Day: April 15, 2020

FFfPP — The City That Never Sleeps

Fandango12 Comments

B19993E0-B6B9-4A30-8C80-C0A970C02194“They called it the city that never sleeps,” Jessica said.

“‘Called’ being the operative word,” Hal said as he and his wife walked the empty streets of Manhattan. “Now it’s dark and desolate.”

“Do you remember the last time we were here?” Jessica asked. “Back in the Before Times?”

Hal pulled out his smartphone and showed her a photo. “We took this one from our hotel room,” he said. “The city was all lit up and was teeming with people.”

Jessica put her head in her hands and started sobbing. “This is so sad and it was preventable.”

Hal grabbed Jessica’s hand and squeezed. “The city had turned the corner and the pandemic was seemingly defeated,” he said. “But then the President, in the name of rebooting the economy, opened everything up again, suspended social distancing, and told people to go congregate. ‘It’s time to return to normal,’ he insisted.”

“And the virus returned with a vengeance,” Jessica said. “It was out of control and two-thirds of the population perished. The government collapsed, anarchy ensued, and our once great cities are empty and in ruins.”

“All due to the ego of last president of this once great nation,” Hal lamented.

(200 words)

Written for this week’s Flash Fiction for the Purposeful Practitioner from Roger Shipp. Photo credit: Morguefile.com.

One-Liner Wednesday —The Economy and the Dead

Fandango18 Comments

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“The economy will bounce back, dead people will not.”

New York City physician, Dr. Lipuma Roy

COVID-19 cases and deaths continue to rise in the United States, but Donald Trump is eager to get the U.S. economy going again so as to bolster his chances for reelection in November.  He wants to open up America for business as early as May 1st and seems to have little regard, much less empathy, for the human toll of this pandemic, which is why Dr. Roy’s words above resonate with me.

And that brings me to my second one-liner of the day, this one from former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown.

“I’d rather be six feet apart than six feet under.”

Written for this week’s One-Liner Wednesday prompt from Linda G. Hill.

M is for Monkee

Fandango3 Comments

A2Z2020For this year’s A to Z Challenge I’m going to attempt to post an old saying or adage each day of the month of April (except for Sundays). I’m going through the alphabet, with the first letter of the adage beginning with the first letter of the alphabet (A) and continuing for 26 adages in alphabetical order until I get through the entire alphabet by April 30 — from A to Z.

I don’t know if it can be done, but I’m going to give it the old college try. Here’s my April 15th adage and it starts with the letter M.

Monkey see, monkey do.

Fandango’s Provocative Question #65

Fandango28 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.

As I write this, there are around two million COVID-19 cases and almost 127,000 deaths worldwide. In the United States alone there more than 614,000 cases and more than 26,000 deaths, far more COVID-19 cases and deaths than any other country.

Donald Trump, despite strong objections from the medical profession and health care experts, is ready to “open up America” for business by the beginning of May. When asked what metrics he is using to justify his decision, he literally pointed to his head and said “the metrics right here.”741906D2-CB5C-434C-AF34-4F11D2F70C51Trump believes that, as president, he has the absolute authority to end social distancing and to tell people to return to work and to have stores and restaurants reopen for shopping and for eat-in dining.

Meanwhile, the governor California, my state, said on Monday that he has been developing a framework for the past week with the governors of Oregon and Washington that will allow the three states to incrementally reopen their economies as the spread of the virus appears to slow.

Their plan, the California governor said, “will be driven by facts, evidence, and public health advisers,” not by the metrics inside of Donald Trump’s head.

My provocative question today is a three parter.

Are you currently living in an area where there are stay-at-home orders? If so, do you think that it is wise and safe to lift the stay-at-home orders as early as May 1st? How soon after such stay-at-home orders are relaxed will you discard “social distancing” practices and return to the same social behaviors you exercised before this pandemic changed the way we live?

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 — Potpourri

Fandango16 Comments

FOWCWelcome to April 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 “potpourri.”

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.