The words for this week's ten word challenge were: pogo stick, ant farm, psychic, tin box, wall safe, Waterloo, surge protector, pneumonia, ravages of time, turtle And for the Mini Challenge: Swollen ankles, opera singer, toothy grin, oil paints, potter’s wheel
Here's my ten-word offering for this week.
Psychic Wanda Waterloo, mother of five sat amidst the chaos of pogo sticks, fish tanks, an ant farm, the terrarium which was home to her youngest’s three box turtles, a pile of jump ropes, three tin boxes and a host of other toys and childhood paraphernalia. She was in every way a very ordinary person except that when the phone rang and some distant police chief asked for her help she was suddenly transported to distant places. On this particular day she saw first an old woman whose face bore the ravages of time, she felt the gasping breath and the tight breathing that her intuition read as pneumonia. Next she saw the surge protector tossed into the old woman’s bath. Lastly she saw a man’s hand wearing a large gold ring with a skull on it and a very unique watch reaching into the wall safe. All this she shared with the distant policeman, hearing as she did his astonishment at the accuracy of the details she described. As quickly as the vision came, it was gone and she gratefully hugged the three year old who crawled into her lap for a hug and returned her to the hectic peace of her every-day life.
And here's my mini challenge:
Sitting at the potter’s wheel, Zelda turned the stereo up full volume and let the voice of the opera singer fill the room. “You’re giving me swollen ankles, mighty munchkin, but I love you anyway,” she whispered to her swollen belly, lips parting in a toothy grin. “This belly is making pottery too difficult, so I guess it’s time to move on to oil paints. No matter what it takes, little one, I’m gonna make sure you got culture from before you’re born. Your gonna have a life like dreams are made of, I promise. Listen good to that music, ya hear? That’s what smart folks listen to. Only the best for my little one. You’re gonna have a better life than me, I promise, baby love. I promise.”
And the mega challenge:
His wrinkled face and toothy grin reflecting the ravages of time and hard work both, the old farmer looked the tired young woman up and down, noting her swollen ankles, blood-shot eyes and general air of exhaustion and then took in the unhappy looking child standing miserably at her side. “Opera singer, are ya?” he announced more than asked. “Doc said you had pneumonia and need to rest and recuperate.” When she nodded, he added “Waterloo Tin Box Farm may look rustic, but I think you and that young lad will both enjoy your stay here. My wife Essie’s a fine cook… and she’s also a pretty impressive psychic. She’ll be thrilled to give you a reading if you’d like. And we got lots of entertainment for both you and the boy. There’s movies every night and live music on weekends. We got a Art department: a potter’s wheel if you want to try your hand and oil paints and canvass if you’ve a mind to be creative. Or you can just rest and enjoy the scenery. We got a wall safe in the main house if you got valuables and surge protectors in case you got a computer you want to hook up. As for you, boy, ever seen an ant farm? I got the biggest one you’ll ever see. Belonged to my son when he was your age – long time ago now. We got a couple of big old box turtles out back that love an extra treat of fresh lettuce from anyone that wants to visit them. And this here’s Pogo Stick,” he said as an energetic little dog bounced up and down at the boy’s side quickly erasing his sullen shyness with doggie kisses. As though a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders, the tired mother smiled for the first time. “Looks like a friendship made in heaven… I can’t wait to get settled in and enjoy some of your famous hospitality. Thanks so much for this warm welcome.”
This week's vanity wordzzle used the words: moonshine, tenacious, stalagmite, acoustical ceiling, president, fabulous, swirl, roller coaster, high arch, fringe.
President Eubie McCoy rolled his eyes upward, gazed at the bland sameness of the acoustical ceiling and longed for simple times and better days, before he had been sucked into the consuming, tenacious world of politics and glory and deceit. He thought back to childhood days in the
Next Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: invincible, falling leaves, (surge protector - OOPS! Sorry... I'd do that cross out thing but I don't know how), two-year-old, fusion, grizzly bear,
And for the Mini Challenge: toad stool, liquid lunch, counting sheep, manacles, Jurassic Park
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!!!!!
