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Before anyone asks, no. I had no idea when I drew this strip back in 1987 that Gene would go into the food-service industry when he grew up. However, it’s impossible to say what secondary synapses come into play over time. It’s got to be relevant that I’ve always been a sucker for cooking shows. Haven’t they changed? When this cartoon was drawn, most cooking shows were local productions of an educational television station, as entertaining for their seat-of-the-pants production techniques as for their cooking advice. There was one old guy, I think out of Pensacola, who droned on in a monatone that would have put an entire auditorium of college history students to sleep within five minutes. I loved him! One of you is going to tell me his name. It seems as if Italian was his specialty.

The sorta pre-order program officially ended Sunday, but still the emails dribble in. Apparently, a lot of you took some nice long vacations, if your excuses are to be believed. I think it’s safe to say there will be enough books for those who want to reserve one and for others, so for now you may still reserve a copy of Beaucoup Arlo and Janis by sending an email to: preorder@arloandjanis.com 

 That’s all you have to do.