Day: November 22, 2020

Sunday Writing Prompt — Too Much Information

Fandango13 Comments

Rebecca held up the small sliver of amber rock to a candle and fixedly gazed at the dragonfly that was embedded within it. She cried as she imagined how the poor creature must have suffered when it got trapped in the amber. She took it to her father and asked him whether the insect had felt any pain.

“Sweetie,” her father said, “insects can be dated back to the Cretaceous period, which occurred 99 million years ago. The rock you’re holding is amber, which is fossilized tree resin. It started out as dribbles of plant sap, perhaps fallen to the forest floor in sticky blobs. Once buried in sediment, the sap underwent molecular polymerization, hardening under heat and pressure to form, first, an intermediate substance known as copal, and then amber itself. But while still freshly exuded and viscous, it sometimes ensnared a hapless passing creature, trapping it forever. That said, honey, I am sure that this prehistoric dragonfly didn’t suffer when it became entrapped in its amber tomb.”

“Thank you, Daddy,” she said. Rebecca turned and hurried back to her room. She reminded herself to stop going to her father when she had questions. He always over-answered her, even when she was simply looking for a yes or no response. But as a microbiologist, her father seemed incapable of offering a simple answer. Instead, he tormented her with way too much information for a little girl her age.

Written for the Mindlovemisery’s Menagerie Sunday Writing Prompt, when we are charged with writing a post about being tormented. Also for the Ragtag Daily Prompt (amber) and the Word of the Day Challenge (candle).

Who Won the Week? 11/22/2020

Fandango23 Comments

FWWTWIt’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.

As counterintuitive as it might seem, my Who Won the Week designee this week is Rudy Giuliani.Why would I declare Rudy Giuliani, who has transformed himself from America’s Mayor to America’s buffoon, this week’s winner? Quite simply because he epitomizes the hubris of Donald Trump as Trump intensifies his attempts to seize an election victory from the jaws of defeat.

Giuliani is Trump’s $20,000-a-day lawyer. But Rudy has lost every case he’s brought to challenge the outcome of an election that Joe Biden has resoundingly won. Giuliani’s performances, both before the court and before the press, have been an embarrassment to both himself and to Donald Trump, assuming that Trump even knows how to feel embarrassed. Even Fox News Trump apologist Geraldo Rivera said, “What I saw with Rudy Giuliani, who I’ve known for decades, was bizarre, was unfocused.”

So as Trump continues his efforts to undermine Americans’ faith in the democratic process in what can only be described as an American coup, Rudy Giuliani, with his recently applied dark hair dye running down his sweaty cheeks, held another insane, rambling, 90-minute news conference that further illustrated the absurdity of Trump’s quest to destroy America.

I take some measure of relief in the fact that Trump’s and Giuliani’s clown-car side show won’t work and that, on January 20, 2021, Joe Biden will be America’s president. Thank you, Rudy Giuliani, for making that obvious.

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

In addition to my Who Won the Week post, I have incorporated these daily prompts: Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (hubris), Your Daily Word Prompt (seize), and The Daily Spur (relief).

Murphy’s Law

Fandango13 Comments

If you’ve never heard of Emily Murphy, you’re not alone. Up until about a week ago, I hadn’t either. But Emily Murphy is singlehandedly gumming up the works when it comes to a smooth transition from the lame-duck Trump administration to the administration of Joe Biden.

Who is Emily Murphy and why should you know who she is? Read on.

Reblog: She’s on the hot seat, but Emily Murphy deserves no sympathy

Emily Murphy is having the worst month of her life. She could lose her job at any minute, but it’s hard to feel a scrap of sympathy. She created her …

She’s on the hot seat, but Emily Murphy deserves no sympathy

Hurry Up and Wait

Fandango15 Comments

I was excited the other day when I saw that WordPress had pushed out an update to its iOS app for the iPhone. I was sure that version 16.1.1 had a fix to the Reader issue that by now you are no doubt tired of hearing me whine about.

After it installed on my iPhone, I opened the app, went to my Reader, and clicked “Visit” on a post that I had been unable to like or comment on after the previous update. Unfortunately, even with this new update, I was still unable to like or comment. Bummer.

So I sent a message to the happiness engineers.

I was disappointed yesterday, after installing version 16.1.1 of the WordPress app for iOS, that the issue with the WordPress Reader that surfaced when version 16.0 was installed, and for which I’ve been exchanging messages with various happiness engineers since November 3rd, is still unresolved. I hope your team will be releasing a fix for this issue in short order.

The response I got essentially reminded me that Rome wasn’t built in a day. Here’s the answer I received:

We understand this is frustrating. But even with high priority issues, it does not mean the fix will be released in the next update. Some things take longer to fix than others. We don’t have an ETA on this one yet, but our developers are working on it. We appreciate your patience and apologize for the inconvenience.

So I guess I’m in a hurry up and wait mode and the happiness engineers at WordPress will be taking their sweet time getting around to fixing the issue. As the old song says, they’ll be coming ’round the mountain when they come.

Song Lyric Sunday — Imaginary Lover

Fandango12 Comments

For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday prompt, Jim Adams themes are “fiancé,” “husband,” “lover,” and “wife.” The song that immediately came to mind was “Imaginary Lover” from the Atlanta Rhythm Section.

“Imaginary Lover” was a 1978 hit single by the Atlanta Rhythm Section, an American Southern rock band, formed in 1971. It was written by lead singer Perry Carlton “Buddy” Buie, drummer Robert Nix, and keyboardist Dean Daughtry. “Imaginary Lover” was the first release and biggest hit from the band’s album Champagne Jam. The song reached number 7 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100.

As the title suggests, the song is about the virtues of fantasy and “private pleasure” as being an easy way to guaranteed satisfaction in the absence of an actual lover. It’s about how fantasized lovers can often be superior to real, flesh and blood lovers. Imaginary lovers are flawless, the song implies, while real people have flaws. Fantasy lovers eliminate the complications of relating to an actual partner as well as the possibilities of disagreement, rejection, or boredom. In an interview, Buie was asked if the song was about masturbation. He emphatically answered, “Yes!”

Here are the lyrics to the song.

Imaginary lovers
Never turn you down
When all the others turn you away
They’re around
It’s my private pleasure
Midnight fantasy
Someone to share my
Wildest dreams with me
Imaginary lover you’re mine anytime
Imaginary lovers, oh yeah

When ordinary lovers
Don’t feel what you feel
And real-life situations lose their thrill
Imagination’s unreal
Imaginary lover, imaginary lover
You’re mine anytime

Imaginary lovers never disagree
They always care
They’re always there when
You need satisfaction guaranteed
Imaginary lover, imaginary lover
You’re mine all the time
My imaginary lover
You’re mine anytime