The Alphabet Backwards is winding towards it close. This week we confront the letter D. D is for diamonds, dogs, diverticulitis, drama, dragnet, dragons, dessert, deserts, doubt, Darfur, duets, diagnoses, dumb bells, devils, darkness, Democrats, doggerel, deviled eggs, dew, Devonshire, Denmark, Detroit, downers, Down Under, default, dearth, debris, Dodge, Desdamona, duplicitous, derbies, dusk, dawn, darning, daisies, dogwood, dahlias, daffodils - lots of flowers seem to begin with d – distance, discovery, diary, dairy, disguises, doves, doors, dragonflies, dreams, dictators, Diebold, danger, democracy, demagogues, demonstrations, drugs, delivery, dental care….
(first 
retaker). I had literate parents and a decent education. I also had good dental care early on, something poor people in our country are apparently not entitled to unless their teeth need to be pulled. Dental care I learned from many of the people I met with ravaged mouths half full of rotting teeth – and half empty - dental care is, in the eyes of the stingy rich people who make the rules – cosmetic. The government will pay for dentures when your teeth have rotted and been pulled out – assuming you haven’t died from heart or other complications first. I wish I had more artistic skill but hopefully my two smiles give a hint of the difference in "affluent" teeth and those of the poor. Painting black smudges and darkening otherwise healthy teeth doesn't really give the full impact, but hopefully it gives some. Nobody should have to live with discolored and missing teeth in a society as rich and advanced as ours.
I believe that we should have universal health coverage, in which case dental care would presumably be covered as well. In the meantime, these demented and Draconian (D words) policies, besides being evil and obscene add to the health care problems of the poor. Bad teeth impact your overall physical health and your emotional health. They make you less employable. They make you feel bad about yourself. And they make you sick, sometimes profoundly and fatally ill. Dental infections are especially dangerous to diabetics. They can lead to serious heart problems. But as far as Medicaid is concerned, they are a cosmetic issue. How shameful that the richest country in the world treats it’s citizens with such lack of compassion and respect. It makes me angry. It makes me sad. It makes me profoundly grateful that I have very strong teeth. I’ll dental rant at that for the moment and close on a lighter note. (I’ve been quite a curmudgeon the last week or so. I’m not feeling well and it makes me extra cranky.)
Have a great week.
Where are our leaders?
Why won’t they do anything?
Eight years of unchecked
High crimes and misdemeanors
Where is Congress’s resolve?
Somehow firm resolve
Doesn’t always linger on
I start strong and fade
~~~~~~~~~~~
Resolve’s a good thing
A long as we remember
You can’t always win
Sometimes God has other plans
That are more long range than ours
THE AFTERMATH
by
Katherine E. Rabenau
Sometimes I think God doesn't exist; sometimes I think He's a practical joker; and s
ometimes I'm convinced the old bastard's just a full-blown sadist. Right now I'm leaning toward the sadist end of the scale. You see, I guess the assholes (the official, elected assholes, that is) dropped the damned hydrogen bomb and everyone but me is gone. I mean, I guess that's what happened. One minute it was life as usual and then the next, BOOM. I don't really know what happened or even how I survived or why, but I seem to be the only one left. I keep thinking there must be someone else, but so far, no one. I'm not sure how long it's been, to tell the truth. At first, I didn't mind the loneliness that much, you know. I mean, the situation was so overwhelming. They thought the destruction of property with this bomb wouldn't be so bad, but let me tell you, it's awful. Here's a good joke for you. Just about the only building left in tact is Vic Voyeur's Variety Theatre and Porno World. That's what I mean about God being a practical joker. Me, alone in the world with only a porno theatre for company. Jesus! The world's most sexually repressed woman living in the lobby of a porno theatre. And you know what's really stupid? I'm still scared to go inside. Weird thing is there's still electricity, too. I could even run the movies. It would be company, I guess. I mean, how sinful can sex be if there's no one to have it with? And I suppose if there was someone around, it would be our duty to procreate the species, so I suppose I could look on this as study time, learning how it's done, just in case, you know, somebody shows up. God, I wish somebody would.
