Day: May 18, 2019

Tip Your Server

Fandango4 Comments

“Too esoteric? What do you mean by that?” Rachel asked her roommate.

“I think your presentation doesn’t quite convey the underlying message you were trying to get across,” Janice said.

Rachel gave Janice a quizzical look. “How did I not get my message across? I showed all of the patterns that led to my conclusions. What more could I have done?”

“Yes, you covered the topic well, though you’re not considering your audience,” Janice said. “You’ll be presenting to a room full of millennials and the language you’re using in your presentation is too technical. I think you need to dumb it down a little.”

“But you and I are millennials. Are you suggesting that people our age are too stupid to understand what I’m talking about?”

“Oh Rachel, not at all,” Janice said. “But you’re an economist and your presentation is not likely to be understood by people who are not in the field. I think you need to turn it into something that people who don’t specialize in economics can relate to.”

“So you’re suggesting that I turn my highly researched, well-documented presentation into a virtual stand up comedy routine?” Rachel said. “This is for a classroom lecture, not a comedy club.”

Janice laughed. “Well, just make sure you remind the audience to tip their servers.”

Written for these daily prompts: Your Daily Word Prompt (esoteric), Swimmers (convey), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (quizzical), Ragtag Daily Prompt (patterns), Swimmers (though), The Daily Spur (turn), and Word of the Day Challenge (virtual).

Weekly Prompts — People

Fandango7 Comments

For this week’s Weekly Prompts Photo Challenge, we are asked to look through our photo collection and post pictures of people.

Ever since the abomination, Donald Trump, became president, my wife and I have been attending rallies protesting all of the unconscionable things he and his sycophants in Congress have been doing to this country and the environment.

I’ve been impressed by the variety of people who have joined in these protests. All genders, races, nationalities, and ages have shown up.

So, for today’s photo prompt, below are some pictures of the people who we came across at those rallies.C0195C85-25AE-4D06-B41C-9A9BEF9BBB4694BB20F7-5789-440A-BC46-92684BEA1A8097FD9DCB-D727-4B70-978F-236C61C651C8290B594E-9746-4C9E-B74C-17C42D3FF648F01CEB7F-AFF9-4436-B42E-ABD5637B99E5B793967B-F295-433F-B2B9-EC0737FAF0A5

MLMM Music Challenge

Fandango23 Comments

70CEE9ED-1D85-4445-ABAA-F0B28B07B8F2My blogging buddy, Jim Adams, is now part of the Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie team and he is hosting one of the MLMM music challenges. The latest of Jim’s MLMM challenges is one he titled “The Mighty Quinn.” In that post, he provided the lyrics to the Bob Dylan song from which Jim got the title for his post. Then he challenged his readers to “focus on that song and use it for inspiration in any form of creative expression (including but not limited to short stories, poems, lyrics, artwork, photography, etc.).”

I hadn’t really planned to write my own post in response to this particular challenge, but then I read this post from Jim. Jim was reviewing the reception his participation in the MLMM Music Challenge was getting, as this “Mighty Quinn” post was his third. And when I read Jim’s post, I saw that he posted this comment:

“I was hoping that Fandango might stop by and write the parody, ‘When Trump the sycophant gets impeached, everybody is going to jump for joy,’ but no such luck.”

Well, Jim, my friend, far be it from me to disappoint you. So, I have taken Bob Dylan’s “The Mighty Quinn” lyrics and given them the Fandango treatment.

And now, sung (loosely) to the tune of “The Mighty Quinn,” I present you with “The Idiot Trump.”

Come all without, come all let’s jump
You’ll not see nothing like the idiot Trump
Come all without, come all let’s jump
You’ll not see nothing like the idiot Trump

Nobody’s building ships and boats
Some are removing monuments, others are squeezing others’ throats
Everybody’s in despair, every girl and boy
But when Trump the idiot gets impeached, everybody’s gonna jump for joy

Come all without, come all let’s jump
You’ll not see nothing like the idiot Trump

I like to go just like the rest, I like my bourbon neat
But standing behind that panty waste, despite that he’s such a cheat
Is putting his GOP sycophants out on a limb
But when Trump the idiot gets here, all the lemmings gonna run to him

Come all without, come all let’s jump
You’ll not see nothing like the idiot Trump
Come all without, come all let’s jump
You’ll not see nothing like the idiot Trump

Let me do what I wanna do, I can’t decide ‘em all
Just tell me where to put ‘em and I’ll tell you who to call
Nobody can get no sleep, there’s someone on everyone’s toes
But when Trump the idiot gets here,
Most Americans are gonna get hosed

Come all without, come all let’s jump
You’ll not see nothing like the idiot Trump
Come all without, come all let’s jump
You’ll not see nothing like the idiot Trump

Come all without, come all let’s jump
You’ll not see nothing like the idiot Trump
Come all without, come all let’s jump
You’ll not see nothing like the idiot Trump

SoCS — Déjà Vu All Over Again

Fandango20 Comments

When I saw that today’s Stream of Consciousness Saturday prompt from Linda G. Hill said for us to “start your post with any adverb and just run with it.” I thought “been there, done that.”

Sure enough I dug into my archives and just over three months ago, Linda gave us this SoCS challenge: “start your post with any adverb that ends in ‘-ly.’”

So, being the lazy bastard that I am, I’m going to essentially repost (with a few minor edits) what I posted on February 9th. Here goes.

D565E643-654E-4772-8799-BCA48E331BC7First of all, let’s define the word adverb. “An adverb is a part of speech used to describe a verb, adjective, clause, or another adverb. It simply tells the readers how, where, when, or the degree at which something was done.”

Apparently, the biggest issue with adverbs is that people tend to overuse them. Some say that of all of the parts of speech, adverbs are the most likely to clutter your sentences pointlessly. Therefore, it is often suggested that writers should use adverbs sparingly.

(Hey wait. Aren’t “apparently,” pointlessly,” and “sparingly” adverbs? Oh crap. I just cluttered up my last paragraph by using three adverbs in just three sentences.)

I remember reading Stephen King’s book, On Writing, where he goes on and on about how he feels about adverbs. I was surprised by his strong feelings. He admonishes writers to minimize, if not eliminate, their use of adverbs by suggesting that “adverbs, like the passive voice, seem to have been created with the timid writer in mind.”

King famously wrote:

“I believe the road to hell is paved with adverbs, and I will shout it from the rooftops. To put it another way, they’re like dandelions. If you have one in your lawn, it looks pretty and unique. If you fail to root it out, however, you find five the next day…fifty the day after that…and then, my brothers and sisters, your lawn is totally, completely, and profligately covered with dandelions. By then you see them for the weeds they really are, but by then it’s — GASP!! — too late.”

Personally, I think Stephen King overuses ellipses…as do I.

I have nothing against adverbs. I don’t use them often, but I do use them in my writing. And I don’t think of myself as a timid writer.

But I’m not a best-selling author, like Stephen King. In fact, I’m not an author at all. I’m not even sure I’d call myself a writer. I’m just a blogger who writes posts on my personal blog.

So, as the old song goes, it’s my blog and I’ll adverb if I want to, despite how Stephen King feels.

Apologies to Linda and to those of you who read my previous SoCS post about adverbs for recycling an old post, but it’s Saturday and I have things to do, people to see, and places to go. So deal with it.

FOWC with Fandango — Quizzical

Fandango26 Comments

FOWCWelcome to May 18, 2019 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 “quizzical.”

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.

Note: some bloggers have had issues with pingbacks showing up lately, so if you don’t see it shortly after you published your post, you might want manually add your link in the comments.

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