Weekly Wordzzle Challenge # 220

Almost forgot it was Wordzzle day. Just turned my heat on for the first time. It's supposed to go into the TWENTIES tonight. Argh. Beautiful day, though. Half rainy, half sunny.  Anyway... I'll probably post my exercises tomorrow. Think it's another lone wordzzler week since CJ who has spared me wordzzling solitude of late has an exam or a paper to write or something like that.


5:22 Sunday:  Finally posted something. I apologize about the last one. It's shameless political pandering not written very well. I was too tired to scrap it.


Words for this week's 10-word challenge:  funding, week, truck, paper, salt, that's why we're here, globe, lemonade, tight, vigor  And for the mini:  extreme makeover, perfect sense, good news, cheater, share



My mega:

Funding for her extreme makeover had not come easily to Sara. So determined was she to make lemonade out of the lemon she perceived herself to be when she looked in the mirror, that she had sold her home, her truck and almost everything she owned in order to recreate herself. Although she had a pretty good income, she placed the lion's share into her make-over fund and forced herself to live on a very tight budget, cutting coupons from her local paper - the Daily Globe - every week. Despite the efforts of those around her to convince her that she was beautiful as she was (and it was true) there was no convincing her. She was a zealot for her cause, pursuing it with maniacal vigor and refusing to be a cheater even on the most special occasions. It all made perfect sense to her and she could not see what it was doing to her. She could not see the dimming of her joy, how tired she had become, or the creeping depression that her friends saw when they looked at her and their efforts to persuade her otherwise was received like salt on an open wound.  After four years of watching Sara struggle and suffer, her friends felt the need for an intervention. Ten of them knocked on her door one Sunday afternoon, picnic baskets in hand. "You won't talk me out my dream," Sara declared before anyone of them had spoken."It means more to me than anything.and if you care about me, you'll support me in reaching my goal." "That's why we're here," here best friend Megan replied. "We have good news. We think you are crazy and we have watched you struggling to seek something you don't need because you are already so beautiful to us. We've spent a lot of time trying to talk you out of it, but finally, it occurred to us, that instead, maybe the best thing we could do as friends would be to help you. The ten of us have each reached into our piggy banks and believe we have come up with enough to get you to your goal. We did a lot of research and have gotten you a spot on one of the make-over shows. We did this because we love you and because we hope that once this is behind you we can have our beautiful friend Sara back because we miss you."  For her part, Sara sat in stunned silence, tears running down her cheeks. In truth, she was not sure how she felt. Her wish granted, she suddenly realized that her obsession with the goal had somewhat overtaken the goal itself... and she realized too, that she was a little scared. She also saw - something she had not seen before - how much her friends loved her and how lucky she was to have them. 


My mini: 

Mark Cheater, unfortunately, was true to his name.  (Who says Cheaters never prosper, he liked to say.)  He was a con man of the worst kind, preying on vulnerable families with a "good news" scam that promised them an extreme make-over on their homes for only a small share of the cost. It all made perfect sense the way he explained it and since he was careful not to promise anything too over the top, they tended to trust him and happily signed any paper he put in front of them. Having taken a sizable share of their savings, he then stole their homes as well, reselling them to equally vulnerable marks. He was smart enough not to stay in one area too long, but eventually his list of victims became long enough that the cops began tracking him and were able to run a sting operation that landed him in "the Big House."  Although, they couldn't undo the emotional damage done to dozens of families, they were able to recover a substantial percentage of what he had stolen and thanks to the publicity that came with the trial, many of those families were adopted by the communities in which they lived and ended up - ironically - with exactly what Mr. Cheater had promised them. 


And the 10-word: 

"How come you're trying to put salt in my lemonade?" truck driver and would be novelist, George Goodheart replied to a reporter from a weekly paper, who was stopping drivers at the local truck stop and interviewing them (with a clear bias) about their views on the election and who could best heal the current tight economy. "I support Obama," he declared with passionate vigor. "Recovery has been slow, but he kept us from going over the cliff despite obstruction from the GOP and Congress. With more of the requested funding for his programs the economy would be doing better.That's why we're here and still struggling:  Because of what Bush left and because of Congress. Around the globe, countries trying it the GOP's way are not recovering. Under Obama we're slowly getting back on course. And we haven't thrown the poor and the unemployed into a ditch as the Republicans would gladly have done. I'm voting Democratic all the way. The other guy.... well as far as I can tell he's incapable of telling the truth and he isn't very good at math or details. I don't trust anybody who proposes big changes but wants to keep how he'll make them a secret. Doesn't pass the smell test. I'm an Obama/Biden 2012 voter and proud of it." 

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Words for next week's 10-word challenge:  substance, as the crow flies, sharpen, purring, crater, forgiveness, frantic, eager, blank slate, coffee 

And for the mini:  paradise, paper bag, heat, what do you mean by that, licorice

Thanks you for playing.  Newcomers can check here for some guidelines to make the game more fun. There are no rules, just some general guidelines and tricks.