What a concept! Guilt-free sex. Virtuous sex. Well, what have I got to lose? Who's gonna punish me? Shit, this is weird, alone here in the dark with these strange images flickering away. How beautiful it is to hear a human voice. I didn't realize how much I missed sounds, how much I have always missed touch. 
Jesus, look what she's doing! Oh, my God! Hmmmm. Well, I guess there's no harm in trying. I mean, I'm the only person left in the world. Who's gonna see? I guess I could take these clothes off. They're pretty dirty anyway. Oooooh, shit. That feels really good! No wonder people like this stuff! I never knew my body could do that. Why on earth was this a sin? God, I mean, it feels nice. I wonder if I'm really the only one left? Maybe there are some others and we can make a new world, a new Garden of Eden, only with different rules. Let's see. Don't kill would still stand. Then love one another, but body and soul. Oh, and we could add love yourself. (Make that one body and soul, too.) Love yourself and the rest will fall in place kind of naturally, the loving others part. Oh, and we'd have lots of mirrors and people would have to admire themselves. And each other. No matter what a person looked like, you'd see them as beautiful and praise their qualities. If they were thin, you'd say what lovely thinness they had and if they were fat, you'd admire how magnificently, beautifully fat they were. And we'd study our bodies. Oooh, this feels good. Wish I'd known about this before... Yes, where was I? Oh, masturbation would be encouraged, and touching. We could still pray and meditate and all that stuff, but we'd have to respect our bodies too. God, I hope there are still others around. I don't want to end my days alone in a porno theatre, though I'm really glad I found it, found my body. Too bad the world had to end for me to do it. Kind of extreme. Oh, my God, look at that! How did they do that? Hmmmm. I could do that alone. Oh, God, yes. Yes! Oh, oh, aaah. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you. Think I'll try that again. Hmmmm. Oh, God, please let there be at least one man still alive out there. Good looking, if you can, though I suppose in my new order, anyone is good looking. And probably if he's the only man on earth he will look good. I guess I should probably head out and start looking for him. But meanwhile, I'll just stay here and study for a little while longer. Oh, boy, look at that! OH, YES!
From right to left: My sister Carole in pink, my brother Phil and me.THINKING ABOUT MY BROTHER
When I think of seeing him
I see a giant spider
Waiting to mummify me
In gooey silken thread
Before it makes a meal of me
Slowly over time
Keeping me alive somehow
Until it can suck not just the life
But the spirit out of me
Can I have loved him once?
Was there someone once to love
Despite the rages and hurts
And did the darkness grow and grow inside him
Until there was nothing else left?
- Katherine E. Rabenau
If I let my rage come loose
Will the sharp-edged, iron weight
Fly wild and hurt some stranger
Or will it cut straight through you, dear brother
And kill Mom too?
Do I shield you because
To touch my rage at you
Is to risk hurting her
Whom I loved so much
Who hurt me so?
- Katherine E. Rabenau
TIME CHANGES EVERYTHING
Time changes everything
Locks us in words, threadbare maxims
Plays sleight of hand with hope
(Now you see it, now you don't)
But never pauses the slow march
Sideways through eternity
Never stops holding out the bait
While mankind pursues the hand on the clock
Endlessly circling
Until he stops to be rewound
And set on the same foolish chase
- Katherine E. Rabenau
UNTITLED
A sequence of events
Ordained by fate and chance alike
Determines
Borders of the possible
An infinite set of variable mandates
By which we steer our lives
Into some mysterious triangle
Where all things make sense
And the world no longer sees or hears
But none-the-less wonders from time to time
What it all meant
And what that power is
Whose presence we cannot know.
- Katherine E. Rabenau
AWAKENING
October 1, 1999
Live as big as the sky, she said
And I felt my heart awaken and take note
As big as the sky? it asked?
Can I do that?
I don’t know, I said,
Liking always to be truthful.
But we can try.
Maryt/The Teach over at Work of the Poet has something called Ruby Tuesday which featuring all things red.
