Friday, September 12, 2008

Saturday Wordzzle Challenge: Week 30

(Please scroll down for Robert's Show Me meme.)


This is week 30 - can you believe that! - of the Saturday Wordzzle challenge. Anyone new to the process can refer back here to find out how it works. I had an awful time with this week's words. My apologies about the late addition of the 10th word. As I said, cactus was optional. Looking forward to reading what everyone has to offer.

The words for this week's 10-word challenge were: spam, problematic, flower girl, splurge, milk, orphanage, lyrics, politics, ice cream cone and the optional (since I counted wrong and added it at the last minute) cactus.

Words for the mini challenge were:
drag race, poppy seed, swinging from a star, John Denver, diagram

Here's my 10-word offering:

Juliette didn't see why the producers of her musical The Cactus Flower Girl foundt her lyrics problematic. Of course they were political. These were political times. If Republicans could foment lies like so much spam, she didn't see why she couldn't introduce a little social discourse into her musical. Bonnie Sue - the central character - had come out of an orphanage full of other right-to-life babies who been abandonned there by mothers too poor to buy even things like
milk or cereal, none-the-less splurge on something like Bonnie Sue's long dreamed of but never tasted ice cream cone. What better symbol of sweetness stolen by greedy robber barons, she thought, than a child who had never had an ice cream cone? Of course nobody had said the lyrics were too political. They had said they were saccarine, but she knew what they meant, rich, greedy bastards that they were. They claimed they were Democrats, but she had no doubt that they were really Republicans at heart.

My mini offering is:

Chewing thoughtfully on his poppy seed bagel, David studied the diagram of the proposed course of the drag race. In the back of his mind he was surprised at the music - he was surprised that John Denver of all people, had made a recording of the "swinging on a star" song. Still, odd though it was, he chose to take it as a good omen. He was going to win at last.

For the mega wordzzle, I came up with:

Little Flower Girl Florist's owner , Daisy Flora Rose, created some very unique arrangements: things like an angel swinging on a star holding a boquet of day lilies or a bunch of white mums in a container made to look like an ice cream cone. Since she was in Washington, DC, she was often called on to make political arrangements and was quite famous for her creative designs. Lately, however, since she was angry with both political parties, these were a bit problematic for the purchasers as they were made from cactus plants and roses with thorns. She got great delight watching the party hacks try to arrange them on the tables after she delivered them. Having grown up in an orphanage, Daisy Rose had learned to live by her wits and to hide her emotions with a face which, luckily for her, looked like innocence itself. Creative as she was in her flower arranging, she was a creature of habit, in other ways. She started each day with a poppy seed muffin and a glass of chocolate milk. Next, she put on the one of half a dozen John Denver albums that were the only music she listened - she loved his voice and the lyrics to his songs - to, turned on the computer, checked her email and sent out a bunch of spam advertising the business before opening the door to the shop. If there were no customers she played an on-line game called Drag Race in which other on-line competitors raced around diagrams of famous race tracks. Despite her penchant for making thorny creations for those she didn't like, business was quite good and she ended her day with - every day - a luxurious meal at one or another of the many restaurants for whom she provided floral arrangements in exchange for free meals. On days when business had been very good, she would splurge on a nice bottle of wine and would curl up in front of the tv with her two sweet kitties and watch a movie or read a good book. Except for the absense of a good man, life was pretty darn good.

~~~~~~~~~~~


Words for this week's Vanity Wordzzle were: Morning, horse, he was standing there, alone, in the middle of the square, building, unicorn, panic, invisible

It had all started on a Monday morning three years earlier. It was a day that changed her life. Sad, lonely, shy Melissa Messerschmidt was climbing off the bus as usual, when she saw the stallion. He was the most beautiful horse she had ever seen. He was just standing there, alone in the middle of the square, not far from the building where she worked. She was surprised that no one else seemed excited by the unusual sight of a wild horse in the town square. But her own shock grew even deeper, for as her turned his head slightly, she saw that he was not a horse at all; he was an exquisite unicorn and he was looking straight at her. She started to panic, but then looking into his deep green eyes, she felt reassured. More than that, actually. She felt chosen and knew in that moment that she had in fact been chosen, that this exquisite creature was making himself seen only to her, that he was invisible to everyone else there. And seeing herself reflected in those deep mysterious eyes, she felt suddenly safe and self-assured and beautiful. She knew, as she had never known before, that she had a destiny, a purpose to fulfill in the world. And in that instant he looked again into her eyes, touched her lightly with the tip of his horn and vanished from sight. But the sense of his presence continued to linger with her always. Indeed, as she joyfully painted the canvases which now made her famous, she could hardly remember the unhappy young secretary she once had been until the morning when she was touched by a unicorn in the town square.


