Ballard Street by Jerry Van Amerongen for September 07, 2009

No endless mind chatter for Bob!

Bob’s the man.

It’s all down hill from there, Bob.

This strip continues to become stranger everyday.

My sentiments, exactly!

Is Bob awed by his bad thoughts??

But would he be surprised by them? I think not.

And I must not think bad thoughts, and I must not think bad thoughts…

Will tomorrow’s C and C feature Cleo doing her best inchworm? I, for one, sure hope so.

Today’s Ballard Street elicits puzzlement from our 2009 friends. And me! Don’t know what to add except to note a Mme D on the wall, just lacking the colorists touch.

Meanwhile back in Cleveland, we also get puzzled, thanks to Nighthawks:

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

Oops, the puzzle is not posted yet! Wake up, Nighthawks!

Wowie zowie…. I made it!

It’s been touch and go since way before the turn….

Goomics and PostImage were both giving me time outs and DNS error messages, even though a couple of those “Isitdown” type websites said they worked.

Suddenly, GoComics home page opened but I had to sign in…. then some pages would open but not others…. VERY strange…

and finally, I’m here.

Maybe something went wrong at Sherpa too.

Anyhow…. HI, Cleo puzzlers, internet travelers, friends and friends-to-be!

I have to make a confession…. this week, I got to see the puzzle and make my side by side a little early, courtesy of our semi-anonymous gifmaker….

Not sure whether I’m supposed to tell…

but it’s probably OK, cos you must have figured out that I have the gif in hand…. or at least, in hard drive…. so that I can post it while the gifmaker is Stel asleep.

PostImage finally opened too….

so, even though the official Nighthawks Certified™ version isn’t posted, I can share the side-by-side right now.

If Nighthawks comes nosing around, you can always stack it up vertically and pretend you got it off the…um…. well…. I guess not the Sherpa site.

Off the…. the… I mean, from the….. oh heck…. I’ll just tell him what I did.

Here you go:

https://i.postimg.cc/KvrfBVQ5/Cleo-nine-differences-Sept-7th-19.png

WARNING…..

This one is harder than usual, IMHO.

Look carefully.

And yes, that one counts.

Cos that makes nine.

I’ll be back in a while with the gif, if, as I’ve said before….

GoComics is willin’ and the creek don’t rise.

Speaking of creeks rising…

so glad to hear you’re OK, Saucy!

FYI — The puzzle is up and running!

Why aren’t there any good thoughts to organize?

And Cleo is up to no good. What ever it is, it’s contagious.

Well…. it’s not like many people have shown up to try the puzzle since I posted the side-by-side two hours(!) ago….

but I need to go to bed earlier tonight

I guess I’ll leave you with the solution gif now….

if you promise to give solving it yourself a good try before you look at it.

I don’t want the semi anonymous gifmaker to think I was being irresponsible with her/his work…. leaving it out where just anybody could use it to cheat.

But this seems like a pretty responsible group…. you wouldn’t do that, would you?

Cover your eyes now, if you haven’t solved the puzzle:

https://i.postimg.cc/ydp41x3k/FTD-9-7-2019-AB.gif

I really appreciate her….or, right…. maybe him… doing this for us… and risking exposure every week.

It’s uncertain how long she ( …or he, of course….) even Can bi anonymous.

Thank you, gifmaker!

BTW, back in 2009, rhutch436 said

“This strip continues to become stranger everyday.”

To which I say….

Isn’t that why we love it?

Cleo and Company is strange as well…. Cleo isn’t your neighbor’s ordinary pooch…

not like some yellow lab, sweet, but without a bazooka or a film career.

A cartoonist’s mind is strange?

Boo! I only got 7 this morning! They were both there in plain sight, but I never saw them. And I can’t blame NH for being sneaky. I just didn’t see them!

Dare I say “what fun”?

I also found 7. I think that is all there is and Nighthawks wants us to keep staring at his comic a long time………………okay, I looked at the solution. I don’t feel too bad about the ones I missed.

ᴘʀᴇsᴇɴᴛs

sᴘᴇᴄɪᴀʟ ⚐ ⚐ ⚐ ⚐ MORE SARCASM THAT USUAL! ⚐ ⚐ ⚐ ⚐ ᴇᴅɪᴛɪᴏɴ

Saturday “Why Is Cleo Walking Upright?” Non Solution

   1.  Top panel: Actress portraying Clara is sending nasty email to her agent for booking her on this gig. Bottom Panel: Actress portraying Clara is @katina.cooper sending email to GoComics expressing skepticism about 2019 target date for rollout of new Sherpa platform.

   2.  Top: Claude’s “hair” is from failed attempt at Hair Club for Men membership. Bottom: Cheapskate C&C producers refuse to pay Club membership fee; steal antennae from prop room of My Favorite Martian instead.

   3.  Top: Framed photo at top right is rare Ansel Adams color photo of Vermillion Cliffs of the Grand Staircase of the Colorado Plateau, in northern Arizona. Bottom: Photo is @nighthawks poor attempt to recreate New Riders of the Purplie Sage album cover for Keep On Keepin’ On, the twelfth studio album by that most underappreciated of country rock band.

   4.  Top: Cleo is striding confidently toward her audition for the role of Marshal Will Kane in the all canine modern updated remake of High Noon. Bottom: Cleo is looking forward to a friendly conversation with the evil cat next door.

   5.  Top: Claude is attempting to change TV channel with handheld remote bazooka launch device (hilarity ensues). Bottom: Claude is changing channel to Fox News coverage of President’s speech on deploying Bassets with bazookas to Mexican border as cheaper alternative to wall.

[continued below]

   6-9.  Highly technical. Only MontanaLady, who is a kazillion years old (and counting); Perkycat, who cut me some slack this week; SusanSunshine, who says cool things like wowzy bowzy; StillTheBelle, who only swoons for one Anderton (the Jr. kind); and the mysterious katina.cooper, who hates that evil cat next door almost as much as Cleo, would undertand.

Stuck on eight — going to take a walk to get my bad thoughts in a row…

I got seven before giving up. I felt I was in good company at that point.

You know how it’s said that, after many years together, married couples start to look alike? It’s true. Look at Clara & Claude, for crying out loud. A pair of doppelgangers if ever I’ve seen one.

I appreciate that Nighthawks eschews the use of Madame Deuxcouleur’s work in his cartoons. This puzzle, f’rinstance, displays the work of one of Madame’s disciples, M’amselle Quatre.

Alright. I’m convinced that the ninth difference is the processing speed of that laptop Clara is using. That’s my answer, and I’m sticking with it.