Happy Ruby Tuesday!
This week’s Alphabet backwards - which comes to you a week late - features the letter “E.” There’s a pretty rich supply of interesting words. Evil, Envy, experience, emeralds, embarrassment, eagles, exceptional, elephants, elephant in the living room, effort, escapism, errors, editorials, editors, email, exaggeration, eating, Easter, edges, empathic, education, elections, Evil Empire, Emerald City, Establishment, End Times, elevators, equestrian, eggs, emergency, excess, empires, epic, epicenter, evolution, England, eugenics, early bird, expresso, epaulets, eulogies, evergreen, easy living, economics, economy, environment... And then there are phrases like... Eagerly expecting the
I was going to write about how important it is to vote and how precious and endangered our electoral process is but I think maybe the following videos will have more eloquence than I do on this subject. Those who think our elections are safe, listen to these videos. Those who think that fear about stolen elections is paranoia, listen to these videos. Those who think voting doesn't matter... listen to these videos.
Please scroll down for Skywatch Friday.)
The words for this week's ten word challenge were: exponentially, Nightshade, braces, impossibility, the beginning of time, barracuda, playful banter, delve, automatic, bewildered And for the Mini Challenge: fragment, hemoglobin, insipid, flourish, juxtapose
Here's my ten-word offering for this week.
Marybeth sat bewildered looking in the mirror. Much as it had seemed an impossibility to her that she could look any uglier than she had since the beginning of time, the braces, besides being uncomfortable, made her feel exponentially more hideous. They gave her, she believed, the look of a chubby barracuda. She could hear the so-called playful banter of her family as they delved ever more deeply into the heart of her pain, twisting a thousand knives and making jokes at her expense. But she would show them. She would kill herself with nightshade also known as bella dona or beautiful woman. How better to kill her ugliness? Her pain would be gone and others would suffer. They would never be able to mock her ugliness again.
And here's my mini challenge:
Lance Langmulchen waved away the last fragment of his fear with an insipid flourish of the wrist. Meredith needed hemoglobin and he would supply her with as much blood as he could, no matter what it cost him in anxiety. Juxtaposed against the possibility of losing her, his terror of needles and tubes was nothing. “Proceed,” he whispered to the nurse, “I do this for my Meredith,” and promptly fainted.
For the mega challenge: I went with a poem on this one. And I repeat. Hemoglobin, Jeff? Hemoglobin?
The Broken Heart
Sweet Nightshade I call you
You are poison to me
Still
I have loved you
Since the beginning of time
Bewildered by the depth of it
Ashamed and confused
I brace against each pathetic, insipid flourish
Of attention I instinctively - automatically -
Direct to you
Although the impossibility of us -
Of you and me -
Becomes exponentially more clear
With the passing of each breath,
Each day, each week, each year
Juxtaposed against my agonized love
Your playful banter,
Not meant to be unkind
Delves deep
Like a savage barracuda
And chews on the fragments
Of my broken heart
Oblivious - which makes it so much more cruel -
You suck the hemoglobin from my blood
And my iron will melts to nothing
Sweet Nightshade
Your poison is in my blood and I cannot resist
Yet even rejection would be better
Than being so unseen.
This week's vanity wordzzle used the words: mush, ping, kaleidoscope, software, pillbox hat, parquet floor, skinny woman, Venus flytrap
Ruth Jones felt like she had mush for brains and hoped that booting up the computer would ground her and bring her back to center. She felt comforted by the pings and beeps and grunting start-up noises as the software (or hardware - she was never sure which was which) brought the screen to light. From the other room she heard a thump, followed by hissing, followed by the thundering sound of cats-paws on her beautiful parquet floor and then her usually agile and well-behaved cats came tearing into the room knocking over a small shelf which held a large violet, two Venus fly-traps, and her brand new kaleidoscope, all of which crashed to the floor in a jumbled mess of leaves, glass and dirt. As if that weren't enough, the doorbell rang. Ruth frowned. "What now," and peeking through the eye-hole on her door saw with dread, a skinny woman in a pink Chanel suit and matching pillbox hat, and of course WHITE GLOVES. "I am in Hell," she sighed, forced her mouth into a smile and opened the door. "Mother! What a lovely surprise."
