Day: August 2, 2018

Random Thought

Fandango45 Comments

A3FF1DD4-BE3D-49EC-9374-0600A6B3D214My wife asked me today what I wanted for lunch. I said, “Don’t worry about it. I’ll fix myself a tuna fish sandwich.” And when I heard myself say that, I wondered why I always say “tuna fish sandwich” and not just “tuna sandwich.”

I can’t think of any other variety of fish where, when you refer to it, you add the word “fish” after the name of the fish. Well, yes, there’s swordfish and catfish, but that’s because the names of those fish include the word “fish.” But tuna doesn’t.

Think of any other fish we catch and eat. Salmon, trout, cod, perch, bass, mackerel, sardines, mahi mahi, herring, flounder, sole, snapper, grouper, tilapia, halibut. You just don’t add the word “fish” when you talk about any of those, do you?

Maybe it’s just me. Maybe I’m the only one who says “tuna fish” and not just “tuna.”

Help me out here. Do any of you say “tuna fish” if you’re talking about a sandwich made with that fish? Or do you simply ask for a “tuna sandwich”?

3TC — It’s What I Always Wanted

Fandango14 Comments

Michelle’s curiosity got the best of her. Her father told her not to look in the basket. But that was like a issuing too tempting a challenge to Michelle. Just tell her not to do something and that’s all she needed to hear. She felt compelled to open the basket.

Michelle waited for her father to leave for work. Then she snuck into his home office and cautiously approached the large, wicker basket, which was on the floor next to his desk. Once she was she was standing beside it, she reached down and carefully took the top off of the basket. She set the basket’s top aside and then peered inside.

What she saw caused her to scream in delight. 45094C50-46CF-4D6F-ABCD-CC9F51FE0D5A“Yay,” she said. “Daddy got me a xylophone! I’ve always wanted a xylophone.”

Written for Teresa’s Three Things Challenge, where the words are basket, xylophone, and scream.

#writephoto — The Path Less Traveled

Fandango20 Comments

EE7AB1A2-EA5A-45B4-8947-58A00EDFBA7E“Are you unhappy in our relationship?” Dora asked Dwayne.

Dwayne looked at his fiancé. “Why would you ask me that?”

“I see you sitting there staring off into space and I recognize the expression on your face,” Dora said.

“Oh really?” Dwayne responded. “And what expression is it that I have on my face?”

“You have a look of wanderlust in your eyes,” Dora said. “What are you thinking about? Because you’re clearly not here with me in the moment.”

“I was remembering when I was a kid,” Dwayne started to explain. “My parents were very strict, always telling me to stay on the ‘straight and narrow.’ I never really understood at the time what that expression meant. But then one day I was in the woods behind our house and I came upon a trail deep in the forest. It was very straight and very narrow. And like a light bulb being turned on inside my brain, I finally understood what they were telling me.”

“So why were you thinking about that?” Cora asked. “It seems kinda random.”

“Actually, I was thinking about us,” Dwayne said. “My parents would have considered my being engaged to you to be far from the straight and narrow.”

“And does what your parents would have thought of me bother you that much?” Dora asked. “Because if it does, then maybe they were right. Maybe you were meant to stay on the straight and narrow and not to be with me.” Dora was unsuccessful in preventing the tears from welling up in her eyes.

“Quite to the contrary, Dora.” Dwayne reached out and grabbed her hand and planted a kiss on her wet cheek. “I was meant to take the path less traveled and you are the perfect person to accompany me on that journey.”

Written for Sue Vincent’s Thursday Photo Prompt and for the Word of the Day Challenge (wanderlust) and for Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (expression).

50 Word Thursday — When in Rome….

Fandango16 Comments

B83EBC82-CD5B-4565-A437-2083F9722345He was told by the concierge at the hotel that if he wanted to rendezvous with someone, the place to meet that person would be at the Piazza del Popolo. So naturally, he still wanted to go there, one way or another, and to find that brunette, if she existed.

But whether she really existed was the ultimate question. They’d “met” two months earlier in a chat room and hit it off instantly. She was in Italy and wanted to come to the States to be with him, but didn’t have any money. She suggested he wire the funds to her so that she could pay for the airfare.

His friends told him it was a scam and if he gave her any money, he’d never see it again. But he knew they were wrong.

He decided to fly to Rome to find out if she was real or if he was being scammed. When he wrote her about his plans, she didn’t answer. 

Once he arrived in Rome, he messaged her to meet him the next day at noon, but got no response. Still, he went to the Piazza and waited.

“Alan? Is that you?”

She was, indeed, real!

(200 words)

Written for Deb Whitman’s 50 Word Thursday prompt. The idea is to write a post in multiples of 50 words — maximum of 250 words — and to include a random phrase from the current book Deb is reading. That phrase is in blue in the post.

FOWC with Fandango — Expression

Fandango33 Comments

FOWCWelcome to August 2, 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 “expression.”

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.