Day: February 16, 2020

Weekend Writing Prompt — Mortal Enemy

Fandango

ECA08AC4-C7A7-4D61-9064-860D505CE34F “Bring me his head,” the king commanded. “I need proof that my mortal enemy is dead.”

“Sire,” the warrior of the realm said. “I will gladly do your bidding.”

Three weeks later the warrior returned. “My liege,” he said to his king, “I have secured the head of your mortal enemy.”

The king was so pleased he commissioned the royal artist to create a sculpture of the warrior holding the head.

(71 words)

35A8F30E-7877-4555-8C29-8359B14DBE25Written for Sammi Cox’s Weekend Writing Prompt, where the word is “sculpture” in exactly 71 words. Photo credit: Alison Courtney at Unsplash.

Who Won The Week? 02/16/2020

Fandango16 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, or in today’s case, Sunday afternoon (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.

This week I am reluctantly choosing Donald Trump.

66378E30-8936-461F-B9DF-D26FEC72902FEmboldened by his acquittal in the Republican-controlled Senate on February 5th, the “Real Donald Trump” has been unleashed. Asked what he learned from impeachment, Trump told reporters that his biggest takeaway was that “the Democrats are crooked. … That they’re vicious. That they shouldn’t have brought impeachment.”

And then, in a tweet, he literally referred to himself as “the King.”A7AB14EC-9DDF-4A06-AF68-266308714E1EAnd now, in a move seen as unabashed political retaliation, he’s ousting individuals that he believes crossed him during impeachment from his White House and administration.

And this past week Trump inserted himself into the fight over a sentencing recommendation for his longtime associate, Roger Stone. Trump criticized the career Justice Department prosecutors who worked on the case and the judge assigned to the trial. Of course, William Barr is doing exactly what Trump wanted him to do.

Some Republicans had hoped that Trump would be chastened by the impeachment proceedings. But the exact opposite has proven to be true. He has expressed no remorse over his actions, and instead is doing everything he can to strengthen his hold over the executive branch. He now feels totally unrestrained and is behaving more like an autocratic dictator than the leader of a democratic republic.

And so, while it pains me to do so, I declare that Donald Trump has won the week.

And now it’s your turn, folks. Who (or what) do you think won the week?

Fandango’s February Expressions #16

Fandango10 Comments

6785E27C-5A43-43F6-8667-122B84D057D7

People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones

Each day during the month of February, at around 6 am Pacific Time, I will be posting an old adage, an old saying, a familiar expression that we’ve all heard and have probably used during our lifetimes. Your assignment, should you choose to accept it, will be to post a story, a poem, an image, an interpretation of what the expression means to you, or to do whatever it is that you want to do based upon the daily adage.

Please tag your post with #FFE and create a pingback to this post or include your link in a comment on each day’s post.

Have fun and be sure to read what others have posted in response to this prompt.

Song Lyric Sunday — Baby Please Don’t Go

Fandango20 Comments

Jim Adams has given us the words “come,” “go,” “leave,” and “stay” for this week’s Song Lyric Sunday theme. My choice for this week is “If You Leave Me Now” from the group Chicago.

“If You Leave Me Now” was written and sung by Chicago bass player Peter Cetera. It was released as a single on July 31, 1976 from Chicago’s album Chicago X. It topped the U.S. charts on October 23, 1976, and stayed there for two weeks, making it the first number one hit for the group.

Lyrically, this is a surprisingly simple song, where the singer is making his case for why his girl shouldn’t leave him. Cetera specialized in ballads, adding variety to the band’s sound, which typically featured many more rock-oriented songs. The popularity of this song, along with other romantic ballads from Cetera, enabled the group to find a new audience, and it became much more successful.

But the band got tagged as a soft rock group, which took the focus away from the grittier, horn-heavy songs that had been its early calling card. This musical and stylistic shift became a point of contention for Chicago’s famed horn section, leading to constant battles to get the horns higher in the mix. This rift ultimately led to Cetera leave the group in 1985, when he embarked on a solo career.

Here are the lyrics to “If You Leave Me Now.”

If you leave me now, you’ll take away the biggest part of me
Ooohh no
Baby please don’t go
And if you leave me now, you’ll take away the very heart of me
Ooohh no
Baby please don’t go
Ooohh girl
I just want you to stay

A love like ours is love that’s hard to find
How could we let it slip away
We’ve come too far to leave it all behind
How could we end it all this way
When tomorrow comes and we’ll both regret
The things we said today

A love like ours is love that’s hard to find
How could we let it slip away
We’ve come too far to leave it all behind
How could we end it all this way
When tomorrow comes and we’ll both regret
The things we said today

If you leave me now, you’ll take away the biggest part of me
Ooohh no
Baby please don’t go
Ooohh girl
I just got to have you by my side
Ooohh no
Baby please don’t go
Ooohh mama
I just got to have your loving here

FOWC with Fandango — Terminal

Fandango14 Comments

FOWCWelcome to February 16, 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 “terminal.”

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.