Special thanks to Jeff B for this week’s words and phrases (hemoglobin!????) and the following for next week. (By the way, Jeff... just kidding. I love a challenge.)
Next Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: tiramisu, transfixed, evacuation, Queen of the
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!!!!!
This is my 8th time participating in Skywatch Friday. One thing about lots of dramatic weather (which we have had here) is that it offers lots of dramatic skies. I took a truckload of photos again this week. Initially, I had this idea about doing a week with nothing but clouds and sky, but that got kind of boring and I think the clouds sort of lose something without the contrast of trees and land. As usual, I took a gazillion pictures and am posting too many. Die hard cloud lovers can see all the ones I didn't post here.
Believe it or not there was another rainbow in the same spot... the third I've seen since I started taking pictures out the back door. There was so much excitement about last week's rainbow that I thought I'd post another this week.
I thought this was a really unusual sky.
I wasn't going to do Melli's dragon hunt meme since I don't really have any dragons to photograph, but then when I was looking for the poem of the week in my collection, I found this one and even though I'm not that fond of it as a poem, I thought it might be a way to join in the dragon party. But or course there has to be a picture and I found this wonderful paper dragon head from an American Museum of Natural History exhibit. I didn't want to break any copyright laws, so I messed with it a bunch of times and made a collage of those efforts. If you click on it, you can see the real thing, which is quite beautiful. I found a very nice quilt too at another site.THE WEEPING DRAGON
Whose hollow belly holds fire,
Whose legend is mystery and fantasy
Weep, sad dragon
For you are forgotten.
Like all the flowers of ignorant imagining
We have vanquished you and left your bones
In a desert we no longer visit
Weep, sad dragon,
Not for yourself alone
For dying you were revenged
And took from us both dread and awe,
Hollow victories all around
Weep, sad dragon,
And may your ghost cries
Wake again our sleeping souls.
- Katherine E. Rabenau
Maryt/The Teach over at Work of the Poet has something called Ruby Tuesday which featuring all things red.
(Please scroll down for Skywatch Friday.)
The words for this week's ten word challenge were: middle finger, text message, the letter “Q,” Shangri-La, melodramatic, compensate, elixir, band of brothers, quadruped, explicit
Here's my ten-word offering for this week.
The melodramatic text message read only, use your middle finger and push the letter Q. This will reveal for you the formula for the elixir and map that will allow your entry into Shangri-La. You and your band of brothers – and your five quadruped companions have been been explicitly chosen because of thousands of instinctive acts of kindness and your desire to make the world a better place by compensating for the sins of others. Act quickly or the window of opportunity will close.
And here's my mini challenge:
Sitting in the lawyer’s posh offices, Marcia broke her promise to herself to offer only one word answers in her deposition regarding divorce from her dubious excuse for a husband who, having stolen her dignity by cheating on her repeatedly, was now trying to steal her earthly goods as well. Asked if she would consider reconciliation the words “Better off dead,” had slipped out before she could stop herself. “Make that, “No, no, no, a thousand times no” she corrected herself. Maybe it wasn’t monosyllabic, but it felt good.
And the mega challenge:
Lifting his middle finger, Henry Hawkins said, “Here’s my explicit response to you and your quadrupedal band of brothers regarding your deposition and your efforts to steal the Shangri-La Resort and Restaurant from me. “Very melodramatic gesture, but of dubious wisdom,” the normally monosyllabic Bruno the Bull replied with unusual courtesy as well as loquacity. If you read the papers we have sent you carefully – especially the items listed under the letter Q – you will see that the Boss has offered to compensate you with sufficient funds to make even your current posh life style seem modest in comparison. If you think you would be better off dead, I assure that this can be arranged. If on the other hand, you would care to take a sip of this tasty elixir with me and close the deal, I will be happy to send a text message to the boss assuring him of your cooperation and suggesting that he cancel the hit. I’m sure you agree this would be a better solution for all of us.” It was less the words themselves, than hearing so many of them come out of the mouth of the usually silent Bruno that made up Henry’s mind. “Ok,” he said. “The dump is yours,” and took a long swig from the bottle of Wild Turkey bourbon that Bruno had so graciously offered him. “Cheers,” Henry said. “Yeah,” replied Bruno, returning to his former persona.
