I was the advanced man on the team. My mission was to finesse my way into the inner circle using my unique skill set. I needed to make them feel secure that I wasn’t a threat and knew what I was doing. Then, once having gained their trust, my job would be to ensure there were no ripples of discontent.
It wasn’t easy, because they were a squirrelly bunch. But I had more than a few tricks up my sleeve, so it was just a matter of time before I was ready to contact the rest of my team to come in and finish it. The outcome was always a foregone conclusion, we were that good. Once the mission was accomplished, my new role was to mop things up. I was known as the guy who was the first in and the last out.
I loved owning my own kitchen renovation company.
Written for these daily prompts: Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (advanced), Word of the Day Challenge (finesse), Your Daily Word Prompt (unique), Scotts Daily Prompt (ripples), and Ragtag Daily Prompt (squirrel).
“I know words. I have the best words,” says the man who has probably never read a book without pictures or stepped inside a library in his life.
I still wonder how this moron was able to ascend to the highest office in the land. And I wonder when the people who helped get him there will wake up and discover that he’s nothing but a charlatan and a con artist.
Or maybe they already know that, and that’s why they want him there.
Written for today’s Daily Writing Challenge from Teresa over at The Haunted Wordsmith. The three prompt words are “words,” “discover,” and “wonder.”
Wildfires continue to rage in both Northern and Southern California. The Camp Fire in Butte County had grown to 105,000 acres, or 164 square miles, by Saturday evening and fire officials warned that weather conditions were changing for the worse, with high winds through Monday morning fanning the blaze and making firefighting even more difficult.
Even my iPhone weather app warns of unhealthy air quality in this city, which is 140 miles south southwest of the fire. But in an even better example of unhealthy — and unhelpful — air, I present you with this:
Helen Vahdati chose “soul” as her theme for this week’s Song Lyric Sunday prompt. No doubt that I’m not the only blogger who will pick “Soul Man” as their song choice.
“Soul Man” was written and composed by Isaac Hayes and David Porter in 1967. It was originally recorded by the soul duo of Sam & Dave (Sam Moore and Dave Prater). The song reached number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in the US in 1967.
Isaac Hayes said that he got the idea for the song from watching the riots in Detroit on TV. It was said that if you put the word “soul” on the door of your business establishment, the rioters wouldn’t burn it. The word “soul” became a galvanizing kind of thing for African Americans, according to Hayes, and it had an effect of unity, it was said with a lot of pride.
Hayes said, “Why not write a tune called ‘Soul Man’? All you had to do was write about your personal experiences, because all African Americans in this country at the time had similar experiences. But we realized that in addition to being an African American experience, it was a human experience, and therefore it crossed over and became very commercial.”
When this song was written, there was no clear definition of a “Soul Man.” After Isaac Hayes came up with the title, David Porter wrote the rest of the lyrics based on what he thought a Soul Man would be like.
In November 1978, Dan Akroyd and John Belushi, calling themselves the “Blues Brothers,” performed the song as the “cold opener” of an episode of Saturday Night Live. It was later released as a single, which reached number 14 in February 1979.
Here are the lyrics to the song.
Comin’ to you on a dusty road
Good lovin’, I got a truck load
And when ya get it, huh, ya got some
So don’t worry, ’cause I’m comin’
I’m a soul man, wow
I’m a soul man
I’m a soul man, woah, heh
I’m a soul man
And that ain’t all, huh
Gots what I got the hard way
And I’ll make it better each and every day
So honey, don’t you fret, huh
‘Cause you ain’t seen uh, nothin’ yet
I’m a soul man, oh road
I’m a soul man, play it Steve
I’m a soul man, ha
I’m a soul man, oh
I was brought up on a side street, yes maam
I learned how to love before I could eat
I was educated from good stock
When I start lovin’, oh I can’t stop
I’m a soul man
I’m a soul man
I’m a soul man, yeah
I’m a soul man, look
Grab a rope and I’ll pull you in
Give you hope and be your only boyfriend
Yeah (yeah) yeah (yeah), uh
I’m talking about a
Soul man, I’m a
Soul man, and you
Soul man, aah
Soul man, hold on
Soul man, I’m a
Soul man, and you a
Soul man, and you’re a
Soul man, hold on
Welcome to November 11, 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 “advanced.”
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.
I was the advanced man on the team. My mission was to finesse my way into the inner circle using my unique skill set. I needed to make them feel secure that I wasn’t a threat and knew what I was doing. Then, once having gained their trust, my job would be to ensure there were no ripples of discontent.
But in an even better example of unhealthy — and unhelpful — air, I present you with this:
Welcome to November 11, 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.
This, That, and the Other 