Day: April 4, 2018

#100WW — The Price of Heresy

Fandango6 Comments

img_1037Frank stood in front of the hole in the thick, wooden wall. This opening was his only glimpse at what lay outside of the walls. He saw green grass, unlike the gravel found on the ground within the compound. He could only imagine what it would be like to dip his toes in the blue water beyond.

He’d lived his entire life behind the four large barriers that cut off access to the outside world. His imprisoned heretic mother had given birth to him inside the compound. Although she was long gone, Frank was made to suffer for her sins.

(100 words)

Written for this week’s 100 Word Wednesday prompt from Bikurgirl. Image credit: Bikurgurl.

The Fish Rots from the Head Down

Fandango5 Comments

Fish RotsThe old adage, “The Fish Rots from the Head Down,” refers to failing organizations and how the blame of it should be on its “head” that is its leadership.

We have a clear example of this in the Presidency of the United States. The churn in the White House since Donald Trump assumed the presidency has been unprecedented. High turnover has become synonymous with President Trump’s White House.

He has lost a handful of Cabinet members, from Secretary of State to Secretary of Health and Human Services and head of the Veterans Administration. Others, due to misuse of federal funds and various questionable decisions and misdeeds, are on the bubble.

He had also lost two National Security Advisers, one Chief of Staff, one Press Secretary, and two Communications Directors. He fired the acting Attorney General (Sally Yates), his FBI Director (Comey) and the Deputy FBI Director (McCabe).

Advisors like Sebastian Gorka and Steve Bannon are gone. So are close advisors to the President, like White House staff secretary Rob Porter and Trump’s personal assistant John McEntee.

This churn of senior-level individuals in the Trump administration is just another sign of the chaos and instability that surrounds the man who sits in the Oval Office.

Yes, something about the Trump administration really stinks. But as they say, the fish rots from the head down.

Written for today’s one-word prompt, “churn.”

D is for Doppelgänger

Fandango48 Comments

I’m sure each of you has experienced someone you know, or maybe even someone you just met, who looks at you and says, “Did anyone ever tell you that you look just like…?” And then they name some celebrity, politician, or otherwise famous — or infamous — person. Dead or alive.

This is a phenomenon known as doppelgänger. Doppelgänger is a German word derived from two words, “doppel,” meaning double, and “gänger,” meaning walker or goer. Literally “double-goer,” a doppelgänger is a look-alike or double of a another person.

Do you remember the 80s TV sitcom, “Family Ties”? That’s the show that gave Michael J. Fox his start.

DAA7E7EF-38D3-4214-B51A-7EA2BA8B2BE7Fox played the conservative Republican son, Alex Keating, of two liberal, ex-hippie parents, Elyse and Steven Keating, played by Meredith Baxter-Birney, and Michael Gross, respectively. “You know, you look just like the father on that show “Family Ties,’” people would tell me. “Hey, you could be Steven Keating’s double,” they’d say.

For as long as that show was on the air, which was seven years, not a week would go by without someone remarking how much I looked like the father on “Family Ties.”

I didn’t see it, but even my wife and kids agreed that there seemed to be, well, a family resemblance. I think it may have been my longish, salt and pepper hair, receding hairline, and dark (at the time) beard. You know how all men with beards look alike, right?

And so, as I was thinking of what to use for my D word for today’s A to Z Challenge, I thought about what must have been my striking resemblance to Michael Gross, the actor who played Steven Keating. I even remember someone using the word doppelgänger.

I, however, never did see the resemblance. What do you think? (Michael Gross is the guy on the left.)

Anyway, my doppelgänger, at least back in the 80s, was Michael Gross. Surely you have, at some point in your life, been told you look like someone else. Who is it that you resemble?

Come back tomorrow for my letter E post.

One-Liner Wednesday — Sanity Clause

Fandango3 Comments

7FA53211-AD1D-4A99-8258-986C3C29A113“Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! You can’t fool me. There ain’t no Sanity Clause!”

That line came from the classic and hilarious 1935 Marx Brothers movie, “A Night at the Opera.”

It’s a typical Marx Brothers movie about a silly business manager, Otis P. Driftwood, played by Grouch Marx, and his two wacky pals, Fiorello and Tomasso, played by Chico and Harpo Marx, respectively. They are friends of two opera singers who help them achieve success while humiliating their stuffy and snobbish enemies.

There is one scene, quite possibly my favorite in the whole movie, in which Driftwood (Groucho) attempts to explain the intricacies of a business contract to Fiorello (Chico). The dialogue goes like this:

Fiorello: Hey, wait, wait. What does this say here, this thing here?

Driftwood: Oh, that? Oh, that’s the usual clause that’s in every contract. That just says, uh, it says, uh, if any of the parties participating in this contract are shown not to be in their right mind, the entire agreement is automatically nullified.

Fiorello: Well, I don’t know…

Driftwood: It’s all right. That’s, that’s in every contract. That’s, that’s what they call a sanity clause.

Fiorello: Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! You can’t fool me. There ain’t no Sanity Clause!

And, for your viewing pleasure, here is a video clip of that scene.

Written for today’s One-Liner Wednesday prompt from Linda G. Hill.