Day: September 8, 2019

50 Word Thursday — The Long, Lonely Road

Fandango9 Comments

CCC2B440-D029-4650-A318-431AF1EF6DE2He built his fires in a thousand places and slept on the banks of rivers. The grass grew over his tracks, but he knew where they were when he came again.

But now he was taking a different, long, lonely road; it was time for him to make new tracks.

(50 words)

Written for this week’s 50 Word Thursday prompt from Kristian at Tales From the Mind of Kristian. The idea is to use the image above (unattributed), along with the line, “He built his fires in a thousand places and slept on the banks of rivers. The grass grew over his tracks, but he knew where they were when he came again” from The Shiralee by D’arcy Niland, and to write a post that must be between 50 and 250 words, in 50 word increments.

Pardon My French

Fandango7 Comments

d7f601e1-e3cb-4b65-ad07-fc64ab06bbbb.jpeg“Pardon my French, but you’re totally full of shit,” David said to his roommate, Jason.

“Pardon your French?” Jason said. “What are you talking about? You don’t even speak French.”

“It’s an expression, you idiot,” David said. “It’s used to apologize in advance for uttering a swear word.”

“That doesn’t make any sense,” Jason said. “‘Shit’ is not a French word.”

“It’s actually an idiom that was borrowed from the English,” David explained. It’s a remnant from Napoleonic Wars early in the 1800s. There was great enmity between the French and the English, and the expression ‘pardon my French’ was considered insulting to the French, which infuriated them.”

“I still don’t get it,” Jason said. “I’m not French, so why are you asking me to pardon you?”

“Well, the phrase has gone through quite an odyssey through the years,” David said. “It’s less an insult today than it is a coy phrase used when someone who has used a swear word attempts to pass it off as French.”

“Coy?” Jason asked. “How so?”

“The coyness comes from the fact the both the speaker and listener — that’s me and you in this case — are well aware that the swear word is, indeed, English,” David said. “It’s a time-tested and light-hearted way of apologizing on-the-fly for having used a somewhat profane comment.”

Jason looked at his watch. “Shit, pardon my French, David, but it’s after seven and I’m running late. Gotta go, buddy. Thanks for the French lesson.”

This post came about as a result of a comment I made on this post from Garry Armstrong. I commented, “Well, pardon my French, but as they say, shit happens. But why do people say ‘pardon my French’ when using an alleged curse word?” And Garry responded, “Good question, Fandango.”

I also included these daily prompts: Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (borrow), Your Daily Word Prompt (remnant), Ragtag Daily Prompt (infuriate), Word of the Day Challenge (odyssey), The Daily Spur (tested), and Daily Addictions (seven).

Who Won The Week? 9/8/19

Fandango26 Comments

10CC3057-4EEA-4C80-B8C1-700C0FC6C906It’s time for another Who Won the Week prompt. The idea behind Who Won the Week is for you to select who you think won this past week. Your selection can be anyone or anything — politicians, celebrities, athletes, authors, bloggers, your friends or family members, books, movies TV shows, businesses, organizations, whatever.

I will be posting this prompt on Sunday mornings (my time). If you want to participate, write your own post designating who you think won the week and why you think they deserve your nod. Then link back to this post and tag you post with FWWTW.

My selection for this week is Newell Brands, the company that manufacturers the Sharpie.2509BB1A-9FCF-4906-BFBD-F59C2EC13CC2Sharpies are permanent makers that were made famous this week when Donald Trump used one to alter an official National Weather Service showing the projected path of Hurricane Dorian.

Trump had tweeted that Dorian was heading toward Alabama long after official NWS forecasts had shown it turning toward the north up the Atlantic coast and away from making landfall in Florida.1E4DC753-40A3-47DD-A473-36C0CA549F50But never wanting to be called out for having misspoken, Trump took a Sharpie and altered an outdated version of an official NWS map, which, by the way, is a federal crime, in order to “prove” that Alabama was in the path of the hurricane.341eb21c-3ea2-4cc4-8dbd-023a78901419.pngThis nonsense has generated what is now being referred to as “Sharpie-gate.” And yet a week after his insistence that Dorian was bound for Alabama, he’s still on a Twitter tear trying to defend his error. And he’s even gotten others in his administration to defend his error by saying it wasn’t an error and that he was right. He was not.

The Sharpie has now become a household word and sales of the markers are up. And to show just how shameless Donald Trump is, Trump’s reelection campaign has added a Trump-branded permanent marker to its web store, capitalizing on the Sharpie-gate drama.

And so I declare that Newell Brands and its Sharpie marker won the week.

And if you’re unfamiliar with a Sharpie, here are some hints on how best to use one.C21609DA-6E43-4F28-BAA2-C42350EBA94FSo tell us. Who do YOU think won the week?

Song Lyric Sunday — Little Wing

Fandango18 Comments

For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday theme, Jim Adams gave us “bird,” “fly,” “sky,” and “wing.” That’s a lot to choose from, but I decided to go with the Jimi Hendrix song, “Little Wing.”

“Little Wing” was written by Jimi Hendrix and recorded by his band, the Jimi Hendrix Experience, in 1967. According to Songfacts, the song was inspired by the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival, which was attended by about 200,000 music fans two years before Woodstock. Hendrix wrote about the atmosphere at the festival as if it was a girl. He described the feeling as “everybody really flying and in a nice mood.” He named it “Little Wing” because he thought it could just fly away.

Hendrix also said that the song is “like one of those beautiful girls that comes around sometimes.” Hendrix enjoyed writing slow songs because he said it was easier to put emotion into them.

Eric Clapton and Duane Allman recorded “Little Wing” as a tribute to Jimi Hendrix, who was one of their guitar heroes. Hendrix died nine days later after Clapton and Allman recorded it, and never heard their version of his song, which was released in 1970 on the Derek and the Dominos album, Layla And Other Assorted Love Songs.

Here are the lyrics to “Little Wing.”

Well she’s walking through the clouds
With a circus mind
That’s running wild
Butterflies and zebras and moonbeams
And fairly tales

That’s all she ever thinks about

Riding the wind

When I’m sad she comes to me
With a thousand smiles
She gives to me free

It’s alright, she says
It’s alright
Take anything you want from me
Anything

Fly on, little wing

In case you’re interested, here’s the version by Derek and the Dominos, which I personally prefer to Hendrix’s.