Day: March 19, 2021

Fibbing Friday — Initial Reaction

Fandango8 Comments

Frank (aka PCGuy) and Di (aka Pensitivity101) alternate as host for Fibbing Friday, a silly little exercise where we are to write a post with our answers to the ten questions below. But as the title suggests, truth is not an option. The idea is to fib a little, a lot, tell whoppers, be inventive, silly, or even outrageous, in our responses. Today is Frank’s turn to host and here are his questions.

1. What does the acronym FDIC stand for?

It’s short for a TV show on the Travel Network about spending a brief period of time exploring different countries and it stands for “Four Days In Country.”

2. What’s the difference between APR and APY?

APR is a political movement in the post-Trump era known as “American Pride Restored.” APY is a metric used in the textile industry to depict Average Price per Yard.

3. What’s the difference between a bank and a credit union?

A bank is someplace used to store donated blood. A credit union is where you go to fix your credit rating.

4. What exactly is a CPA?

It’s a test given by psychologists who specialize in personality disorders. The test is called the Cognitive Personality Assessment, or CPA.

5. What’s so important about April 15th in the United States?

It’s Leonardo da Vinci’s birthday, a holiday celebrated mostly by Italian Americans.

6. In the United States, what function does the IRS serve?

It’s an Irrigation Regulator System for underground sprinkler installations.

7. What is a Foreign Exchange Rate?

It’s the going rate for mail-order brides from Russia.

8. What is the S & P Index?

It’s a safety record index for ships and planes.

9. What’s the difference between a bull market and a bear market?

A bull market is where cattle farmers can bid on bulls and a bear market is where zoo keepers can buy bears.

10. What is the difference between a traditional IRA and a Roth IRA?

IRA traditionally stands for the Irish Republican Army, which is a name used by various paramilitary organizations in Ireland throughout the 20th century. Roth, Ira is the last and first name of a guy I went to college with by the name of Ira Roth. When we were in class together and the professor would call the roll, he’d call out students’ last name first, so when he came to Ira, he’d call out “Roth, Ira.”

Friday Fictioneers — The Walking Tree

Fandango32 Comments

“Dad, look at that weird tree,” Danny said.

“That’s actually a type of fig tree,” Danny’s father said. “It’s called a Banyan tree. It start’s life as a seed that germinates on another tree, grows as a vine dependent on the tree for support, and eventually strangles and subsumes its host tree. Banyan trees can grow to 100 feet tall and live for a thousand years. Its roots grow from outward-extending branches and reach the ground, becoming trunk-like, which is why some call it the walking tree.”

“Dad, why are you always making silly shit up?” Danny asked.

(100 words)

Written for Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ Friday Fictioneers prompt. Photo credit: Liz Young.

Fandango’s Flashback Friday — March 19

Fandango28 Comments

Wouldn’t you like to expose your newer readers to some of your earlier posts that they might never have seen? Or remind your long term followers of posts that they might not remember? Each Friday I will publish a post I wrote on this exact date in a previous year.

How about you? Why don’t you reach back into your own archives and highlight a post that you wrote on this very date in a previous year? You can repost your Friday Flashback post on your blog and pingback to this post. Or you can just write a comment below with a link to the post you selected.

If you’ve been blogging for less than a year, go ahead and choose a post that you previously published on this day (the 19th) of any month within the past year and link to that post in a comment.

This was originally posted on March 19, 2015 on my old blog. It was about the A to Z blogging challenge, but this was before it was as formalized as it is today. Anyway, here’s that six year old post.

BATZAP Badge

As you may know, I will be participating in the Blogging from A to Z in April Challenge, albeit in an unofficial way, as I never formally signed up.

I think that “Blogging from A to Z in April” is a mouthful. So I came up with what I thought was a clever acronym: BATZAP. It leverages the first letter of most of the words in the longer title:

Blogging from A to Z in April

And then I thought to myself, not only does the A to Z Challenge need a clever acronym, it could really use a cool badge.

So here’s what I came up with.This is a first attempt, but I want to know what you think. Do you like it or does it need work?

If you like it, and if you’re doing the Blogging from A to Z in April Challenge — officially or unofficially — and wish to use this BATZAP badge in your own posts, feel free to grab it and use it.

Or, if you have any suggestions for how I might improve it, please let me know.

Update: due to personal circumstances at the time, I shut down my blog in April 2015, although I did get to the letter “I” on April 10th. I don’t remember if anyone embraced my acronym or my badge.

FOWC with Fandango — Vestige

Fandango27 Comments

FOWCWelcome to March 19, 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 “vestige.”

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.