Tag Archives: writing

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Blog Prompt 6-7/8ths

Scour the news for an entirely uninteresting story. Consider how it connects to your life. Write about that.

This prompt reads like it was composed by a Taylor Swift fan, or a MAGA hat speech attendee.  If it is entirely uninteresting, how could it possibly connect to my life??  Okay, here goes….

Back in January of last year, an ostrich farm in British Columbia had three or four of their flock die because of avian flu.  The owners destroyed the diseased birds, and there was no further indication of infection.  Around the first of August, the inappropriate government agency, working at the breakneck speed of smell, notified them that they had to euthanize the balance of a 3000-bird flock.  Appeal is still pending.

Watch how I string this together, like beads on a necklace.

I have attended several Renaissance Faires.  One of the few, historically-accurate foods sold, are entire, roast, turkey legs.  One of those will keep a normal adult male busy all afternoon – or a hyperactive kid about ten minutes.

Vendors would need larger roasters/smokers, and the captive-audience price could break the food budget, but a whole, roast ostrich leg could feed a family of four or five.

I had one emu burger at a French-fry wagon.  It tasted like chicken – ‘cause everything tastes like chicken –at twice the price.

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’25 A To Z Challenge – Y

 

This week’s A to Z challenge is to honor a request of – though, hopefully, not to honor the memory of – yet another blogger who seems to have quietly disappeared.  A couple of years ago, one of my regular visitors/commenters, who named himself Daniel Digby, requested that I do a challenge for the letter Y, with the word

YCLEPT

The all-too-often-late, great, blogger named Archon, finally got around to it, just after the nick of time.

Yclept is a word that means “named” or “called.” It is an archaic term that was commonly used in Old English and Middle English, but it has largely fallen out of use in modern English.

The word “yclept” is derived from the Old English word “cylt,” which meant “called” or “named.” This word was often used in phrases such as “yclept by name” or “yclept after his name,” to indicate that someone had been given a specific name or title.

In modern English, we might use the word “called” or “named” instead of “yclept,” so for example: “He was called John” or “She was named Sarah.” However, “yclept” can add a more formal or archaic touch to writing, and it can be used to create a sense of historical or literary context.

Archon was never called to the bar, but has been sent home from a few in a taxi.  Y’all come back in a coupla days.  We havin’ barbecue and Coors Lite.  CU then.

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That’s One For The Books

I’m becoming more and more addicted to YouTube shorts, which leaves me less and less time to read books.  Here are the ones I managed to get through last year.


1493 – Charles C. Mann
A successor to his 1491 book, showing the massive socio-territorial changes wrought by European colonization of the Western Hemisphere, from Santa’s workshop, down to Patagonia.


Burner – Mark Greaney
Men’s action/adventure novel, good for passing some of the reduced spare time I have.

Dead Letter – Warren Murphy
I dug this book out of a storage box to reread.  Murphy is half of the writing team that produced the very successful Destroyer series.  This is #3 of a short series of three books about a smart, observant, laid-back investigator, based in Las Vegas.  It could have been the archetype for The Rockford Files.  I purchased numbers 1 and 2 on Kindle.


False Positive – Andrew Grant
When Andrew Grant is not busy, doing most of the writing for his brother, Lee Grant (Child), about Jack Reacher, he publishes the occasional book about a similar character.


Flash Point – Don Bentley
The actual, full title is TOM CLANCY Flash Point.  Bentley is one of several writers keeping the series – and the cash flow – alive.  The story arc has moved on to the next generation.


In Too Deep – Lee Child
Credited as Andrew Child, Lee’s brother presents another tale of Jack Reacher out-thinking, out-meaning, and out-punching a bunch of bad guys – predictable, but still mesmerizing.


Magic Claims – Ilona Andrews
Twenty years ago, I’d have had a hard time believing that I’d get hooked on a series with shape=shifters, vampires, magic, and Russian witches.  She includes so much personal, social, and interpersonal details, the stories are surprisingly believable.  She claims that this is the last book in her “Magic” series. I still have three books in a similar, magic, “Innkeeper” series to go through.


Midnight Black – Mark Greaney
Another author who feeds the Tom Clancy franchise, Greaney also sometimes publishes the odd diverting, generic Action/Adventure novel – lots of brains, lots of high-quality weapons – saving America, or the world, from…. (Take your pick – Russians, Muslims, terrorists, Lex Luthor???)


Moa Lisa Overdrive – William Gibson
Book review post is here.


Red Winter – Mark Cameron
Another “Tom Clancy” action novel.  The man has published more books since he died, than he did while he was alive.  These books are not just (all) mindless, time-killing babble, as I accuse the wife’s ‘Nurse Jane’ romances.  They often include interesting and educational, social, historical, and geographical details.


The 6:20 Man – David Baldacci
An established author, who is new to me.  His special-ops-trained protagonist, studying to be an accountant, opens lots of story-arc possibilities.


The Antitheist’s Dictionary – Opher Goodwin
One of only two books I read last year to improve my mind – and I shouldn’t say that too loud.  It’s a list of (mostly Christian) religious words and phrases, what they seem to mean to believers and debaters vs. what they mean to skeptics.


