Day: August 15, 2018

In Other Words — The Blue Wave

Fandango11 Comments

 

46C78B12-BBAB-45D0-A617-3D88E564EF9AIn the two years since Trump was elected, a lot of damage has been done.

The President, his Cabinet, and the Republicans in Congress (and Vladimir Putin) have been fiddling while our nation is burning.

Like me, many voters are fed up and angry, and in less than three months Americans will go to the polls.

We will be sending an important message.

A big blue wave is coming.

2E64CDA9-9659-4EFF-AA52-38290AED6E9FThis post is written for the “In Other Words” prompt from Patricia’s Place. Today’s word is “wave,” and the rules are to write a story or poem of five lines or less using the word “wave.”

This is the first time I’ve participated in Patricia’s In Other Words challenge, but when I saw what the word was, I couldn’t stop myself.

FFfPP — Best Croissants in Town

Fandango9 Comments

img_2178“I heard this place makes the best croissants in the city,” Seth said.

“Well, I’ll have you know that I’m a croissant aficionado,” Carl said, “and I will reserve judgment until I have sampled one.”

“Okay,” Seth said. “Let’s do this thing.”

The two of them walked into the Bread Ahead store. As they approached the counter, the clerk greeted them with a smile and said, “Good morning, gentleman. What can I get for you?”

Seth was the first to answer. “I’ll have a chocolate almond croissant and a vanilla latte,” he said.

Carl looked at Seth with disdain. “A chocolate almond croissant? Seriously? How can you evaluate the quality of a croissant when it contains all that crap?”

“But I love chocolate almond croissants.”

Ignoring his friend, Carl addressed the girl behind the counter. “A plain croissant and a black coffee,” he said.

The girl handed Seth a tray with their coffees and croissants and they found table.

“Rich, buttery, flaky, puffed, and layered,” Carl said after examining and tasting the croissant as a sommelier might taste test a fine wine.

“And the verdict?” Seth asked.

“The best croissants in town,” Carl acknowledged with a broad smile.

(198 words)

Written for Flash Fiction for the Purposeful Practioner from Roger Shipp. Photo credit: Daria Shevtsova pexels-photo-1070945.

100WW — Swimming Upstream

Fandango9 Comments

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“Is it always like this?” Amanda asked her boyfriend, Josh.

“Pretty much,” Josh said. “The drama class, one of the most popular classes on campus, meets in the theater arts building on the other side of this bridge. That class lets out about ten minutes before my practice begins, so I end up doing this salmon swimming upstream thing every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.”

“Are you ever late for practice because of all of these students blocking your way?” Amanda asked.

“No,” Josh said, “They’re drama students, not members of the wrestling team like me. They clear a path for me.”

(100 words)

Written for Bikurgurl’s 100 Word Wednesday prompt.

The Newbie

Fandango9 Comments

097F9C92-D12A-44C0-AF7B-C440D6A56850

“Are you spying on me?” Matt asked, sensing someone standing behind him.

“No, I’m not spying on you,” Cindy said. “But you are a newbie, and as your manager, it’s my job to review how well you dispense these pharmaceuticals per the prescriptions.”

“I can handle it, Cindy,” Matt said defensively. “You need to give me the freedom to do the job I was hired to do.”

“I just need to make sure you understand the criticality of accurately filling prescriptions,” Cindy explained. “Carelessness could literally kill someone.”

“Listen, Cindy,” Matt said, “I know what’s at stake. I’m not stupid. I was first in my class in pharmacology.”

“And what college did you graduate from?”

“Trump University,” Matt said.

“Oh jeez,” Cindy said.

Written for these prompts:

  • Ragtag Daily Prompt (freedom)
  • Word of the Day Challenge (spying)
  • Tour Daily Word Prompt (dispense)
  • Weekly Prompts Wednesday Word (review)
  • Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (handle)

One-Liner Wednesday — Change

Fandango24 Comments

63CC0F74-8C36-49B5-B3EE-43D27C6BA815“If you always do what you’ve always done, you always get what you’ve always gotten.”

Jessie Potter

That was the advice of Jessie Potter, an educator and counselor on family relationships and human sexuality. The context of his quote was about sex and love. He was asserting that change is needed in the American way of growing up, falling in love, raising a family, and growing old.

Similar statements have been attributed to a number of people, from Henry Ford to Tony Robbins and even to Albert Einstein, who also expressed a similar sentiment when he said:

“The world as we have created it is a product of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”

Albert Einstein is also broadly credited with saying that:

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results”

And Russian author Leo Tolstoy said:

“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”

All four of these quotes are about change. Changing the way you think, the way you act, and what you do. Because change is progress and failure to change is stagnation.

I promised myself I wasn’t going to go political in this post, but oh well. Conservatives generally don’t like change. They prefer to keep things the way they are — or the way they were, you know, like they used to be (“Make America Great Again”).

They don’t particularly like societal changes. They don’t embrace changing demographics. They deny climate change. They want the U.S. Constitution to be interpreted just as it was written around 230 years ago, as if time has stood still since 1787.

But change is as inevitable as the sunrise and the tides. And remember, if we fail to change, we stagnate.

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