Bill’s wife, Barbara, whipped up another batch of comfort food over the weekend.

She made several loaves of Cranberry Nut Bread, using Mom’s tried-and-true recipe.

Bill brought a loaf with him to this week’s visit with Dad. They chuckled about a favorite Bob & Ray comedy routine that involved a “fast-breaking news” interview with The Cranberry Man:

Mom and Dad loved Bob & Ray, and delighted in all the ridiculous characters and parodies they developed over the years.

My parents first listened to them on the radio. Dad remembers Mom scanning the dial – the old-fashioned way, by turning a knob – when they moved to Erie, Pennsylvania, in the mid-1950s and finally finding Bob & Ray on a Canadian radio station.

Avid fans, Mom and Dad bought Bob & Ray’s record albums and played them regularly, laughing as though hearing the comic skits for the first time. I remember the “Slow Talkers of America” bit striking them as particularly hilarious. (I’m rather ashamed to admit I found that routine to be nearly intolerable. Karma took its punishment on me years later when I was a journalist interviewing unskilled spokespersons on live TV.)

Love ’em or not, Bob & Ray were part of our family’s culture. Bill still quotes lines from their most memorable characters, and he and Dad have a good chuckle.

“They were never mean,” Dad remembers. “Immensely funny, but Bob and Ray never had a bad word to say about anyone.”

I remember calling Mom and Dad back in the early 1980s after attending (as a reporter) a town council meeting in a tiny Indiana town, when the new mayor – Melvin McBrayer – took office.

Mayor McBrayer. That sounded like a Bob & Ray character.

Indeed. My parents enlightened me, pausing often to laugh. Bob & Ray had a character called Mayor Thayer: the Corrupt Mayor of Skunk Haven, New Jersey. It really is an incredibly funny routine, now that I listen again.

Please note: Mayor McBrayer did not follow in Mayor Thayer’s footsteps. (But I did have to stifle a grin each time I interviewed him.)

Bob & Ray were even on Broadway – twice!

Dad remembers he and Mom got all dolled up and went into The City both times. They had a ball.

Bob’s last name was Elliot. You may be familiar with his comedic actor son, Chris, who seems to specialize in playing annoying persons (Amy’s brother in Everybody Loves Raymond and simple-minded Mayor Roland Schitt in Schitt’s Creek).

Here’s a quick example:

Are you a fan of the Six Degrees of Separation theory? If so, you’ll be delighted to know yours truly is two degrees from Chris Elliot (making that three degrees from Bob – and, presumably, Ray).

That’s because my cousins Marie and Claire babysat occasionally for Chris’s daughter, Abby, who has since continued in the family biz.

I can’t quite bring myself to ask my cousins if Mom and Dad offered them a bribe to accompany them to the Elliot home, in the hopes that Grandpa Bob might drop by. But they probably did. Or at least thought about it long and hard.

Once, while walking the Marginal Way in Ogunquit, Maine, Mom thought she saw Ray Goulding and tried to catch up with him to thank him for all the laughter over the years. She was truly a fan.

Here, at last, is Mom’s recipe:

Cranberry Fruit-Nut Bread

2 cups sifted flour
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup orange juice
1 tablespoon grated orange rind
1 egg, well beaten
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2 cups fresh cranberries, chopped (this is when a food processor is your friend)

Sift dry ingredients. Cut in shortening; add next three ingredients all at once, mixing just enough to dampen. Fold in nuts and cranberries. Spread in buttered loaf pan. Bake for an hour at 350 degrees.

Thanks to Bill for mentioning the Bob & Ray connection with cranberries to me earlier this week. He didn’t realize it, but I was struggling with how to tell a family story that would lead to the above recipe. But once I gave it some thought, I remembered Bob & Ray’s comedy is both nutty and fruity, plus they offer the ultimate comfort food for the soul: laughter.

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