Ballard Street by Jerry Van Amerongen for December 11, 2019

That could be because Nathan has made a career of being inadequate.

Buck up there, Nate. Remember that it’s always darkest before it’s completely black.

Nathan has probably already risen to his level of incompetence.

Nathan, Nathan. Self-analysis by someone who’s inadequate is inadequate to achieve clarity. Try asking your wife what she thinks is wrong with you! ( Hee, hee, hee, aren’t I a little devil??!!!)

It’s not you, Nathan. It’s your career.

Nice looking office, though.

That and the fact that you bear an uncanny resemblance to Richard Nixon….

As long as he’s not a crook.

See yesterday’s strip.

….as thoughts of retirement dance in his head…..

That stance screams “Nixon.”

I’m sure most of us are aware that the strips we’ve been seeing since…. um…. whenever it was that Ballard Street awoke from its long, mid-2019 nap…

I believe it was in September….

are a glimpse back in time, to the lost days of Ballard Street, before most of us were on GoComics….

In fact, I’m pretty sure nobody was on GoComics yet.

(Anybody know when the site was started?)

Interesting to see that in 2002, there was apparently a fad in these parts for particularly wide pockets on men’s clothing.

I have to wonder what it was that the men of 2002 found it necessary to carry about, mostly so close to their hearts, in the breast pockets of jackets and shirts.

It’s not that they were still using slide rules or protractors…. I mean, come on…. some of them already had cell phones.

Although we are watching from modern times, some of us from a well-worn barstool at the Tiki, while munching on the finest barbecued yak ribs in the country…..

we should remember that in 2002 no such place existed…. the Monkey having opened it in 2012…

hmmm…. right before he was elected Sheriff of Ballard County, in a landslide.

NOT that I think there’s a connection.

But perhaps the wide pocket was a place to carry a peanut butter or tuna sandwich,

to help them make it through a long day at work without a yakburger (or a banana daiquiri).

One of the benefits of living in modern times:

Everybody, including Nathan and his ilk, feels just a wee tad more adequate, when suitably braced with a yakburger and a nana dak.

A few months ago, not long before Ballard Street reopened from its long April nap, Sheriff Monkeyblues came to “Cleo and Company”…

He told us that he was moving, and had a lot of business to attend to, and had to leave the county for while.

He named me, of all people, acting Sheriff, a job for which I feel totally inadequate, and full time manager of the Tiki, in his absence….

and rode off into the sunset, promising to return in “several months”.

He and I are old friends….

I can’t wait to see him ride back into town.

A career will do that to most men (and women) at some point.

Just had to be Press Secretary didn’t you, Nathan…

Some people do make a bad choice, or are pushed into one. I know a man who was pushed into getting an MBA and then went on to a career in Finance. He hated every second of it. To relieve his stress he signed up for a basic art class given at his local community college and discovered that he loved pottery. He quit his office job and now has a nice little studio/gallery where he is much happier with his life. Do what you love and the treasure will follow.

Nathan nailed it.