Ballard Street by Jerry Van Amerongen for August 23, 2018

As I was extremely late to yesterday’s comics, let me just say HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY, SHERIFF, & MANY MORE. Now what’s all this I hear about banning the Sheriff? Aren’t we supposed to ban the criminals? What is this world coming to when an innocent monkey can’t even tend bar?

And HI THERE, MUDD!! Sorry I haven’t been checking in with you as often as I should, but I hope you’re hanging in there, keeping “the” faith (whichever it is), putting one foot in front of the other, still looking at the grass from above, and all that sort of thing. I won’t forget about you, nor will the rest of this motley crew. I’ve walked in your stroke shoes, and there is light. The only question is the length of the tunnel.

I see that Bill has Marg climbing the walls again.

And just a couple of climbing notes for Mildred. Dear, the rope works much better if it’s attached to something over your head in addition to you. Also, the skirt is not working and neither are the shoes.

Good thing Marg has her climbing shoes.

Is a fall from those taking the plunge?

All of the houses on Ballard Street have to have lath and plaster walls or there wouldn’t be any place to live.

Marg is training for her big climb on the Ballard First National Bank And Exotic Fish Emporium .

It’s going to be televised live!

We’re so excited, it’s only been done once before. But that person preferred to climb in disguise and there was much speculation about whether the climber was male or female.

At least we will know Marge by her skirt.

He has her climbing the walls.

Time to return to base camp.

She’s going to take on Jessie Graff at the next American Ninja Warrior.

It may or may not turn out to be a “big” climb….

perhaps depending upon how many circuits of the climbing wall Marg completes….

but it can’t go much higher.

Looks like she’s already reached the crown molding.

It may be a good thing the ceilings aren’t higher…

if, as I suspect, her footholds are merely small “plumbers’ helpers.”

I think the idea is not to mar the paint on the walls…

but if suction, not nails or screws, is all that’s keeping her aloft,

she could be in danger of marring something far more precious than walls…

like her head or her tailbone.

Rose…. if you’re part of the climbing team… or even if they recognise you as a fan…

Please encourage Marg to get a helmet!

And no, that XTI SuperHold hairspray isn’t enough, even if it does give her “helmet hair.”

As for the Monkey….

He can’t be around a lot right now… but he is one of the people who helped make Ballard Street what it is.

I hope people will write to GoComics and ask for his return.

moderator@gocomics.com

He changes his user name quite a bit…

it’s currently (and almost unfortunately!)

SheRiF (He Jus Luks GiLty) MunkYbluz

but I think even just MunkyBluz would do….

and it’s best to include his profile number, just to be certain:

Profile 2229617

Meant to reply to a couple of people from yesterday but I’m sleepy and can’t remember who….

Oh…. one was

WMCraft (hope I have that right)….

thanks very much for the compliment….

this is about all the writing I do these days….

One favor, pretty please:

Please don’t call me “Susie.”

I’d appreciate it…. Thanks

Next, up the outside of the stairs, to the second floor!

Good morning Sheriff.

What cha doing marg? Just hanging around?

If she can just make it to base camp 2, then she can get some oxygen tanks…

It won’t be much of a climb with a ceiling at 8 feet.

“No, this evening, there’s a low ceiling…”

Seems a rather high number of toilet bowl plungers for a normal family to have on hand for frivolous games.

That Marg has always been a social climber !

Alberta Oil, NORMAL being the operative word here! Good afternoon Balladeers!

Susan, I’m afraid that with Sherif( What’d I Say? )MunkyBluz, momentarily out of favor with GoComics Overlords, you are going to have to assume some of his duddies around the Tiki. ( Not that you don’t already ! )

I will, of course, help as well. Fenton, Fireman, and the Little Monkeys will be there to ensure the public is served.

Bat Pug is patrolling ( not just trolling ) and handing out citations for permit infractions, so the good citizens of Ballard can sleep soundly.I’ve assigned El Gato my one-eyed Watch Cat to assist him, along with my parrot Pierre le Nez ( aka. Pete the Beak ) to act like a drone, and be the eyes in the skies.

Come to think about it…. that’s what we all do now,… while Sherif sleeps on top of the fridge !

Oh well, the Ballard Banana Boat® just docked in Ballard Bay, so I’ve got to supervise the offloading of this week’s shipment, for the world famous, Tiki ’Nanner Daiquiris. See you later….

She is a woman intent on breaking through the plaster ceiling!

You go, girl!