The Atlas Maneuver – Steve Berry
Murder, terrorism, covert world-wide social and political power, and unimaginable wealth, all through the manipulation of Bitcoin.


The Chaos Agent – Mark Greaney
Same Old – Same New.  In all literature, there are only 7 basic stories.  Writers like this keep them fresh and interesting by twisting and adding details.


The Cradle Of Ice – James Rollins
Rollins used to write men’s action books, like the above.  Possibly because of saturation in the genre, he has branched off into Sci-Fi/Fantasy about a non-rotating world, where the sun-facing side roasts, the back side freezes, and all life exists on the narrow, central band.


The Devil’s Elixir – Raymond Khoury
The distilled sap of an Amazon plant can produce extended/eternal life??!  I’d enlist a bunch of friends, strap on some guns, and go looking – wouldn’t you?


The Last Kingdom – Steve Berry
The Kingdom of Bavaria might wind up owning Hawaii??!  That’s enough alternate history to cause a lot of international intrigue.


The Omega Factor – Steve Berry
I don’t know how these writers are blessed –or cursed – with such deep and broad imaginations.  My longest short story was only 1500 words.


The Survivor – Gregg Hurwitz
Somebody is after the wrong guy – and he has to get smart, fast, and lucky – or die.


The Tower – Gregg Hurwitz
The maximum security wing of a seaside prison is an 8-story tower, composed only of round, stainless steel bars.  Of course, the insane serial killer escapes the escape-proof facility, and it takes the almost-as-insane tracker to find and stop him.  There’s a lot of deep Freudian psychology dished out.


To Die For – David Baldacci
The agent-turned-Accountant has graduated, and is back with the CIA.  He’s using his gun and his brain more than his bookkeeping skills.  Perhaps next book.


Till The End Of Time – Allen Appel
Time travel into the past by mental effort, with no guarantee of duration of visit, or return time.  Doesn’t sound like a good idea to me.  Still, it gives the author a chance to describe history.  Try as hard as he might, the protagonist finds that he cannot change the outcome of the Battle of Little Bighorn.


Weapons Grade – Don Bentley
In yet another ‘Tom Clancy’-estate inspired novel, the author has the next generation foil a plot to produce H-bomb fuel.


Zero Hour – Don Bentley
Bentley has Tom Clancy’s ‘kids’ – even though they’re well into their 30s – foil a plot where a Chinese faction is aiding North Korea to develop a missile capable of reaching America’s Pacific coast.  How “Today’s Headlines!”  Having a heroine in an action team, with no left hand, is an interesting twist.

That’s all the books I carried on the Reading Railroad.  CU again soon.

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25 A To Z Challenge – P

Why don’t you hear anything when a pterodactyl uses the washroom?
Because the P is silent

He has an itchy spot on his scales.
He thinks it might be Psoriasis.

BUT SERIOUSLY, FOLKS!

What is the oldest evidence of cancel-culture??  It may be

PALIMPSEST

a parchment or the like from which writing has been partially or completely erased to make room for another text.

Parchment (or vellum) was lamb or goatskin that could be written on.  Europeans didn’t have papyrus, made from river reeds.  Their writing materials were rare, and expensive.  None was just thrown away.  When the information was no longer needed, the ink was carefully scraped off, and new words were written on it.

This applied especially to competitors and enemies.  If a Catholic wrote something, a Protestant erased it and entered new dogma and tenets.  If a Frenchman inscribed something, an Englishman would scratch it off and issue a British decree.

The ink was never entirely removed.  A palimpsest is the information that can be seen under/beyond the new writing.  Researchers used to do it by eye, and with magnifying glasses.  New technology allows faint old ink to plainly stand out.  The now-clearly-visible writings have overturned and modified a few historical theories.

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Contest Without Rules

Echoing Pensitivity101’s Three Things posts, I am issuing a challenge. Below are three words.  I would like you to create a composition using one, two, or all three of the words.  It can be prose, or poetry, even blank verse.  It can be 33 words, 50 words, 100 words, or any other random number.

Download it directly into my comments section, or leave a comment with a link, so that others can read it.  Erickson could probably do this in his sleep.  Any attempt I make would look like I did it in my sleep.  If anyone other than me has fun with this, I may repeat it.  Be warned.  Be creative.

DISC
CAKE
RULES

I’ll be back, next week, with my first attempt.

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’25 A To Z Challenge – M

I am always in awe of movie and television writers.  They must be like industrial spies, aware of the latest technology, almost before it exists, so that they can write it into scripts, and make the public aware of it.

In 1966, the bridge-crew of the Enterprise had wireless, electronic tablets, when most of us didn’t even have computers.  These later-to-be Ipads had beep-beep, flat surface pushbuttons that didn’t’ show up on my kitchen stove and microwave for another decade.

The year before, in a movie called Arabesque, a professor of Middle-Eastern languages, is kidnapped by the CIA, to translate a small note, written in Arabic script – because one sect is going to wipe out another sect.  (How things haven’t changed in 60 years!)