This week's vanity wordzzle used the words: black, dungeon, skeletons, blood, knives, little girl, ghost, Mayday! Mayday!
The little girl was only four years old when the two men took her into the black darkness of the dungeon. She was scared and she started to cry and run away, but they held her tight and showed her the knife and said that if she made a sound they would kill her, drink her blood for breakfast and then leave her there with the other ghosts and skeletons. She would never see her parents again. Later, they tied her down and did things to her, but she never made a sound, just lay there very still. Somewhere in the background a voice shouted, "Mayday! Mayday!" and she wondered to herself why he would say that when it was already August.
Special thanks again to Jeff B for both this and next week’s challenges.
Next Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: exponentially, Nightshade, braces, impossibility, the beginning of time, barracuda, playful banter, delve, automatic,
And for the Mini Challenge: fragment, hemoglobin, insipid, flourish, juxtapose
Thanks for playing. For those who are new, here are some guidelines to make the process more fun.
Enjoy! See you next week.
PLEASE REMEMBER TO ADD YOUR NAME TO MR. LINKY!!!!!
This is my 7th time participating in Skywatch Friday. This week the sky just wouldn't stop. Right after I posted last week's pictures, the sky went wild with glorious golden clouds and since then it has been a week of fluffy clouds and rainbows. I took a gazillion pictures and had to control myself to limit it to these few. I alternate between thinking they are nice and thinking they are awful. Not easy being me. Die hard cloud lovers can see more here. This is the last week there will be any skies with the curved branches of the big pine tree (#1, #3 & #9). She met her death this week. I don't often push my posts, but the process of cutting her down was fascinating as well as sad.
Just five very short, unrelated poems this week.
So much sound
Without meaning
So much meaning
Without sound
Tangled in words
Thoughts are lost
Or else, wordless,
Pass unheard
FRAGMENT
Daughter of my soul
I cry for you in the long dark night
Ache with an incompleteness
That takes not from the joy of life
But yearns for more
Seeker after blind dreams
And happy unrealities
Dreamer of dark scenes
In love with the shadows
My mind casts against reality
I cling for a few desperate moments
To you.
Remembering childhood days in the park
THUNDER SHOWERS
After singing sweet songs
- Katherine E. Rabenau
And down she goes.... the last green....
Maryt/The Teach over at Work of the Poet has something called Ruby Tuesday which featuring all things red.
She taught us that the human spirit is life giving, dimensionless, omnipresent. She taught us that the smallest fractions can open out into a great whole. I have never known a more gracious, noble or lovable human being.
Few memories are more vivid in my mind than walking into Helen Keller's study in total darkness and, suddenly, having Miss Thomson snap on the lights. Helen Keller had been sitting in the blackness for several hours, reading in Braille and working on her correspondence. Only the vibrations in the floor set off by our approach signaled to her our presence. She rose and walked towars us, extending her arms. It was the first time I had met her, and she reached for my head. Very delicately, very slowly, her fingers explored my face and I felt that my innermost being was being examined. The fingers ran lightly over my forehead, eye, planes of my face, mouth, chin, and neck. There was nothing intrusive about the experience; she made it feel as thought it was as natural and unexceptional as a handshake. When we went to her table for dinner, she stopped when she smelled the freshly lit candles, and exclaimed how much she loved to have candles at dinner time. Miss Thomson sat next to her and translated by working her fingers in the palm of Helen Keller's hand in the language they had worked out so beautifully together. We talked about world affairs and music and mutual friends. After dinner she asked me to play the piano and she listened by placing her fingers on the side of the instrument. Her face was open, expectant, luminous. She was one of the finest teachers the human race has produced. She taught us that the human spirit is life giving, dimensionless, omnipresent. She taught us that the smallest fractions can open out into a great whole. I have never known a more gracious, noble or lovable human being.
