Ballard Street by Jerry Van Amerongen for December 01, 2008

Dogs are such good listeners.

I want a dog just like Buster.

I hope Ted is not British. That is a rather rude sign to give to your beloved dog.

So what is that orb above their heads? An alien ship? A persimmon waiting to be plucked? A speech balloon ready to be filled?

Oh, boy, it must be Saturday. Not going to do this now. But I will mention that if this were Breaking Cat News, certain parties would be exclaiming “Toe beans! Toe beans”!

And BTW Nighthawks, I responded a few minutes ago to your comment on yesterday’s strip.

Oh, and Claude and Clara are about to play “Rock Paper Scissors” to see who gets to “help” Cleo out the doggie door.

Hello, Cleo puzzlers….

Another Saturday, another puzzle to solve and discuss

on the Dec 1st  2018 “CLEO and COMPANY”

Find it on Sherpa

http://www.comicssherpa.com/site/feature?uc_comic=cscwy

But you’re welcome to solve it using my side-by-side version:

https://i.postimg.cc/WbfWSvth/Cleo-nine-differences-Dec-1st-18.png

As Alexi noted, there’s a little glitch… a tiny strip of the bottom edge of the 2nd panel (in my version, the right panel) didn’t upload.

I found nine differences not including that, so just for the aesthetics of it, I copied and pasted the bottom of the 1st panel onto it.

Unless there was meant to be a teensy 10th difference somewhere along that edge, it shouldn’t matter.

To me, it looks better…. and there’s no confusion about the missing piece being a “difference.” OK, Nighthawks?

Oh…. and Nighthawks…. from yesterday…. thanks….

But it’s not my ISP, it’s my neighborhood.

An old, outskirts of town commercial district…a place to drive past.

Used to be all empty fields, car lots, gas stations and liquor stores…. still not many residences except some small, older, mobile home parks.

AT&T owns all the wiring and it’s all outdated. My ISP leases lines and still resells service way cheaper than AT&T.

But the lines are what they call “dirty” … old and rough. All need replacement. My usual outages are because of that.

Last night’s work by my ISP was very unusual.

They’re trying to upgrade here and there…new areas get fiber connections, but anything that happens in my neighborhood comes sloooowly or not at all.

Both companies have told me it’s not cost effective to replace it all.

And this is why the evening walk lasted until dawn.

As all have notice by now GoComics has been messing with the puzzle. So please ignore the bottom border. That said, here is the solution to today’s Cleo & Co. puzzle.

https://i.postimg.cc/BQNTKdjC/Cleo20181201.gif

And, as always, no peeking (unless you are slower than Alexikakos at spotting the differences).

Think thin, Cleo. The diet starts now.

Maybe Cleo, you should just open the door!!!

yes indeedy—that IS gocomics’ doing…..this time, anyway

OMG! I got all 9!!!! Write this down in a book somewhere! Yippee!

Okay. Enough celebrating.

But this rarely happens! I need to celebrate! WooHoo!

I got all 9, also. Must be too easy today. Tell them you need a bigger doggie door, Cleo – much easier than losing weight.

Excerpt from George Will’s column today about my former boss Geo. H.W. Bush:*

“Aғᴛᴇʀ Yᴀʟᴇ, ʜᴇ sᴘᴜʀɴᴇᴅ ᴀ Wᴀʟʟ Sᴛʀᴇᴇᴛ ᴄᴀʀᴇᴇʀ ᴀɴᴅ ᴡɪᴛʜ ʜɪs ᴡɪғᴇ — ᴛʜᴇ ғᴏʀᴍᴇʀ Bᴀʀʙᴀʀᴀ Pɪᴇʀᴄᴇ, ᴀ ᴅᴇsᴄᴇɴᴅᴀɴᴛ ᴏғ ᴛʜᴇ 14ᴛʜ ᴘʀᴇsɪᴅᴇɴᴛ, Fʀᴀɴᴋʟɪɴ Pɪᴇʀᴄᴇ — ʜᴇᴀᴅᴇᴅ ɪɴ ʜɪs Sᴛᴜᴅᴇʙᴀᴋᴇʀ ғᴏʀ ᴛʜᴇ Wᴇsᴛ Tᴇxᴀs ᴏɪʟ ᴘᴀᴛᴄʜ.”

* One of the most friendly, genuine, humble and truly nice men I ever worked for**, or even met.

** Full disclosure: I was the lowest level flunky of all low level flunkies.

Ten minutes, and I feel like I was slow.