Saturday Wordzzle Challenge: Week 33

This is week 33 of the Saturday Wordzzle challenge. Anyone new to the process can refer back here to find out how it works. Thank you again to Chatty for offering words. WOW, were these tough! If I weren't the host, I think I might have thrown in the towel this week. When you get to my mega, you will see that I chose to be wickedly cheaty. I hope it entertains you as much as it entertained me.

As always, I'm looking forward to reading what everyone has to offer. We have a new participant who doesn't have a blog and plans to post her exercise in the comments, I think, so make sure you check back there. She posted something in last week's comments too. I haven't said so for quite a while but I'm open to posting such exercises here as long as I receive them by Thursday afternoon or Friday morning.

The words for this week's ten word challenge were: tattletale, homogeneous, flighty, cornucopia, plethora, militant, lovelorn, myopic, digitalized, mute And for the Mini Challenge: washing machine, cholesterol, blatantly, Birdman of Alcatraz, poltergeist

Here's my ten-word offering for this week: It's really long. I just couldn't get it done without running on and on... and I got just at touch (!!) political. Sorry

Sara Johnson sat mute with horror and rage as she listened to what euphemistically passed as news coverage. She was militantly pro Obama, pro anybody who was not Republican really. She was repulsed by the barrage of lies uttered in smarmy tones that issued from her TV. She was repulsed by the ugly dishonesty of the Republicans. She could forgive them thinking differently from her. She could not forgive the lies which were far and beyond the normal political lies. They were whoppers and ugly whoppers directed at Obama. She was repulsed by the pathetic flighty – well flighty wasn’t the right word – fake, folksy, fatuous, fanatical, pseudo feisty… she needed to move from the “f” words…. Hypocritical, hopelessly unprepared, horribly dishonest… well there was a plethora, a veritable cornucopia of unflattering descriptives that suited the woman. She didn’t understand how anyone could bear that voice and all the winky grimaces or the incoherent convoluted sentences, responses that seemed clearly more programmed than thought out. And then there was her comfort with lies about her opponents – and about her own and her running mate’s records. She had NOT said no to the bridge to nowhere. She had campaigned for it and had taken the money to spend on something else. And what was with that kind of tattletale, whiny nonsense that it was some interviewer’s fault that she had made an ass of herself… She felt herself starting to spin out of control. I must stop myself she muttered. I’m getting too upset. I just feel like a tragic lovelorn heroine who is gazing myopically in to the distance wishing my beloved country would come home to me. I don’t want this mutant homogenous Stepford America that the right is trying to impose on me where everyone is supposed to fall in lock step and disagreement is treason, where we don’t like foreigners any more. I want my real country back. She was spiraling back into a rant, trying desperately to pull her mind away from her anger and frustration, her fear for her nation’s and her child’s future. She was not succeeding. And then mercifully, her young son came in book in hand. “What’s this word, Mom?” And suddenly she was grounded, back to her normally calms self again. “Digitalized,” she replied, heaving a sigh of relief.

And here's my mini challenge:

Enjoying a gloriously massive dose of bad cholesterol in the form of a double cheeseburger and fries with a blatantly foolish disregard for her doctor’s advice, Madge Simmons sat in front of the TV watching The Birdman of Alcatraz and drinking sipping the first of several cans of beer she had lined up on the table in front of her. In the background the ancient washing machine in the basement rumbled and rattled like a petulant poltergeist. Madge had thought about taking a sledge hammer to it earlier in the day as she put the 4^th load of laundry into it’s gaping maw, but had opted instead for slow suicide by cheeseburger. When this mood passed, she could compensate for the cheeseburger, but a new washing machine would be beyond her grasp.

And the mega challenge:

“Who on earth came up with these words,” Raven muttered to herself, glad she could be a tattletale and lay the blame squarely on Chatty, who had generously offered a wonderful cornucopia, a veritable plethora of impossible and challenging words for the weekly game. I haven’t a clue what to do with any of them. Myopic? Certainly can’t accuse her of having offered a boring homogeneous words and phrases to deal with. Two movie titles - Poltergeist and Birdman of Alcatraz – maybe I can do something with those. But what? I have no idea what to do with digitalized. I looked it up and it doesn’t mean what I thought. Something to do with digitalis. Can I put that together with cholesterol somehow? Lord, I need a medical degree. I know – this whole paragraph is a blatantly wicked exercise in cheating, but I’m quite enjoying myself. Ok… Marigold, the flighty, lovelorn, militant mute stood gazing out the window pining for the return of her beloved Walter. Now what do I do with washing machine? I am stumped. Chatty is responsible for next week’s words too. I hope they are easier than this week’s were. Whew. Cheating can be fun, especially when you are running late.

~~~~~~~~~~~

This week's vanity wordzzle used the words: Colander, abracadabra, sciences, shenanigan, eyebrow, subway, island, mountain, prayer, silver

"Abracadabra Abracadabra!! Abracadabra-do!" chanted Alonzo the Great. "Ladies and Gentlemen. Prepare to be astonished! Prepare to be dazzled! Prepare for miracles which science cannot explain. Prepare, kind friends for magic in its highest form. Ah, sir, madam, I see your eyebrows twitch in disbelief. Alonzo, you think, is a charlatan, full of shenanigans and fancy sleight of hand. But you are wrong. Alonzo is no trickster, like penny-ante magicians you see on the street or in the subway. Alonzo knows the reality of mystery, the power of spirit and prayer. Those of you who react only with scorn and disbelief have minds like a colander, so much runs out, so much is lost to you. Of course sometimes a colander is useful -- you want to drain the water from spaghetti. But would you drain your soup? No. Use discretion. You must always be open to new possibilities. Who says gold is better than silver? Black than white? Each has its own value and the value of one is enhanced by the other. Sometimes I dream of nothing more glorious than a tropical island and a soft breeze. Other days I crave the high vistas of a mountaintop. Should we live in a world of only mountains or only islands? Of course not. No more should we live in a world where all there is is science and the provable, for much of what is now "science fact" was once mere fantasy. So, I bid you all, open your minds, open your eyes, and open your hearts. The magic is all around you! Abracadabra! Abracadabra! Abracadabra-do!

~~~~~~~~~~~

Many thanks to Maggie-beth R. aka Chatty for next week’s words.

Next Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: bluebottle, puppy love, livid, misanthrope, torrid, apathy, erudite, catalyst, hockey puck, parakeet

And for the Mini Challenge: totalitarian, moronic, boondoggle, tycoon, insipid

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!!!!!