Day: January 15, 2020

It’s Priceless

Fandango14 Comments

FDD8BF0D-F7E0-4B7E-BCF8-57348309E8CE “Hey Sally, do you wanna take a ride in this cherry, 1977 Chevy Caprice Classic I just bought?” Matt yelled to his girlfriend as he pulled the car into her driveway.

“Have you gone completely daffy?” Sally asked. “Why in the world would you go out and buy a 43-year-old junker car?”

A disappointed expression darkened Matt’s face. “Are you kidding me?” he said. “This is a friggin’ Chevrolet Caprice Classic. Look at her, she’s in great shape. This is not just your average car, you know, Sally. The Caprice Classic was the most popular American car in the sixties through the mid seventies.”

Sally rolled her eyes and shook her head. “So how much did you pay for that old piece of shit?” she asked Matt.

“There you go again, Sally, off on some irrelevant tangent,” Matt said. “This car is a  true classic. It’s priceless.”

Written for these daily prompts: Daily Addictions (ride), Your Daily Word Prompt (caprice), Word of the Day Challenge (complete), Ragtag Daily Prompt (daffy), The Daily Spur (average), and Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (tangent).

One-Liner Wednesday — Certainty

Fandango6 Comments

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“Ideological certainty easily degenerates into insistence upon ignorance.”

U.S. Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan

In his 1996 book, Miles To Go, the late Democratic Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan related a story about a 1993 communication with Laura D’Andrea Tyson of the Clinton administration. After receiving and reading two studies he had requested from the White House, he noted that both studies actually concluded that similar programs had failed to produce any positive results. In response, Moynihan wrote the following in a letter to Tyson,

“In the last six months I have been repeatedly impressed by the number of members of the Clinton administration who have assured me with great vigor that something or other is known in an area of social policy which, to the best of my understanding, is not known at all. This seems to me perilous. It is quite possible to live with uncertainty, with the possibility, even the likelihood, that one is wrong. But beware of certainty where none exists. Ideological certainty easily degenerates into an insistence upon ignorance.”

What struck me about this quote is how applicable it is to the current political situation in the United States. Were Moynihan still alive today, I think he would find that his quote could easily apply to the highly partisan ideological certainty that Republicans in our Congress use to justify their blind support for Donald Trump, which, to me, is clearly an insistence upon ignorance.

Written for Linda G. Hill’s One-Liner Wednesdayprompt.

Fandango’s Provocative Question #56

Fandango26 Comments

FPQWelcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration.

By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.

What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.

Okay, here’s the deal. I’ve got so much on my plate right now getting ready for this big move to a new house in a new town in a few weeks that I really haven’t had much of an opportunity to come up with a new, original provocative question for this week. So I’m going to do something I’ve never done before. I’m going to blatantly steal a question another blogger I follow asked. In her Share Your World prompt on Monday, Melanie, aka Sparks From a Combustible Mind, asked this provocative question:

What’s something you consider to be terrifying that you have come to accept as a fact of life?

I didn’t have time to respond to this week’s Share Your World prompt, but if I had, my answer, which will not surprise anyone who reads my blog, would have been “Donald Trump.” So when you consider how to answer this question, “Donald Trump” has already been taken.

If you choose to participate, write a post with your response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ 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. But remember to check to confirm that your pingback or your link shows up in the comments.

FOWC with Fandango — Tangent

Fandango26 Comments

FOWCWelcome to January 15, 2020 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 “tangent.”

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.