~~~~~~~~~~~


Word for next week's 10-word challenge: budget, news, outer space, gargantuan, brass band, Purple Rose of Cairo, polar bears, insight, innovations, mute

And for the mini challenge: investments, purring, death penalty, mercury, convalescent home

If anyone else would like to offer words for an upcoming week, they will be gladly welcomed. I enjoy relief from having only myself to blame when I struggle to do the exercise.

Thanks for playing. For those who are new, here are some guidelines to make the process more fun.


Enjoy! See you next week.



DON'T FORGET TO ADD YOUR NAME TO MR. LINKY!!!!!

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fun... you had fun. Those were great words. Happy 30th Raven's Wordzzle. :-)

Have a great weekend.

Chatty said...

Hi again, Raven. I checked back yesterday, but never saw a 10th word, so I just figured I was math-challenged and went with nine :)
I love both your women this week - Flora Rose (great name!) and Juliette brook no nonsense...
Hope you are having a nice weekend.

Carletta said...

"30" - oh my gosh! How I so struggle every week and you've done thirty. I hope I make it to thirty. :)
Loved these this week - the political scene all tied in you clever girl.
Love how you handled drag race.

I did the mini. Now, tell me why to high heaven can I see Mr.Linky on Robert's every day and not yours. It makes NO sense.

Akelamalu said...

Oh bugger I didn't see your post about the missing word so Ihaven't used it!

We both used 'angel swinging on a star'! I love what you did with all the words Raven, your stories flow so smoothly!

Dr.John said...

I checked off and on all week but there was no cactus. So late last night when mine got writen there was no cactus.
I enjoyed your three stories. I see the good old Republicans got kicked again.

Richard said...

Raven, I think you have the coming election much on your mind these days. Me too. I made up my own word to make ten.

Interesting tales this week.

Rich

Dianne said...

You're being a uniter in the 10 word and the mega - picking on all the hacks!

I love Daisy Flora Rose - a flowery dissident

and I want an invisible unicorn.

you said you were sturggling!!

Jeff B said...

You sounded a bit politically perturbed when you penned the first one and the mega?

The flower arrangement of cactus thorns was priceless.

Jay said...

Excellent Wordzzles!

Way to go after all the assholes and greedy bastards too. LOL

Kimmie said...

Great Job on all of them Raven!

I loved your ending with the bottle of wine and two kitties.
=^..^= Of course, you knew I was going to say something about that now didn't you? ;-)
Hugs,
Kimmie

Anndi said...

I had quite the chuckle.. damn those greedy bastards!

I struggled with this one, a lot.

You amaze me, you know that?

Lu' said...

I thought I'd give it a shot. Thank you for the challenge.

Lu' said...

Raven, I add to Mr. Linky and also decided to do the minin also.

Anonymous said...

My first Wordzzle! A good friend told me about the challenge. I love a challenge! Let me know what you think. Find it at http://blog.pabees.org

Linda Murphy said...

Wow, I enjoyed all of your Wordzzles, but I loved the vanity one with the unicorn. Beautiful.

I finally decided to get to working on the Wordzzles this week. Had a LOT of catching up to do on all of the novels being composed by the clever Wordzzle authors! I kept mine short as usual. Feels a bit rusty but at least I tried!

I liked your photo meme above too!