OK... let's take Tom back out (the poor sap).
<table border="3">
<tr>
<td colspan=2>Ed</td>
<td>Rick</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Larry</td>
<td>Curly</td>
<td>Moe</td>
</tr>
</table>
Rick gets scared and he leaves. Ed takes over Rick's cell too, and just cause he's that way, he stands right in the middle of the cell.
<table border="3">
<tr>
<td colspan="3" align="center">Ed</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Larry</td>
<td>Curly</td>
<td>Moe</td>
</tr>
</table>
All other HTML markup, by the way, can be used in a cell. We'll make Ed bold as an example.
<table border="3">
<tr>
<td colspan="3" align="center"><b>Ed</b></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Larry</td>
<td>Curly</td>
<td>Moe</td>
</tr>
</table>
We'll also make him a link to HTMLisEasy.com.
<table border="3">
<tr>
<td colspan="3" align="center"><a href="https://www.htmliseasy.com/"><b>Ed</b></a></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>Larry</td>
<td>Curly</td>
<td>Moe</td>
</tr>
</table>
