Day: July 29, 2018

Sunday Photo Fiction — Evolution

Fandango24 Comments

img_2014“This is the fossilized skull of an early species that inhabited this planet,” the guide said. “This species of mammal surfaced after the dinosaurs disappeared but before the earliest of the human beings.”

“It has human-like features,” Karla said. “But it’s huge, so much larger than humans were.”

“Well,” the guide said, “bear in mind that it lived in the same era as the larger mammals, like the Wooly Mammoths. They were much larger than the largest contemporary mammals, such as elephants.”

“But not as large as the dinosaurs that preceded them, right?” Diego said.

“That’s right, Diego. But when The Master realized that His dinosaurs were flawed, He created other life forms, including the large mammals, and this species, the manmoth,” the guide said, pointing to the giant skull.

“So what happened to the manmoth?” Karla asked.

“The Master, in His infinite wisdom, saw that the manmoth was unable to compete with the other large mammals, so He created smaller creatures that evolved into human beings,” the guide explained. “But when the humans almost destroyed His planet, He finally gave up on human life on this planet and focused His attention on creating intelligent life on our planet.”

(199 words)

Written for today’s Sunday Photo Fiction prompt from Susan Spaulding. Photo Credit: Joy Pixley.

Forgotten Road Warriors

Fandango24 Comments

I’ve owned a lot of cars in my day. I was thinking back at some of the cars that I’ve driven over the years and was amazed at how many car brands or iconic models have fallen by the wayside. At one point I owned each of the vehicles in the list below. Do you remember these old, now defunct auto brands or models?

  • Chevy Corvair
  • Sunbeam Alpine
  • Austin Healy 3000
  • MGB
  • Triumph Spitfire
  • Datsun 240Z (Datsun changed its name to Nissan)
  • Mercury Capri
  • Mercury Zephyr
  • Suzuki Samurai
  • Pontiac Firebird
  • Saab 900s
  • Plymouth Voyager

Some other car brands that disappeared in my lifetime (but which brands I didn’t buy or own) are Oldsmobile, Studebaker, Rambler, AMC, and DeSoto.

Did I miss any?

How Is This a Good Idea?

Fandango22 Comments

61CA140E-0017-4F71-B918-40ABC0F02548The Trump Administration has granted Defense Distributed, a Libertarian group, the right to publish its blueprints for an untraceable, single-shot plastic handgun called “The Liberator” on the internet.

As a result, Americans will now be able to download blueprints enabling them to make guns at home with a 3-D printer. These do-it-yourself firearms have been nicknamed “Ghost Guns” because they don’t have serial numbers and are untraceable. How is permitting the publication of the plans to construct these guns a good idea?

The founder of Defense Distributed says that his company will also be publishing blueprints for semiautomatic guns like the AR-15.

Is this what Trump and his supporters mean when the claim to be making America great again?

Song Lyric Sunday — Takin’ It to the Streets

Fandango15 Comments

For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday theme, Helen Vahdati chose “street.” My first inclination was to go with “On the Street Where You Live,” the Lerner and Loewe song from the 1956 Broadway musical “My Fair Lady.” But then I chose to go in a different direction and decided upon “Takin’ It to the Streets,” by the Doobie Brothers.

“Takin’ It to the Streets” was the first single by the band after Michael McDonald joined The Doobie Brothers. McDonald wrote the song and sang lead. It peaked at number 13 in the U.S. in 1976.

McDonald joined the group when guitarist Tom Johnson fell ill. The words were partly inspired by an essay McDonald’s sister wrote, hence the lyrics, “Take this message to my brother.”

Some consider “Takin’ It to the Streets” to be a protest song, but to me it seems to be more about the day-to-day situations we all find ourselves in at some point. It’s a message that we’re all in the same boat and there’s no such thing as a hole in your end of the boat. Hence, we need to get it together and do something constructive. I find it particularly relevant in our world today. Especially the lines “You, telling me the things you’re gonna do for me / I ain’t blind and I don’t like what I think I see.”

Here are the song’s lyrics:

You don’t know me but I’m your brother
I was raised here in this living hell
You don’t know my kind in your world
Fairly soon the time will tell
You, telling me the things you’re gonna do for me
I ain’t blind and I don’t like what I think I see
Takin’ it to the streets
Takin’ it to the streets
Takin’ it to the streets
Takin’ it to the streets

Take this message to my brother
You will find him everywhere
Wherever people live together
Tied in poverty’s despair
You, telling me the things you’re gonna do for me
I ain’t blind and I don’t like what I think I see

Takin’ it to the streets
Takin’ it to the streets
Takin’ it to the streets
Takin’ it to the streets

FOWC with Fandango — Unknown

Fandango42 Comments

FOWCWelcome to July 29, 2018 and to Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (aka, FOWC). It’s designed to fill the void after WordPress bailed on its daily one-word prompt.

I will be posting each day’s word just after midnight Pacific Time (US).

Today’s word is “unknown.”

Write a post using that word. It can be prose, poetry, fiction, non-fiction. It can be any length. It can be just a picture or a drawing if you want. No holds barred, so to speak.

Once you are done, tag your post with #FOWC and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments.

And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.