Day: October 11, 2020

The Spit-take

Fandango7 Comments

“You never read the newspapers,” Harry said. “You never watch the news. You have to be the most incurious person I know.”

“First of all, Harry,” Richard, drinking his morning orange juice sitting across the kitchen table from Harry, said, “you’re my roommate, not my mother. “Second of all, it’s not that I lack curiosity, it’s that I’m sick and tired of all the political crap that’s swirling all around us, so I’m boycotting the news. And third of all, is ‘incurious’ even a real word? Isn’t ‘uncurious’ the word you’re searching for?”

“Let me Google it,” Harry said. He pulled out his iPhone, went to Google, and said, “Well, either word, “incurious” or “uncurious,” could fit. It turns out that ‘incurious’ means lacking interest or curiosity and to be uninterested, while ‘uncurious’ is a synonym for ‘incurious.’”

“That’s good to know, Harry,” Richard said. “And now that I know that, I’m still boycotting reading about or watching politics. Everything about politics these days seems unconceivable to me.”

“You mean inconceivable,” Harry said.

Richard, who had just taken a final sip from his glass of orange juice did a spit-take all over his roommate.

Written for these daily prompts: Your Daily Word Prompt (incurious), Ragtag Daily Prompt (juice), and Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (fit$.

Who Won the Week — 10/11/20

Fandango27 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.

Raise your hand if you watched the debate this week between current Vice President Mike Pence and Vice President hopeful Kamala Harris. I did. It was a lot less fractious and raucous than the first (and maybe only) debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden. Still, Pence often exceeded his allotted time, talking over his opponent and ignoring the moderator’s pleas for him to stop.

So which candidate won the debate? Well, overall I think Kamala won. She was able to effectively layout the Trump administration’s failures, especially on the coronavirus pandemic, while Pence was stuck defending the largely indefensible.

But the real winner was the fly that landed on Pence’s head and stayed there for two minutes.Pence ignored the fly, which could probably serve as an apt metaphor for Pence and the Trump administration. Everyone watching at home saw the fly. We all knew it was there and even Pence couldn’t have ignored it out of existence. But ignore it he did.

So this week’s winner of Who Won the Week is the fly that landed on Mike Pence’s head, reminding us of the many truths that the Trump administration has asked the American people to ignore.

What about you? Who (or what) do you think won the week?

Song Lyric Sunday — Yesterday’s Gone

Fandango12 Comments

For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday prompt, Jim Adams has given us the command to “hold,” “pause,” “stop,” or “wait.” I’m taking a slightly different tack and am going with the word “stop,” but in a more “move forward” way. I’m also going with Fleetwood Mac for the second week in a row. This time it’s their song, “Don’t Stop (Thinking About Tomorrow).”

“Don’t Stop” was a song by the British-American rock band Fleetwood Mac. It was written by vocalist and keyboard player Christine McVie. The song reflected Christine’s feelings after her separation from Fleetwood Mac’s bass guitarist, John McVie, after eight years of marriage. Joining Christine in the vocals was guitarist Lindsey Buckingham. The single was from the band’s megahit 1977 album Rumours. It was one of the band’s most enduring hits, peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard singles chart.

The song was originally going to be titled “Yesterday’s Gone” and the album on which it appeared was also going to be called Yesterday’s Gone. John McVie, about whom the song was written, suggested Rumours as the album’s name because it seemed like everyone in Southern California was talking about the personal drama Fleetwood Mac was going through. Apparently Christine never told John that the song was about him and he hadn’t at the time figured that out. In a magazine interview in 2015, he said, “I never put that together. I’ve been playing it for years and it wasn’t until somebody told me, ‘Chris wrote that about you.’ Oh really?”

The song actually has a positive message to it. Instead of dwelling on the past, one should think about the future and be optimistic about it. Interestingly, the song is often associated with Bill Clinton, who first used it in his successful 1992 presidential campaign. It emphasized his youth and energy as well as personal charisma. At that time when Clinton chose this song as his campaign’s theme song, Lindsey Buckingham had been away from the band since 1987 and Stevie Nicks had left in 1991. But because of Clinton’s use of the song, he was able to get the Rumours-era Fleetwood Mac back together, as Buckingham and Nicks joined John and Christine McVie and Mick Fleetwood to perform at Clinton’s inaugural gala in 1993.

Here are the lyrics to the song.

If you wake up and don’t want to smile
If it takes just a little while
Open your eyes and look at the day
You’ll see things in a different way

Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow
Don’t stop, it’ll soon be here
It’ll be, better than before
Yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone

Why not think about times to come?
And not about the things that you’ve done
If your life was bad to you
Just think what tomorrow will do

Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow
Don’t stop, it’ll soon be here
It’ll be, better than before,
Yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone

All I want is to see you smile
If it takes just a little while
I know you don’t believe that it’s true
I never meant any harm to you

Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow
Don’t stop, it’ll soon be here
It’ll be, better than before,
Yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone

Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow
Don’t stop, it’ll soon be here
It’ll be, better than before
Yesterday’s gone, yesterday’s gone

Ooh, don’t you look back
Ooh, don’t you look back
Ooh, don’t you look back
Ooh, don’t you look back

 

FOWC with Fandango — Fit

Fandango25 Comments

FOWCWelcome to October 11, 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 “fit.”

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.