Day: September 20, 2019

You Need To Call Your Lawyer

Fandango12 Comments

3FA4F722-1E0B-4E13-ADE3-78FA4A28C1A7Her fall down the steps alarmed Tracy’s mother, and she demanded that her husband, who was taking a nap in their bedroom, immediately take Tracy to the emergency room to get an x-ray, as she was sure her daughter’s wrist was broken.

“Tracy had been practicing her cartwheels in the upstairs hallway when she made a misjudgment and took a tumble down the stairs,” her father told the ER doctor. “She’s such a gregarious child. We’ve tried to warn her to be more obedient when it comes to running around the house, but you know how kids her age are, right?”

“The x-rays showed that you’re daughter’s wrist is broken in two places, I’m afraid,” the doctor said. “I’m going to put her wrist and arm in a cast. I will need to switch rooms, but you can stay here and I’ll bring her back when I’m finished.”

A few minutes after the doctor left the exam room with Tracy, a woman and a police officer walked into the room. “Mr. Casey,” the woman said, “I’m Anita Wilson from Child Welfare and this is Officer Murphy. We need to talk with you about your daughter. According to the radiologist, the x-rays that were taken tonight indicate numerous breaks in your daughter’s arms spanning multiple years.”

“What are you saying?” Tracy’s father asked.

“We’re talking about child abuse, Mr. Casey,” the officer said. “You’ll have to come with me.”

“I need to call my wife,” Tracy’s father said.

“She’s on her way, Mr. Casey,” the woman from Child Services said. “You need to call your lawyer.”

Written for these daily prompts: The Daily Spur (alarm), Daily Addictions (x-ray), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (gregarious), Word of the Day Challenge (obedient), Ragtag Daily Prompt (switch), and Your Daily Word Prompt (indicate).

Four More Daily Fours

Fandango6 Comments

9C675E88-A7F2-4BBA-AE0A-B682D1E0BFE5Rory, A Guy Called Bloke, is going all out with his Daily Four questions. Here are his latest questions.

Do you prefer variety or routine?

Although they say that variety is the spice of life, I’m at the age where too much spice gives me indigestion, so I’m going with routine.

What is the stupidest way you have ever hurt yourself?

Way back in the day when I was a hippie in the late 60s, I was attending a party at a friend’s house. I admit that I was quite stoned when this particular incident occurred. Also, in addition to smoking joints, I used to smoke cigarettes at the time. I was talking to one of the other party guests when I wanted to light up a cigarette. I didn’t have a match or a lighter, and nor did the person I was talking with. I looked around the room and saw a scented oil lamp sitting on a table, similar to the one pictured below.1BC71BDB-1B3D-44A3-8920-66475CFC4C37I focused on the flame in the lamp, and, intent on using it to light my cigarette, without thinking through my actions, I grabbed the oil lamp’s glass chimney and lifted if off the base of the lamp. Bottom line, I burned the shit out of the skin on my thumb and forefinger when I lifted up the hot glass chimney from the lamp. I screamed at the pain, and, of course, dropped the glass chimney, which shattered all over the floor.

Would you rather gargle with vinegar or snort a line of rock salt?

Neither, yuck. But of the two options, if I had to choose, I’d gargle with vinegar.

What’s the one food you could never bring yourself to eat?

Sweetbreads. 🤮7E2838C3-9474-4D9D-88FB-F3884DC8B4D1

Where Will the Children Play?

Fandango10 Comments

96E8558A-D817-41FA-9CC2-CE9B05ECCA71My blogging buddy, Jim Adams, in addition to his own blog, hosts the Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Music Challenge on alternate weeks. For this week’s Music Challenge, Jim focuses on the Cat Stevens song from 1970, “Where Do the Children Play.”

This song has a special meaning for me. When I was in graduate school at The George Washington University in Washington, D.C., I was taking an urban planning course. Our term paper assignment was to explore an urban neighborhood in the city and write our paper about the challenges that neighborhood was facing from an urban planning perspective.

I chose the Adams Morgan section. It’s a diverse, multicultural neighborhood in the heart of the city. Back then, when I wrote my paper — I think it was 1974 or 1975 — it was a neighborhood in transition. A lot of new restaurants, many of them ethnic, were opening and the there was a “gentrification” process underway. That led to rent and property value increases, as well as new development.

Looking back, I don’t remember much of what I wrote in my paper, although I do remember getting an A on it. But the one thing I do clearly remember was coming across a large, vacant lot that was once a playground behind a school. The school was set for demolition and there was a huge sign just outside of the fenced in lot that read, “Coming Soon: Luxury High-Rise Condominiums to be Built on this Site.”

Someone had painted graffiti on a blank, brick wall facing into the vacant lot. It said, “Tell me where will the children play?”Music Challenge Large

Attention WordPress Bloggers

Fandango22 Comments

8AC25EE7-C442-4968-B53E-8F125BFE30BFWe’re rich! That’s right, we just got $300 million! Automattic, the parent company of WordPress, scored a $300 million investment from Salesforce Ventures, marking one of the single largest investments to date by the software giant’s venture arm.

As a result of the infusion of funds, San Francisco-based Automattic, which owns WordPress.com and is in a deal expected to close in the next few days to buy Tumblr — did you know that WordPress bought Tumbler? I didn’t — saw its valuation soar to $3 billion.

According to TechCrunch.com, WordPress now hosts 34% of the world’s top 10 million websites. I’d imagine that that percentage is likely to grow with all that new cash.

I wonder if any of that money will be used to address the glitches and quirks of Automattic’s flagship product. Ha! Don’t hold your breath, fellow bloggers.

By the way, that very happy looking guy in the photo at the top of this post is Matt Mullenweg, CEO of Automattic. I’d call that a $300 million dollar smile on his face.

Pop of Positivity — Don’t Worry, Be Happy

Fandango13 Comments

29771592-F78E-4069-891F-C6E3C906F7E3Sadje, over at Keep It Alive, tagged me for this “Pop of Positivity” thing that was cooked up by Beckie over at Beckie’s Mental Mess.

According to Beckie, “Pop of Positivity is based on one simple thing: Life doesn’t have to suck all the time. “Let’s face it,” Beckie said, “there is a helluva lot of negativity in the real world, and it’s pretty hard to escape it.” So she thought of this as a means to brighten up everyone’s day from thinking negatively for a moment out of their day. Perhaps, share some smiles along the way too.

The rules (because every prompt has to have rules) are:

  1. Each Thursday, Beckie will pick a theme (naturally, of something positive).
  2. Beckie will tag two bloggers to continue the themed positive message along.
  3. The recipients of the tags can select anyway fit on how you want to share this positivity.  (Examples: Quote, Affirmation, Music Video, Memes, Pictures, etc… As long it sticks to the theme).
  4. The recipients of the tag will create a pingback to Beckie’s original post, as well as notify their two tagged bloggers that they have been selected.

The theme for this week is:

Time to be happy!

I have two items for this challenge. The first is a humorous quote about being happy and taking the time to laugh.C65E84C3-BB5F-4AE6-9778-FC3F312C3853The second is this video of a happy song.

Here’s where I am going to diverge from the rules. Instead of tagging just two bloggers, I’m going to tag any bloggers who would like to brighten up other bloggers’ days with a Pop of Positivity. Go for it!