After using photos as backgrounds in the last Toto, I decided to take pictures of my monitor for this one.

The Mark Foley congressional page scandal broke right around this time. The IM’s in the backgrounds are taken directly from the transcripts of his IM’s with the pages.

I also made icons for each of the riders. Lance is the Texas flag, Floyd is a beer, Frankie is M for Michigan, Levi is a purse (sorry Levi), and Tyler is a tugboat (the name of his beloved deceased dog). Tugboat would later become a recurring character.

This is the first of our ‘short Levi’ cheap shots.

It seems I gave riders I like macs and riders I don’t like PC’s. I have no idea what operating system Levi’s computer runs.

The Floyd frame is a reference to stories that Floyd would trade his yellow jersey for beers after Tour stages.

Levi had just signed with Discovery. He essentially rode as a domestique for Hincapie in the national championships.

Tyler Hamilton had used some very transparent code names while faxing his orders for whatever it was he was using.

Lance’s last line is a reference to Napoleon Dynamite again.

schmalz comment

Ah, the first "short Levi" cheap shot – a gag we will try to run into the ground. It’s become our "go to" reference. If anyone has a reason to sucker punch me – it’s Levi. Any political references you see in Toto are always from Andy – I am very un-informed and un-political. I am also usually unscented.