Day: June 18, 2019

Is it Really Ellen?

Fandango22 Comments

921AC8B1-6338-4376-A746-2681F08553FFProbably not.

I saw this in my spam folder tonight.FA4E68F7-0C75-4F6F-AD97-72C0EB27B797My guess is that it appeared in my spam folder because it is, in fact, spam. I mean why would THE Ellen DeGeneres send me, completely out of the blue, a comment on this post that I wrote a month and a half ago and write, “Good story to hear”?

Definitely sounds like spam to me. Still, I was secretly tempted to believe that the actual Ellen DeGeneres found that post, enjoyed it, and took the time to comment on it. I was even tempted to like her comment and respond to it.

When I told my wife that Ellen DeGeneres commented on one of my posts, she laughed. “Yeah, you wish,” she said. “Maybe she was so impressed with your post that she’ll invite you to appear on her TV show.”

“You think so?” I asked, at which point she gave me a quizzical look.

“No!” she said. “What Fantasyland are you living in, anyway? It’s definitely spam.”

So I hit “Delete Permanently.”

Still, though, I wonder….

Work of Art

Fandango7 Comments

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA“Once you’ve completed you stencil, you’re ready to stretch it across the frame and clamp it in place,” Gregory said. “Make sure the stencil is stretched tight, nice and taut. Otherwise, you might get a random ink droplet on your final product, which would betray your efforts to create the perfect stencil.”

Dick looked down at the frame and felt that everything was ready. “What’s next?” he asked.

“You pour the ink onto the screen, and use a floodbar to push the ink through the holes in the mesh,” Gregory said. “Then you take the fill bar at the rear of the screen and, using a slight amount of downward force, pull the fill bar to the front of the screen. This fills the mesh openings with ink. At that point you take the rubber squeegee and move the mesh down to the surface and push the squeegee to the rear of the screen. As the squeegee moves toward the rear of the screen, the tension of the mesh pulls the mesh up away from the material, leaving the ink on the material’s surface. That’s the silkscreen process, my friend.”

“Cool,” Dick said. “Now what?”

“Well, you have to give the ink time to dry on the material for a moment or two,” Gregory said. “In the meantime, you can add different colors once the first color dries. Just follow the same process for each color.”

“No more colors. I’m done!” said Dick.

“Let me see,” Gregory said.

Dick carefully lifted the frame up and off the t-shirt, exposing his handiwork to Gregory. “So, what do you think? Do we have a deal or what?”dumptrumpT“I like it,” Gregory said, a smile on his face. “Can you deliver 30 more in time for the rally on Sunday?”

“Deal!” said Dick.

Written for these daily prompts: Ragtag Daily Prompt (droplet), Let It Bleed Weekly Prompt (betray), Fandango’ One-Word Challenge (silkscreen), The Daily Spur (moment), And Word of the Day (deal). Sorry Sheryl, but I couldn’t figure out how to get exacerbate into this tale.

Twittering Tales — Where There’s a Will

Fandango13 Comments

28CE5D38-CCA3-412B-A3C2-950EF7DFD711His parents forbade him from going. Still, he always felt that where there’s a will, there’s a way.

He climbed the steps to the bridge that ran above the park. He stuck his head between the ornate concrete spindles. And he got a bird’s eye view of the city’s annual Pride Parade.

(279 characters)

Written for this week’s Twittering Tales prompt from Kat Myrman. Photo credit: Nathan Dumlao at Unsplash.com.

FOWC with Fandango — Silkscreen

Fandango26 Comments

FOWCWelcome to June 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 “silkscreen.”

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.

The issue with pingbacks not showing up seems to have been resolved, but you might check to confirm that your pingback is there. If not, please 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.