When he finally translates all of the nuances, the result makes sense – but it doesn’t make sense.  It’s as innocent as a recipe for hummus.  The secret, when it’s finally discovered and revealed is that one of the periods in the script has all of the information – IN ENGLISH – reduced 1000 times, through the optical science of

MICROGRAPHY

which is a division of STEGANOGRAPHY, the process of hiding things in plain sight.  The most common modern examples are benign computer files or messages, where secret information is added by making one small section denser.  First, you have to know TO look; then, you have to know WHERE TO LOOK.

I look forward to having you join me on Wednesday, for a new contest.

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’24 A To Z Challenge – Z

PLANS AND SCHEMES AND HOPES AND DREAMS

When I first ventured out into the blogosphere, I was amazed at how many bloggers had written books, or were writing books – or who wanted to write a book.  Of course, self-publishing has diluted the overall average somewhat.  It’s interesting how many people feel that they have The Great American Novel in their head, just waiting to burst out.  Me??  I don’t even have a user’s manual for an air fryer inside of me.

Then there are people who compose, just to please themselves, and hold their stories within their heads and hearts– or in notebooks, or (finally) on electronic devices….  At least, I assume there are.  How would you know, for sure??  Such a one is the current Sage of Ohio, Commenter Supreme, my online buddy, John Erickson – and that brings us to

ZENARU

She is the class ship of three battleships used by the Empire, in John’s little space opera, the mightiest interstellar Starship to never come out of Chicago, in the most masterfully-woven tale never to be published.  She’s obsolete, because he’s been using the story of her non-existent crew and their non-existent adventures for over 40 years, occasionally hauling it out for contemplation and meditation, patiently adding, editing and smoothing for personal enjoyment.

How about you, my gentle readers, do any of you have an unpublished book as an ongoing hobby/project?  Do you know anyone who does?
😕

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Poetry Pavilion

For your viewing pleasure today, I present a couple of small pieces of poetry.  I have published these before, but felt that they warranted being repeated. These came from the British pop group, The Moody Blues – small bits of verse, not large enough to be set to music, as a song – probably written by Justin Hayward, or John Lodge.

MOODY BLUE

Breathe deep the gathering gloom.
Watch light fade from every room.
Pensitive people look back and lament,
Another day, uselessly spent.

Impassioned lovers wrestle as one.
Lonely man cries for love, and has none.
Senior citizens wish they had some.
New mother picks up and suckles her son.

Cold-hearted orb, that rules the night.
Removes the colors from our sight.
Red is grey, and yellow, white,
But we decide which is right.

And which, is an illusion….

 

MOODY CONTEMPLATION

Between the eyes and ears there lie
The sounds of color
And the light of a sigh
With thoughts of within
To exclude the without
The ghost of a thought
Will exclude all doubt
And to name this thought
Is important to some
So they gave it a word
And the word is ‘OM’

Give them some contemplation and meditation.  Sometime in the future, I will probably republish “Tale Of The Great Northern Knight”, and wonder how its author, White Lady In The Hood, is doing.

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Cold Turkey

The blogpost that you are currently not reading, is brought to you by the words

LASSITUDE, INDOLENCE, AND PROCRASTINATION

As well as the number

TWILLINGATE

I found that I couldn’t just ‘STOP’ posting on Wednesdays.  I always want to have something to say – even when I’ve got nothing to say.  Next Wed. will probably be blank, although I’ve got a post ready to publish on the 26th.

There will be a Fibbing Friday post.  I didn’t have to, but I farmed out a large portion of it.  Maybe that will give me enough time to select and compose something for the letter X for next Monday.

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Second Millennium

THIS IS MY 2000TH POST

Big deal, I know a couple of bloggers who have reached 10,000.  I console myself by claiming that they are the WordPress equivalent of Post It notes, 50/75 word posts about themes and memes and blog prompts.  I like to think that mine have a little more body and content.

I recently passed my 13th WordPress anniversary – almost thirteen years of dutiful, self-imposed, three-per-week, Monday/Wednesday/ Friday blogposts.  Like many other long-term bloggers, I seem to have just run out of things to write about.  Even when I do come up with a new blog theme, I don’t seem to have the strength, the stamina, the concentration, the creativity, or the dedication to get it composed and posted on time.  That’s why so many “Monday” A To Z Challenges slid to Wednesday – I needed two extra days to get them finished.

It may be partly because of my continued aging – it may be partly the result of major surgery – it may be partly because of ingesting multitudinous medications (The pharmacy sent me a HAPPY BIRTHDAY Card.), but as Uncle Albert says, “I’m So Easy Called Away.”

I may have to do what several other long-term bloggers have done.  I may have to reduce – but not eliminate, for now – the number of my posts.  What the CBers used to call Sani-Bagging – reading other people’s posts and picking up their garbage, without spreading any much of my own.

So far, I seem to be able to keep up with Fibbing Fridays.  Sometimes a little late, but I publish A To Z Challenges.  After over ten years of providing jokes and humor, I’m having problems finding more that suits three-digit IQs.  Adult humor doesn’t need to have sex in it.  My output may diminish somewhat, but please keep stopping by.