Day: April 16, 2021

Friday Fictioneers — Constant Flow

Fandango25 Comments

“Ta da!” Ryan said, extending his arm toward the end of the corridor at the shopping mall. “What do you think?”

Fran looked where Ryan was pointing and then back at Ryan. “What is it?”

”It’s a work of art,” Ryan said. “The owners of the mall commissioned me to create something for this dead space.

“Oh,” Fran said.

“I call it ‘Constant Flow’ because it uses a recirculating pump to keep the water flowing from the fire hose nozzle to the pool below and back up,” Ryan explained.

“I’m impressed,” Fran said, “that anyone would pay you for that.”

(100 words)

Written for the Friday Fictioneers prompt from Rochelle Wisigoths-Fields. Photo credit: Anne Higa.

Fibbing Friday — Well Meaning

Fandango11 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 exactly is a “Five and Dime”?

It’s the amount of interest I earned from my bank on my savings account last month.

2. What gets sold at a “General Store”?

Supplies for anyone in the military who has reached the rank of general.

3. Why are they called “Department Stores”?

These are stores that sell supplies and equipment to various departments in federal, state, and local governments.

4. What’s so convenient about a “Convenience Store”?

It’s across the street from my house.

5. What is a “Blue Light Special”?

It’s a sale that takes place at a convenience store once in a blue moon.

6. Why do some people call all soda, “Coke”?

Because such people have no taste.

7. What franchise is nicknamed “The Home of the Whopper”?

It’s a series of XXX-rated movies that feature well endowed males.

8. Which franchise claims to be “Finger-lickin’ Good”?

It’s that same series of XXX-rated “Whopper” movies that feature women who like the well endowed men who appear in them.

9. What does “IHOP” stand for?

It’s text message speak for I Have Other Plans.

10. What does “Scattered, Smothered, and Covered” mean?

It’s what some people do with the ashes of loved ones who have been cremated.

N is for “Night Court”

Fandango32 Comments

“Night Court” was an American television sitcom that aired on NBC from January 4, 1984, to May 31, 1992. The setting was the night shift of a municipal court presided over by a young, unorthodox judge, the Honorable Harold “Harry” T. Stone (Harry Anderson). The series was created by comedy writer Reinhold Weege, who had previously worked on “Barney Miller” in the 1970s and early 1980s.Stone was a young, hip, jeans-wearing, liberal, wannabe magician, and somewhat eccentric judge presiding over the night shift of a Manhattan courtroom. His views on various cases weren’t always normal, nor were his judgments. The court handled mostly petty crimes that could be dealt with in relatively short order.

Invariably, the cases appearing before Judge Stone were bizarre, but that was okay because Stone was a rather bizarre judge. He was assisted by a motley crew of bailiffs, clerks and District Attorneys who often created as much chaos as the criminals they bring in for trial.

Helping Stone manage the chaos was the not-so-bright yet softhearted courtroom guard Bull (Richard Moll) and egotistical prosecutor Dan Fielding (John Larroquette). Also part of Stone’s crew were passionate public defender Christine Sullivan (Markie Post) and calm court clerk Mac (Charles Robertson). Other members of the ensemble cast included Selma Diamond, Florence Halop, and Marsha Warfield as bailiffs in different seasons, and Mike Finneran as a bumbling “fix-it man” attached to the courthouse. His attempts to fix the courthouse often disrupted Harry’s proceedings in the courtroom.

I thought “Night Court” was a very funny and highly entertaining sitcom.

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

Fandango’s Flashback Friday — April 16

Fandango20 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 16th) of any month within the past year and link to that post in a comment.

This was originally posted on April 16, 2018.

Pep Talk

John knocked on his boss’s door. “Excuse me, Al. Do you have a minute?”

“Sure,” Al responded. “Come on in and have a seat.”

John sat down in a chair across the desk from Al. “I’ll get right to the point, he said. “In my written review you wrote that I need to crank it to eleven. What did you mean by that?”

“John,” Al said. “It means that it’s time for you to turn up the volume.”

John looked confused. “Turn up the volume, sir?”

“You know what I mean, John,” Al responded. “It’s time to put the pedal to the metal.”

“The pedal to the metal?”

“John, you know what I’m saying,” Al said. “You need to give it 110 percent.”

“Are you suggesting I’m not doing all I can for this job?” John asked.

“I’m just saying that it’s better to ask for forgiveness than it is to ask for permission, John,” Al said. “It’s time for you to shoot for the moon, to sing like no one is listening.”

“I see,” said John.

“Good,” said Al, “because you know that you miss 100 percent of the shots that you don’t take. Son, you need to make hay while the sun shines. When opportunity knocks you need to answer the door.”

“Yes, I see what you’re getting at,” John said, trying hard not to roll his eyes.

“Good,” said Al. “Now go out there and make it rain, my boy.”

John went back to his cubicle and started drafting his resignation letter.

Written for today’s one-word prompt, “crank.”

FOWC with Fandango — Lips

Fandango21 Comments

FOWCWelcome to April 16, 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 “lips.”

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.