Ballard Street by Jerry Van Amerongen for December 13, 2010

They will Pay and Pay.

GO RAID THE FRIDGE.

Maybe “intestinal troubles” will convince them to do better.

My dog Faun, God rest her soul, only liked the cheap stuff! When our local grocerie stopped carring it I traveled 20 miles one way just to get the “cheap stuf” lol Thank you for making me think of her today!

Domino has a discerning palate. But at least he eats it, unlike my dog Spicy who is getting more fussy every day.

Puzzle time!

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

In re: the puzzle. I would be tempted to tell Claude “There’s soup in your fly.”

Our dog got the same food all his life. We tried another brand once and he must have been allergic to it. His whole face became puffed up and swollen. Had to take him to the vet for an antihistamine. He hated going to the vet. The only exception after that was on his birthday. That day, mom would buy him the smallest, cheapest chuck steak she could find and broil it. Then she would remove the bones and cut it up. Needless to say he never complained about the change of pace. Or even questioned it.

Nighthawks, we do appreciate the occasional easy one, Thanks!

I am here, my Cleo Clan and Puzzle Peeps…

For the Dec 12th 2020 puzzle edition of “Cleo and Company” on Sherpa.

 

Before I say anything else…

I want to give you the side by side version, do you can solve away, for now, if you haven’t:

https://i.postimg.cc/5ys9X6sn/Cleo-nine-differences-Dec-12th-2020.png

 

Apparently Dennis has… and he’s not afraid of teasing Nighthawks into giving us a real lollapalooza next time!

Sheesh, Dennis… you know, I have to solve these things on my own!

And get them right, or lose my job!

What will befall me now?

I just remembered.

I make $00.00 an hour on this job.

Go ahead… Tease away!

 

Anyway, fly in the soup jokes are a comedy classic.

Still funny after all these years.

Everybody knows them… or so I once thought.

 

But I remember one time, about 367 years ago…

Well, ok, maybe not quite.

I was out to dinner with a person of the male persuasion, at a nice little restaurant, up here in the hinterlands.

The kind with tablecloths and cloth napkins.

 

They also had sort of rustic tableware, including pottery soup bowls with very wide, flat rims.

My companion somehow managed to put his hand on the rim of his bowl, and tilt it, so that some of the soup poured into his lap.

 

He got rather flustered, and embarrassed…

trying to mop up with his napkin.

I caught the eye of our waiter… and he headed towards our table.

 

To…. um… lighten the mood… in the manner of an old cartoon…

I said “I’m afraid my friend has soup in his fly.”

 

I can still picture the blank but somewhat shocked looks they both gave me..

blank cos they didn’t get the cartoon reference…

Shocked, I was later told, because I mentioned his fly.

Go make a meal of their shoes.

Zip it, Claude.

http://www.comicssherpa.com/site/feature?uc_comic=cscwy&uc_full_date=20201212

Must have come from the wrong pot on the stove.

Three minutes. It was easy.

And no; I’m not complaining here.

The waiter was wondering where his pants went. He was washing them just before he left the kitchen. Still looking for three more of them.

I found 8 in just a couple minutes. Will come back later and search for #9.

I suppose I ought to go to bed before I doze off again…

so …. in case anybody really can’t find #9….

or, mostly, to make sure we all found the same nine…

I’ll leave you with the solution before I go.

 

Try first, of course.

Of course you did. I just know it.

The consensus so far seems to be that this puzzle isn’t one of the hardest….

But you never know what little thing might just be too subtle at one moment, that would have jumped right out at another.

 

Speaking of things jumping out at you….

For some reason, any color that stood out in one part of the picture seemed to disappear in another.

So I circled differences in red, turquoise, and very light blue….

It means nothing except that’s what contrasted with that part of the picture.

 

Anyhow… when you’re finished, take a look right here

Or if you need to, when you’re NOT finished…. there’s no shame in that either:

https://i.postimg.cc/Tw95c2kW/Cleo-Solution-Dec12th-2020.png

 

How did I do?

Good morning, Ballardeers! Q Date: 274.98547.46 Quick hit… Sad weather

Ever since I sold dog food, our animals have only gotten premium. Turd has allergies so no wheat.

