a whole new tertiary cast for him to interact with and that would be a bit much.

Anyhow, one of the other advantages of spending a storyline featuring Mr and Ms Taylor is that it shows that time passes, allowing Brisbane and Kimberly to have their honeymoon in privacy. - Terrence