(Please scroll down for Skywatch Friday and this month's Fable of the Month)
This is week 24 of the Saturday Wordzzle Challenge. Anyone new to the process can refer back here to find out how it works. It felt really delightful in a perverse sort of way to be able to blame someone else for my struggles with this weeks words/phrases - and boy did I struggle. Bless you Jeff B and thank you again for the collection of words that will see me through a few more weeks. Hope the rest of you did better with them than I did. Anyway, here's what I came up with. I look forward to reading what the rest of you have done.
The words for this week's ten word challenge were: ghastly, excrement, bill of sale, vague, thicket, precarious, life long ambition, gunnery sergeant, posthumous, bellowed
Here's my ten-word offering for this week.
Gunnery Sergeant George Garrison Thicket bellowed his anger to the heavens. His life long ambition had been to serve his country with honor and courage. But here he was, caught in this ghastly precarious exercise in hubris, politics and unbridled greed, writing posthumus letters home to the wives and parents of his friends who were dying for no good cause as far as he could tell, beyond filling the bank accounts of criminals. He wanted to see the current resident of the White House buried up to his neck in excrement and shipped off to prison where he belonged. Democracy – and his country with it – had been sold down the river by this vague, vacant-eyed monster without the benefit of even a bill of sale. There was, he hoped, a special place in Hell for the people who had so shamelessly made him a pawn in their chess game.
And here's my mini challenge:
And the mega challenge:
Cameras clicking wildly, Susan Quinine (she had kept her maiden name for professional reasons) and her husband, Gunnery Sergeant Reginald Posthumous gasped in delight as they took shot after shot of the yellow bellied sapsucker perched in the thicket mere feet away from where they were precariously hidden behind a small bush. It had been one of their life long ambitions as bird watchers to see one of these beautiful birds. It was icing on the cake of what had been a truly magical trip. They were staying in a beautiful cabin, the birder’s equivalent of the lap of luxury. It was not an exaggeration or generalization but pure fact to say that usually their accommodations were simply ghastly and filled Susan with a vague sense that even though she couldn’t see it, she was wading in excrement. Above and beyond today’s miracle sighting of the sap sucker, last night they had been treated to the visit of a majestic stag moose who had posed graciously for pictures and then bellowed with great authority before running off into deeper woods. Such beautiful quarters were an abnormality and a delight and they would have signed over their life saving on the spot had someone been willing to present them with a bill of sale. “Reggie,“ Susan whispered quietly as she watched the little bird with delight and fascination. “Thank you for this trip. It’s the best anniversary gift the best husband in the world could have given me. I love you always, but today I feel like a honeymooner again.” The photo Reggie snapped of her in that moment – yellow bellied sap-sucker peeking over her shoulder – said it all and was one they would treasure for the rest of their lives. When they bought the cabin a few years later, it was hung in a place of honor on the wall.
This week's vanity wordzzle used the words: minimize, slinky, pewter, grump, free beer, Alex Trebek, pantomime, rickshaw, militant, intern
What a dream I had last night! We were playing Jeopardy, only it was all done in pantomime, if you can imagine that! Alex Trebek was still the host, but apparently he hates charades, (which, when you get right down to it is what we were playing), so he was very grumpy and not his usual cheery self. The contestants were - get this - a rickshaw driver from somewhere in
Again, special thanks to Jeff B for this week’s challenges.
Next Week's Ten Word Challenge will be: middle finger, text message. the letter “Q,” Shangri-La, melodramatic, compensate, elixir, band of brothers, quadruped, explicit
And for the Mini Challenge: deposition, monosyllabic, better off dead, dubious
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!!!!!
Mr. Linky seems to be coming and going these days. If all you see is a little square, don't be fooled, Mr. Linky is still there, just being coy and hiding. Click on the square and you'll find him. If I knew how to fix this. I would do so. I wish I did.
November 5, 2009
