Ballard Street by Jerry Van Amerongen for February 19, 2009

The Horror!

Isn’t the book-sniffing dog supposed to wait for Montag and the other firemen to show up?

Printed dictionaries. What an antique concept.

cleokaya says:

Printed dictionaries. What an antique concept.

~I got a big fat one for Christmas, and I love it.

I’ll take a printed dictionary over an online one any day - and I own a copy of the Oxford English Dictionary (the huge one) on CD. Still, there’s nothing like being able to just flip through the pages, going from word to word. Online just isn’t the same.

My general use dictionary is the American Heritage, and I also have an OED (both in print). But my favorite dictionary is Mrs Byrne’s Dictionary of Unusual, Obscure and Preposterous Words, which is fun to browse and even read. My favorite definition is “qualtach” (the first living thing you see in the morning) and the most prepsterous is “hippopotomonstrosesquipedalian”.

Rulon is a door-to-door encyclopedia (and yes, dictionary) salesman.

Naturally, the immortal Vincent van Basset was inspired by Cleo’s great-great-great-great-great-great-

great-great-great-great grandmother.

Too bad for Rulon. But hey, that pooch (I hesitate to call him Scooter) is making some pretty good paper aeroplanes, for a dog.

OMG: A basset cutting his beautiful ear off? I mean, it is not like a paltry human ear, you would barely notice one of those missing. (Well, maybe Barack’s). He must have been in deep despair.

Hi, all!

Today we’re commenting on a beautiful poster by StelBel….

in the Feb 19th  2019 “CLEO and COMPANY”

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

I love Vincent van Basset… the colors, the skies …

the big blue bowl of bones… his simple bedroom at Arfles.

I agree… hard to imagine him cutting off an ear.

I mean, dogs often chase their own tails but you never hear of one biting his off.

BTW, I always say we should use ordinary names… suitable for baby boomers, or their parents, when naming Ballard Street characters.

They’re 70-ish or 80-ish…. not 102… so they’re not all Petunia, Carlisle, Ambrose or Hortense.

So what do I find today…. “Rulon”.

Rulon, Jerry? _Really? Who the @#$! is named Rulon?

Many of us here are… um… mature.

We tend to have names… you know… like Dennis and Susan. Not gonna call out anybody else…. but you guys know if you have “ordinary” names.

Well… get ready to be the Humphreys and Florences of the 21st century.

I’ve worked at a few retail jobs with lots of young people…

even in 2008, they thought our names were quaint.

A 17 year old kid, talking to another about a previous boss, said “you remember… he had one of those old guy names… like Greg”. GREG!

And he hated his own “old fashioned” name….Scott.

The rest of the guys were all Jareds and Jasons and Zacks.

Oh… and paper dictionaries.

I too have trouble with tiny fonts, so I have to hold them close, and even so, my near-sightedness is starting to fail me..I usually look things up online, I admit.

But I still have a paper dictionary near this chair, several in the um… reading room… and two by my bed.

Little know historical fact (ғʀᴏᴍ ᴛʜᴇ Eɴᴄʏᴄʟᴏᴘᴇᴅɪᴀ Bᴀssᴇᴛᴀɴɪᴄᴀ)

Vincent van Basset did not cut off his ear – Ernest T. Basset shot it off.

Eat any good books lately?

Vincent looks rather vacant.

Awwww…..I’ll bet Vincent van Basset will walk around in circles without the use of his silky right ear for balance.