Day: April 14, 2021

Reading, ‘Riting, and ‘Rithmatic

Fandango6 Comments

Rory wants to know about our blog reading and writing habits and there’s even a little math involved. So let’s answer Rory’s blog questions.

Are you ‘mostly’ a short content or a long content reader and how many words within those defines can you comfortably read per post?

I prefer shorter posts, say 500 words or fewer. But sometimes a blogger can’t say what he or she wants to or needs to say in 500 words, and if I like the blogger and the way he or she writes, I will occasionally read longer posts.

How many blogs do you read per day?

Here’s the math part. I follow a lot of blogs (more than 150) and I try to read them all each day, as well as posts that bloggers I don’t follow write in response to some of my prompts. But depending upon what other things are going on in my life, I can’t always do that every day.

Are you a short, long or varying length content writer and if so what is your preferred length for a post that you create?

More math. Given that my average post length so far this year is 237 words, I’m going with short. That said, because some posts have word limits, ranging from six to 20 to 100 to 200, I do write some longer posts, but I strive to keep them to 500 words or less.

What kind of relationship do you have with the blogs that you follow – in so far as Like only, Read only, Interact only, Comment only or a combination of all?

It’s a definitely a combination of all of those things.

Flash Mob

Fandango5 Comments

“You need to get out of here immediately,” the store owner said. “With all of this nonsense, you’re putting the customers of my establishment in jeopardy.”

“Oh come on, dude,” Mike said. “This whole impromptu flash mob thing is driving traffic into your store. You should be thanking me.”

“Thanking you?” the store owner said. “Your friends are swarming into the place like a bunch of pesky insects. You need to get your mob out of here before I call the police.”

“That’s cold, dude,” Mike said. “We’re just trying to have a good time and to entertain your customers. But I know when I’m not welcome, so don’t call the cops. I’ll gather my pals and we’ll trundle on outta here.”

Written for these daily prompts: Word of the Day Challenge (establishment), MMA Storytime (jeopardy), Fandango’s One-Word Challenge (impromptu), Ragtag Daily Prompt (insect), The Daily Spur (cold), and Your Daily Word Prompt (trundle).

One-Liner Wednesday — Politics and Money

Fandango5 Comments

“There are two things that are important in politics. The first is money, and I can’t remember what the second one is.”

Mark Hanna, American businessman and Republican Senator from Ohio

Mark Hanna was a U.S. Senator representing the state of Ohio from 1897 through his death in February 1904. He also served as chairman of the Republican National Committee.

His quote demonstrates how little has changed over more than a century about what Republican politicians think is important.

Written for Linda G. Hill’s One-Liner Wednesday prompt.

L is for “Leave It to Beaver”

Fandango36 Comments

“Leave It to Beaver” was an American television sitcom broadcast between 1957 and 1963. It ran for six full 39-week seasons (234 episodes), debuting on CBS on October 4, 1957. The following season, it moved to ABC, where it stayed until completing its run on June 20, 1963.

The show was about an inquisitive and often naïve boy, Theodore “The Beaver” Cleaver (Jerry Mathers), and his adventures at home, school, and around his suburban Ohio neighborhood. The show also starred Barbara Billingsley and Hugh Beaumont as Beaver’s parents, June and Ward Cleaver, and Tony Dow as Beaver’s brother, Wally.

This sitcom defined the “golly gee-whiz” wholesomeness of the mid 50s and early 60s TV, where the father always gets home in time for dinner, the mother cleans the house wearing a dress and pearls, and the kids always learn a lesson by the end of the half-hour episode. It exemplified the idealized suburban family of the mid-20th century.

“Leave It to Beaver” was one of the first primetime sitcom series written from a child’s point of view. It provided a glimpse of middle-class American boyhood. In a typical episode, Beaver gets into some sort of boyish scrape, then faces his parents for reprimand and correction. Neither parent was infallible and the series often showed the parents debating their approach to child rearing, and some episodes were built around parental gaffes.

The still-popular show ended its run in 1963 primarily because it had reached its natural conclusion: In the final show, Beaver is about to graduate grade school to move into high school, but Wally was about to enter college and the fraternal dynamic at the heart of the show’s premise would be broken with their separation.

At around the same time that “Leave It to Beaver” was on the air, other popular sitcoms with family-oriented plots included “The Advenures of Ozzie and Harriet,” “Father Knows Best,” “Make Room for Daddy,” and “The Andy Griffith Show.”

Previous BATZAP 2021 posts: A B C D E F G H I J K

Fandango’s Provocative Question #11 Revisited

Fandango12 Comments

FPQDuring the month of April, in addition to my regular topical posts as well as my prompt posts, I will be participating in the 2021 A to Z Challenge. I will post my A to Z post daily at 6 a.m. my time (Pacific). During the month, I will be revisiting four of my Provocative Question posts, which will be published on the four Wednesdays in April at 3:00 a.m. my time. If you didn’t respond to the original provocative question post and/or would like to post a new response, please feel free to do so. Or you can read the responses of other bloggers who did post responses to the original. Anyway, here goes:

Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question. By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.

What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.

This week’s provocative question deals with the concept of death with dignity.

Do you believe that terminally ill people should be allowed or encouraged to end their lives via physician-assisted suicide? If so, under any circumstances or should there be restrictions? If not, why not?

Optionally, if you were diagnosed with a terminal condition, would you consider physician-assisted suicide for yourself?

If you choose to participate, write a post with your response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments.

And most important, have fun.