Day: February 28, 2020

A Mysterious Award

Fandango31 Comments

2983A9F3-CD37-4512-8489-802DC77F2E7CWell, this is interesting. Lander7, at the blog Reality Decoded, has nominated my blog for the Mystery Blogger Award. Talk about a mystery.

I appreciate the nod, Lander, but mine is an award-free blog. That said, I will follow two of the seven “rules” that you listed. Those are to (1) answers the five questions you asked, and to (2) tell the readers three things about me.

First the questions.

Would it be a good thing if people were immortal?

No way. Can you imagine what the world population would be if everyone were immortal?

If there were a food that could cause orgasms would you eat it?

Whoa! Maybe I’m old fashioned, but I prefer my orgasms to come from more traditional means.

Would the world be a better place without money?

I think, at one point in human history, people used bartering for goods and services. That didn’t work out so well.

What is the number one killer of human beings on Earth?

Failure to learn from our mistakes and from the past.

If you could erase one class from the Earth, which would you choose? The “Rich,” the “Middle Class,” or the the “Poor.”

I wouldn’t choose to erase any class of people from the planet. What I would do, if I could, would be to persuade the very rich to share and spread their wealth so that there wouldn’t be the extreme wealth inequities that exist today.

And now to you, my readers, three things about myself.

  1. My wife and I just relocated from a big city to the suburbs and it’s a bigger adjustment than I thought it would be.
  2. I blog anonymously because I’ve had my identity stolen twice before and I figured maintaining my anonymity on my blog may help prevent it from happening a third time, although I may be deluding myself.
  3. I’m going to be rookie grandfather in about three months.

Alrighty then. Thank you, Lander, once again, for the nomination. If anyone else wishes to be tagged and to answer these same questions and to share three things about yourself, consider yourself to have been tagged by Fandango. Congratulations!

Friday Fictioneers — The Comic Opera

Fandango15 Comments

2EA4123C-4CB0-424B-96C7-68B92B6F7E56“I don’t like him. He’s not funny,” Doris said.

“Who’s not funny?” Ted asked.

Gilbert Gottfried,” Doris answered. “He’s obnoxious.”

Why are you bring up Gilbert Gottfried?” Ted asked.

“You said we’re going to see a Gilbert Gottfried performance tonight,” Doris responded.

“No,” Ted said. “It’s Gilbert and Sullivan and a performance of H.M.S. Pinafore.”

“Who are Gilbert and Sullivan? Are they a comedy team?”

“No. They wrote a comic opera called H.M.S. Pinafore.”

“An opera? I thought we were going to a comedy club.”

“Finish getting dressed,” Ted said. “When the actors take their final bow, you’ll be clapping.”

(100 words)

Written for Rochelle Wisoff-Field’s Friday Fictioneers prompt. Photo credit: Dale Rogerson.D8CFE08F-5168-4694-B3E6-5ECFEF614359

Fandango’s February Expressions #28

Fandango7 Comments

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

A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

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.

Fandango’s Friday Flashback — February 28

Fandango18 Comments

Wouldn’t you like to expose your newer readers to some of you earlier posts that they might never have seen? Or remind your long term followers of posts that they might not remember? Each Friday I will publish a post I wrote on this exact date in a previous year.

How about you? Why don’t you reach back into your own archives and highlight a post that you wrote on this very date in a previous year? You can repost your Friday Flashback post on your blog and pingback to this post. Or you can just write a comment below with a link to the post you selected.

If you’ve been blogging for less than a year, go ahead and choose a post that you previously published on this day (the 28th) of any month within the past year and link to that post in a comment.

This was originally posted on February 28, 2010 in my old blog.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

003DA43D-F8A3-4574-8C38-E7B5EBBF6B2FNo, I’m not talking about the John Hughes comedy with Steve Martin and John Candy. I’m talking about my escape from New York. And no, it’s not about the John Carpenter sci-fi film starring Kurt Russell, either. Jeez, talk about a one-track mind. You gotta get off this movie kick.

What I am talking about is my getting out of midtown Manhattan after it was blanketed by a major winter storm while I was there attending a conference.

I flew to New York on Wednesday night, which was a bit of an adventure in and of itself, and was supposed to fly back to Boston on Friday afternoon. But with around a foot of snow accumulating between Thursday morning and Friday afternoon, my return flight from LaGuardia was canceled. Fortunately, the travel agent was able to book me on the Amtrak Acela Express train out of New York’s Penn Station to Boston’s South Station. Hurray! I was able to escape from New York.

There was one complication, though. My car was parked at Logan airport. So once I got to the train station in Boston, I needed to grab a cab to get me to Logan, where I retrieved my car and drove home, arriving about seven hours later than planned.

34960E02-3FFB-4F5B-B8D6-37F6FDF970EAOkay, my planes, trains, and automobiles adventure was not quite as entertaining or funny as was that of Steve Martin and John Candy. Nor was my escape from New York as harrowing or exciting as was that of Kurt Russell, despite a closed airport and canceled flights. But it was my adventure, and I have so few of them in my life that I felt compelled to share this one with you.

FOWC with Fandango — Polite

Fandango12 Comments

FOWCWelcome to February 28, 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 “polite.”

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.

  1. And be sure to read the posts of other bloggers who respond to this prompt. You will marvel at their creativity.