Day: August 30, 2020

Testing Your Mettle

Fandango8 Comments

“So how did your sales call with George Simpson go?” Ted asked Lavita. “Did that old coot hand you a check?”

“I think I covered all of the key feature of our solution,” Lavita answered, “and he was polite enough to listen attentively.”

“Hmm,” Ted said, “I think I hear a ‘but’ coming on.”

“But I’m a black woman,” Lavita said, “and I could tell from his posture and his overall demeanor that he wasn’t exactly euphoric about having someone like me trying to sell him something.”

“Yeah, he’s definitely one of those so-called ‘good old boys’ who has yet to accept gender equality, much less race equality,” Ted admitted.

“So is it just me,” Lavita said, “or did you set me up for failure by sending me in to pitch our solution to someone like George Simpson?”

“Lavita,” Ted said, “it’s a big, bad world out there and some of our clients and prospect are not exactly the most enlightened people. But I think you have the potential to be an excellent salesperson, so throwing you to the wolves like old George is a way for you to test your mettle, to see what you’re made of. If you can successfully sell to the likes of George Simpson, you can sell to anyone. I suggest you get on the phone, find out what specific obstacles or objections he has and figure out a way to overcome them. Can you do that, Lavita?”

“You’re damn right I can,” Lavita said, trying to sound much more confident than she actually felt.

Written for these daily prompts: Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (covered), Jibber Jabber (listen), Ragtag Daily Prompt (posture), Word of the Day Challenge (euphoric), Your Daily Word Prompt (equality), The Daily Spur (pitch).

Who Won The Week? 08/30/2020

Fandango37 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.

I was planning to designate the players of the Milwaukee Bucks and the National Basketball Association (NBA) for their actions this week when they essentially staged a boycott of their games on Wednesday night to support the protests in various American cities against racism and deadly racial injustice that is plaguing the United States. But Jen Goldie beat me to it in this post.

So I’ve been racking my brain to come up with a person, place, or thing worthy of being designated as my Who Won the Week winner. I’m sorry to say that, given the sad state of affairs in American cities like Kenosha, Wisconsin, Portland, Oregon, and others, I’ve come up empty. From my perspective, other than the aforementioned NBA players, no one and nothing won this past week.

Therefore, I’m leaving it up to you folks. Please, please lift my spirits by telling me who (or what) you think won the week?

#6WSP — For Crying Out Loud

Fandango16 Comments

Talking loud doesn’t make it true.

Written for Shweta Suresh’s Saturday Six Word Story Prompt for the word “loud.”

The photo above is Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Trump, Jr.’s girlfriend, speaking screaming lie after lie at this past week’s Republican National Convention. She was spewing bullshit so loud that I actually felt her spittle coming through my TV screen.Six Word Story

Fandango’s Dog Days of August #30

Fandango20 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 best job ever.” What is/was your best job ever? What was so great about it? Do you still have it? Even if you’re still in school, you must have had some kind of job, like babysitting, flipping burgers at McDonald’s, delivering newspapers, cutting lawns or shoveling snow. Share a story, a poem, a photo, a drawing, some music, or whatever you wish to share about your best job ever.

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 — Evil Woman

Fandango15 Comments

For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday prompt, Jim Adams gave us “cruel,” “evil,” “horrible,” and “monster” as our theme. I guess Jim was having a bad day when he came up with this week’s theme words. Anyway, my choice was pretty obvious. I chose “Evil Woman” from Electric Light Orchestra (aka ELO).

“Evil Woman” was written by Electric Light Orchestra’s lead vocalist, Jeff Lynne. It was first released on the band’s fifth album, Face the Music, in 1975. The song became ELO’s first worldwide hit. Originally intended as a filler song for the album, Lynne admitted it was the quickest he had ever written, in thirty minutes. He explained that one morning, while the rest of the band was out, he sat at the piano and played the opening piano riff, which became the basis of the song. Later that same day, the rest of the band came in and recorded the backing track. The song placed in the top 10 on both sides of the Atlantic in early 1976. The lyric “There’s a hole in my head where the rain comes in,” according to Lynne, is a tribute to The Beatles’ song “Fixing a Hole.”

The song is a simple tale of love gone wrong. It’s the story of a man who was used by a woman and who made a fool of him. Once he recognized that, he dumped her and told her to hit the road.

You made a fool of me
But them broken dreams have got to end

Hey, woman, you got the blues
‘Cause you ain’t got no one else to use
There’s an open road that leads nowhere
So just make some miles between here and there
There’s a hole in my head where the rain comes in
You took my body and played to win
Ha, ha, woman, it’s a cryin’ shame
But you ain’t got nobody else to blame

Evil woman
Evil woman
Evil woman
Evil woman

Rolled in from another town
Hit some gold, too hard to settle down
But a fool and his money soon go separate ways
And you found a fool lyin’ in a daze
Ha, ha, woman, what you gonna do
You destroyed all the virtues that the Lord gave you
It’s so good that you’re feelin’ pain
But you better get your face on board the very next train

Evil woman
Evil woman
Evil woman
Evil woman (hey hey hey)

Evil woman
Evil woman
Evil woman
Evil woman

Evil woman, how you done me wrong
But now you’re tryin’ to wail a diff’rent song
Ha, ha, funny, how you broke me up
You made the wine, now you drink a cup
I came runnin’ ev’ry time you cried
Thought I saw love smilin’ in your eyes
Ha, ha, very nice to know
That you ain’t got no place left to go

Evil woman
Evil woman
Evil woman (evil woman)
Evil woman

Evil woman (what an evil woman)
Evil woman (such an evil woman)
Evil woman (what an evil woman)
Evil woman (such an evil woman)

Evil woman (what an evil woman)
Evil woman (such an evil woman)
Evil woman (what an evil woman)
Evil woman (such an evil woman)