Luann by Greg Evans and Karen Evans for November 24, 2011

Watch out Toni! Unless she has a great relationship with her captain. (And I’m not referring to any hanky panky!) I don’t see her threat to quit as such a brilliant idea.

She may sacrifice her job to get his back. Bad idea.

Looks like many of you luannalyzers are right….Toni is gonna quit – but I think it will backfire. How it works is when someone leaves, they look up the applications and start calling for interviews from those applications. They will not call Brad back. Toni – think before you act. You will both end up unemployed.

Check with Brad on this Toni, Rule#1: NEVER Listen to TJ!

HAPPY TURKEY-DAY EVERYONE!

This was mentioned yesterday

great……both of them out of a job!

NOOOO!!! Toni, don’t do it! Even TJ is telling you not to do it! Think about it. She’s going to risk losing a great firefighting job just because she feels responsible for getting Brad fired from a cr@ppy Weenie-World job (which he QUIT as soon as he was rehired). …Besides, Brad and Toni work at different fire stations, so she’s not going to get anywhere by telling her Captain that she will quit unless he hires Brad back. Brad never worked at that fire station! … And, as a commenter on a previous strip pointed out, it’s hard enough for a female to become a firefighter. Greg shouldn’t make her lose it just for a man.

Rut Ro again.

You know it’s pretty bad when even TJ admits it’s bad.

Brad will put a stop to this. Brad: Toni, you can’t do this. Toni: I’m just trying to help. Brad: Toni, I love you, but I don’t need another mother, Top trying to protect me. Toni: Brad, I can’t stop trying to protect you because I love you too. Fade to jewelery store…

i still want to give toni a bit more credit tha a lot of folks give her. i think that tony’s going to take tj’s suggestion but alter it to where both toni and brad wins.

Greg, you surely can take the dialogue of your characters about this level. After all, they are young adults. They can discuss things as young adults, not small children.

above this level -typo

“Great ideas are great cuz they can’t possibly work.”

WTF?

Brad was hired in 2005. How much time is that in our world/reality I wonder?

NOOOOOOOOOO! Don’t listen to TJ again! My estimate of Toni is dropping, sadly….

Toni, you’re such a dummy even TJ knows that idea is an idiotic thing to do… AND HE’S TJ!

A few things…..Brad and Toni aren’t “broken up”, and you could even infer that Brad was pleased she threatned to punch Ann..Toni’s an excellent mechanic – she won’t end up waitressing anywhere. She still shouldn’t quit in favor of Brad having her job. And if Brad took it,well – there are no words..As for “men can get a job easier than a woman” – tell me which studies I should “look up”. Sorry, it’s not true – not in this economy, anyway.

Because industries like construction and manufacturing that tend to be male dominated are usually the first to take the hit in economic down times, men are usually the ones out of work in recessions. Female dominated industries like teaching and health care tend to be recession proof, and usually retain their workers. And since women, unfortunately, often do the same jobs as men for less pay, they usually get hired over men..In past recessions and depressions, it’s usually women who find employment and often end up supporting their families.

Yeah, Toni did have Dirk to tangle with, which is why her agreeing to roll over and not eat at Weenie World because Brad wanted to apease an abusive boss and have a “peaceful” work environment is outright disgusting. .When Toni was with Dirk she let him walk all over her – to the point that she let him take her car because he wrecked his, so she had to take the bus home because his picking her up was too much of a pain. And she saw nothing wrong with it, because that’s the mentality that allows an abuser to control you. So to let Brad coerce her into being OK with being banned by Ann is extremely aggravating – it seems 5 massive steps backward.

That Brad would even ask it of her, when he was the one who saw how abusive her prior relationship was, and wanted to be the one to “rescue” her from it, is even worse..So when you say “she knows what she’s doing”, it seems like another version of Brad’s being able to “handle” things.

One of two things just happened here. Either she really thought that was a good idea, or she is thinking that she can sacrifice her job to get Brad back his. Either choice is bound to leave them both unemployed. Toni – you really are nothing but a dumb blond.

And after she is out the door and starts blaming TJ, he’ll say “I told you I was kidding.” Once again, another career ruined by TJ.

Maybe this is all part of the plan to get back at TJ. Give him just enough rope to hang himself. Toni was just playing TJ. Waiting for him to come up with an idea like this one. Now she pretends that she has gone in to talk to her captain. She’ll act like she has been terminated and that neither she nor Brad will be hired back in the future. TJ, as expected, will feel guilt beyond belief. And just maybe he will stop meddling in the affairs of others, as he will realize that his ideas NEVER work.

