Saturday Wordzzle Challenge: Week 31

This is week 31 of the Saturday Wordzzle challenge. Anyone new to the process can refer back here to find out how it works. My apologies for posting so late this week. A friend of mine gave me a new cybergame and I've been lost on a mysterious island all afternoon in a complete fog, neglecting all other responsiblities. Sigh. Thanks to MommyWizdom for next week's words and to others who sent me suggestions for future weeks as well. My brain is still on Mystery Island, so I don't know if these make any sense or not. Looking forward to reading all this weeks contributions. Linda - over at These Are the Days - has created a new category... the Mega Plus? Anyway, she uses all the words from the regular, the mini and the vanity in one paragraph. Whew.

The words for this week's ten word challenge were: 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

Here's my ten-word offering for this week.

Waiting for The Purple Rose of Cairo to start Marjorie kept the TV on mute watching the news in blessed silence. She loved that movie with it’s wonderful insights and brilliant cinematic innovations so much that she would even endure commercials to watch it again. Meanwhile images flowed past. The gargantuan rocket which had just taken off for outer space carried with it (or left behind might be a more accurate description) an equally gargantuan budget deficit. Next were pictures of polar bears on melting ice, after which she saw what looked like a high school’s brass band marching across a football field. This was followed by a weird looking guy standing in the rain. And then mercifully, she had survived what passed as news these days and now she could turn the sound back on and enjoy the wit and humor of her favorite movie.

And here's my mini challenge:

Mercury was a silver-gray kitty who earned his living purring for the elderly residents of the euphemistically named Macomber Convalescent Home. He had a special fondness for those for whom the death penalty had been decreed by the Almighty. It was partly the openness of their spirits that drew him to them, but mostly his investment of extra time with the dying was directly proportional to the number of angels who stood watch with them. Nothing soothed a kitty's heart more or made him purr louder than the songs of angels.

And the mega challenge:

Purple Rose of Cairo Brass Band was famous for its musical innovations, but that wasn’t why they were in the news on this particular night. Rather they were protesting the idea of some genius at NASA to send an endangered polar bear into outer space as part of the Mercury program. Holding a loudly purring cat in his lap as he spoke, Gus Rose, the group’s lead singer asked, “What kind of gargantuan moron thinks it’s a smart investment - either in terms of scientific insight or budget balancing – to take an animal from a species already facing an almost certain death penalty as a result of human selfishness and environmental abuse and put it into a rocket ship as some kind of publicity stunt. Although we try to stay away from political issues, the Cairo Band all agreed that we just couldn’t stay mute on this particular subject. Whoever the jackass is who thought this up should be fired and since if he can’t be sent to jail for pure stupidity, then he should be sent to a convalescent home until he isn’t stupid any more.” As the reporters all chuckled, he gave them a big wink and a wave. “That’s all we had to say, guys. Thanks for listening. Keep the story going if you can. Polar bears need our protection.

This week's vanity wordzzle used the words: hairsplitting, nonchalant, boisterous, obstreperous, kitty-cat, toenail, magma, Ton Ton Macute, tulips

Ton Ton Macute was a kitty-cat, a very sweet and gentle kitty-cat, which made the name all the more unfortunate. But Betty had just liked the sound of the words Ton Ton Macute and she had not been able to remember what they were about, still couldn’t really, but people had such strange reactions when the heard Mack’s (that was what she called him) name that she knew she had perhaps missed something significant. She had first recognized the problem one evening sitting with her sister. As boisterous and obstreperous as he was gentle, Mack could squirm and fuss with the best of them when confronted with something he didn’t like - and he didn’t, not even for a minute - like having his claws clipped, especially when she couldn’t find the trimmer and was reduced to using a toenail clipper. “How could you give that poor creature a name like Ton Ton Macute?” Andrea had growled. “Well, I like the way it sounds, like Mack cute. I didn’t remember where I heard it, just the sound. It’s catchy, I think. She tried to sound nonchalant and self-assured. Andrea was such a know-it-all. She was always criticizing or hairsplitting about just about everything and Betty often fantasized about dropping her into a huge pit of molten magma. But since that wasn’t practical, she just pretended to listen. Andrea had named her cats Tulip and Violet. On the whole, Betty thought, Ton Ton Macute was much better.

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Many thanks to MommyWizdom for next week’s words.

Next Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: exacerbate, leotard, path, tomato, Jungle Book, vagabond, parade, limber, storage, Maharajah

And for the Mini Challenge: crocodile, special, sleep, droll, turn around

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!!!!!