Thanks NH. This one lifted my blahs this morning. Along with Ms Sunshine’s comments, I’m crawling back to normal.

Y’all smile. (((((HUGS)))))

Yay!! I got all 9, too! I did have to go away for a few minutes, and #9 magically appeared. Great puzzle! One of the hardest was the easiest, as usual.

On a personal note. I went for a PET scan on Wednesday, and got the results yesterday. NOT a single cancer cell anywhere in my body!!!! WooHoo! Just wanted to share some good news with all of you.

xoxo

YAY, Montana Lady!…..but just to be sure, don’t you think you ought to get a scan on you instead of your pet?

Nine!

Actually, i thought that i only had eight. When i looked at Susan’s solution i discovered that i dad discovered nine. P>Woo Hoo! :D

Good evening Balladeers, (((((Plods))))) and Miss Susan!

An oldie but a goodie! Back when Cleo only commented non-verbally. Claude is hoping for the best, but Clara knows better:

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

But on the bus tour, you get entertained by kindly folk seeing if you’d be interested in a time-share in downtown Cleveland.

Welcome back, Cleo fans and Cleveland tourists….

For the Sunday strip this time…. the December 13th, 2020 “Cleo and Company” on Sherpa!

 

Yep… Cleo can’t talk yet… more surprisingly, she’s even holding back on non-verbal communication.

One little eye roll instead of a smart-… um… a smart-tailed remark.

But that eye says a lot.

“At least 99.98%!”

 

She’d be right.

Millions of entries to win just two trips.

I should have said that it isn’t 98% who win Cleveland bus tours, though.

The contest is nation-wide.

So 98% win a bus tour of the nearest big city… which could be San Francisco, or Miami… or Peoria.

And not even the bus fare to get from home to your bus tour.

 

How come Cleo knows, and Claude doesn’t?

Has she entered some drawings with kibble bag labels, and found out how many win the luxury, 200 sq ft air conditioned dog house and spa…

and how many get the sample pack of Milk Bones?

Or has she just read the teeny print on the label?

 

I thought people would stop entering those things when they started printing the odds on the tickets…

But I don’t think it caused a dent.

I get it… It’s a free chance.

But it’s often not worth a 55¢ stamp.

Even if it’s postage free, like a local drop box….

 

Consider first that giving them your phone number or address constitutes a “business relationship,” under the terms of the NoCall list…

Thereby giving them your written, legal permission to telemarket you.

And they will. Believe me. They will.

I got calls for YEARS after I dropped a ticket in a box at the fair, to win a “free” Hawaiian vacation…

 

Funny thing is… I WON.

In fact, not just 2%, but LOTS of people won.

We’d only have to pay, you know…. some little fees and charges. Like..oh.. $1400 worth.

More than the whole vacation should cost.

http://www.comicssherpa.com/site/feature?uc_comic=cscwy&uc_full_date=20201213

They’d have to quarantine for two weeks. In case of Cleveland – will they have to be home from 9 pm to 5 am, walkies being allowed?

I’m sure there’s little to no chance of that.

There is only a very slight chance of winning that bus trip. Only about 99.99999%.

Good morning Montana Lady and Ballardeers! Q Date: 275.98550.12 and the entire Ballard Street crew is celebrating the exciting news from Big Sky Country.

I remember getting the you may have won mailers! It’s so much easier now with click-bait to not click. Love the 4th wall violation.

Y’all keep the happy going. (((((SPECIAL ML HUGS!)))))

Downtown Cleveland isn’t so bad.

There is the Rock and Roll Museum. They have world class Zoo, Botanical gardens, and an Aquarium.

Some cities get a bad rap for no reason that i can understand.

For some reason, Clara saw this coming! She seems to be wiser than Claude over and over. Now, Cleo would take her bazooka on the bus tour and they won’t have to listen to that sales talk.

 

I thought bus tickets to Cleveland were: (i) free; and (ii) one-way?

https://tinyurl.com/JJW-FreeTicketToCleveland

Years ago (I was a kid) I saw a game show where they were going to prank the contestant. Contestant was blindfolded and threw a dart at a map of the world to win a trip. Then, threw one at the country, then the state, etc. Of course she won an all expense paid trip to her home town. I think in the end they did give her a nice trip somewhere.