Calling all Illustrator experts!
I'm working on a MASSIVE Illustrator tutorial and I need some input. I'm trying to cover everything a beginner to Illustrator would need to know in plain, amusing English. That being said, I've got about 15 pages of stuff covered so far but I feel like I'm missing some major stuff.

If you were to teach a short class on Illustrator, what would you cover? What would you want to see a tutorial like this cover?

Topics covered so far:
• Oveview of the workspace
• overview of the tools panel  (with the best cheat-sheet you ever did see)
• the pen tool overview
• the direct select tool overview (incomplete section... need more to talk about!)
• The Layers panel (hiding, locking, grouping, layers... am I missing anything?)
• Pathfinder panel
• Guides (regular, smart, and shape guides. It's incomplete so I need a bit more cover)
• Artboards
• strokes (aligning, specialty strokes introduced in CS5)
• "my curves suck and I want to fix them"
• illustrator preferences and what they mean (including how to get rid of those stupid picas)

...That seems like a ton (it is) but I know I'm missing things. What are those simple, beginner things that people need to know when they open Illy for the first time and go "WHAT THE FLYING BURRITO AM I DOING HERE?!?!"

Your help would be most appreciated