Ballard Street by Jerry Van Amerongen for June 21, 2008

I’ve enjoyed many a good cracker myself. Graham. Animal.

I love the look on her face…but then the ‘looks’ that Jerry creates are all top drawer! Has anyone ever seen such wonderfully disgusted dogs?

Well hi, Sloop and Paula!

Sloop, you haven’t been back in ten years… but Paula, don’t I know you, more recently, from Ten Cats?

I’m here to welcome everybody to post comments on

the June 21st  2018 “CLEO and COMPANY” 

It’s on Sherpa

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

but there’s no place to comment there.

So every day we gather on the ten-year-old Ballard Street for that date….so glad you could join us!

Like Gordon, and Sloop, I’ve enjoyed a good cracker over the years….

In fact, let’s go to my salon….

I’ve got some nice crackers for today.

Plus a few good cheeses…. and a blueberry pie, and two apple ones…

Gordon… Alice…. would you like to come along too?

Gordon, I’m sure you’ll enjoy the crackers…. and Alice, perhaps you’ll see why it’s not the worst sort of recollection to have.

In fact…. sigh…. I remember some crackers from my childhood….

Pilot Biscuits…. and Uneeda Biscuits….

both very thick, and sturdy… Pilot Biscuits the most so.

I loved them, and they’re gone…. vanished in the mists of time.

And graham crackers…. I’ve always loved Nabisco ones….

but they just started manufacturing them in Mexico…

they’re drier and crisper, and some people like them better, but I miss the old ones.

Say…. I think the Pilot and Uneeda Biscuits were also Nabisco.

Oh, Gordon… why did you start this?

Must be time for walkies!!!

Hi Sloop. Yes indeed Graham and animal crackers are top notch. But as Paula points out, Alice is not very interested. Never fear, Gordon, evidently Susan will be happy to carry on discussing cracker memories with you.

Wasn’t there an Alfred Hitchdog film shot atop Mt. Basset?

I bet the ears were the hardest part to sculpt.

Wow…. something has happened to Mount Basset…

I could swear it’s been whitewashed since last time I saw it.

Maybe they’ve had a big cleanup campaign.

I think there’s a human carving, similar to this, on another North Dakota mountain….

but the faces are famous….

maybe presidents or someting.

This looks like the four faces of Cleo… or maybe one (or four) of her ancestors.

I guess a human has to do something…. be a soldier, a humanitarian, a president…. to be immortalised in stone.

But every basset is special enough to be carved on a mountaintop.

Yes, Dennis…. I remember that too.

Running around on a giant nose… lots of suspense..

Anyway….hmphff… is something wrong with discussing cracker memories?

I mean…. we wouldn’t want the crackers of the past forgotten, would we?

Well… except for that crumbled Ritz cracker fake “apple” pie…

that ought to be forgotten, for sure.

Before we forget it though:

I should mention that I knew someone who actually used to make it.

It was… as my mother used to say when she disliked something…. very interesting.

And even back then…. in the late 80’s/early 90’s… Ritz crackers were way more expensive than apples.

In fact, it’s hard to imagine that it would ever have been an economy to use brand name crackers to replace apples…. and now it’s ridiculous.

She made it because she believed everyone liked it better than real apple pie.

No… sorry…. not everyone.

It goes along with my theory that if you want to be known as a good cook, all you have to do is feed people.

Lots of people, lots of times.

Everyone will say that almost any person with an open door dinner policy is a good cook.

And the more you say you like something, even if it’s just to be polite, because you just got a free dinner…

the more that dish will show up, and be praised…

until “everybody” is going over to “aunt” so-and-so’s house to eat her famous and beloved dish, no matter how horrible it really is…

which is the story of the world’s blandest casserole, “Radio Dinner”….

but I digress.

Oh…. I forgot to thank Perkycat, Farside, and Grayhame, for explaining the crawling person in yesterday’s Ballard St. strip…

I couldn’t make out the toy truck till Farside pointed it out…. then it became very clear.

And Grayhame… very funny….

though I hate to those nice costumed folk might be the dreaded Barrow-Wights!

Maybe they’ve grown kinder, now that many generations have lived in comfortable suburbia and don’t have to chase prey in the cold, damp mist.

Happy Solstice, everybody!

Love today’s Cleo!!! I can almost see Cary Grant sliding down the giant ear-slide.

I did see the human sculpture once. That one is in South Dakota. Now, I have a reason to go to North Dakota.

Oh, by the way, do they still make postcards?

and a PARTICULAR happy solstice to those folks who came here to comment on Ballard street in 2008 and in 2011.

if you still read go comics

if you read comments from ten and seven years ago

if you’re even alive

this is where I would insert an emoji of some dude with a big smile and winking eye

You’re all crackers!

Where they filmed Basset North By Northwest