Breaking Industry News: Tea Fougner, Editorial Director of King Features Syndicate, has left her position and the company, possibly for a variety of reasons (see comments for details). Fougner was responsible for bringing in Jules Rivera as part of a general shakeup of the syndicate and its online comics site. Will her replacement exert any influence on the future of Mark Trail? I imagine that Mark the Contrarian Commenter will be salivating at the possibility! (Source: The Daily Cartoonist.)

Well, if being right was money, I’d probably be poor. Now, if you bet against my prediction on the diversion, pay up! Then again, I think this situation was about as predictable as the return of Haley’s Comet. Apparently, Mark doesn’t follow astronomy, so he followed the diversion, instead. And what did he do when he finally discovered he’d been fooled? He stood still (panel 3) and issued a monologue for the sake of a joke.

The more clever of you readers will have also discerned that Mark apparently left the truck unlocked. All along we have seen an alarmingly shoddy regard for proper security measures, starting with hiring Mark instead of professional security. I wouldn’t be surprised if this was an “inside” job. Ah ha! Another prediction and you heard it read it here, first!