Day: August 16, 2020

Breach of Contract

Fandango10 Comments

0D16EDC6-90B7-4E33-9763-BBAD3B1AE33E“This is uncanny,” Alan complained. “How could he cancel this project without giving me any notice whatsoever?”

“Well,” Stan said, “you did tell him you could realistically finish by early June and it’s already mid-August.”

“But if I had just a bit more time, I know I could deliver,” Alan said.

“Did you tell him that?” Stan asked.

“Yeah, I did,” Alan said, “but he told me there was no room in the schedule to push the delivery date out any further.”

“So basically it’s all over and he’s canceling your contract for breach, huh?” Stan said.

“I want you to sue his pompous ass,” Alan said. “He’s deceiving himself if he thinks he can get away with this.”

“Actually, Alan,” Stan said, “I’m sorry to say this, but as your attorney, I have to tell you that you’re the one who is deceiving himself if you think you can be more than two months late on a contractual deliverable and prevail in court.”

Written for these daily prompts: Word of the Day Challenge (uncanny), The Daily Spur (cancel), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (finish), Jibber Jabber (room), Ragtag Daily Prompt (deceiving), and Your Daily Word Prompt (prevail).

Who Won The Week? 08/16/2020

Fandango6 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 (or what) 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 (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 designating The United States Postal Service (USPS) as the winner of Who Won the Week.3C5C7589-5119-4DF9-BFFC-78F14FF69BE5This may seem counterintuitive because the USPS is under siege by Donald Trump and his former major campaign donor in 2016 and handpicked Postmaster General Louis DeJoy in an effort to sabotage mail-in voting for the upcoming presidential election in November.

DeJoy, a former Republican National Committee chairman, has taking steps that are causing dysfunction in the mail system and could wreak havoc in the presidential election. He has banned postal workers from making extra trips to ensure on-time mail delivery and cracked down on overtime hours. He has consolidated executive power at the USPS by removing or reassigning nearly two dozen experienced postal service executives. And he is directing the removing of 671 high-speed mail-sorting machines nationwide this month, a process that will eliminate 21.4 million items per hour worth of processing capability.

And Trump, himself, has openly admitted that he’s trying to hamstring the USPS so it can’t handle the influx of ballots. “They need that money in order to make the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots,” Trump said, referring to funding requests for vote-by-mail and the postal service that he and congressional Republicans have stood against in the coronavirus relief negotiations. “But if they don’t get those two items, that means you can’t have universal mail-in voting,” Trump added.

So why, if the President and congressional Republicans are trying to hobble the United States Postal Service, did I designate it as this week’s Who Won the Week recipient?

Two reasons. First, the USPS is an independent agency of the executive branch of the federal government and it’s is one of the few government agencies explicitly authorized by the United States Constitution.

Second, most Americans love the U.S. Postal Service. An overwhelming 91 percent of Americans, across all demographics and party affiliations, have a favorable view of USPS, higher than any other federal agency.

This assault on the highly regarded agency — by both Democrats and Republicans as well as urban and rural voters — and Trump’s efforts to hobble the agency in order to improve his re-election hopes will, I believe, backfire “bigly.”

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

Photo credit: Bonnie Jo Mount/The Washington Post.

Fandango’s Dog Days of August #16

Fandango13 Comments

Fandango’s Dog Days of AugustDo you need a muse to get your creative juices flowing during these hot, sultry days of August? Try a dose of Fandango’s Dog Days of August prompt.

At 6:00 am Pacific time each day this month, I will be posting a new theme. Today’s theme is “your favorite TV show.” It can be a current TV show, or one you watched in the past. What was it and why is it your favorite? Share a story, a poem, a photo, a drawing, some music, or whatever you wish to share about your favorite TV Show.

If you wish to participate, please write your post, use the tag #FDDA, and create a pingback to this post or manually add your link in the comments.

And, of course, take some time to read the other responses to this prompt. See how other bloggers are coping with the dog days of August.

Song Lyric Sunday — The Dark Side of the Moon

Fandango25 Comments

For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday, Jim Adams has given us the theme words “clear,” “dark,” and “light.” I am going with “dark,” and I’m going to choose the same song I chose for a Song Lyric Sunday post I did in January 2018 when Helen Vahdati was still hosting SLS. The theme she gave us that day was “madness,” and the song I selected was Pink Floyd’s song “Brain Damage.” This time, though, I’m using that same song, not because of its connection to “madness,” but because (1) it’s a classic, and (2) the song contains the line, “I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon.”

“Brain Damage” was a track from English rock band Pink Floyd’s 1973 album The Dark Side of the Moon. The song was written by Roger Waters, who also performed the vocals on the track. The song was never released as a single.

Waters wrote the insanity-themed song based on former Pink Floyd frontman Syd Barrett’s mental instability. The line, “The lunatic is on the grass” reflects society’s contempt for “uncustomary” behavior. Normal, sane people walk on the path, while the man who steps on the grass is the “lunatic.”

Similarly, the moon has often been associated with insanity and darkness, and in the line, “I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon,” Waters was expressing that he could relate to Barrett’s feelings and to his form of madness.

The line, “And if the band you’re in starts playing different tunes,” is a specific reference to Syd Barrett’s propensity for playing the wrong song on stage during his “episodes.”

Many people consider “Brain Damage” and “Eclipse” to be one song because they run seamlessly together at the end of the monumental album and radio stations usually play them together. The video clip above has both songs included.

Here are the lyrics to “Brain Damage.”

The lunatic is on the grass.
The lunatic is on the grass.
Remembering games and daisy chains and laughs.
Got to keep the loonies on the path.

The lunatic is in the hall.
The lunatics are in my hall.
The paper holds their folded faces to the floor
And every day the paper boy brings more.

And if the dam breaks open many years too soon
And if there is no room upon the hill
And if your head explodes with dark forebodings too
I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon.

The lunatic is in my head.
The lunatic is in my head
You raise the blade, you make the change
You re-arrange me ’til I’m sane.
You lock the door
And throw away the key
There’s someone in my head but it’s not me.

And if the cloud bursts, thunder in your ear
You shout and no one seems to hear.
And if the band you’re in starts playing different tunes
I’ll see you on the dark side of the moon.

“I can’t think of anything to say except…
I think it’s marvelous! HaHaHa!”

FOWC with Fandango — Finish

Fandango30 Comments

FOWCWelcome to August 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 “finish.”

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. Please 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.