I understand why most of you are yelling at your computer screens, saying “Toni! don’t do it!” and “Greg can’t do this to her!” But trust me, that’s the point. We ALL will be waiting with baited breath for tomorrows strip.

I have a bad feeling about this… c’mon, Toni, seriously, you’re not THAT dumb, are you? Well, you did date Dirk, so… I guess you and Brad will both be standing in the unemployment line!

at least they’ll get to spend the holidays together, uninterrupted (except by the utilities guy cutting the power at 20degF, and the landlord evicting them)

gift of the magi, anyone?

I saw this coming a week ago.

For all those in a panic out there that think Toni is going to put her job on the line, ain’t gonna happen. Regardless of her ealier taste in boyfriend material, she’s one smart cookie. You have to figure Toni and Brad already talked about all the stuff that led up to him losing his job at Weenie World. Brad knows the roll TJ played in that. This all about showing TJ that his hair brained schemes have conciquences. Go back a couple days and look at Brad’s expression as TJ leaves, it’s a look of an unfortunet path that he must follow to teach his best friend some humility.

Wow, is everyone a bit over critical? In the end, it is just a cartoon with a decent story line. I like it, but it isn’t a social commentary strip. He doesn’t ever leave “reality” when he has a story to cover as it was never in reality.

‘If Toni turns her back on her career so that Brad can have her job, after he asked her to throw herself under the bus to placate Ann, that’s it for me. It’ll be a total betrayal of what the characters have been evolving onto for the past years."Great point!Not that Toni’s sacrificing her job — never make a threat you’re not ready to back up — because that MAY rehire Brad — makes sense ever, but Brad and Toni are not married, they’re not even engaged. They’re one snit away from a break-up, and then Toni would have given her job up for her EX boyfriend.If Toni threatens the captain, the captain will be LESS eager to hire Brad back — it will look like he gave in to a threat.

Nooooooooo!

I can what is coming and its not good. It will be i gave up a good job for you. We man have heard this from when time started.

I left out SEE inabove comment.

I thought only TJ was as dumb as TJ.

For being so worthless, TJ sure is a great piece of work!

That Toni even trusts him strains credibility.

Dave, just out of curiosity, if he didn’t throw her under the bus, why did he tell her he knew what he was asking was wrong, but “don’t make a big deal out of it”?

You know the joke, “No one insults my wife — that’s my job”? I don’t know about you, but I protect people I love. If my boss not only disrespected my lady by telling her she couldn’t come in the restaurant any more, but ordered me to be the one to tell her, he’d be looking at a big hole in the shift that day. The fact that Toni had to “interfere” to stick up for herself is shameful – for Brad! He had so little stones that his woman had to do the fighting for him. Probably not a lot of firefighters read this comic but if they did I’m sure they wouldn’t be pleased.

I don’t think Toni is going to quit or threaten to quit but clearly TJ’s crazy idea has sparked one in her.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!……… oh, and great idea TJ.

Dave, if that’s all you took away from what I wrote, then either you stopped reading too soon or I wasn’t clear. .I have said that Toni’s confrontation with Ann cost Brad his job – even if Toni had only confronted Ann about her own treatment as a customer and not warned her to keep her hands off Brad, Ann would have reacted the same way because it was retaliation for Toni standing up to her. Everything Toni’d seen about Ann should have been a big red flag – Ann couldn’t intimidate her, so she punished Brad instead. .However, Brad did coerce Toni to accede to Ann’s demand. He not only throw her under the bus to please Ann, he asked her to be OK with it. The fact that he “asked” her and not “told” her doesn’t change the result.

Gee, he asked her to throw herself under the bus instead of pushing her – does that make it any better? Or is it worse that he’s become so passive aggressive when it comes to dealing with conflict? .If I were Toni I’d run like hell – if this is how Brad behaves when it’s between his SO or a $7/hr job, what will he do when the stakes are higher?

I agree – he turned Brad into a spineless wimp and Toni into a meddler because he’s so spineless. What the hell happened here?

I hope this story arc has some tremendous character growth. Because right now it is leading to a very fatally bad end for the strip.

Toni and Brad are doing what happens in real life when two people are in love and trying to sort out a bad mess. Made worse by good intentions and staking out territory.

