Day: January 10, 2021

Who Won the Week? 01/10/2021

Fandango25 Comments

FWWTWThe 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.

Last week I designated “hope” as The Who Won the Week winner. I may have been premature or a bit naïve to think that, just because we turned the page to a new year, anything would change in Donald Trump’s America.

This week we saw that it was domestic terrorism that “won” the week, when a horde of Trump supporters, spurred on by the sitting Presidential of the United States himself, stormed the U.S. Capitol building in what was an act of insurrection against America. The whole world watched Wednesday’s events in horror as the unthinkable was occurring right before our eyes.

It’s just 10 days before the inauguration of Joe Biden and instead of being filled with hope, I am filled with anxiety as I see headlines like these on my iPhone’s screen.I worry that horrific scenes like those we saw in Washington, DC on Wednesday will be repeated not only in our nation’s capital, but at state houses all across the country.

Why isn’t Donald Trump calling for his fanatical mad dogs to stand down? Because he lives for this. He loves this. And even when he is no longer sitting in the Oval Office, he will continue to sow the flames of insurrection among his rabid, mindless supporters.

This is truly an American tragedy.

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

Weekend Writing Prompt — The Fate of the Enchantress

Fandango12 Comments

She was a ravishing beauty who commanded the attention of the town’s menfolk. With little effort, her success at garnering the admiration of their husbands alarmed the women of the town.

They gathered at the home of the most prominent among them, and they plotted how to betray her as a witch, for surely only witchcraft could so enchant their husbands.

One night, without warning, she was summoned to meet with the ladies at the old smelting factory on the fringe of town, where she was unceremoniously thrown into a crucible of boiling oil, never to be heard from again.

(100 words)

Written for Sammi Cox’s Weekend Writing Prompt, where the word is “crucible.”Also for these daily prompts: Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (ravishing), MMA Storytime (effort), The Daily Spur (success), Your Daily Word Prompt (betray), Word of the Day Challenge (warning), and Ragtag Daily Prompt (fringe).

Song Lyric Sunday — Mellow Yellow

Fandango15 Comments

For this week’s Song Lyric Sunday, Jim Adams has asked us to pick a song that starts with either the letter “M” or the letter “A.” I have previously used Donovan’s songs, “Atlantis” and “Season of the Witch,” in my Song Lyric Sunday posts. So, since they say that the third time’s a charm, today I’m going with Donovan’s “Mellow Yellow.”

“Mellow Yellow” was written and recorded by Scottish singer-songwriter Donovan. It reached number 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1966. According to Wikipedia, the song was rumored to be about smoking dried banana skins. Back in the 60s, it was believed that dried banana skins could be turned into a hallucinogenic drug by scraping the fibers off of a banana skin and cooking them over a low fire. This was supposed to release the banana’s hallucinogenic qualities, but that aspect of banana skins has since been debunked. According to Donovan’s notes accompanying the album Donovan’s Greatest Hits, the rumor that one could get high from smoking dried banana skins was started by Country Joe McDonald in 1966, and Donovan heard the rumor three weeks before “Mellow Yellow” was released as a single.

Donovan set out to capture the mellow vibe of the ’60s with this song, adding what he called “cool, groovy phrases.” These phrases were interpreted in ways he never imagined, as people came up with lots of ideas as to what the song meant. Most of these interpretations concerned drugs, but there were even rumors that the song was about abortion. Asked what the song was actually about, Donovan said, “Quite a few things. Being mellow, laid-back, chilled out. ‘They call me Mellow Yellow, I’m the guy who can calm you down.’ John Lennon and I used to look in the back of newspapers and pull out funny things and they’d end up in songs. So it’s about being cool, laid-back, and also the electrical bananas that were appearing on the scene, which were ladies’ vibrators.”

Here are the lyrics to “Mellow Yellow.”

I’m just mad about Saffron
Saffron’s mad about me
I’m just mad about Saffron
She’s just mad about me

They call me mellow yellow
(Quite rightly)
They call me mellow yellow
(Quite rightly)
They call me mellow yellow

I’m just mad about Fourteen
Fourteen’s mad about me
I’m just mad about Fourteen
She’s just mad about me

They call me mellow yellow
They call me mellow yellow
(Quite rightly)
They call me mellow yellow

Born high forever to fly
Wind velocity nil
Wanna high forever to fly
If you want your cup our fill

They call me mellow yellow
(Quite rightly)
They call me mellow yellow
(Quite rightly)
They call me mellow yellow

(So mellow, he’s so yellow)

Electrical banana
Is gonna be a sudden craze
Electrical banana
Is bound to be the very next phase

They call me mellow yellow
(Quite rightly)
They call me mellow yellow
(Quite rightly)
They call me mellow yellow

Saffron, yeah
I’m just mad about her
I’m just mad about Saffron
She’s just mad about me

They call me mellow yellow
(Quite rightly)
They call me mellow yellow
(Quite rightly)
They call me mellow yellow

(Oh so yellow, oh so mellow)

FOWC with Fandango — Liquid

Fandango33 Comments

FOWCWelcome to January 10, 2021 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 “liquid.”

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.