Ballard Street by Jerry Van Amerongen for September 20, 2018

’Twould be useless to tell me to suck it up if I was hung like Steve. If that rope slips, Steve is going to get a tonsill..tonsele….sore throat.

Different ideas, is it? Not different opinions, or tastes, or even approaches, but ideas? Steve is obviously a member in good standing of the Ballard Street Pulley Club. Word has it that he’s angling, and I use that word advisedly, to be the new Club Veep. And you know that traditionally, this year’s Veep is next year’s Pres.

Sandy appears to have become accustomed to Steve hanging around. But she is making chicken noodle soup tomorrow. Let’s see Steve get that up his straw.

Is that an extra eye-bolt in his pocket? Pulley Club members have their own way of accessorizing.

Sandy gets most of her points for style while Steve gets his for degree of difficulty.

It’ll put hair on his chest, and then he will be Wooly-Pulley. Alert Sam the Sham!

Nobody ever advertises about the soup you can eat with a straw.

Just hang in there long enough and she may come around to your way of thinking.

I like Steve’s thinking, I may have to try it myself. Maybe set it up at a formal dinner party so we can all try it. Nothing like it to break the ice — I’m sure the party will be the talk of the year.

Steve is having the Alley-Oop soup.

I am back Ballard. Florence has gone on her way…Thank goodness. Cleanup to do. No major repars though

Pulley Club members can think of a reason to use their pulleys and harnesses… as they like to say… “Every Day in Every Way.”

In fact, along with the official club logbook, there are several other books and documents kept by the current Club Secretary,

and passed, annually, to the new Secretary, if one is elected, at his (or perhaps one day, her ) inauguration ceremony.

There’s a scrapbook of photos, of course, an equipment guide, and several well known books on the uses, repair, and safety aspects of pulleys and pulleying….

Plus a hand written book of pulley advice and lore….

added to with great ceremony when a member comes up with something the other members decree “Lore-worthy.”

Such an addition is usually proposed for inclusion by a fellow member who was not the author of it….

and voted upon by the chapter.

Steve…. and even Sandy…. were very proud when, two years ago, Steve’s bit of wisdom about soup was ceremoniously added to the Book of Pulley Lore.

He wrote….

“The eating of SOUP is a naturally suitable occasion for the use of pulley gear,

and is to be approached from a position above the table….

because, as any student of pulleys can easily see….

the name of the dish is actually a command to rise:

So UP!

And that’s why she makes the soup: great entertainment on an otherwise boring evening.

It appears that Steve prefers to think of it as “swoup”…

Pulley? I don’t even know he…

Steve must have strong lungs. Using a straw on a hot liquid is just about impossible.

Tom Cruise in his later years…

This has got to be more preferable than picking the dish up and slurping the soup….quieter, too.

You should see him eat gumbo.

Steve is doing a scientific experiment to see how much he can suck.. a project every man needs to do at least once.

I would like to see how different languages handle the consumption of soup: drinking, eating, or some other verb?

Hope his straw is paper and not plastic. Save our ocean life.

Steve’s ideas are very different.

That rope lift system can’t possibly work. It is missing a fixative.