As for TJ even he has admitted at one or another that taking advice from him is not a good idea.

Uh oh, I don’t think this is going to end well.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Greg thanks for giving us all a story line that pulls us to feel and express our suppressed anxieties! We are all so churned up and overflowing with anticipation for Brad and Toni. We get to ‘feel’ about something like this, instead of the daily stuff that’s just a little too much.

Jobsharing coming up. Brad and Toni take half-hours.

Sorry that people are giving you a hard time Greg.

Whatever direction you take this story, I’m sticking with it.

Finally, I’ve always enjoyed your artistic talent.(Toni’s lips are fine.) Boy no matter how I say it, that doesn’t sound right.

Here’s to hoping everyone has a great Holiday season.

AHHHH!!!! This is so going to blow up in their faces!

Happy Thanksgiving all.

Greg has just taken us to the brink. Everyone sees Toni doing something bad for herself out of love for her man. We don’t want her to fall into that abused woman syndrome, allowing herself to be disrespected or thinking that anything bad must be her fault. Brad is the one who must stand up and do for himself. Does Brad even realize this? Is Greg trying to show us that moping, self-pity, and temper tantrums are not a manly way to confront a problem? And, is Toni his way of telling young girls not to be afraid to be successful?

happy thanksgiving

you can’t blame tj for this one! he was kidding when he said it, toni is the one who thinks its a good idea.

I saw that coming a mile away.

Maybe Toni will get Brad to propose ; then she can tell the Capt. that they are getting married. If Brad had his job back, she would leave to raise a family?

I don’t think that Toni will make a threat… she has probably learned her lesson about threatening people. I DO see her volunteering to give up her slot in favor of allowing Brad to come back. She has seniority over Brad in the city’s fire department, even though they worked at different stations. But maybe in the end it will work out as a jobshare situation— or a case of, “Well, Firefighter X was planning to retire so there will be an opening coming up in a few weeks. You don’t have to quit, Daytona… we’ll bring DeGroot in to replace X when he leaves.” Thus, Brad and Toni finally wind up working at Station 3 together, just like Brad wanted all along.

Hey, it’s as plausible a scenario as anything else that’s happened or been discussed here… and good call on the ‘Gift of the Magi’, Jeff. I thought that as soon as this story line took the turn to Toni feeling guilty.

It’s a credit to Greg’s writing that his strip engenders so much thoughtful commentary. My own take is that beyond the crisis of the moment, this will end on a positive note for Brad and Toni… Even if they both – God forbid – end up out of a job. Much of Luann seems to center around lessons learned during the journey, and the central characters are basically good people. I have hope for their future.

I smell a plot brewing. Toni’s going to try to cajole Brad into popping the question, and her wedding gift to him will be a firefighting job, opened by her conditional resignation (i.e. she will resign if and only if Brad is her replacement).

Evidently I AM the only sane one here, including Toni because she’s looking like actually listening to TJ. Toni, PLEASE tell me you’re not actually considering this…

Gee, I sure hope not… Awkward…

Another possibility, along the lines of TJ’s scheming. Occupy Pitts protestors “accidentally” start a fire not far from Brad’s residence. Brad’s experience makes him so indispensable at the scene that the Fire Department has no choice but to re-hire Brad.

Toni, don’t do it. Captain will let you go too…

This is a comic strip and these are imaginary characters. No one is going to get hurt. Greg Evans is simply telling a story and drawing interest by relating it to real world circumstances.

oh toni that is sooo stupid! its not your fault brad got fired. its his for not standing up to his boss. dont quit your great job for that wimp. and TJ,`please can the ideas!

What is with thw folks on here continually twlling us that “the characters are not real” and these are not real people"? Thank you, we are all very aware of that fact. But thw forum is god because it createa interaction, and (foe thw most part) intelligent views and thoughts. Let people be. I enjoy reading the imput. Anyway, if you really thought that, why bother to read all the comments? I would think that you would just read the strip and move on.

Sorry about the sucky spelling. My touch screen phone cant keep up with my fingers…;p

Brad should stay at wienne world

Do not listen to T.J! What a duffus! Get close to Brad and let your hair down with some warm snuggling and hot love making!

She’s going to slip with the captain and blackmail him on sexual harassment charges until he gives Brad back his job.

you’d have to be an idiot to give up your job in hopes that your boyfriend gets back his job. Then you’ll both be broke.